Military of China, force comment.
Military of China, force comment.

Data Figure: China vessels and U.S. Navy surveillance ship in the South China Sea confrontation

newspaper writer Qiu Yongzheng

Chinese vessels in the South China Sea in the so-called “harassment” of the U.S. survey ship “normal operations” ( See March 13, Japan reported) incident, the Pentagon sent a “bell goes,” No. “Aegis” destroyer escort vessel for its survey. But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said recently that there is no need to send survey ships to escort ships, and United States through diplomatic channels, “the South China Sea conflict” to be optimistic. However, some people still insist on the U.S. military hard-line stance, some analysts think this is to save the new “Virginia” class nuclear submarine’s fate and speculation.

Gates is willing to play down the South China Sea event

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington on March 18 said, no need to send warships to the U.S. Navy survey ship escort, and hope that Sino-US military exchanges will not be “flawless” incident affected. Gates also said that recently China’s “confrontation between U.S. ships’ handling of the incident, showing that China has no intention of the U.S. Pacific Fleet out the South China Sea, China and the U.S. He also solve the South China Sea conflict through diplomatic contacts are optimistic.

“China Daily” reported on March 20, the Chinese navy military academic researcher Li Jie said that the United States on the South China Sea dispute should be able to come to an end, because the two sides intensified not want to see events . “You start with the U.S. military tried to reflect the tough stance, but Obama was to grasp the overall situation.” Foundation for International Strategic Research Department of China Zhang Tuo, director of Health believes that Gates played down the South China Sea disputes reasonable, because “both sides areas of cooperation to be too much. ”

U.S. military said “perfection” wanted to destroy sonar

course, the United States “different voices” are not happy with this disappeared: the outgoing The U.S. Pacific commander Admiral Timothy Keating on March 19 in Congress accused the U.S. military survey ship “perfection” and a brief naval confrontation between China, shows the performance of China in the South China Sea a “provocative” behavior. Keating said: “‘flawless’ incident is a worrying sign, it shows China has shown a ‘provocation’, and ‘worrying’ attitude and ‘willing’ to comply with an acceptable code of conduct, especially in the South China Sea. “

the U.S. cable news network 21 is provided by the Pentagon’s so-called mad shaking confrontation between U.S. ships in the” pygmies “: From the video footage of view,” flawless “survey Americans on board yelling: “Oh, they want to come fishing sonar cable it!” the Pentagon claimed that the Chinese ship tried to drag away the “flawless” after the sonar detection equipment, so that “perfection” on the crew was to discuss whether or not to self-destruct sonar.

for the U.S. military issued two very different voices within the U.S. “Washington Watch” Week 17, commented that the U.S. military to promote high-profile “flawless” incident, is likely to save the new “Virginia” class nuclear submarine’s fate.

rally to the new nuclear submarines for the money

“Washington observed,” the article said that in the U.S. Navy’s program, “Virginia” class attack submarine is main force of the early 21st century Navy. It can be implemented not only traditional ocean anti-submarine, anti-ship warfare, but also for a variety of offshore operations, such as cruising in the shallow waters of the enemy, their equipment, boat transport divers, to support amphibious special operations, engaged in clandestine intelligence gathering, etc. . In 2004, the first “Virginia” class submarines in service, the original plans to build 30. But the Iraq war military bottomless pit, forcing the Navy to reduce the number of 19, the average cost per vessel $ 2.5 billion.

February, when Obama announced his first budget draft, the costly new weapons face suspension or even substantially reduce the number of prospects. Although the end of 2008, the Pentagon signed a $ 14 billion in “Virginia” class submarine production contract, but the contract had not been allocated by Congress. Reduction of military spending in the atmosphere of a large, 8 project delivery within five years of “Virginia” class submarine’s fate becomes tricky. Rep. Barney Frank said, “Virginia” class submarine is his goal to cut military spending one motion. He cited U.S. think tank ‘Policy Institute, “the report said,”‘ Virginia ‘is a class submarines built in order to establish the enemy’s weapons, “it’s role in the post-Cold War era is worth considering.

However, “Virginia” class submarine manufacturers – General Dynamics do not agree with the views of Mr Frank. John Casey, president of General Dynamics countered that the submarine’s construction to provide thousands of jobs, in line with Obama’s economic stimulus plan. He stressed that General Dynamics has 5,000 employees is to “Virginia” class submarine work. The Connecticut Department of Economic and Regional Development has estimated that the submarine base on its territory to provide 3.15 million jobs every year for the state’s economic contribution to the $ 3.3 billion. General Dynamics also stressed that “Virginia” class submarine procurement of about 98% of the parts are from U.S. companies, located in Massachusetts from the east coast to west coast of Washington State. General Dynamics is lobbying members of these states, highlighting the construction of “Virginia” class submarines will bring a number of state jobs.

jobs in addition to the upstream members of Congress said, “perfection” has become a support incident, “Virginia” class submarine of the important reasons. U.S. Strategic and Budgetary Assessments defense expert Robert Walker believes that the current situation illustrates, the Navy needs more, “Virginia” class submarines. In a recent written report, he wrote, “China is rapidly increasing combat capability at sea, the imaginary Chinese navy fleet in the United States alone.” He believes that “China is speeding up construction of new submarines, the submarine is better than the original model , but also transmit deadly anti-ship missiles for the U.S. Navy as long as full steam ahead, China could build sixty-seven this year’s new submarines, while the response, the United States must speed up ‘Virginia’ class submarine development. “

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