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Hissing Dragon-Squirming Tiger:
Comparisons, Negotiations
and Attitudes continues...
China’s naval expansion plans call for the development of a PLA Navy
that will cover two large zones of ‘active defence’. The first zone, which is
from the PRC coast out to about 80 km (50 nautical miles) to seaward to
the ‘First Island Chain’, would be defended in three tiers or levels, each
with a dedicated naval force, thus providing a multi-level in-depth defense
at sea.. The inshore tier is to be defended by missiles and large coastal
patrol craft, such as missile speedboats and fast gunships, and by
minelaying-mine clearing vessels.
The development of the radically-new
catamaran-hulled design, the Type 022 (NATO codename: Houbei class),
the new-generation catamaran (twin-hull) missile fast attack craft (FAC)
built for the PLA Navy, appears to be pursuant to this policy. From about
80 km to about 500 km to seaward is to be defended by missile destroyers
and corvettes, including ship-based helicopters, as the second tier. The
third tier, from the Korean peninsula to the Rykyu and Spratly Islands, is
to be defended by submarines with advanced missiles and naval attack
aircraft.
The ‘Second Island Chain’ is a more ambitious patrolling limit,
extending from the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Strait southwards
through Guam to the Phillipines. Evidently, this pattern is designed to deter the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet. The PLA Navy’s ship acquisitions, such as the ex-Soviet Sovremenny-class missile destroyers with their long-range anti-ship attack capability, designed originally exactly for the same task, reflect China’s maritime concerns.
The newer designs are equipped
with the latest-generation anti-shipping missiles and the new sea-launch
capable cruise missiles for onshore targets. It is only the submarines
designed to launch ballistic missiles that are not aimed specifically at the
American fleet.
The PLA Navy is one of the arms of the PLA that can impact India
in any situation of an outbreak of armed conflict between China and
India. It therefore needs to be taken into consideration in any
examination of the potential strategic threats to the Bay of Bengal
maritime zone, extending westwards from the Straits of Malacca and the Lombok Strait.
To be continued....