Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Which is all to be expected. China is a major global power with legitimate security interests in the Pacific. Hard to imagine them relying on American goodwill to ensure access to vital strategic resources.
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I was reading a book on coldwar naval history and at the end of it the author mused that in terms of submarines services the American's had jumped into the lead and then basically closed the competition, he said the same thing about aircraft carriers and their technology.
The Russian's and Chinese have always lagged behind the American navy in terms of the class and technology of their boats. The Russians were always about one itineration behind the Chinese more then that.
In terms of Carriers all the combined carriers of the cold war world couldn't stand up to a Nimitz class super carrier. The Russians pretty much gave up fairly early on. The British and the French really didn't try because they knew that they could rely on American carriers if it hit the fan.
But flash forward to now, and there's an argument that the newest generation of Russian subs, the Yasen class SSN is on par with the Virginia class and is possibly a better blue water submarine.
The Borei and new Borei 2 Ballistic missile submarines are considered to be completely state of the art.
the Chinese are also developing their line of 4th generation attack and missile boats.
On the carrier front the Chinese have realized that they don't have to take on the whole US Navy, so with the type 002 and two type 001 plus the largest aircraft carrier in the world in the Chinese mainland that they can reach a rough parity with the American Naval forces in the South China Sea.