Does PLAN really need several dozens of 055? PLAN doesn't have many oversea bases or former colonies to assert influence, say in the case of France or Britain; nor does it have to be the GLA. Those are expensive large warships, often overlapping in roles that could easily be covered by long range land based missiles and jets.
055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread
- Thread starter FarkTypeSoldier
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While China doesn’t need to invade any country, long term it would need a navy with true global reach to defend it’s already global trading interests.
As the biggest economy and industrial power, China also stands the biggest to lose if trade spirals out of control. Being able to blockade trade to certain countries, sink their navy and punish them by naval bombardment allows them to counteract any possible unfair practices that might be leveraged against them.
Besides, these ships are also ABM components
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plawolf
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China has invested heavily in the Middle East and Africa, and those investments will only increase over time.
Along with said investments have also come significant Chinese expat migration.
Just look at the costs China suffered in Iraq and Libya following Western backed regime changes and the mass evacuation of Chinese nationals Beijing had to organise.
In future, such losses will be far higher and evacuations more difficult.
Contrast that with Syria and Russian involvement.
Having a powerful blue water fleet would allow China an effective veto on western back regime change in nations China have significant investment and stakes in. That in turn should act as a deterrent against military misadventures by other powers.
A good example would be the PLAN deployment on a 052D to waters around the Maldives, which is argued went a long way to deterring overt Indian military intervention.
That’s not something you can do with missiles or land based aircraft.
Case in point is Venezuela. Did Russian Tu160s landing there dissuade American regime change efforts?
Things might be different if Russia still had a powerful blue water navy they could send in, but they don’t, so civil war and/or regime change looks to be a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’.
Another example is the presence of elements of the Russian Fleet in Libyan waters during the 1969 al Fateh revolution. Had the Russian Fleet not been, conveniently, present Libya would have remained a neo-colony of western interests without any interruption!
Jura The idiot
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I've heard of April 23 of this year
(LOL but I don't even recall where I heard that so don't quote this if nothing happens to that ship on that day)
People's Liberation Army Navy
: April 23, 1949
The more the better. As for expensive, the more ships are made, the lower the cost of each ship.
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