War Is Boring

by DAVID AXE Lately, every major Chinese military development has provoked the same response from the U.S. government. The American reaction to the appearance of new aircraft, ships and missiles is to ask, essentially, “What’s it for?” The brief, maiden test cruise two weeks ago of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the [...]

After a decade of steady expansion, the Chinese military has made significant strides toward limiting the United States’ ability to deploy its own armed forces in the western Pacific. A combination of new submarines, long-range anti-ship missiles and heavily-armed jet fighters underpins what the Pentagon calls Beijing’s “anti-access, area-denial” strategy, aimed at keeping the warships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, based in Japan, out of the South China Sea.

To outfit its new aircraft carrier Shi Lang, due to enter service this year or next, the Chinese navy is going to need a balanced air wing mixing aircraft optimized for aerial combat, bombing, anti-submarine warfare, rescue, resupply and, finally, airborne radar early warning (AEW) and electronic warfare.

With the impending entry into service of China’s first aircraft carrier, the upgraded Russian Varyag, renamed Shi Lang, one U.S. analyst explains how the Chinese might employ the vessel.

As noted by Douglas Paal here over the weekend, in recent weeks, the Chinese navy has taken big steps toward deploying its first aircraft carrier, underscoring the nation’s rapid ascent as a world power. Twelve years after Beijing purchased the incomplete Russian aircraft carrier Varyag, the 60,000-ton vessel — renamed Shi Lang — is reportedly on track to begin sea trials this summer. Shi Lang’s first planes are nearly ready, too. In late April, the first J-15 fighter, an unlicensed copy of the Russian Su-33, appeared in navy colors.

There is no doubt that a fully tooled up carrier battle group sends a clear message but whether that message is heeded is debatable. No doubt, there are examples where the deployment of a large carrier air package has de-escalated a situation but these are very few and far between and mostly from well before the last several decades. If even a U.S. carrier could not deter the Serbs, Saddam or the Taliban then what chance will a [Royal Navy] CVF?

Here’s a comparison of large-deck “helicopter destroyers” in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The comparison starts with Shirane, moves on to the Oosumi LSTs, then to the Hyuga ships, then 22DDH. One of the two depictions of Hyuga has F-35s on the flight deck.

From the same Photoshop geniuses that brought us the Chinese military heli-carrier and submarine-carrier, here’s artwork depicting a gigantic catamaran flattop, weighing in at 320,000 tons. That’s “over-bearing!” declares China Military Report.

by DAVID AXE For 60 years the U.S. Navy has been organized around its force of large, heavily-protected aircraft carriers, each deploying more combat power than most whole nations can muster.  “Carrier proponents … seem to accept on faith alone the premise that a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is essentially invulnerable,” Commander John Patch writes in [...]