Gates hints China's anti-ship threat may render carriers obsolete
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Gates hints China's anti-ship threat may render carriers obsolete
Gates hints China's anti-ship threat may render carriers obsolete MOBILE DEVICES ShareThis Gates told the Navy League on May 3 that U.S. enemies are “investing in weapons designed to neutralize U.S. advantages, to deny our military freedom of action while potentially threatening America's primary means of projecting power: our bases, sea and air assets, and the networks that support them.” “We know other nations are working on asymmetric ways to thwart the reach and striking power of the U.S. battle fleet,” he said. Also In This Edition NORTHEASTASIA: U.S. aims to raise pressure on N. Korea Mideast / S. Asia: Iraq recount affirms win for Sunni-backed bloc AFRICA/EUROPE: Asian stocks fall on worries over Europe debt woes At the lower end of the threat spectrum is the Lebanese terrorist group Hizbullah that has used anti-ship missiles against the Israeli navy during the 2006 summer war. Iran also is “combining ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, m ines, and swarming speedboats in order to challenge our naval power in that region,” he said. The higher end of what Gates called the “access-denial spectrum” is the effort to erode what has been a virtual monopoly by the United States on precision guided weapons. These include “long-range, accurate anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles that can potentially strike from over the horizon,” he said, without mentioning that the main developer of these weapons is China. “This is a particular concern with aircraft carriers and other large, multibillion-dollar blue-water surface combatants, where, for example, a Ford-class carrier plus its full complement of the latest aircraft would represent potentially a $15 (billion) to $20 billion set of hardware at risk,” Gates said. Additionally sophisticated underwater threats are growing, including the use of sonar-evading stealth submarines that could “end the operational sanctuary our Navy has enjoyed in the Western Pacific for the better part of six decades,” Gates said. Gates said bu! dget con straints are forcing the m...
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