Compass Points - Amphibious China

Report on China's amphibious forces.

Compass Points - Amphibious China

Report on China's amphibious forces.

December 29, 2024

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Sunday is a good day for reflection.

On this particular Sunday it is long past time for all friends of the Marine Corps and the entire US defense community to reflect on the geometric increase in China's navy including its amphibious forces. Many news outlets are reporting that China has "christened" their massive new amphibious assault ship. “Christened” in China? Perhaps it is more accurate to say China only held a naming ceremony for their new amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan.

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China has launched the world’s largest amphibious assault ship, in the latest demonstration of how Beijing’s industrial capacity is strengthening its military power amid rising geopolitical tensions with the US.

Combining elements of amphibious landing vessels — which are designed to carry and support an invasion force — with those of an aircraft carrier, the ship significantly strengthens Beijing’s ability to project power globally. It also adds to China’s capabilities in the event of an invasion of Taiwan.

Chinese navy officials christened the ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Friday at the Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai . . .

-- Financial Times

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The Sichuan is only one important new piece of China's amphibious forces; there are many other pieces.

Andrew S. Erickson, et al., in the introduction to the Naval War College series which includes the amphibious conference report, warns that China is a lethal naval adversary today and is not slowing down building the PLA Navy.

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Powered by the world’s second-largest economy and defense budget, China is going to sea on a scale and with a sophistication that no continental power ever before has sustained in the modern era. Its three sea forces are all leaders in their own right: the world’s largest navy, coast guard, and maritime militia, by number of ships. They are supplied by the world’s largest shipyard infrastructure, which has achieved the largest, fastest postwar production-capacity expansion. On the civilian side, Chinese sea power is supplemented by the world’s largest fishing fleet, including in number of fishers; aquaculture and pisciculture industries; merchant marine; and marine sector overall. It has a large, nationally flagged tanker fleet and expansive global port-infrastructure networks. Paramount leader Xi Jinping is guiding China’s transformation into a “great maritime power.” At a minimum, today’s Middle Kingdom is already a hybrid land-sea power. Amid European decline and American fiscal and strategic challenges, this historic transformation has the potential to end six centuries of largely Western dominance of the world’s oceans.

-- Andrew S. Erickson, series editor

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Erickson's comprehensive report on Chinese Amphibious Warfare includes an essay by Dennis J. Blasko, "The PLAGF Amphibious Force:" which details Chinese amphibious forces.

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PLAGF Amphibious Combined-Arms Brigades

The six new ACABs are structured similar to heavy combined-arms brigades, but have been issued amphibious assault guns—capable of swimming in the ocean—instead of main battle tanks, and amphibious infantry fighting vehicles / armored personnel carriers—also capable of swimming—instead of vehicles that sink.6 Each ACAB is composed of the following . . .

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• Four combined-arms battalions—each with two amphibious assault gun companies, two amphibious mechanized infantry companies, a firepower company (mortars and man-portable air defense systems [MANPADS]), and a service support company (with reconnaissance and engineer platoons)

• One reconnaissance battalion with amphibious recon vehicles, small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and technical reconnaissance systems

• One artillery battalion with amphibious 122 mm howitzers, tracked 122 mm rocket launchers, and antitank guided-missile systems

• One air-defense battalion with tracked antiaircraft gun systems, short-range surface-to-air missile systems, and MANPADS

• One operational support battalion with command-and-control (C2) vehicles, electronic-warfare systems, engineering equipment, chemical-defense systems, and security elements

• One service support battalion with supply, medical, and repair and maintenance units7

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Within the four amphibious combined-arms battalions, each assault gun and mechanized infantry company at full strength is equipped with fourteen vehicles, while the firepower and service support companies add another estimated fifteen to twenty vehicles.8 A single amphibious combined-arms battalion incorporates about eighty total vehicles of all types and an estimated five to six hundred soldiers.

The other five battalions within the brigade are smaller in personnel numbers and have fewer vehicles, adding an estmated two thousand or more personnel and probably about another hundred vehicles (but not all of them can swim). Thus, a full ACAB amounts to an estimated five thousand personnel and over four hundred vehicles—numbers that are important for planning how many amphibious ships or craft are needed to transport a complete unit. In total, the six ACABs com-mand twenty-four amphibious combined-arms battalions and six reconnaissance battalions—units dedicated to being the first wave of an over-the-beach amphibious assault.

-- Dennis J. Blasko, "The PLAGF Amphibious Force

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China's massive new amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan is not a theory, a plan, a proposal, or a Power Point presentation. It is a ship, floating in the Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai. The six new Amphibious Combined-Arms Brigades are also all too real. Compass Points salutes Andrew S. Erickson for his tireless efforts to sound the alarm about the growth and danger of the Chinese navy.

In the face of such a warning, it is strange that some members of the US defense community seem to be advocating that the US Marine Corps and indeed the entire US military should gently withdraw to defensive positions and turn over offensive operations to China. Withdrawing to defense would be a colossal and most likely an existential mistake. The US cannot afford to leave the safety of the America people to depend on some kind of modern Maginot Line. Defense alone does not and cannot deter wars and defense alone does not and cannot win wars. China is not building a defensive naval force. China is building a global offensive force that will allow China to impose its will on nations and events around the globe.

To counter China's global ambitions, the US needs many military capabilities including a mobile, flexible, lethal, offensive amphibious force of its own. For years, the US Marine Corps served as the US's always ready, global, 9-1-1 force. The threats from China and others require the Marine Corps today to put its focus back on global crisis response. The crisis is here. There is no time to waste.

Compass Points thanks all those who are still shining a light on the Marine Corps and working toward upgraded and restored Marine crisis response capabilities, and thanks all our readers who served as seminar leaders this week by providing topics, articles, and comments. Many thanks!

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Financial Times - 12/27/2024

China launches biggest amphibious assault ship in projection of military power

Vessel described as ‘light aircraft carrier’ unveiled a day after test flights of new fighter jet prototypes

By Kathrin Hille

https://www.ft.com/content/147f4b4b-4bcf-41d5-85dc-cca16c4883ec

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Naval War College - 11/08/2024

Chinese Amphibious Warfare

Prospects for a Cross-Strait Invasion

Edited by Andrew S. Erickson, Conor M. Kennedy, and Ryan D. Martinson

https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=cmsi-studies