Date: 2025-05-01 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018001 | |||||||||
Military | |||||||||
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Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | |||||||||
| Why is China building aircraft carriers and planning to build more, when they say they do not wish to achieve world dominance? An aircraft carrier is for projecting power mainly for offensive purposes, isn’t it? Bill Chen Bill Chen, Keen geopolitics observer Answered Dec 24 Simply put, to play chess with the USN. The United States NAVY operates the SECOND LARGEST Air Force in the world. No prizes for guessing which is the largest. Where are most of the naval air assets based? Yup. Them carriers. Any naval fleet without air coverage is merely target practice for a USN battle group. That is why blue water navies do not make sense for the rest of the world. The Pacific 7th Fleet did not have to consider Chinese carrier assets in their mission planning because well, the Chinese had none. In the space of a decade, they have two, as they swiftly take the mantle of the number two carrier force in the world. They will keep the mantle because numbers 3 and 4 are already under construction--true flattops with EM catapults. American admirals will keep their planners busy accounting for Chinese battle group positions when deploying their fleet. That alone is a HUGE game changer. | |||||||||