Bloomberg News
Chinese Military Shows New Capabilities, Pentagon Says
China’s military is improving its military doctrine, training, weapons and surveillance to be able to conduct more sophisticated attacks against the U.S. and other adversaries, the Pentagon reported today.
After jamming communications and mounting other forms of electronic and cyberwarfare, stealthy Chinese aircraft, drones and missiles could attack American warships, aircraft and supply craft, the Defense Department said today in its annual report on China.
The report, which is required by Congress, doesn’t suggest that such attacks are likely, only that the Chinese military last year continued to demonstrate new capabilities similar to those the U.S. began embracing at least 20 years ago, with mixed success. The buildup is occurring as China increasingly asserts itself in territorial disputes with its neighbors.
The Chinese Navy last year commissioned nine new Jiangdao-class corvettes armed with anti-ship cruise missiles for operations close to shore, “especially in the South China Sea and East China Sea,” the report says. The Pentagon’s test office and internal Navy reviews have warned that the U.S.’s new Littoral Combat Ships are vulnerable to such weapons.
The report may provide new fodder for U.S. congressional advocates of more defense spending who argue for improving naval capabilities to blunt Chinese advances through systems such as Boeing Co. (BA:US)’s EA-18G Growler electronic-warfare plane and Raytheon Co. (RTN:US)’s new Air and Missile Defense Radar and Next Generation Jammer.
‘Combat Scenarios’
Last year, the Chinese military “emphasized training under realistic combat scenarios” and the ability to execute long-range mobility operations, such as maritime exercises that involved all three Chinese Navy fleets, the report found.
The report doesn’t add new details to the U.S. contention that China is increasing its cyberattacks on the Pentagon, instead repeating paragraphs it published last year about China’s activities in 2012 in a section entitled “Cyber Activities Directed Against the U.S. Department of Defense.”
Last month, the Justice Department escalated its effort to curb China’s technology theft from American companies by charging five Chinese military officials with stealing trade secrets, casting the hacker attacks as a direct economic threat.
The Justice Department said the officials belonged to Unit 61398 of the Third Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The Pentagon report doesn’t mention the unit.
Air Defenses
The Pentagon said China’s most significant military developments last year included air-defense upgrades to destroyers and frigates; testing of its Y-20 transport to fly ground forces quickly across great distances; at least eight launches to expand its intelligence and surveillance from space; and a “probable” Chinese drone conducting reconnaissance in the East China Sea.
China’s also starting to integrate anti-radar missiles into its fighter-bomber fleet, the report says.
The Chinese Navy continues to develop long-range, over-the-horizon radar that, in coordination with satellites, is intended to “locate targets at great distances from China” for targeting by its DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, according to the Pentagon. The report says China continues to field a “limited but growing number” of the missiles.
It also continues to develop the stealthy J-20 fighter and J-31 that are “similar in size to a U.S. F-35 fighter,” the report said, without comparing capabilities.
Air Modernization
These developments are part of a Chinese air force modernization that’s “unprecedented in its history and rapidly closing the gap with Western air forces across a broad spectrum of capabilities,” the Pentagon said.
Competing claims with Japan over islands in the East China Sea led China to declare an Air Defense Identification Zone in November over a stretch of sea that overlaps with Japanese and South Korean zones. China also is embroiled in territorial disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines.
For all of China’s military improvements, the Pentagon found the People’s Republic neither has nor appears “to be building” the capability to conduct a full-scale amphibious invasion of Taiwan.
China’s relations with Taiwan, the breakaway island democracy claimed by China, remain stable following the 2012 re-election of President Ma Ying-jeou, the report found.
“There have been no signs that China’s military disposition opposite Taiwan has changed significantly,” because large-scale exercises and improvements “pose major challenges to Taiwan’s security,” it said.
The Chinese army is “capable of increasingly sophisticated military action against Taiwan” including “various amphibious operations short of a full-scale invasion,” the Pentagon found.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net Larry Liebert
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