“400 Chinese battleships 4 years later, surpassed the US in quantity…Navy power is not crazy.”

Although China’s naval power has reached the world’s largest scale beyond the United States in terms of quantity, CNN broadcast reported that in terms of actual operational capabilities and power, it is less than that of the US Navy.

CNN on the 6th (local time) cited an analysis by the US Navy and the Institute for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), and diagnosed that China had the world’s largest naval power in quantitative terms between 2015 and the present.

According to the US Naval Intelligence Agency (ONI), the number of warships held by the People’s Liberation Army in China increased from 255 in 2015 to 360 (estimated) at the end of last year. This is 60 more than the US Navy currently owns.

In four years, ONI predicted that the Chinese military’s own warships would increase to 400. On the other hand, the US Navy plans to increase the number of warships to 355 in the long run, but it is unclear when this goal will be achieved due to difficulties in increasing the defense budget.

According to a report jointly compiled by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Command in December last year, Chinese naval power has more than tripled in size over the past 20 years.

The report said, “With China already possessing the world’s largest naval power, it is building battleships, submarines, aircraft carriers, assault and landing ships, strategic nuclear submarines, coastal patrol ships, and icebreakers at an astonishing speed.”

China’s state-run shipyards, which have the world’s largest shipbuilding capabilities, are the key to enhancing naval power.

According to the US Institute for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), China’s shipbuilding capacity in terms of displacement accounted for 40% of the world’s total in 2018. It is said that the number of ships built by China in the past year is higher than that of ships built by the United States in full operation over the past four years of World War II.

China’s strong building ability is considered to naturally lead to an increase in naval power. In the context of war or conflict, the strong shipbuilding capability is evaluated as the core of naval power.

The report predicts that some of China’s naval power is likely to be on par with the United States and other naval powers.

In a report released this month by Professor Andrew Ericsson of the US Naval University, “The Chinese military is building more and more sophisticated and high-performance warships in addition to the quantity supplied by its shipbuilding industry.”

Among them, assault assault ships and the latest destroyers capable of landing thousands of troops at once are said to be at a level that the United States cannot ignore.

However, despite this quantitative advantage, experts analyze that China’s naval power is still far short of the US Navy’s quality in terms of quality.

First, in terms of the number of naval soldiers, the Chinese Navy (250,000) is smaller than the US Navy (330,000).

The US Navy has overwhelmingly large amounts of powerful battleships such as destroyers and cruisers with large displacements.

All 50 of the US Navy’s attack submarines are operated by nuclear propulsion, so the scope of operation is very wide, but only 7 out of 62 attack submarines in China are nuclear propulsion.

In addition, the U.S. has 9,000 maritime missile launchers, while China has only 1,000.

The scale and operational capabilities of the carrier squadron are far short of that of the United States. Currently, there are two aircraft carriers operated by the Chinese military, all built based on conventional and old Soviet-made designs rather than nuclear propulsion. The operating radius is narrow, and the ability to operate the aircraft is inferior to that of the U.S. Naval Carrier Corps.

If the Chinese carrier is not refueled, the operation period is less than a week, and the operation is impossible in the ocean, and it is said to be for the South China Sea.

On the other hand, the US Navy currently operates 11 carriers, and the combat power of one carrier is generally considered to be more powerful than the air force of the entire country.

However, in the future, China plans to promote the construction of a new aircraft carrier equipped with an electronic injection device in addition to a nuclear propulsion method equipped with a nuclear reactor.

CNN pointed out that the powerful image of the U.S. naval carrier squadron operating in the ocean has always been desired by the People’s Liberation Army.

Reporter Bae Jae-seong [email protected]