back on topic.
I shouldn't have divirted the topic but i thougth i'd put in my opinon on the racism card.
Is there a struggle for China to control or have leverage in the Indian Ocean? Yes. Is China trying to control the Indian ocean or in the next decade? No by a long shot.
THe PLAN can patrol the other oceans but they can not support a sustained war effort. They're subs can stray into the Indian ocean but the surface vessels are targets and PLAN does not have too much experience on the open seas. Even the Pak Navy could wipe out the surface fleet of the PLAN if they came to clost the Arabian sea. The PLAN is learning and grasping patrols and peace time operations. Its far from real war time operations on open seas.
Right now CHina, realies on Su-30MKK for antiship operations. The PLAN does not have a well rounded multirole capability. They are focusing on submarines that could survive a wreak havoc. But that ofcourse is no long term solution. THose sailors need food and fuel. The PLAN's long term PLAN (pun
) is to gain experience. They don't know much because they have been kept in the dark. Technology wise and tactics.
What they are trying to do is understand what works. Which is why they build ships in batches of 2. These are part experiements and gap fillers. The real deal is decade or two away when China becomes a serious threat to US and Japanese dominance. One only needs to look at PLA rapid growth in this decade and come to a realization. Does the PLA know what they want yet? How they wan't to transform into a fit military? The answer stares you in the face. They are trying to figure it out. A completely new doctrine to protect they're global assets.
Should India be concerned? No. India has a good position even with though the numbers don't add up. China is a very simple, effective scapegoat for the US, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Russia, India to spend more on defence. Media kicks up storms about China. The threat from China is not military, but commercial. Quality assurance needs to be inplace in China. Thats the only thing the media has hit the spot on. Its military capability as of now is defensive and concentrated on a small island while Pakistan is funded to keep India in its place.
Questions?