The nuclear-powered Ford series of carriers (10 will be built) can sail for 50 years before needing refueling. ![]() Type: Aircraft carrier | Operated by: United States | Fiercest feature: Carries up to 75 jet fighters and tactical aircraftĪs America’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the $13 billion USS Gerald R. If such a conflict did start in the next decade, these floating powerhouses will almost certainly be a deciding factor in which side comes out on top. Stealth designs, advanced radar, and even lasers are as important today as the size of a ship’s cannons. Long-range, relatively cheap drones can also overwhelm a ship’s defenses. China’s DF-ZF hypersonic anti-ship missiles, for example, can attack American aircraft carriers from nearly 1,200 miles away. (Destroyers, and the slightly larger cruiser class of warships, can operate independently or as part of larger groups to attack targets on land or at sea.)Īnd while most classes of ship are ballooning in size and firepower, the militaries building them are advancing their designs in novel ways to meet new threats. Japan and South Korea are also building massive, heavily armed destroyers to compete with the best from the U.S. China launched 20 new warships in 2020 alone, Del Toro said. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro explained that China now has 13 shipyards building its warships and some of those can each produce more ships than the entire U.S. Earlier this year, CNN reported that some experts believe China can now build three warships in the time it takes the United States to field one. While America’s ships have dominating size, power, and range, China is building new vessels at a staggering rate. The first, a $13 billion behemoth appropriately named the USS Gerald R. The 6 Most Dangerous Submarines in the WorldĪmerica is currently replacing its fleet of supercarriers with vessels that are more advanced-the Gerald R.Both nations are building massive new warships and developing new technologies that they hope will deliver a decisive advantage. In other words, if war is going to break out between the world’s preeminent global powers, it just may start in the salty swells of this stretch of the Pacific. “The United States has a vested interest in keeping these sea lanes open for commerce, free and unimpeded navigation, and international maritime trade,” former Navy SEAL and CIA officer Jeff Butler tells Popular Mechanics. ![]() Department of Defense, the country “poses a potential threat to trade flows, resource extraction, and military operations in a highly strategic body of water.” China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) now commands the largest navy on the planet, with more than 340 formally recognized warships. China claims almost the entire sea as its own, and according to the U.S. The waterway has been described as one of the “most important economic and environmental regions in the world” by foreign policy experts, and in 2016, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that 21 percent of all global trade passes through the South China Sea each year. Any exchange of gunfire could quickly spiral into something far worse, thrusting two of the world’s largest militaries into a conflict.Īmerica’s presence in the Strait is risky but necessary, according to military planners. And at these close ranges, their deck guns and torpedoes could wreak havoc upon one another. The American and Chinese warships were each armed with dozens of anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles. ![]() defense officials have long considered the Taiwan Strait a strategic flash point. China has yet to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty, and U.S. The American and Canadian vessels knew that their presence in the Taiwan Strait would draw China’s ire. It was clear that China was making a point. Both warships stretch farther than 500 feet from bow to stern and boast displacement-the term for a ship’s weight, calculated by the volume of water it pushes out of the way while sailing-of more than 7,000 tons. They avoided a collision by just 150 yards. Acting quickly, the Chung-Hoon slowed to 10 knots to avoid crashing into the Chinese ship, allowing it to cross just in front of its bow. Off the USS Chung-Hoon’s port side, the Chinese Type 052D destroyer steamed ahead at full speed, overtaking the American warship before suddenly turning hard to starboard. With the Canadian warship HMCS Montréal at its side, the American Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) steamed ahead through the 80-mile-wide stretch of ocean dividing mainland China from Taiwan. In June 2023, long-standing diplomatic tensions between the United States and China boiled over into the Taiwan Strait.
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