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April 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt PerformanceTesting BeginsatOhmsett PerformanceTesting BeginsatOhmsett OhmsettLeonardo,NewJersey 732-866-7183/732-866-7055 www.ohmsett.comOhmsett,theBureauofSafetyand EnvironmentalEnforcements(BSEE) NationalOilSpillResponseResearch andRenewableEnergyTestFacility AtOhmsett,testingandR&Dopportunitiesabound! Ouruniquecapabilitiesandrealisticmarine environmentplayanessentialroleindevelopingnew technologythatwillbecleaningtheworldswaterin thefuture. Features&Capabilities: Full-scaletesting,trainingandresearch Independentandobjectivetestingwithrealoil Measurableandrepeatabletestparameters Chemicaltreatingagentsanddispersanttesting Mechanicalcontainmentandrecoveryin iceEvaluationofremotesensingsystems Testprotocoldevelopment successful U.S. intervention to safeguard Taiwan from mainland Chinas liberators.? It has already prevented Taipei from pro- claiming independence, and discouraged attempts by Taiwans supporters in Washington to defeat the one China policy. Is Chinas military modernization well beyond defensive requirements? as General Leaf writes? For Beijing, it is aimed at solving the Taiwan issue and not at threatening neighbors. Authors of the papers in this book show that Chinas Second Artillery can deliver warheads accurately all around Chinas bor- ders (a substitute for bombers) and that attacking U.S. bases in Japan, South Korea, and Guam would be a prerequisite for success in Taiwan, despite the risks of bringing Tokyo and Seoul into the conict. Heavily inuenced by U.S. concepts of network-centric warfare, the PLA sees information warfare as a means to both win and limit the scale of a Taiwan confrontation with America. A rel- ative erosion of Taiwans military capabilities could lead Beijing to take greater risks in cross-strait relations, but the U.S. Air-Sea Battle Doctrine may convince Beijing that it cannot win even if it subdues Taiwan. Other authors in the book review Chinas attempts to deny airspace over its Exclusive Economic Zone to reconnaissance aircraft, and Chinas e orts to assert legal con- trol of maritime airspace. Some of the authors think that Chinas military moderniza- tion goes beyond Taiwan, and that the country is developing capabilities that could alter the strategic landscape well beyond the Asia-Pacific region. This would surpass Taiwan, Japan, India, and even U.S. forces in the Western Pacific with a set of aerospace systems that includes microsatellites, unmanned air- craft, and missiles, and which already challenges U.S. maritime dominance in East Asia. Time and money are on Chinas side. Editor Goldstein refers to some future Chinese expedition- ary force operating off Africa.? One of the authors reminds us that the former Russian carrier Varyag cannot compare with a U.S. Nimitz-class carrier, and would most likely have a regional role in the South China Sea. But the author does not mention the Varyags original mission under the Soviet bastion con- cept? of creating a sanctuary where noisy strategic submarines could be defended. So far, Beijing is bound by policy statements that it will not station forces abroad nor use carriers for global reach like the United States. The authors tend to overestimate the Malacca dilemma, China having always the option to take longer sea routes at a fraction of the cost of building vulnerable pipelines or dispatching a fleet. Authors assess the yet unproven anti-ship ballistic missiles as a game changer that, over the next 10 to 15 years, would give the PLA a precision strike capability versus aircraft carriers and other U.S. and allied ships operating within 1,500-2,000 kilome- ters of Chinas coasts. But they do not refer to the Soviet Unions far superior anti-carrier defenses, with 1,500 cruise missiles already available in 1991 aboard nuclear submarines, long range bombers, and strike cruisers, all directed by aircraft and satel- lites. Yet the United States Navy was then condent to prevail with AEGIS cruisers and interceptors. Could Chinese ballistic missiles do better against U.S. carriers moving at well above 35 knots? A moderating Admiral Eric MacVadon concludes that US-China relations are suciently important that we cannot a ord simply to point to Chinese intransigence and live with the repeated disruptions.? He calls for achieving habits of cooperation rather than those of confrontation? and emphasizes that conict is nei- ther inevitable nor likely.? Taking Beijing at its word, the admiral would like to create enough trust to prevent an arms race in space. Overall, Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roles is an outstanding and important book. MTAlexandre Sheldon-Duplaix was a naval analyst at the French Ministry of Defense, and is now a researcher at the French Defense His torical Service and a lecturer at the Paris Ecole de Guerre. He is an author of several books and studies on the Chinese navy.