The Chinese Type 055B Destroyer will be fitted with the advanced Rail Gun system outpacing all Western Navies including the USN.

(2)

The recent FONOPS tensions along the Shoal Islands West of Philippines has escalated the likely military tensions between the US-Japanese support of the Philippines naval base within the Thomas Shoal Island which may responded militarily by the Chinese PLAN. The hastened installation of the Chinese Rail (Coil) Gun onto the latest batches of the Type 055B Destroyers cant come any sooner in the very likely military deterrance of the US and Philippines military expansion intentions in 2024.

The Chinese military dominance in the field of advance military weapon technology has been vastly underestimated by Western military expert analysts and similarly to the underestimated Russian military power projection with the defense of the Donbass, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson contact lines with the utter failure of the NATO prompted, trained and coordinated Ukrainian Offensive during the summer of 2023, the underestimation of the Chinese military power projection by the arrogant Europeans and American military experts has also been obvious with the conceited attitudes of the US and AUKUS partners towards the Chinese military within the South China Sea with their FONOPS challenges.

The likely flashpoint for a Sino-AUKUS and Sino-QUAD conflict is not within or with Taiwan directly, but, more likely, along the West Philippines region and more specifically, along the Scarborough Shoals region of the disputed Chinese claimed Nine Dash Line zone of control. The Nine Dash Line (1) has been challenged by the West, under UNCLOS, and in particular, under the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling from the Hague, in 2016 in favour of the Philippines claimants, and other Asian Nations. The Nine Dash Line was initiated by the Chinese Government, in part, due to ancestral claims to the regional island groups and, but, more particularly after World War Two in 1946 territorial gains after the defeat of the Japanese and the assertion of the Chinese regional claims over the vanquished Japanese claims.

The Chinese Power projection within the South China Sea has become accelerated with military technological asvancements within the Artificial Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, Missile development, and Electromagnetic spectrum technological advancements well beyond the present Western Military Capabilities. The military materiel procurement and armament force multipliers in all branches of the Chinese Military has been hastened exponentially than all military forces globally including the US Military industry even as recently as the past half decade.

The Aircraft Carrier Strike Groups whilst considered the apex of military power projection to the world accordingly the US eleven Aircraft Carrier Strike Groups would clearly place the US Military at the Apex Alpha Superpower in global military power, however, that is only superficially. On the warfighting capabilities in terms of Area of Operation Dominance, the Aircraft Carrier Strike Groups are very vulnerable and are limited in their scope of proximity range in terms of combat effectiveness. What is more pressing for any CSGs is their AEGIS self defense systems which will take prescendence rather than their power projection capabilities in military dominance in the warfighting sphere. The Chinese, like the Russians, Warfighting capabilities has, for decades, been focused on undermining the American Carrier Strike Groups and in particular undermining the AEGIS Carrier Fleet air and sea defense networks.

The Chinese Maritime Anti ship missile strike capabilities, through the Hypersonic system, such as the YJ 21, emulatingthe Russian Zircon anti ship hypersonic missile naval missile, has demonstrably altered the naval battlespace to the advantage of anti Carrier Strike Group predators. The Chinese Type 055 Destroyers were specifically designed with the US Naval Carrier Strike Groups in mind. Moreover, the YJ 21 has also been installed in the future Type 095 SSN Nuclear Submarines. (3)

In addition to the Anti Ship hypersonic missile to undermine the AEGIS Carrier Strike Group defense systems is the Electromagnetic weapons of the Chinese Rail Gun and Directed energy weapon systems which far exceeds the present military capabilities of the Western military forces as of 2023.

The future US military and global hegemonic dominance and especially in the sphere of regional deterrence capabilities has become, by and large, undermined by the more advanced military technological advancements by both the Chinese and Russian military industries.

Within the next decade, the situation for the US global hegemonic sphere has well and truly waned and what we are now witnessing with the rise of BRICS and in Russian military successes within Ukraine, and in particular, with the nascent military technological advancements of the Chinese military capabilities within the 2020s decade we are witnessing a global power shift from the West to a Eurasian military and geopolitical tour de force that has ended the Amercian and Eurocentric influence throughout the world once and for all.

Tim Tufuga

Source:

1. Nine Dash Line, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line#:~:text=The%20nine%2Ddash%20line%2C%20also,in%20the%20South%20China%20Sea.

2. REAISEYES, Youtube.com, https://youtu.be/-nhhX23gzEU?si=iGTICH_WFXhpcIxa

3. Eurasia Naval Insight, youtube.com, https://youtu.be/U8mCzmS3mFM?si=F20mjPtynyzMud5P