China Is Building More and More Type 055 Destroyers,Will Become Dominant Power in Asia and Europe

[xizhimen]

China Is Building More and More Type 055 Destroyers,Will Become Dominant Power in Asia and Europe​

 

[Turko]

Masterpiece of Chinese Industry. Really great destroyer.

PLAN has İncredible navy fleet , so far how much many PRC have invested in navy? 500 billion usd?

 

[RogerRanger]

The thing that gets me is how cheap and fast China builds ships. These destroyers are the most powerful escorts around apart from the US cruisers, yet they cost 850 million USD, which is less than the much less powerful Type 45 destroyers of the UK. Now the Chinese may have slightly less capable technology and missiles, but I doubt that too. My guess is the Chinese have better, more integrated technology and missiles than the western nations at this point. Including the US. The Chinese have better crews, better ships, more ships and cheaper ships than anyone else at this point. They have the best military industry in the world too.

Now there are questions to be answered, as to what can be done to change the Chinese rise. First thing would be the Chinese lack a long-range anti-surface warfare ship, which the Soviets had. A change in naval strategy and doctrine, away from the carrier and air power, back to fast moving surface combatants working in squadrons. The employment of a certain aggressive, risk taking captains, who take in the initiative and discipline within the crew, along with repeated damage control improvement. The Chinese get a good ship design and pump out the ships as fast as they need them. We waste 5 years tinkering, another 5 years laying down 10 different designs, then then build one ship every few years as the old ones go out of the commission. This is why out ships cost so much more than chinese ships for less power on paper.

The defensive nature of the carrier group is a problem too. They don't work in shallow water/Brown water operations and never have. In the Mediterranean, Atlantic, North sea the carrier was less dominant compared to the battleship and other cruisers. Because the attack of land based air power and the ability to close the range to the carrier group. So all the advantages of the carrier are lost, and the carrier is a much less powerful figure now because the hypersonic missiles of the Chinese and Russians, the excellent SSK submarines that many nations have and the massive cost of the carrier-borne aircraft. The aircraft cost as much as a corvette.

The need for convoy escort ships. With the Chinese having increase power projection capabilities, they will start to directly protect their trade and interdict the trade of other nations. So the need for a long-range convoy escort ship is vital for countries like Australia and America. Presently we don't have these ships. The need to build up the merchant fleets and protect those fleets. We need to bring back the light carrier, which the Japanese have with their fast-helicopter carriers. That along with the escort ships and nuclear powered submarines, would continue to give us the advantage over the Chinese. Big thing here is all these ships as much cheaper, easier to build and less complex to operate. Then we also need a CATOBAR aircraft which can take off and land from the light carriers. So that means a total rethink of the role of the carrier aircraft, from the fighter role, to the fighter/bomber. A tough, slower moving, more agile aircraft, like the Su-25 or A-10. Which can be used to attack enemy ships and submarines, and provide cover for the convoy's.

The hunter/killer submarine is still the most deadly thing on the navel battlefield, just as it was in WW1 and WW2 and the Falklands wars. The Astute class submarine was designed for this role, rather than the bait and trap role of the US submarines. So you can put 6 Astute classes in the Ocean, tell them to go hunting and kill what they find, they will do it efficiently and quietly. Submarines is one place the west still have a substantial advantages over Chinese, but we lack the people and doctrine to take full advantage of it. We use our subs in a defensive manner, not an aggressive manner like the Germans did.

We are in a similar time to the British being overtaken by the Germans/Japanese/Americans, the British were in a defensive posture as well, with better technology and more ships. However the British defensive posture meant they kept to their old doctrines when they were unrivaled at sea. The Germans overtook the British with submarines, the Japanese with carriers and the Americans with the ability to build more ships. Right now the Chinese are outdoing the Americans in all three ways the British were outdone by three different powers. The British wasted millions on false concepts like the battle cruiser, the monitor ships and outdated dreadnought ships. In doing so they stopped training properly, relying on technology and numbers, just like the Americans are now. Looking back the British should have diversified their employed personnel, had a aggressive and confrontational command structure and training exercises to find those people. They would have worked to counter the submarines, carrier and production capabilities of the other powers. By building less complex ships, smaller ships and cheaper designs. The US has made a massive cock up of the GRF carriers, the Zumwalt class and LCS, they all are far to complex, far to big and far to expensive because of this.

So it is a mix of stupid concepts of navel war and stupid people being put in those positions for political reasons and bribery reasons. The collapse of the American demographics, which the British had in WW1 too with 30% of the navy being foreign sailors. So everything the British and Spanish went through the Americans are going through now and the Chinese are taking full advantage.