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China’s Evolving Surface Fleet
The missile fast-attack craft and amphibious fleets of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN) have undergone significant modernization over the past fifteen years. The capabilities of both categories of vessels have improved even if their actual numbers have not increased dramatically. Examined from the perspective of PLA doctrine and training, the missions of these forces represent the PLAN’s past, present,and future. Taken together, these two categories of ships and boats enhance China’s deterrence posture, help defend its coastal waters, warn Taiwan of the dangers of further moves toward independence, add to China’s long-range sealift capacity, and assist in the PLA’s ability to conduct nontraditional security tasks. In the newer ships entering the inventory, we see both capabilities to conduct the PLA’s traditional mission of defense of China’s 18,000-kilometer coastline and 6,500 islands and hints of the missions of the future. These two fleets represent the yin and yang of the PLAN: its enduring “offshore operations” missions and its future “blue-water” or “far-seas” tasks. The US Navy is terrible about presenting these types of studies as news. Actual study is at the link (PDF) Posted by: badanov 2017-08-05 |
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