Chinese Naval Might

[Whoha]

What is holding America back from matching China's shipbuilding? WTF?

Lack of Shipyards building ships. We don't really have a merchant marine anymore, and we can't even make enough ships to keep our navy from shrinking.

[David Floyd]

Yeah, idiotic metric. The Soviet Navy always had more ships than the USN in the 1970s-1980s, even if you exclude submarines and only include surface warships, and there is no one on Earth (except maybe Serb) who would argue that the Soviet Surface Fleet circa 1984 was superior to the surface components of the USN, and probably not even the either Atlantic or Pacific Fleet operating independently.

China simply can't develop the carrier striking force capable of challenging the USN in the timespan mentioned in the article. They could even build the carriers themselves in the timeframe, never mind the fact that they don't have a design for a carrier, shipyards capable of building a carrier (IIRC), or an effective design for carrier aircraft.

OK, some people argue that carriers are obsolete. Even if that's true, the US submarine force and surface warfare forces far outclass their Chinese counterparts, and again, China can't build and launch a fleet capable of challenging that superiority in the time mentioned, either.

Bottom line? The US wipes the floor with China in a naval battle anytime in the next 10 years, and, unless we just go totally tits up, anytime in the next 15-20 years. Beyond that, who can say, but I can't imagine the US just sitting idly by and allowing the PLAN to overtake the USN - that's like the idiotic German politician and admirals who helped spark WW1 by trying to come from behind to outbuild the RN in the early 1900s. It's impossible.

[BlackCat]

The japanese had a carrier fleet much similiar to the US. China has way more resources and building capacity, so why should they not be able to catch up ? Chineese engineers aren't idiots and building a carrier isn't exactly rocket science. It doesn't really matter that you have some fancy carrier design if the enemy can send tree lower quality ditto against it.

[David Floyd]

It's not about a fancy carrier design. It's about the fact that if your shipbuilding industry has never built a carrier, they can't just sketch one out on a cocktail napkin and put it in production tomorrow. If your aircraft industry has never built a carrier aircraft, ditto. And if your nation has never operated carriers, what does your naval doctrine look like?

Your IJN vs. USN comparison is idiotic. The US had near parity in technology in 1941 (and in some ways superior technology), and with counting warships already under construction, the USN exceeded the IJN in BOTH numbers AND combat capacity. Eventually, the Chinese could catch up, but that time is measured in decades, not months or years.

[BlackCat]

Well, guees that is the reason that the Chinese has bought a soviet carrier for "training" purposes.

Currently, there is peace, so the chinese can experiment just as they want, and since there aren't any conflict in view for the next 10-20 years, they have every opportunity to build a fleet that can match the US.

My mention of IJN was merely to point out that the severly resource prohibited Japan matched the US in the start. I think that China can do it a bit better.

[David Floyd]

http://www.upiasia.com/Security/2008/12/12/three_navies_building_aircraft_carriers/3135/

The above is a decent article about joint carrier building and technology sharing between Russia, China, and India. The problem is, the products of this plan are simply not going to be competitive with US carriers. The carriers will not be as large, have the same range, the same capacity for aircraft, or the same quality of aircraft (MiG29K ). And again, none of those nations have strong naval traditions in the later half of this century other than possibly Russia, but again, most of the Soviet Navy was absolute crap and not in any way comparable to US or other Western designs.

[Wezil]

The carriers will not be as large, have the same range, the same capacity for aircraft, or the same quality of aircraft (MiG29K ).

Plus, if they are Chinese built they will break down within a matter of months.

[David Floyd]

Especially if they try to "compete" with the US PacFlt.

[Drake Tungsten]

Floyd is the Yankee Serb.

[David Floyd]

Not really. It's just that it's idiotic to say that the Chinese can compete with the US in a naval sense in the next decade, unless everything goes right for them, everything goes wrong for us, and we have traitors inside both our government and Navy committed to letting China win. It just doesn't work out.

[DaShi]

We're screwed.

[David Floyd]

Yeah, Chinese rowboats and biplanes are coming

[kittenOFchaos]

Why would the Chinese attack the United States?

The only reason why you guys would go toe to toe is over Taiwan and quite frankly that is a fight that were it ever to happen the US would be better out of.

[David Floyd]

Yeah, except that it'd be nice to knock down China for a while - and if it came to a fight over Taiwan, the US and Taiwan could probably destroy 90% of the PLAN and a good chunk of the PLAAF without breaking much of a sweat.

[Zkribbler]

"Laborist" China is a much moar capable nation than the "consumerist" U.S. and they could probably kick our ass all over the world in a global conflict. We are lucky they don't try.

China would go to war with its No. 1 trading partner? Why???

I see a strong Chinese navy presence in the Straits of Mallaca and off Somilia as a good thing. When they capture pirates, they're tried in one day and then shot in the back of the head.