The 75th anniversary of the People's Navy has been successfully completed, and the generals of the front army said that the PLA's surface combat forces have grown significantly in the past 10 years, and it is likely that resources will be focused on the development of underwater forces in the future.
[PLA submarine force at the parade]
Recently, as the series of activities held by the People's Liberation Army around the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Navy have come to an end, the outside world's analysis of these activities has also begun.
Because despite the fact that during the Navy Day, the PLA only released a couple of thematic propaganda films, organized "warships return home" events in several coastal cities. But let's not forget that the strategic environment facing China will not be alleviated by the arrival of Navy Day, and the Navy still retains a large number of combat units on the front line to deal with various emergencies during the anniversary activities organized in various places.
For example, a few days ago, the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group, which participated in the perfect Japan-South Korea joint exercise in the East China Sea, entered the South China Sea for the second time through the Bass Strait. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) immediately dispatched the Type 054A frigate Sanya, an undisclosed ship No. 054A and No. 792 electronic reconnaissance ship to track and monitor.
[Tracking the Sanya ship of the People's Liberation Army on the USS Roosevelt]
It can be said that against the background that the US-led extraterritorial forces have not reduced the intensity of the strategic game with China in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and other directions, the PLA can still dispatch more than 10 combat ships of various types to organize open activities in China, which in itself is also a manifestation of the PLA surface warship strength is very redundant.
Of course, the outside world, especially the Taiwan authorities, is obviously more concerned about the ships that appear in various naval propaganda films than the ships participating in the activities.
Because in the PLA's newly released "Hidden in the Deep Sea" propaganda film, there are many pictures that have been made public for the first time, exposing a lot of information worthy of analysis, including the specific composition of the Shandong aircraft carrier strike group, as well as the record that the battle group has conducted red-blue confrontation training with a certain submarine unit of the PLA.
[Shandong ship formation participating in the red-blue confrontation]
The exposure of this information is widely believed to indicate that the PLA's surface ship forces are paying more and more attention to anti-submarine warfare, and a retired senior general of the former army has bluntly said that the PLA is likely to shift the focus of naval development from the surface to the underwater in the future.
One of the main reasons why this former army general made such a judgment was that in his opinion, the PLA's surface combat strength was very mature. Although it is still some time before the first domestically produced electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier, the Fujian, is officially put into service, but in the foreseeable future, it is already a sure thing that the PLA will have 3 or even 4 aircraft carriers.
[Fujian ship service imagination map]
At the same time, the pace of destroyer construction of the PLA has reached a level that is unparalleled in the world. The second batch of 055 destroyers has been launched with a gap of less than 3 months, combined with the construction experience of the first batch of 055 destroyers in only 3 years, the second batch of 055 destroyers is even expected to further shorten this time.
In addition, the appearance of the 054B frigate indicates that the PLA is paying more and more attention to the ocean-going combat capabilities of surface ships. So much so that although the PLA does not have the idea of competing with the United States for strategic dominance in other maritime areas in a short period of time, the strategic pressure on the Pentagon in the face of the PLA, which is constantly investing in building this capability, is also multiplying.
Even to the point where as long as the United States chooses to shrink strategically, China's influence will quickly spill over to the rest of the world with its naval power going out.
Not to mention that the PLA also has 076, an "amphibious assault ship" that has the potential to change the concept of modern naval warfare, and the construction of these ships also makes it not difficult to compete with the US military in China's surrounding navies, although the PLA does not have many aircraft carriers.
[076 amphibious assault ship image]
Compared with the rapidly narrowing gap between the surface forces, the PLA still has a large gap with the US military in underwater forces, and this gap is not only at the technical level, but also at the level of force size. With nearly 70 attack/strategic nuclear submarines, the U.S. Navy is the only "all-nuclear" submarine force in the world. The PLA submarines are not only mainly conventionally powered, but also inferior to the US Navy in terms of quantity.
As for performance, according to the commander of the US Pacific Navy, Admiral Paparo, the United States is at least one generation ahead of China in submarine technology, about 10-20 years. This has further widened the gap between the PLA and the US military in terms of underwater forces, and it is also based on this reason that the PLA surface ship units attach great importance to anti-submarine warfare.
[Admiral Paparo responds to the submarine gap between China and the United States]
Therefore, when the PLA's surface combat force has grown to a scale that can compete with the US Navy, it is not surprising that the outside world will judge that the PLA will turn to investing in underwater forces.
Of course, what the outside world thinks is one thing, and what we will do is another. In fact, given the scale of China's industry today, the PLA most likely has little focus on the issue of naval construction. Because we have sufficient capital and industrial capacity to exert efforts in the construction of surface and underwater combat theories at the same time, we can directly develop our naval forces in a two-pronged manner.
Moreover, although there is a gap in performance and scale between the PLA submarines and the US military, this does not mean that the PLA will be at a disadvantage in the confrontation with the US underwater forces.
Because modern warfare is, in the final analysis, still a systematic operation, and thanks to the PLA's emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, today's Chinese Navy has the world's largest surface anti-submarine fleet. With the same large number of anti-submarine patrol planes, the PLA is fully capable of building a "heaven and earth net" against submarines in the waters around China, making it difficult for US submarines that lack systematic support to play a role.