HMAS 'Collins.' Commonwealth of Australia
Forbes: Australia Has A Plan For Battling China—Add Lots And Lots Of Submarines
China’s navy is on the rise, steadily adding new and better ships and submarines. Western and allied fleets are trying to keep some. Some are succeeding. Others ... aren’t.
The U.S. Navy, for one, is lost at sea, its planning and budgeting in chaos amid collapsing leadership. The Pentagon wants to grow the fleet from today’s 300 front-line ships to 355 by 2030 or so. But there’s no plan, money or political will to do so.
The Americans could look west for an example. The Royal Australian Navy with its 17,000 sailors and 50 or so large ships isn’t big—for comparison, the U.S. Navy’s payroll is more than 400,000.
But the Australian fleet is modern, balanced and in the early stages of a wide-ranging modernization and expansion that, while expensive, appears to achievable. This new fleet could give Australia the naval muscle to stand up to an increasingly assertive China.
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WNU Editor: It looks like the Australians have a plan. But they are still a minor power when compared to China.
