One type 055 can probably handle the entirety of VN and PN surface fleets (completely outdated surface vessels with close to zero meaningful air-defenses against a vessel with over 100 VLS - that's enough to intercept all the AShM on their ships and enough AShM to sink them all). Although in real life, air-superiority is king and land-based systems can dominate enough without even needing PLAN. The gap between Vietnam + Philippines is far greater than the gap between China and USA.
The only credible threat to PLAN are modern diesel electric subs. Even then, I really doubt those can amount to much against PLAN since PLAN has been playing around with those equivalent subs for more than 30 years. VN's latest and greatest Kilo class do not even have AIP and let's not forget PLAN has operated more Kilos for much longer (long enough to come out with two domesticated variants and upgrades) so they will understand and exploit its shortcomings. Should have forked out more money to buy some NATO subs. Getting Kilos and Su-30s was a really dumb idea if their intention was to counter China. From their acquisition patterns, it is clear their military leaders are stuck in cold war strategic thinking. Failure to embrace the digital age and buying weapons that China has so much experience with is a sign of technological illiteracy. Thankfully, China has gradually grown out of that thinking after US demonstrated how easy it was to counter Soviet equipment again and again.
The only credible threat to PLAN are modern diesel electric subs. Even then, I really doubt those can amount to much against PLAN since PLAN has been playing around with those equivalent subs for more than 30 years. VN's latest and greatest Kilo class do not even have AIP and let's not forget PLAN has operated more Kilos for much longer (long enough to come out with two domesticated variants and upgrades) so they will understand and exploit its shortcomings. Should have forked out more money to buy some NATO subs. Getting Kilos and Su-30s was a really dumb idea if their intention was to counter China. From their acquisition patterns, it is clear their military leaders are stuck in cold war strategic thinking. Failure to embrace the digital age and buying weapons that China has so much experience with is a sign of technological illiteracy. Thankfully, China has gradually grown out of that thinking after US demonstrated how easy it was to counter Soviet equipment again and again.
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