US, China heading for naval arms race: report
By Aaron Tu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The US is expediting efforts to overhaul its navy and doctrine in light of growing Chinese ambitions for a “blue-water” navy, a precursor to a more obvious “arms race” between the US and China, according to an article in Taiwanese think tank the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s National Security Journal.
A blue-water navy is a maritime force capable of operating globally.
The article, written by Chen Liang-chih (陳亮智), cited Navigation Plan 2021 presented by US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday at the Surface Navy Association Symposium on Jan. 11, which stated that “our actions in this decade will set the maritime balance of power for the rest of the century.”
Do the earliest Arleigh Burke-class destroyers still have legs? The US Navy thinks so. January 13 Destroyers Mahan and Laboon underway in the Virginia Capes. The Navy is backing away from a plan to upgrade all its destroyers. (MC2 Jonathan Trejo/U.S. Navy) WASHINGTON The U.S. Navy has a problem: The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program was too successful. Between 1991, when the Navy commissioned the USS Arleigh Burke, and 1998, when it commissioned the USS Mahan, the service built the class at a pace of three per year. Now, as those ships are bearing down on their 35-year expected hull life, the Navy wants to grow its fleet, but it lacks the budget and capacity to modernize those first 21 ships to the latest configurations.