Interesting!........about the flag.
Have any pictures of the commissioning ceremony been released yet?
Regarding the numbers of 054A's, i too had read recently from a pretty reliable source that China was expected to place an order for an additional 8 vessels, bringing the class total upto 32.
Also, the latest rumour is that there are also expected to be around 18 052D Destroyers made as well.
Plus, 8 055 Cruisers, eventually!
The Chinese Navy, sure is building up an extremely powerful surface force........well done China!
Well, I wouldn't call it an "extremely powerful surface force", because those kind of numbers should be perfectly normal for a country of China's size, potential naval threats and the fact that we're talking about biggest economy in the world, when measured in PPP.
The problem with some countries that are anti-China is that they have been used to seeing China rather extremely weak when it comes to naval assets, thus whining and talking about China as a "threat".
The U.S., which had - and still has the world's biggest economy measured in MER (not PPP) , spends about 600 billion USD a year on its military machine. I think it's reasonable for China to spend at least 300 billion USD eventually, as that would still be only 2 percent of China's GDP (measured in MER) from 2020 and onwards. Of course, measured in PPP, it might get closer to 400 billion USD during the 2020s, but as I pointed out, I really hate it when someone thinks its "extremely poweful". Because that sounds like China is "preparing for war" or something, which is definitely not true.
On the contrary, its not normal or natural to see China weak. Only for the past 150 years, the U.S. was able to put China and the U.K aside as world's largest economies, thus China taking that place once again should be normal.
The U.S. needs to stop whining about who spends how much on what. We have accepted that the U.S. spends most since they're the biggest economy. Now it's the time for the U.S. to accept that the other way around.
Therefore, 32 or even 40+ modern frigates, in addition to 26 DDGs is and should be totally normal. There is nothing aggresive about it. We are talking about a massive economy and a country that still hasn't phased out Type 051 ships and Type 59 MBTs, even though China has much better ships, my point is that China also needs to communicate that better.
There is still a lot of old stuff that needs to be replaced, and there is nothing "aggressive" about not wanting to keep any more of Type 051 active. But some media is so typical and always portray China as "aggressive build up" of naval assets, when the fact is that it's not normal to have the fleet China had only five or six years ago, when you think about the size and importance of China in world affairs.
I believe world powers should just agree and accept that when a country has the biggest economy in the world, it should be normal that they spend the most on weapons; and I am not talking about percentages, but the amount of money.
Then the 2nd largest economy should spend most on weapons after the 1st one.
it is meant to work in harsh environments。
