This is a question that I ask after reading this article in ATOL a week or so ago
There is a lot of interesting stuff contained in it, but this in particular caught my eye.
China is a land power first and foremost with most of its borders being land borders and the need to interdict and stop opposing land forces its primary concern. IT would make sense therefore to make sure that land force modernisation was the primary objective, leaving Air and Sea to the later stages.
I believe that the ratios given (assuming to be true) are a measure that the cost of re-equipping and re-training the bulk of the Army is now complete and that there is now a larger proportion of the growing budget pie to allocate to serious navy and airforce modernisation.
Thoughts?
There is a lot of interesting stuff contained in it, but this in particular caught my eye.
Taking the analysis one step further, Xu Guangyu, a retired PLA major general now with the government think-tank China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA), believes that China can achieve these transformative goals with a budgetary allocation among China's army, navy and air force at a 50:25:25 ratio, representing a shift from the current 60:20:20 ratio.
Xu does not see a 40:30:30 ratio since he believes that China's naval and air power will "mostly be used to enhance the combat effectiveness of our [China's] ground forces". Xu's statement seems to imply that the PLA - at least for the time being - is not emulating American global power projection capabilities supported and enabled by US military budgets that have in recent years allocated resources among the army, navy and air force roughly along a 40:30:30 ratio [1].
China is a land power first and foremost with most of its borders being land borders and the need to interdict and stop opposing land forces its primary concern. IT would make sense therefore to make sure that land force modernisation was the primary objective, leaving Air and Sea to the later stages.
I believe that the ratios given (assuming to be true) are a measure that the cost of re-equipping and re-training the bulk of the Army is now complete and that there is now a larger proportion of the growing budget pie to allocate to serious navy and airforce modernisation.
Thoughts?
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