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April 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt (in review )REVIEWED BY TIMOTHY YEN In the early 15th century, the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty decided that the best way to dem- onstrate national prestige and might was to construct a eet to sail to the Middle Kingdoms neighbors. These ships were so massive that they went unmatched in dimension and displacement until the dawn of the iron-hulled ships of the late 19th century. This fleet of naval as well as treasure ships, under the command of Admiral Zheng He, sailed as far as the southeastern coast of Africa. Witnesses were left with- out any doubt that China could bend any nation to its will. With the recent sea trials of the air- craft carrier Shi Lang , we can observe a renewed bid by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to project power in its own region and perhaps globally. Peoples Liberation Army Navy documents the uneven progress toward that goal. e book is a tabulation of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) assets, presented as a narrative organized by type or capability (for example, destroy- ers, combat direction systems, or shipyards). Each major section describes the history of the PLANs e orts to modernize in the aftermath of the Second World War. e typical history for almost every system starts o with 1940s-vintage Soviet hand-me-down technology. Each iterative step thereafter invariably involves a decision to either acquire an upgraded asset from a foreign source or to fabricate one domestically. Often foreign acquisition was not licensed, com- ing instead from a third-party intermediary, or the acquisition came to PLAN without documentation or training. Domestic production was no antidote to the problems of foreign acquisition: lack of quality assur- ance and a simple lack of understanding of what the PLAN was trying to copy left many domestically-fab- ricated products wanting. Despite the narrative style, often augmented with tables to clarify the tangle of confusing NATO code names, the book is fundamentally a reference work that has aggregated all available public information regarding PLAN systems. is fact is most visible when the authors admit to having conicting information. Regardless of errors, the specicity is astonishing, con- sidering the e orts of the Chinese government to keep information secret. e underlying theme of the book, however, includ- ing the descriptions of the slow and painful progress made in the eets modernization, is how the PLAN can no longer be seen as an addendum to the Peoples Liberation Army. Its considerable lethality a ects inter- national policies: United States carrier battle groups do not sail the Taiwan Strait and the evolving PLAN carrier capacity has Southeastern Asia looking over its shoul- der. PLANs stature as an organization within the rigid Chinese military is ascending, and admirals are now being promoted for their ability to transform the PLAN from a coastal defense organization to a naval ghting force able to project power abroad. But behind the growing capabilities of the PLAN are the accumulating problems that were once more manageable. e mixture of foreign and domestic weapon systems and sensors make modern networked warfare dicult, if not impossible. Other liabilities include the undertrained conscripted enlisted sailor corps, and the dearth of blue-water operational experience. How the PRC and the PLAN resolve these issues will likely decide the future e ectiveness of the PLAN as a ghting force. In the end, Bussert and Ellemans work is an abso- lute requirement on the desk of anyone studying PLAN technical details. Supercially, it is a well-organized, well-edited collection of public data. On a deeper level, it is a description of a navy with growing priorities, from a source of national prestige and coastal defense to the naval force of a superpower able to project force beyond its horizon. e PLAN is unlikely to be scrapped as the Ming Dynastys navy was, and the world may yet see a powerful Chinese navy. MTTimothy Yen is a graduate of Webb Institute and Stevens Institute of Technology. Cavitation, China, and Aerospace Peoples Liberation Army Navy: Combat Systems Technology, 1949-2010 By James Bussert and Bruce Elleman PUBLISHED BY THE NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS