‘Sink two aircraft carriers’: Chinese Admiral’s chilling recipe to dominate the South China Sea

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is silhouetted during a sunset. The ability of such ships to survive a modern battlefield is being questioned. Picture: USNSource: Supplied

 

Beijing has a devastating plan to force the world out of the East and South China Seas — and it could cost the US 10,000 lives.

They’re the pride of the US fleet: enormous 100,000 tonne, 333m long nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. But Beijing thinks they’re Washington’s achilles heel.

Rear Admiral Lou Yuan has told an audience in Shenzhen that the ongoing disputes over the ownership of the East and South China Seas could be resolved by sinking two US super carriers.

Report: U.S. aircraft carriers’ ‘unchallenged primacy may be coming to a close’

A report published Monday by the Center for a New American Security, a D.C.-based think tank that focuses on national security, claims that the Navy’s carrier operations are at an inflection point. Faced with growing threats abroad, the United States can either “operate its carriers at ever-increasing ranges … or assume high levels of risk in both blood and treasure.”

Obama’s pivot to Asia will lack firepower

President Obama’s pivot to Asia will lack a crucial military underpinning next year, when for four months, the Navy will not have an aircraft carrier in the region.

Defense cuts have helped shrink the number of available carriers, alarming GOP lawmakers who are fighting the Pentagon’s plan to permanently cut the number of U.S. carriers to 10.

They argue not having a carrier in the region for months at a time will send a signal of U.S. weakness, as China seeks to make territorial claims against several U.S. allies over the South China Sea.