This Week at War: China Rules the Waves
17th October 2009
According to Kaplan, by 2015 China will surpass Korea and Japan to become the world’s most prolific shipbuilder. China will achieve this position because its growing shipbuilding expertise will combine with its labor and capital cost advantages to make it the preferred shipbuilding vendor. China’s cost advantages in “metal-bending” industries will compare very favorably against U.S. naval shipbuilders who are currently best known for gross cost overruns, long schedule delays, and problem-ridden deliveries. U.S. military acquisition officials have hoped that U.S. technological advantages will offset an adversary’s numbers. But such a focus on technology may be part of the problem, rather than the solution. Looking out over the next two decades, military shipbuilding trends do not favor the United States.