Are we over-hyping the Chinese military? No doubt. But that's no reason to relax.
Does the Pentagon report on Chinese military power over-state Chinese naval power?
The Pentagon also harps on the fact that, by ship count, China now has the world’s largest navy — generally failing to note that, because U.S. ships are typically much bigger, America’s naval tonnage exceeds China’s by a ratio of about two to one.
It's not like numbers of ships is uniquely used to measure the PLA Navy. America measures our
own fleet by numbers. Counting and defining battle force fleet numbers as the foundation of a Navy debate has been going on for a long time.
And our ship tonnage must be greater just for our ships to reach
the western Pacific. Long journeys require larger hulls for the range and to absorb the pounding waves. The Chinese start there and can deploy more small,
short-legged vessels. So measuring by tonnage would actually misrepresent the U.S.-China naval balance for a fight in the western Pacific.
Also, much of our tonnage advantage is from our
super carriers. Which might not be an advantage just 5 hours into a war.
But sure, a focus on the shiny hardware likely overlooks Chinese weaknesses.
And leaves out China's geographic problem that America doesn't have.
But don't get complacent. I worry our non-weapon factors are weakening:
What we should do but won't is revamp selection and training for our senior officers to reduce the climate of stupidity that cripples American warfighting abilities.
Somehow our flag officers are convinced that there are many substitutes for victory. But the truth is that woke lips sink ships.
But no worries. A Navy with fewer suicides, sexual assaults, hazing, extremism (all extremism?), and racism (all racism?)[*] will hold its head high as its woke sailors burn and drown in distant oceans as enemies crush them in battle.
That will count for something, right?
Let's focus on improving our leadership issues rather than convincing ourselves that China's leadership issues make their military ineffective.
*Good leaders should be able to combat those listed problems as they prepare their personnel for war. It seems too often that warfighting is an afterthought.
NOTE: Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
