China May Have 100 More Advanced Warships Than the US Navy

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(National Harbor, Md.) The People’s Liberation Army – Navy is surging ahead quickly with new quasi-stealthy Type 055 Destroyers, several new Type 075 amphibious assault ships and a third aircraft carrier to add to its fleet of two operational carriers. Much attention is paid to China’s industrial base and the pace at which they are able to produce new platforms and build new ships, as it is something cited in a recent Pentagon report on China.

Part of the complexity resides in the fact that China does not operate with any kind of distinction or divide between commercial and government enterprises but rather merges them. This can expedite modernization in certain respects and, when combined with the size of their shipyards and large labor force, China’s shipbuilding machine is causing major concern among Pentagon leaders and members of Congress.

“When you look at the modern elements of the Chinese Navy, it should concern all of us…..not only the total number of ships, but actually which ships are comparable to ours,” Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va), Ranking Member on the SeaPower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, told Warrior in an interview.

Wittman’s comment resonates alongside remarks he made in a prior discussion with Warrior, which was that while most people are aware that China has “quantity,” meaning a larger Navy than the US … they are increasingly developing “quality” as well. Certainly much of the specifics of relevance to how capable their warships actually are may not be available, yet they are known to be rapidly advancing in technological capability. The numbers gap between the US and China when it comes to warships, is growing larger, Wittman said.

“We have about 167 warships that you would consider state of the art incredibly complex, capable of multiple mission sets, and can do that in a pretty significantly contested environment. If you look at the total number of Chinese ships, both their larger warships and their smaller platforms, they have about 285 that are on the equivalent of ours. So they still have significant overmatch there. So we had better get our act together as far as the total complement that we bring to the table, autonomous systems, unmanned ships, as well as the ships that we have now and the ships that we need to build in the future,” Wittman said.

Rep. Rob Wittman, (R-Va), Ranking Member of SeaPower and Projection Forces Subcommittee talks to Warrior about the Chinese Naval threat