Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. naval dominance of the Western Pacific has remained largely unchallenged until recently. The U.S. Navy established itself as the dominant player in the region by defeating the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. That was followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and its naval forces.
Now, a new naval threat has arisen. Chinese naval power has been increasing in the Pacific region since Beijing began a vigorous naval expansion program in the 1990s.
Growth of China’s PLA Navy
Until the mid-1990s, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was essentially a coastal protection force or a “brown water” force in naval parlance. During that time, the Chinese acquired a number of former Soviet Kilo-class submarines and Sovremenny-class destroyers armed with the S-22 Moskit anti-ship missile, referred to as an “aircraft carrier killer.”
The Chinese navy has built its fleet in a systematic way based on a three-fleet concept – the North Sea Fleet, East Sea Fleet and South Sea Fleet. The development can be split into specific time frames:
- From 1995-2005, planners concentrated on the East Sea Fleet.
- From 2005-2010, the focus was on the South Sea Fleet.
- While less open-source material is available about the North Sea Fleet, it contains at least two destroyer flotillas consisting of four destroyers/four frigates and five destroyers/six frigates respectively.
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