Three armadas, three strategies

• Source: The Global Times
• [02:03 April 24 2009]
• Comments

Bold up-and-comer

By Kang Juan

China: DDG-171 Haikou, destroyer

When Xiao Jin’guang, the former naval commander of the People’s Liberation Army, wanted to inspect a fleet base on an island 59 years ago, he could only find a fishery ship.

With a stern expression on his face, he told his entourage, “Remember, Navy Commander Xiao Jinguang took a fishery boat on his inspection tour on March 17, 1950.”

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy was founded on April 23, 1949, in Taizhou, eastern Jiangsu Province, with just nine warships and 17 boats obtained after a unit of the Kuomintang’s second coastal defense fleet defected to the PLA. In its early stages, the PLA fleet was mainly composed of wooden ships and sailing boats.

Force modernization

This year, on its 60th anniversary, the navy boasts dozens of squadrons of destroyers, landing ships and supporting ships in its three fleets.

The navy has several hundred combat ships larger than frigates, with a total tonnage five times greater than in the 1980s. The number and tonnage of the navy’s submarines are also dozens of times more vast than the early PLA Navy.

Many Western media believe China operates the largest submarine force among Asian countries, comprising eight to 10 nuclear-powered submarines and 50 to 60 diesel-electric submarines.

The White Paper on China’s National Defense in 2008, issued earlier this year, says the submarine force now possesses underwater anti-ship, anti-submarine and mine-laying capabilities, as well as some nuclear counterattack capabilities.

The surface-ship force has developed a striking force represented by new types of missile destroyers and frigates, and it possesses maritime reconnaissance, anti-ship, anti-submarine, air-defense, mine-laying and other operational capabilities.

The aviation wing has developed an air-strike force represented by sea-attack aircraft, and which possesses reconnaissance, anti-ship, anti-submarine and air-defense capabilities.

The Marine Corps has developed an amphibious operational force represented by amphibious armored vehicles, and it possesses amphibious operational capabilities.

The coastal-defense force is represented by new types of shore-to-ship missiles and possesses high coastal-defense operations capabilities.

Ambitious plans

Admiral Wu Shengli, the navy’s current commander-in-chief, outlined key missions on April 15 to upgrade the maritime-security defense system, a week before the 60th anniversary of the PLA Navy.

In addition to ships, aircraft and torpedoes, other items on the navy’s agenda include long-range, accurate missiles, submarines with superb stealth and endurance, and electronic weapons and facilities.

Wu’s remarks were interpreted by media outlets as another indication that China will soon have an aircraft carrier.

PLA Air Forces Colonel Dai Xu said yesterday that China possesses the ability to build a medium-sized aircraft carrier. He added that large or nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are unnecessary for the country, according to its offshore defense strategy.

The 225,000-man navy is now organized into three fleets: North Sea (Beihai), East Sea (Donghai), and South Sea (Nanhai). Each fleet has under its command fleet aviation, support bases, flotillas, maritime garrison commands, aviation divisions and marine brigades. In times of crisis, China’s merchant and fishing-ship fleets can support the navy.

Main naval bases include those at Lushun, Huludao, Qingdao, Shanghai, Zhoushan, Wenzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Yulin.

According to the White Paper, the navy has been “developing capabilities of conducting cooperation in distant waters and countering non-traditional security threats, so as to push forward the overall transformation of the service” since the beginning of this century.

The plan has been following a three-step strategy in its modernization. First, it aims to develop a relatively modernized naval force capable of operating within the first island chain – a series of islands that stretch from Japan to the north, to Taiwan, and to the Philippines in the south. The second step aims to develop a regional naval force that can operate beyond the first island chain to reach the second island chain that includes Guam, Indonesia and Australia. And in the third-stage, the navy plans to develop a global force by the mid-21st century.
 

China has been strengthening its supervision in the South China Sea following several incidents earlier this year, including a US naval vessel’s intrusion into China’s Exclusive Economic Zone and some neighboring countries’ claims over China’s territory in the South China Sea.