For almost ten years, Western specialists in the Chinese Navy have been warning about the immense progress made by the Chinese naval industry, both in terms of quality and quantity of ships produced.
This concern has, for several years, been regularly taken up by the American chiefs of staff, in charge of this theater, while they observe, year after year, the balance of power gradually being reversed in the largest theater. naval aviation of the planet, and that the American options to contain it, are less and less numerous. To the point that we can ask ourselves, today, if facing the United States, China has not obtained, today, a situation of strategic surprise?
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15 large Chinese surface units against 2 for the US Navy in 2023
On the occasion of his hearing by the Senate, on February 1, to take the position of commander in chief of the Indo-Pacific theater, the most important American operational post, with that of SACEUR who commands NATO, theAdmiral Samuel Paparo Jr painted a more worrying picture, but not surprising, of the evolution of the balance of power against the Navy of the People's Liberation Army.
To raise the problem, the current Head of the Indo-Pacific Fleet recalled that in 2023, the Chinese Navy had admitted to service fifteen large surface units, cruisers (in fact Type 055 heavy destroyers), destroyers (Type 052DL) , and frigates (Type 054A), where the US Navy admitted to service only two Arleigh Burke destroyers, the USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee and the A.S.S. Jack H. Lucas.
It will be the same in 2024, with two new Burkes for the US Navy, the USS John Basilone and, perhaps, the USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr., while the Chinese Navy should receive around ten destroyers, including the first Type 055 from the second production batch, as well as Type 054A and B frigates.
« We're not overwhelmed, but I don't like the pace of the trajectory. ", added Admiral Paparo, even if he declared himself convinced that the American forces still had the advantage over their Chinese counterparts. The fact is, facing the Senate, to take command of the Indo-Pacific, expressing more concerns would certainly have been suicidal for the American admiral.
The comparative trajectory of the Chinese Navy vs. US Navy worries the head of the American Pacific Fleet
The comparative trajectory regarding the number of ships available between the two fleets, in fact, is something to worry American strategists, for many reasons. The US Navy still has a clear advantage in terms of tonnage, its surface units being larger and better armed than the vast majority of Chinese ships, but also in the field of nuclear attack submarines, six times more numerous, and naval aviation, amphibious and power projection forces.
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