This is a summary of a letter I sent to many friends a few weeks ago.
The Chinese navy has executed a magnificent plan to protect itself in case of an American attack. It has built a large fleet of diesel electric subs with a thousand mile range which carry anti ship missiles with a thousand mile range. It can place this fleet at sea and in effect create a defense wall keeping our ships 2500 miles off the Chinese coast. As a result, we cannot attack the Chinese coast or defend Taiwan.
In addition, the Chinese have a fleet of over 200 combatant ships which are almost new, requiring very little maintenance. Our combatant fleet is about 120, very old, and requires about 25% in the yard for repairs and maintenance at all times. Most of our 12 super carriers are vulnerable to multiple missile attacks. They can defend against one or two missiles in one attack.
China is vulnerable to our Arliegh Burke destroyer and our sub missiles, but we cannot project troop movements to China.
In my opinion, our armed forces are worthless against China and have no ability to catch up. They build 300 ships a year and we build 5 if we have the budget.
Dave