China’s Coast Guard ... part of the Chinese Navy Battle Fleet that goes uncounted

via USNI News.

The rapid expansion of China’s Coast Guard gives Beijing the means to shift its sea expansion aims from aspirational to operational, a panel of security experts concurred during a Monday event detailing China’s maritime ambitions.

In vast stretches of sea, an area stretching from the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea to the Scarborough Shoals off the Phillippines in the South China Sea, China’s maritime forces are aggressively asserting claims to every landmass — natural or manmade — in this blue territory, the experts from several think tanks agreed while speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

During the past few years, China’s Coast Guard increased the number of its intrusions into the waters around the uninhabited islands dotting the East China Sea that are also claimed by Taiwan, said Masahi Murano, a fellow at the Hudson Institute. The increase, Murano added, is, “because they are rapidly building Coast Guard vessels.”

Story here. 

The pic above?  China's monster coast guard ship that's bigger than a Burke or Brit Type 45.

The problem?

We use our own Coast Guard to roam far and wide.  From S. America over to the South China Sea, to the Persian Gulf and off the coast of Africa.

The conundrum?

They're doing the same.

The painful truth?

No one is counting Chinese Coast Guard hulls as part of their battle fleet.  Once you do then things get extremely...worrisome.

Want to set your hair on fire?

Add all the fishing boats and commercial shipping that will obviously flex into dual role assets (ie..break in case of war) and you have the beginnings of a naval scenario that will leave us in a world of hurt.

My solution?

It is essential that we bring back one piece of equipment to our ships.  We need the S-3 Vikings in the anti-surface, electronic warfare, scout plane role desperately.

We can't match them in shipping but we can get planes in the air and make our carriers more formidable.  Think about how much better our position would be if we had these two variants of the Viking flying right now!

Put them in both Marine Corps and Navy colors.  Have them fly off carriers, forward bases etc...hell even give a few to the Air Force if they'll have them and sell them to allies for pennies on the dollar (worthy allies...not Quislings that dot the planet).

We had it right in our past super power competition.  It's past time to dust off what worked instead of trying to flex our modern day "wonder weapons" into roles they're ill suited for.