Tuesday, December 14, 2004
China builds amphibious landing craft
From StrategyPage:
At some point, we are going to have to decide whether the American guarantee of Taiwan's security is credible. I say this with both sadness and frustration, but the American capacity to project power into the western Pacific has peaked, and China is still there. Taiwan's future lies in its own strong economy and military capacity.
China is apparently building a large quantity of amphibious shipping. Two LSDs (Landing Ship Dock) are being built in large covered sheds. They appear to be about 25,000 tons each and carry four LCAC (high speed landing craft) and four helicopters each. China is building 4-5 LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) a year. These are over 2,000 tons displacement each. A larger number of LSMs (smaller than LSTs, but in this case almost as large as World War II LSTs) are also under construction. China won’t say what the eventual size of this amphibious fleet will be, but Taiwan suspects enough to land two or more divisions on Taiwanese beaches.
At some point, we are going to have to decide whether the American guarantee of Taiwan's security is credible. I say this with both sadness and frustration, but the American capacity to project power into the western Pacific has peaked, and China is still there. Taiwan's future lies in its own strong economy and military capacity.
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