The slide’s authenticity was confirmed by a Navy spokesperson, who cautioned that it was not meant to be an in-depth analysis.
The slide shows that Chinese shipyards have a capacity of about 23.2 million tons compared to less than 100,000 tons in the U.S., making Chinese shipbuilding capacity more than 232 times greater than that of the U.S.
The slide also shows the “battle force composition” of the countries’ two navies side-by-side, which includes “combatant ships, submarines, mine warfare ships, major amphibious ships, and large combat support auxiliary ships.” The ONI estimated that China had 355 such naval vessels in 2020 while the U.S. had 296. The disparity is expected to continue to grow every five years until 2035, when China will have an estimated 475 naval ships compared to 305-317 U.S. ships.
Another section of the slide provides an estimate on the percentage each country allocates to naval production in its shipyards, with China garnering roughly 70% of its shipbuilding revenue from naval production, compared to about 95% of American shipbuilding revenue.
Because of China’s centrally planned economy, the country is able to control labor costs and provide subsidies to its shipbuilding infrastructure, allowing the Chinese to outbid most competitors around the world and dominate the commercial shipping industry, Sadler said.
Alternative title - “Central planning is more efficient than markets” confirms US Navy
The vast majority of US Navy shipyards were sold off between world war 2 and today. As an example, the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard is now luxury condominiums. The US government owns four shipyards total: Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii. Every ship in the navy is built at a handful of private shipyards, and the capability to expand naval shipbuilding isn’t available. With neoliberalism in full swing, the number of skilled shipyard workers is kept as low as possible, with massive layoffs happening every few years, further reducing the inventory of skilled shipbuilders.
This is likewise true with aircraft manufacturing, as well as other manufacturing capabilities. There are no typewriter factory equivalents to retool to make tommygun equivalents.
The bottom line is that the US cannot sustain medium term or long term peer or near peer warfare and, as someone who was in defense acquisitions in a previous life and in manufacturing now, the capabilities of extant materiel isn’t sufficient to justify being the most expensive military in history.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is in Kittery, ME. They do not build ships there, it is chiefly for refurbishing existing nuclear subs.
Thanks for the correction. I forgot that NNSY is in Portsmouth, VA and I always confuse Norfolk Naval Shipyard with Newport News Shipbuilding, which is where they build aircraft carriers (privately owned, of course).
Yep, there is no ramping up or sustainment in the next war. Naval warfare will be over in a matter of weeks. That should be a scary proposition because it won’t take but a few weeks until all that’s left is to launch the nukes.
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It’s a good thing hypersonic missiles don’t exist, otherwise you might have to occasionally rebuild or replace a ship in a near-peer war
Wars are won through superiority in sustaining losses, not initial advantages in weapons. The greatest navy in the world is meaningless if you can’t replace your losses over time.
As a veteran of the US Navy, who attained some rank and stayed in far longer than I should have, I know enough to say: lol, sure
EDIT: to be a little less dismissive and memey, there is nothing in the US Navy’s inventory that can reliably kill a hypersonic ASM, and their best ASM is the fucking Harpoon, which is about forty years out of date.
The information that the Navy operates on about their own weapons systems, from the top to the bottom, comes from the manufacturers’ Developmental Testing, and is highly inaccurate about real world suitability and effectiveness. The Operational Testing data (real world testing, where you put a weapon system on a real ship at sea and shoot it) is largely ignored because most of the Navy doesn’t even know they do OT, or what OT even is. The metaphor I like to use is:
You’re shopping for a car. You see the MPG listed on the data sheet taped to the inside of the window, and that’s the DT data. The MPG you actually get is the OT data, and it’s always worse.
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What the fuck are you talking about, Russia’s hypersonic missiles are a substantial threat according to the US military, and the Russian armed forces’ capabilities have actually improved over the course of the Ukraine war, to include mass deployment of UASes, deep defensive doctrines, munitions production, and more professional training. It should be obvious that the US/NATO is the side that’s being outmatched and outmaneuvered in innovation and manufacturing. You’re the one who’s tripping.
Edit: just the sheer fucking cope of pretending Russia is not already employing hypersonic missiles, while the military’s spokesmen are out there warning that they’re a real threat and the US is no longer able to dictate the course of the strategic competition, lmao, get a fuckin clue
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I’m not afraid of jack shit dude LMAO, it’s the US bourgeoisie who are afraid of losing their world dominance, Russia is not your enemy, China is not my enemy, Hamas is not gonna fly over to America in their paragliders, don’t be gullible, don’t believe the corporate news media when they try to make you afraid of the scary Asiatic boogymen. The real enemy is the capitalist establishment of your own country.
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Weak comeback on your part
Ableist too
Just fuck off
Worth being afraid of: US domestic police forces trained by Israeli security forces in Cop City. My landlord who will threaten to deprive me of a home if I ever slip up on a month’s rent. The heavily armed chud Reaganites next door who live for their private property and will turn feral when this whole rotten edifice really starts to collapse. Nancy Pelosi.
Not worth being afraid of: foreign countries whose capital cities are halfway around the world, with whom our political establishment is obsessed with perpetuating endless conflict.
Think for yourself.