The People's Liberation Army (PLA) spent 30 days secretly operating and three fleets in the South China Sea, casting a net of heaven and earth.
According to open source intelligence, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is deploying a huge combat formation consisting of nine ships and led by Type 055 10,000-ton destroyers in the South China Sea to organize a high-intensity combat exercise with the theme of air defense and anti-submarine.
In the past month, at least three fleets of similar size have carried out combat exercises and combat patrols in the South China Sea. These patrol operations demonstrate the overall strength of the Chinese Navy today, and Taiwan experts have commented that "there is no opponent in the first island chain, and it is useless for the US aircraft carrier to come."
[PLA 052D destroyer Hefei ship]
Recently, under the continuous prodding and influence of the United States, the situation in the South China Sea has once again entered a tense state. Even after the conclusion of the Shoulder-to-Body 24 exercise jointly organized by the United States and the Philippines, the problem has not been alleviated. To this end, the PLA Southern Theater Navy once again organized a formation of surface warships to carry out actual combat exercises in the South China Sea to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.
The reason why the PLA did this is simple: although the exercise is over, the missiles, planes and combat ships deployed by the US military in the Philippines are still there.
In particular, the US Army's "Typhon" medium-range missile system, although the performance of the Tomahawk cruise missile launched by this type of system has long lagged behind the world's first-class level, the maximum range of 1,600 km still theoretically gives the US military stationed in the Philippines the ability to strike at China's southern inland areas, which is enough to make the PLA's southern theater of operations on alert.
[Typhon missile system deployed in the Philippines]
Not to mention that the US Navy's USS Roosevelt carrier strike group is also currently maintaining high intensity of activity in the South China Sea, and the USS Halsey, a guided missile destroyer attached to the strike group, illegally intruded into the territorial waters of the Paracels last week and was forcibly driven away after a confrontation with PLA surface ships.
Obviously, the end of the "Shoulder to Shoulder-24" exercise does not mean the end of the United States stirring up the situation in the South China Sea, on the contrary, it is only the beginning, and the United States is bound to continue to find ways to aggravate the South China Sea issue in the future. And in order to contain the deterioration of the regional situation, it is clearly necessary for the PLA to strengthen its military presence in the direction of the South China Sea in response to the deployment of US forces in the Western Pacific.
This is also the reason why in this actual combat exercise, the PLA will dispatch a large-scale combat formation consisting of one Type 055 10,000-ton destroyer, three Type 052D destroyers, three Type 054A frigates, and two Type 903 supply ships.
Because without taking into account aircraft carriers, the size of this training fleet is already larger than the escort formation of the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group. The total number of vertical launches of 4 destroyers alone is as high as 304, and with the addition of 3 054A, the total firepower of the fleet will reach the scale of 400 vertical launchers + 24 YJ-83 anti-ship missiles.
[The PLA Xianyang ship performs a patrol mission in the South China Sea]
Such a high level of shipborne firepower is enough to make the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group look like a man, and what worries the Pentagon even more is that the PLA has deployed two combat fleets of similar size to the South China Sea in the past month. For example, in early May, it was the 055 Dalian that led the fleet in the South China Sea, and in late April, it was the 055 Xianyang that carried out this patrol mission in the South China Sea.
You must know that the day when the Roosevelt entered the South China Sea for the second time was around late April, combined with the activity patterns of these 055 destroyers, we have reason to believe that from the moment the Roosevelt entered the South China Sea, the PLA Southern Theater Navy began to organize surface ship units with the 055 destroyer as the core to conduct all-weather surveillance of the Roosevelt strike group.
【The trajectory of the USS Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group】
This is not good news for the Pentagon, because the greater the tonnage of the ship, the higher the need for maintenance. The US aircraft carriers will leave port for seven or eight months and lie down in Hong Kong for a year or two. In order to ensure that these maintenance work will not affect the combat effectiveness of the Navy too much, most countries will adopt a rotational deployment method to stagger the maintenance time of major tonnage ships, and the US aircraft carrier is an example.
However, in this operation against the USS Roosevelt, the Southern Theater Navy, which is equipped with only four 055 destroyers, deployed three of them to carry out combat missions in just one month. This is enough to prove the excellent performance of the navy of the southern theater on the issue of ship service, and this is also the core reason why Taiwan experts will say that the PLA Navy is "invincible in the first island chain, and it is useless for US aircraft carriers to come."
【Dalian ship operating in the South China Sea】
Because what we see in 055 is only the tip of the iceberg of the PLA's ship service capacity building, and the service capability itself is the tip of the iceberg of the entire system of the Navy. It is important to know that this system is interlocking, and it is impossible to have a situation where only the service capacity building is perfect, and there is a large gap in other capacity building.
For example, the series of problems exposed by the US Navy in the maintenance of aircraft carriers are not simple service problems, but a manifestation of the imbalance of the entire US naval system. Conversely, the performance of 055 can be seen to a large extent as a sign that the PLA Navy system is operating steadily.
【USS Reagan under maintenance】
Therefore, the US Navy at this stage is not only at a tactical disadvantage in the South China Sea. In the long run, they are similarly at a strategic disadvantage. These problems cannot be solved by sending a few more aircraft carriers to the South China Sea and deploying more "Typhon" missiles to the Philippines to strengthen military deterrence against China, but can only be solved by "using a knife" against the entire system of the US Navy and carrying out a reform below the neck.
Not only is this beyond the capabilities of the Pentagon, but the price to be paid is not acceptable to the leadership in Washington. The problems facing the U.S. Navy will not be resolved, and this means that the PLA will continue to maintain its current advantage in the South China Sea for the foreseeable future.