Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

PLAN Type-94 class SSBN ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Naval Institute) Source- The Diplomat Author-  Benjamin David Baker During the Cold War, nuclear deterrence was ultimately perceived to be an effective way of keeping tensions between the Warsaw Pact and NATO from exploding into war. Although much of the rhetoric surrounding Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) disappeared along with the Soviet Union, nuclear states still keep sizable arsenals to dissuade others from attacking them. A central part of having a credible nuclear response option is to develop a so-called “nuclear triad.” This consists of having ground-, air- and sea-based nuclear capabilities, in order to retain a “second strike” capability in case an opponent launches its nukes first. Submarines and small, mobile land-based launch platforms armed with nuclear ballistic and so-called Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs) are crucial to a second strike capability,

PLAN Type- 54 Frigate ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / 樱井千一) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The next major war, should it happen, will require a higher level of coordination among air-, land- and sea-based forces across a larger area than ever before. Such networking is precisely what the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) tested this week as it conducted its war games in the South China Sea. According to the PLA Daily—which is the service’s official publication—at least three destroyers participated along with submarines, early warning aircraft, fighters and other forces. “This battle today was like fighting with your hands and feet bound. It was not fun to play,” Adm. Li Yan, deputy chief of staff of the South China Sea Fleet, told reporters. “However, this feeling is precisely the true state of the battlefield. Only through practicing in a variety of difficult situations in peacetime can you prepared for wartime without panic and

PLAN Type- 39 class sub ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons /  SteKrueBe) Source- The Diplomat Author- Ben Ho Wan Beng There has been extensive debate in recent years about modern Chinese anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems rendering the aircraft carriers of the United States Navy (USN) highly vulnerable if Beijing and Washington were to clash in the western Pacific. Particularly ominous is the growing undersea arm of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). According to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, China’s attack submarine fleet consists mainly of diesel-electric boats (SSKs) ­– there are 57 of them, as well as five nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs). Of these, the more modern ones include two Shang SSNs, 12 Kilo SSKs, and 12 Yuan SSKs. Experts often allude to the threat posed by SSKs to the U.S. flattop. This is because the SSK, which is quieter than its nuclear-powered counterpart, is seemingly often able to slip detection by the carrier’s escor

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy Source- The National Interest Author- Geoff Wade In a quiet but undoubtedly significant event, Admiral Wu Shengli (吴胜利), commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy and a member of the PRC’s Central Military Commission recently visited Malaysia with an entourage of 10 senior officials. During his visit, Admiral Wu secured agreement from the Malaysian Navy for the ships of the PLA Navy to use the port of Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo as a "stopover location" to "strengthen defence ties between the two countries." What’s remarkable is the environment in which this agreement has been reached. China’s military vessels have been active in Malaysia’s territorial waters off Borneo from 2011. Since 2013, the number of Chinese naval and coast guard vessels patrolling and anchoring around Malaysia’s Luconia Shoals and James Shoal, both of which are within Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone, has inc

PLAN Destroyer Shenzhen ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Francis Sempa In July 2015, the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute published a collection of papers under the title, The Chinese People’s Liberation Army in 2025. The book’s editors, Roy Kamphausen, a senior advisor at the National Bureau of Asian Research, and David Lai, a research professor of Asian Security Affairs at the Army War College, describe it as “an effort to examine the drivers, potential vectors, and implications of China’s military modernization for the near-to-medium future.” The contributors to the volume are experts on the Chinese military and the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region. The papers are grouped into three broad categories: (1) domestic, external and technological drivers of PLA modernization; (2) alternative futures for the PLA in regional and global affairs, including a weakened PLA; and (3) implicatio

Tomahawk missile being fired from an American warship  ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck This week the U.S. Navy detailed its plans to rectify the advantage China holds in the area of sophisticated anti-ship missiles. Starting in fiscal year 2017, the U.S. Navy will begin the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) Increment II program aimed at fielding a more advanced anti-ship missile to replace the aging Boeing RGM-84 Harpoons the navy current relies on. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC on Wednesday, Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the deputy chief of naval operations warfare systems (N9), said that the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) will compete with the new Tomahawk Block IV for OASuW II. “What I would like to see happen is take those capabilities that we need and start inserting those into a Block IV [Tomahawk], and [compare tha

PLAN Warships ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The Diplomat  Author- Prashanth Parameswaran Much has been written about China’s ongoing efforts to become what President Xi Jinping called a “great maritime power” and how the United States should respond. In light of this, it is useful to think about the future trajectory of the of the increasingly modern and powerful People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which has been charged with both defending China’s sovereignty in ‘near seas’ (eg. Taiwan) and protecting Chinese interests in the ‘far seas’. Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, now a senior fellow at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), has attempted to do exactly that. In a recent paper delivered at a two-day CNA conference on Chinese maritime power, seen by The Diplomat, McDevitt projects what China’s ‘far seas’ navy will look like in 2020 and how it would rank alongside the United States and other players – Britain, France, Japan, India and Russia. Getting a

Chinese Type- 093 Submarine ( Source- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The national Interest Author- Zachary Keck A Chinese submarine docked in Pakistan for the first time ever last month, According to numerous Indian media outlets, a People’s Liberation Army Navy conventional Yuan-class 335 submarine docked in Karachi, Pakistan on May 22. The reports said that the ship received replenishments for about a week inside the port. The submarine had a crew of about 65 sailors, according to the reports. The news was first reported by India Today. India Today also noted that the Yuan-class submarine is “equipped with torpedoes, anti-ship missiles and an air-independent propulsion that dramatically enhances its underwater endurance.” This is not the first time that Chinese submarine deployments have rattled India in recent months. A Song-class diesel-electric attack docked in Colombo, Sri Lanka last September, greatly irking New Delhi. Just a few weeks later, a second C

PLAN Type-96 SSBN (Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Midgetman433)  Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady China is fielding an impressive fleet of conventional and nuclear submarines. According to the Pentagon’s Office of Naval Intelligence, the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) underwater force consists of five nuclear attack submarines (SSN), four nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), and 53 diesel attack submarines (SS/SSP). The Pentagon in its annual report to the U.S. Congress on Chinese military developments estimated that by 2020 this force will likely grow to between 69 and 78 submarines. The bulk of China’s conventional sub armada consists of 13 Song-class (Type 039) diesel-attack subs and 13 Yuan-class (Type 039A) air independent-powered (AIP) attack submarines with an additional 20 Yuan-class vessels planned for production. The submarine force’s main mission remains anti-surface warfare (ASUW) along major sea lines of co