“China's military industry now produces more defense equipment than the industry of the United States, its Pacific theater allies, and its European allies combined.” It is in these terms that the new American national defense industrial strategy, currently being finalized by the Pentagon, poses the problem of the unfavorable industrial and capability balance of power which will apply to American forces in the Pacific facing China .
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While speaking one last time to the deputies of the Defense Committee, Admiral Pierre Vandier, Chief of Staff of the French Navy, declared in August 2022 that within 10 years , the Chinese Navy would be numerically 2,5 times superior to the US Navy, while she received, according to him, the equivalent of the French Navy every 4 years in new ships.
According to the French general officer, it would only be possible, faced with such a hydra in the making, to confront it by bringing together all Western naval and air forces, in the hope of containing this threat. This declaration, although deliberately designed to make an impression on the part of a chief of staff just a stone's throw from retirement, could well itself be too optimistic.
Indeed, according to a Pentagon report in preparation, including extracts were allegedly obtained by Politico journalists, it could well be that Chinese military equipment production will exceed that of the United States, but also that of all of its leading allies in the Pacific theater (Australia, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand , Philippines and Taiwan) and European, in most of the major areas of military action.
China's military industry produces more than the United States and its allies combined
As part of the drafting of the first national industrial strategy, led by the head of Pentagon acquisitions, William LaPlante, the Pentagon services have, in fact, drawn up a most alarming picture concerning the comparative production of defense equipment by American industry, and by the Chinese military industry.
Not surprisingly, the report announces that Chinese industrial production rates are very significantly higher than those supported by American industry, even if it recognizes that American equipment is superior to that in service in the Chinese armies. .
The report estimates, above all, that the cumulative defense industrial production of the United States, its Pacific Theater allies, as well as its European NATO allies, would also be numerically lower than that of the defense industry. Chinese defense, without risking giving a quantified assessment of the imbalance in question.
This statement highlights significant future difficulties for the Western bloc. Firstly, adding European production to this calculation serves more to reinforce the effectiveness of the demonstration than to reflect a real balance of power.
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