Of all the US's possible allies to go to war against China, Japan is the big variable that will define whether or not the US goes to war against China.
PLA Strategy in a Taiwan Contingency
- Thread starter pugachev_diver
- Start date
Japan has no autonomy.
Well... they may not have autonomy, but they are clearly not suicidal. The Japanese (population and political/military leaders) know that if a war breaks out in the region and Japan is in the middle of it, the chance of taking some hits with nuclear weapons is very real and China is not the only threat with nuclear weapons in this scenario.
The Japanese public is super hostile toward China plus Japan has been trying to strengthen its military for years. Who you think the SDF will be used for?
What did you expect? China accumulating military power while Japan remained stagnant without doing absolutely anything to change this situation?
Japan is arming itself because it is unable to maintain current military capabilities in the face of a militarily ascendant China, which in their view is aggressive. More and more, China continues to accumulate military power and the balance in the region will increasingly weigh heavily on China. Japan understands this and has therefore reformulated its political/military strategy to face this new geostrategic challenge.
the answer is VERY. because if Japan does not led its support to the US, the US may as well not engage China over Taiwan. without Japan, the US will have no air and naval base within meaningful proximity to Taiwan.
Yea that was my last point precisely, that Japan's usefulness mainly comes from its ability to provide bases for the US.
Roughly speaking, China adds the equivalent of an entire Japanese Navy every 4 years.
In terms of the Air Force, it's 2-3 years.
Japan's value is that it can provide bases for the US.
But if you look to the year 2030, I think it will become obvious that China can impose an air-sea blockade on Japan, even if the US gets involved.
How did you get 28.. there's only like a dozen with 32 mk41 VLS.
Yea I only looked at a few classes, maybe the other classes don't have 32 mk41 VLS haha.