U.S. Navy Report Affirms China's Navy is Greatest Maritime Threat to U.S. since Cold War

The U.S. Navy reaffirms to the U.S. Congress China presents the greatest maritime military threat to the United States, and that its main mission is to curtail this threat.

The Navy made its case for confronting China in its "China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress" issued Thursday.

It said the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), is now the major challenge to its ability "to achieve and maintain wartime control of blue-water ocean areas in the Western Pacific -- the first such challenge the U.S. Navy has faced since the end of the Cold War."

The modernization and building-up of the PLAN is also a key element of communist China's challenge to the long-standing status of the United States as the leading military power in the Western Pacific.

Twenty-five years of massive spending by the Chinese government has led to the PLAN becoming a formidable military force within China’s near-seas region, PLAN warship are also conducting a growing number of operations in more-distant waters, including the broader waters of the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

The PLAN build-up will eventually see to its presence not only in the Indo-Pacific but also in the waters around Europe in the near future, said the report.

The Navy affirmed China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, is now the top focus of U.S. defense planning and budgeting. This modernization has resulted in PLAN surpassing the U.S. Navy in numbers of battle force ships, making PLAN the numerically largest in the world.

USS George Washington (CVN-73) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) transit the Pacific Ocean

The U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) said PLAN has 360 battle force ships compared to a projected total of 297 for the U.S. Navy by October 2020.

ONI estimates China will have 400 battle force ships by 2025, and 425 by 2030. It also said PLAN's warships, aircraft, and weapons are now much more modern and capable than they were in the 1990s.

“Chinese naval ship design and material quality is in many cases comparable to (that of]) USN (U.S. Navy) ships, and China is quickly closing the gap in any areas of deficiency," according to ONI.

The Navy is meeting the PLAN challenge with all the resources at its disposal. The report said the Navy in recent years has taken a number of actions to counter China’s naval modernization effort.

Among these moves are shifting a larger percentage of the Navy fleet to the Pacific, assigning its most-capable new ships and aircraft and its best personnel to the Pacific.

The Navy has also maintained or increased general presence operations, training and developmental exercises, and engagement and cooperation with allied and other navies in the Indo-Pacific.

On the materiel side, the Navy has accelerated numerous programs for developing new military technologies and acquiring weapons (with a focus on long-range), new warships, aircraft and unmanned surface vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles.

As for China-centric warfighting doctrine, the Navy has also begun developing new operational concepts, such as new ways to employ Navy and Marine Corps forces, for countering Chinese maritime anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) forces. (Jan. 29, 2021)