Jophiel wrote:
Pumpkin Lörd Kaolian wrote:
They have reportedly just launched or are in process of launching a new sub with advanced noise reduction features, but no one has seen it yet.
So wait. Are we supposed to be worried then or not?
Dunno yet. Intel probably does, and they are pushing through plans to replace the Ohio class SSBN's with... something here in a few years, but there doesn't really seem to be any panic at this point. Most of the chinese boats to date we have seen aren't as big around as our typical missile sub, which means they are much less likely to have any sort of long range ICBM launch capability. I don't care how good your rocket scientists are, with present technology there is only so short you can make an effective ICBM, and I like to think we have pretty good rocket scientists. What would worry me is china developing an effective silent attack submarine. There is a huuuge amount of institutional knowledge that you need to know before you can really begin making effective submarines, and in some of the pictures you can see of recent chinese designs, they still seem to be making mistakes in propulsion designs. Which suprises me given how much visibility US and or older Soviet propellor designs have been in pictures recently, and propellor design is the holy grail of sub noise reduction, well That and the rubber coatings. They seem to have the acoustic coating process down, which they probably got from the Russians, but they don't seem to have the layout down. their subs seem stubby and on the small side, which I suspect means they aren't as certain of their propulsion systems as they would like to be. They should have fairly decent reactor designs simply extrapolating from soviet designs they almost have to have aquired by now.
Most of their existing fleet is destroyers and smaller ships.
The Chinese fleet Active or presently under construction (simplified this chart for formatting, so some of the numbers are a bit off)
Submarines
Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines 7
Nuclear Attack Submarines 12
Conventional Ballistic Missile Submarines 1
Conventional Attack Submarines 47
Total Submarines 67 Principal Surface Combatants
Aircraft Carriers 3 (unconfirmed)
Destroyers 26
Frigates 52
Total Principal Surface Combatants 81 Coastal Warfare Vessels (small boats)
Missile Boats 252
Torpedo Boats 170
Gun Boats 260
Submarine Chasers 95
Total Coastal Warfare Vessels ~800 Amphibious Warfare Vessels
Landing Platforms 2
Landing Ships 83
Landing Craft 480
Total Amphibious Warfare Vessels 564 Mine Warfare Vessels
Mine Warfare Ships 69
Mine Warfare Drones 30
Total Mine Warfare Vessels 99 Give or take...
By comparison, the US fleet:
Submarines
Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines 14 + 4 Cruise missile launching subs.
Nuclear Attack Submarines 69
Total Submarines 87 Principal Surface Combatants
Aircraft Carriers 14
Cruisers 22
Destroyers: 60ish
Frigates 30
Total Principal Surface Combatants 126 Coastal Warfare Vessels (small boats)
No clue, but alot of them
Total Coastal Warfare Vessels ??? Amphibious Warfare Vessels
Landing Platforms 19 (assault carriers and the like)
Landing Ships about 800 of them.
Landing Craft who knows?
Total Amphibious Warfare Vessels 819+ The US fleet is split between two Oceans usually, but in an engagement where a major Sea battle would occur, the US should have a major edge in all important aspects. Frigates can't fight carrier groups and live. Plus class for class most of the chinese ships are much smaller than ours on a tonnage basis
