China Has ‘an Edge’ Over US Naval Power: Expert

A group of naval vessels from Russia and China conduct a joint maritime military patrol in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, in this still image taken from video released on Oct. 23, 2021. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via Reuters

China has advantages over the United States in naval power in actual combat, according to former Navy Capt. Brent Sadler.

“I think we’ve been spending years quietly building up our munitions production capability, but we’re not there yet for the type of fight that we would be in with China. Then … on shipyards, China’s got massive capacity there, one of their commercial shipyards has more capacity than all of the shipbuilding [of the] United States,” Sadler told “China in Focus” on NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

“It’s a very sad testament of how far we’ve allowed our shipbuilding industry to fall,” said Sadler, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and member of the Center for National Defense.

According to the expert, the Chinese military also holds the whip hand over the U.S. military regarding its proximity to home.

“The Chinese are a lot closer to home. So that’s mitigated their ability to load up and replace munitions. They have a vast industrial base. I think they have got an edge on us there,” he said.

Naval Power Buildup

To catch up with the Chinese might, Sadler suggested that the United States build “three destroyers.”

“We also know we need Virginia class nuclear submarines,” he said.

“We have a frigate design that’s new but stable. So [the] first thing is [to] go ahead and purchase all the ships that you know you’re going to buy in the next five years and get the money into the shipbuilders and ship the risk to them so that they can start making capital investments to grow their workforce, to grow their shipbuilding capacity, which we’re going to need if we get into a fight to repair those same ships in a war,” he added.

He noted that the plan would face political and legislative challenges as the bill for 45 ships, which he deemed needed for the next five years, would cost up to $150 billion.

Edge at Sea

As the author of “U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century: A New Strategy for Facing the Chinese and Russian Threat,” Sadler said that the United States should be ready in the event of a conflict with both China and Russia.

“And where that advantage against those two is at sea. It’s also where we can actually engage the most countries in the most economic markets, that we need to sustain our own prosperity and our own security, and do it in a way that’s very nimble and very, very responsive, but also in a way that we can take the initiative away from the Chinese Communist Party, and things like the Belt and Road Initiative,” he said.

Tailor Forces

Regarding an approach, the expert said that the United States needs to tailor its naval forces and focus on where it can get the largest strategic impact.

“And so there [are] two decisive theaters that really get inside Beijing and Moscow: strategic thinking and imperative that they have to focus on, and you draw them to the eastern Mediterranean, which includes the Black Sea, and then [the] South China Sea. That’s the peacetime competition,” he said.

“The most dangerous wartime scenario that we need to be ready for is a fight over Taiwan,” he added.

According to Sadler, to deter the Chinese regime from attacking Taiwan, the United States has to have the ability to monitor Chinese activities as they come from the mainland and into the airspace around Taiwan and the waters around the island.

He suggested the United States and its allies maintain a more persistent presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

“And then, most importantly, our marines and our naval forces in the Philippine Sea need to be conducting operations and exercises more routinely to cause doubt in the Chinese mind as to where we are and what kind of capability we can bring to bear very rapidly should they decide to test us over Taiwan.”