Army Navy
How Big Is The Chinese Liberation Army Navy?
The People’s Republic of China’s Navy, correctly referred to as the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has altered its inward-looking stance and is expanding strongly in parallel with China’s emergence as a world superpower. It is not necessarily a preparation to being an aggressor, but as a predictable ‘gearing up’ to defending its expanding trade routes, strategic raw material imports and export pipeline. It is now an active participator in the Combined Naval Task Force, deterring piracy off the Somali coastline.
Size
The US Navy is the world’s largest with over three hundred thousand personnel, but China ranks second at about two thirds that size, like for like. Tonnage-wise, the US fleet comes in at about three million tons across 200 vessels, whilst that of China scales at about a tenth of that with a much lower average tonnage per vessel. As a percentage of the world’s fighting tonnage, China’s measures at about 3%. The Indian Navy is also expanding rapidly at just under 2% of tonnage.
Effectiveness
Can they deliver? This is tricky to measure – it includes Equipment and crew quality, training, fleet exercise intensity, command and control structures and systems (and this embraces a political element too), average age of equipment, equipment servicing effectiveness, logistics systems, technology development rates, and many other factors. “Much room for improvement” is how most observers would mark the PLAN.
Does the PLAN have and edge and where are they weak?
The main points are:
A unified commitment to expansion is arguably the most important, as the senior command is focused on growing fleet and effectiveness aggressively, with the support of the politicians. India, probably, is the only other country where the senior naval command and politicians are aligned so effectively.
The naval budget also is crucial, and China appears to be growing its naval budget quickly. Budget isn’t everything, as the country has to grow its naval/industrial complex to deliver. You can buy an automobile plant, but not advanced naval construction capability off the shelf. Take aircraft carriers, where they are building their construction capability – they purchased the uncompleted Varyag carrier from the Ukraine and have been refurbishing it for years. They now have several conventional and nuclear powered carriers in their plans, but it’s likely to take at least another fifteen years before they are operational.
Defence electronics is a critical area too, but given China’s aerial electronics current capability, then ‘technology drag’ is less likely to be an issue.
With advanced (even unique) munitions, the effectiveness of a navy relative to others can be improved. China has weapons such as the Dong Feng 21D anti-carrier missile and the EM52 rocket propelled mine .
It can be argued that the PLAN is weakened by a command structure which has both executive and political chains of command. These structures have been tested in various wars – for example by North Vietnam. Some commentators would claim that lower effectiveness can be compensated for with greater numbers of personnel.
Organisation
The PLAN is organised into three fleets: the North Sea Fleet with six major bases, the East Sea Fleet with five major bases, and the South Sea Fleet with five major bases. There are as many minor bases as major bases.
About the Author
What’s the future in naval warfare and politics? Find out now in the Middle East based thriller
Gate of Tears
– an exciting mix of gold fever, politics and naval confrontation set in the very near future. Have you heard about extracting gold from seawater? – it’s all in the
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Army Navy – “Saints”
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