In the 2014-18 period, Beijing launched naval vessels with a total weight of 678,000 tonnes, or more than the French, German, Indian, Italian, South Korean, Spanish and Taiwanese navies combined, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Among other naval vessels, China has built four Type 055 destroyers over the past seven years. Photo: Reuters
Despite its prolific output, Beijing-based military expert Zhou Chenming said China still lagged behind the US in terms of its hardware and software technologies.
“A real ‘blue-water fleet’ is able to sail long distances on the high seas, but that requires a comprehensive logistics and support network that the PLA does not have,” he said.
“Beijing is capable of building giant warships with large displacements, but too much of their capacity is taken up by weapons and other equipment, which reduces the amount of space they have for fuel, which in turn limits their range and the amount of time they can remain on the high seas.”
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China’s advanced warships like the Type 055 and Type 052D had a maximum cruising range of about 6,000 nautical miles, shorter than their American counterparts, Zhou said.
“The Americans have pursued a global strategy and established many overseas naval bases, which allows their ships to make longer voyages and project their power on the high seas. China doesn’t have such an advantage,” he said.
“The PLA Navy has often been stretched, like when it took part in an anti-piracy mission in Somali waters in 2008 and the short range of its vessels was a big hurdle. That’s why China needed the facility in
,” he said, referring to the military base set up by the PLA in the tiny African nation in 2017.
China established the maintenance and repair facility after the power system in one of its Guangzhou Type-052B destroyers failed during another anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden in 2010 leaving its crew stranded.
“As Beijing and Djibouti hadn’t formally established military ties at the time, it was the French navy that rescued the sailors on the Guangzhou,” the naval source said. “And that’s what inspired China to set up its own outpost in Djibouti.”
Song Zhongping, a former army officer and military analyst in Hong Kong, said that China’s navy still had a long way to go in operational terms if it wanted to compete with the US.
“America has the world’s largest blue-water navy and more than a century-long history, so its warships have already gone through several rounds of development,” he said.
“Also, US naval vessels are well versed in operating in battle group formation, which is something the Chinese are still learning how to do.”
Adam Ni, a China researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, said that as well as finding the money to build new warships and maintain its growing fleet, China’s naval chiefs had to balance other considerations.
“There are competing priorities, like maritime corps, naval aviation and submarines,” he said.
With so many demands on its budget, it made sense that the PLA Navy was rethinking its strategic, long-term goals, he said.
Earlier this year, the Jamestown Foundation, an American think tank, said China was planning to quadruple the size of its marine force from two brigades to eight, or about 40,000 troops in total. The military source confirmed that ambition but said that only four of the additional six brigades had been created to date.
“Establishing eight marine brigades is a long-term goal,” he said. “Most of the members of the four new [Marine Corps] brigades were transferred from the army’s amphibious unit.
The movement of amphibious troops from ground to naval forces is part of the PLA reforms launched by Xi in 2015, under which ground forces are being downsized and marine units expanded to protect China’s interests offshore.
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But Lu Li-shih, a retired lieutenant commander from the Taiwanese navy, said the amphibious operations by ground forces were not the same as those carried out on the high seas. If the PLA marines wanted to compete with their American counterparts, they would have to improve their land, air and sea operational skills.
“If the PLA’s amphibious troops wanted to take back Taiwan by force, for instance, they wouldn’t need the giant Type 075 amphibious helicopter dock; the Type 071 would be good enough,” he said, adding that the Type 071 was the ideal platform for the navy to improve its high seas combat training.
Since last year, the PLA has used the Type 071 to send amphibious troops, naval aviation, missile and strategic support units to the Indian and Pacific oceans for joint open sea combat training, according to the military newspaper PLA Daily.
Each Type 071 vessel can carry 900 troops, as well as four Type 726 landing craft and two helicopters.
“The PLA Navy’s training in recent years shows it has been moving towards the development of integrated command systems to support future battle groups,” Lu said.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: PLA Navy forced to rethink its spending, insiders sayPLA Navy ‘forced to rethink its spending plans’
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