(PatriotWise.com) — The Secretary of the Navy has repeatedly warned that China has a significant naval advantage over the United States, primarily in its capacity to construct a larger naval fleet, CNN reported.
During a speech at the National Press Club in Washington earlier this year, Secretary Carlos Del Toro said it was vital for the United States to increase the size of its Navy by building more modern ships.
Del Toro said China currently has a larger fleet with about 340 ships and could have as many as 400 ships in the next few years.
The US Naval fleet currently sits at less than 300 ships.
According to Del Toro, China currently has 13 working shipyards and just one Chinese shipyard has “more capacity than all of our shipyards combined.”
During Senate testimony in May, Secretary Del Toro revealed that China’s navy will have around 150 more ships in service by 2028 than the US Navy, the Washington Examiner reported.
While testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Del Toro said that by 2028, the US Naval fleet will be approximately 291 ships. Del Toro conceded that he could not “exactly” predict what the Chinese navy will have by then, however, estimates put the Chinese naval fleet at more than 440 by 2028.
Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, told the committee that in the past two decades, China has “tripled the size of its Navy” and could “quadruple” it by 2030 to over 400 ships.
According to Gilday, Beijing seeks to “displace the US Navy” from the Western Pacific while also taking actions “short of war” to impose its will on the US’s Indo-Pacific allies.
Gilday added that China’s “investments in offensive warfighting systems” throughout every domain are “aimed at the heart of America’s maritime power.”
Del Toro also told the senators that in the past 20 years, China has added more than “one hundred combatants” to its Naval fleet, becoming a “key component” to Bejing’s “increasingly aggressive military posture.”
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