055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread
- Thread starter FarkTypeSoldier
- Start date
- Status
Ultimately it's about numbers.
If the PLAN eventually settles on a fleet of say, 6 carriers, 8 LPDs, 3 LHDs, 26 DDGs, 12 large DDGs, 30 FFGs (not including corvettes etc), then perhaps 055s would only be used to escort carriers as their primary duty with little left for anything else.
But if the PLAN eventually seeks a larger fleet instead of say, 8 carriers, 10 LPDs, 4 LHDs, 40-50 DDGs, up to 30 large DDGs, 60 FFGs, then there may be enough 055s for other missions as well (escorting other groups, forming SAGs, operating independently etc).
It's about the relative numbers of 055s relative to carriers, amphibious assault ships, as well as to destroyers and frigates.
If the PLAN eventually settles on a fleet of say, 6 carriers, 8 LPDs, 3 LHDs, 26 DDGs, 12 large DDGs, 30 FFGs (not including corvettes etc), then perhaps 055s would only be used to escort carriers as their primary duty with little left for anything else.
But if the PLAN eventually seeks a larger fleet instead of say, 8 carriers, 10 LPDs, 4 LHDs, 40-50 DDGs, up to 30 large DDGs, 60 FFGs, then there may be enough 055s for other missions as well (escorting other groups, forming SAGs, operating independently etc).
It's about the relative numbers of 055s relative to carriers, amphibious assault ships, as well as to destroyers and frigates.
I think its more about purpose than anything else. I don't prefer to think in terms of number of carriers. I prefer to think of Belt Initiative stretching across the Pacific and Atlantic to South America. I see a String of Pearls stretching across the globe. I like to see what is needed to patrol these lanes. The PLAN only moves to what the politicians see as their vision of China in the next half century, and that vision is going to be a global one. This is where it needs to able to compete (not go to war but compete) with a whole range of rivals from the US to India. I can't say nor am I willing to put a fixed number for what is required to provide sufficient presence and safeguard China's interests around the world.
Then at some point, ships are going to reach retirement age, and you will need a healthy building program just to retain your current numbers.
Then at some point, ships are going to reach retirement age, and you will need a healthy building program just to retain your current numbers.
antiterror13
Brigadier
Purpose, among other factors, will determine the number of ships of each type that the PLAN procures and the PLAN's overall strategy and force structure.
But ultimately it is the number of ships of each type and the numbers of those ship types relative to each other, that will determine the kind of missions that each type will be able to do.
We don't have a very clear and distinct idea of those purposes and even if we did, we do not have any means to calculate the precise numbers needed to fulfill that purposes. Furthermore, there is always the shifting political climate that creates new context and purpose.
Then there is also the thing that warship building is going to be a subsidy industry, and those yards that have been made, and trained to do warships, are going to need or is addicted to a constant diet of new warships to keep them going. And even if the navy does not need those ships, the Party politicians ultimately determines what you "need", and will still make that budget and the state owned shipyards are going to keep on building them. You are going to expect some kind of constant output each year, like anywhere between 20 to 30 warships of all types launched each year, and of these probably about 6 to 8 destroyers.
That is basically the same trap Britain and later the US fell into. It is kinda of a problem but unless China figures out some way to either become more self-reliant or to trade with closer neighbors there is no easy fix for it. They need to keep the sea lanes open. The question is how much resources would that take.
I think the Type 055-class will be built in higher numbers than this. Once you consider the regional vessels in the same class and add the amount of ships the US can deploy to the Pacific then you can see that 8 ships is not enough. I think they need at least double that.
None of that invalidates my point that ultimately it is the relative number of warships of each type that will determine whether a particular warship will be able to do a particular mission or not.
Regardless of what the purpose of a nation's navy is, and regardless of how the political environment and context changes, ultimately the roles that a warship type fulfills to achieve a navy's requirements, will be dependent on the number of warships of that type as well as the number of other warships of other types that a navy has in service.
I.e.: ultimately it is about numbers. Numbers are dependent on a host of upstream factors, of course, but numbers are the final key limiting factor, or the final "rate limiting step" so to speak.
I don't see how that's relevant to what I wrote before. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with what you wrote.
The USN is "ordering" more LCS than they need. Or to be more precise, its the US Congress that is doing the ordering for them. Wait, they are being "forced" into a 355 ship navy no matter what it takes, whether you want to keep older ships longer or cut out ballistic submarines for smaller, less expensive surface vessels, and all these are not being done in view of tactical requirements. They are given a shoe and they are forced to fit into it no matter what.
The PLAN is historically, a politically weak entity within the Communist Party, and if Xi JIng Ping wants a global navy to protect the String of Pearls, darn right he's going to get it. And then there are those Party bosses in the provincial level and major state owned firms, who maybe, say, lets get more ship building contracts for our shipyards to boost our GDP, keep my constituents happy and keeping a good job, and it will look good on my record when we are promoted. And for that reason I don't think there is an ultimate cap to the number of 055s and 052Ds China will build, other than a contractual one, which at the end, will only be replaced by another batch contract. What we are going to see is a defense industrial complex that will have to be fed for its own sake.
Exactly. You are going to have a runaway defense military industrial complex that has become addicted to contracts and whose habits will be difficult if not impossible to break.
- Status