Navy Capt Fanell (Ret), the naval Nostradamus, is back talking about China...

via Naval Institute.

China’s rise as a naval power goes well beyond its growing number of ships and submarines but the People’s Liberation Army Navy growing capability to operate jointly with the Chinese air force and rocket corps, a maritime intelligence expert said Tuesday.

Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., James Fanell, a retired Navy captain, said, “we need to respect that” growth in capability as much as China’s increasing numbers of modern warships, including carriers and ballistic missile submarines.

“I’m not surprised they’re becoming more and more like us,” Fanell said, down to China’s new emphasis on building a robust noncommissioned officer corps to improve quality afloat.

Fanell is considered a controversial figure in maritime security discussions on China and the Pacific, because of his belief the U.S. Navy should not engage in high-level military-to-military meetings. In his experience as U.S. Pacific Fleet intelligence officer, Fanell said, Chinese officers “would ask a thousand questions, and we’d give them a thousand answers. We’d ask one question and get nothing back.”

However, he warns China’s capability must be respected. In short, “they are very, very competent,” and have progressed a long way in exercising command and control. The Chinese Navy also strengthened their skills in targeting and improving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance thanks to an active satellite-launching program at a rate far outpacing the United States’ satellite launching program.

Beijing’s operations in the South China Sea and now their extended submarine patrols into the western India Ocean are examples of increased expertise in operations over great distances, he said.

“Where will they next operate,” Fanell asked rhetorically. The answer lays in where Beijing is dispatching its oceanographic fleet. They are currently mapping the Atlantic Ocean’s floor, he said.

Story here.

The above vid is from 2013.  Its when Fanell had the audacity to state the truth and his reward was to be forced into retirement.

Ain't the military grand?

Even a Navy Capt can meet the big blue dick!

But this talk is even more stunning than the one in 2013. 

Fact.

The Chinese Navy is building the equivalent of a credible European Navy EVERY YEAR.

Fact.

The Chinese Navy is matching our own on a case by case basis.  First with Destroyers, now we're seeing their amphibious fleet improve and soon they're going to be stepping hard into carrier aviation.

Fact.

They're ranging far and wide.  They operate off the coast of Africa and according to Fanell they're about to enter the Atlantic.

The results.

We have a first rate Navy that will not only match our own in tech but will outnumber us across the board.

Soon we won't only face regional superiority held by the Chinese but potentially global superiority just based on their ship building.

The worst part?

I thought we had till 2030 before they surpassed us.  I think I might have been wrong.  Just looking at their shipbuilding they'll have numerical superiority by mid 2020s.