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July 28, 2005
The Soon to be Former Great U.S. Navy
Imagine for a moment that you are President of the United States. A small group of military advisers come to you and tell you that China is on track to have more than twice as many submarines as the U.S. within 5 years. In addition, their fleet will be larger than ours within 10 years. Your military is tied down in a large war in the Middle East, you are running huge budget deficits. You have little discretionary income at your disposal to increase spending on new ships. We know that China's economy is growing faster than almost any other country in the world. And its military expansion is trying to set new world speed records. Then there is the fact that China holds so much U.S. debt. That certainly restricts your strategic options.
Okay, political mavens, what would you do?
Thanks to Chuck Dupree at Bad Attitudes for pointing out this article.
Posted by Chip Spear at July 28, 2005 8:54 AM
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Comments
Quality has a quantity all of its own. A rush to turn out technologically obsolete submarines will just make more flotsam for the Taiwan Straits.
This assumption also fails to consider that states in the region, frightened by this, will not seek an offshore balancer.
Finally, what does % debt ownership actually mean? The Germans owned a large % of our debt in the runup to World War I - I don't think that stopped us.
Posted by: MTW at July 28, 2005 11:31 AM
We have a submarine fleet that covers the world's seas 24/7. Any showdown with China will, hopefully, be on an economic level, which is where we should place our emphasis.
Posted by: Tim Villard at August 3, 2005 10:38 AM
adequacy ruinations passers calibrations.Huck?bitterroot corps!Erato
Posted by: nova scotia at September 20, 2006 4:43 AM