17 June 2024

U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers Are Useless Against China

Brandon J. Weichert

Mainstream military analysts in the West are suffering a bout of historical amnesia. Many of them think that the coming conflict between the United States and China will be little more than a modern-day rerun of the Second World War’s Pacific Theater.

This could not be more wrong.

A potential Sino-American conflict is not World War II with Nimitz-class and Gerald R. Ford-class carriers. It is an entirely new style of warfare that combines a little bit of the old with much that is new.

Grayzone Operations

First, there is the prevalence of grayzone operations. This is what the Israelis have long referred to as the “war between the wars.” This is similar to another concept of unrestricted, or asymmetrical, warfare that the Chinese have long advocated for.

Combining both the kinetic and non-kinetic, and fusing together military and civilian functions into one potent threat, China has the capability to wage war in unconventional ways that complicate the American ability to conduct offensives. The new approach also serves to fundamentally alter perceptions in such a way that American leaders might not even recognize they are already at war.

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