America, Take Notice: China's Five Military Game Changers
08/23/14
Robert Farley
Military Strategy, State of the Military, Defense, Security, China, United States
Beijing's military prowess grows with each passing day. Should Washington be concerned?
For
decades, China has played catch-up with the world’s most advanced
military powers. Starting from a very low technological base, and
without the benefit of access to foreign technology markets, the defense
base of the People’s Republic of China struggled to develop innovative
technologies that could compete with Russian, European, and American
systems. China compensated for this deficiency by importing advanced
foreign weapons and tech, and by orienting its military strategy around
defense.
To
some extent, China continues to play catch-up today. However, new
advances are bringing the Chinese defense-industrial base ever closer to
its counterparts (indeed, in some ways Chinese technology has surpassed
Russian). This article examines five pieces of future Chinese military
technology that could become “game changers.” These five systems each
threaten to contribute to the transformation of China’s security
environment, and by extension to revolutionize the politics of East
Asia.
Aircraft Carriers:
China’s intentions with respect to its carrier fleet have remained mysterious for decades. The completion of the Liaoning
made clear that China does intend to develop a carrier force, but
questions remain about the size of the force, and about its eventual
capabilities. The lack of transparency with respect to China’s carrier
plans means that we don’t yet have a sense of what new ships will look
like, although they may carry the stealth-style fighters and could
possibly launch AEW (airborne early warning) aircraft.
To be sure, Chinese naval aviation
still has a very long way to go before the People’s Liberation Army
Navy (PLAN) can challenge the U.S. Navy (USN). The planes and the
carriers, while impressive, will lack the capabilities of a U.S.
super-carrier air wing. While the Chinese are working out deck operation
procedures on Liaoning, future carriers will undoubtedly demand different kinds of expertise.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/america-take-notice-chinas-five-military-game-changers-11138
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