Is the Navy ready? How the U.S. is preparing amid a naval buildup in China | 60 Minutes

The United States Navy helped ensure victory in two world wars and the Cold War. Today, the Navy remains a formidable fighting force, but even officers within the service have questioned its readiness, while the United States spent 20 years fighting ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon looked at China. its greatest geopolitical rival of the 21st century build the world's largest Navy China has threatened to use that Navy to invade Taiwan an important American ally as tensions with China continue to rise we wanted to know more about the current status of the US Navy .US and how it is trying to deter China while

preparing

for the possibility of war the story will continue in a moment the Navy is always on alert one third of the Navy is always deployed and operating at all times the Navy is mustering in Right now there are about 300 ships and there are about 100 ships at sea right now around the world.

Admiral Samuel Paparo commands the U.S. Pacific Fleet, whose 200 ships and 150,000 sailors and civilians make up 60 percent of the entire U.S. Navy. We met him last month on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz deployed nearby. the US territory of Guam, southeast of Taiwan and the People's Republic of China or People's Republic of China, has been operating as a

naval

officer for 40 years. How has the operation in the Western Pacific changed? In the early 2000s, the PRC Navy assembled about 37 ships today. Assembling 350 ships again this month, China's new Foreign Minister Qin Gong issued a stern warning to the United States, saying that if Washington does not change course on its stance toward China, conflict and confrontation will be inevitable last August, when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took office. the highest-ranking American political figure to visit Taiwan in 25 years, China called it a blatant provocation.

The People's Liberation Army fired ballistic missiles into the sea around Taiwan and surrounded the island with aircraft and warships, so our Chinese warships are now operating closer to Taiwan after Nancy Pelosi's visit. Yes, the best guess anyone has about China's ultimate intentions for Taiwan comes from the CIA, based on its intelligence assessment. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the People's Liberation Army to be prepared to take back the island by force by 2027. And if China invades Taiwan, what will the US Navy do? It is a decision of the president of the United States and a decision of Congress.

It is our duty to be prepared for that, but the bulk of the United States Navy will rapidly deploy to the Western Pacific to assist. from Taiwan if the order comes to help Taiwan thwart that invasion, the US Navy is

ready

, we are

ready

, yes, I will never admit that I am prepared enough. Yes, President Biden has stated four times, including on 60 Minutes, that the US military would defend Taiwan, which is a democracy and the world's leading producer of advanced microchips, to reach the USS Nimitz, we traveled for the first time to the westernmost territory of the United States, the island of Guam in the middle of the Pacific.

Guam was taken by Imperial Japan two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The US Marines recaptured it two and a half years later and the island, about the size of Chicago, became an indispensable strategic foothold in the Pacific. Western, as it still is today. From Guam we boarded a Navy Greyhound C2, a Cold War-era transport plane that carries people. supplies round trip from land to the aircraft carrier short flight to the ship and an even shorter landing incredible first landing of God yes oh very nice certain operations before Admiral Paparo Rose to lead the Pacific Fleet flew Jets and graduated from the school known as Top Gun When talking about ships, which is the most powerful in the US Navy is an aircraft carrier and its Air Wing is capable of conducting 150 air-to-air attacks or sorties per day and, at its levels increase, the ability to deliver 900 precision guided munitions every day. and rechargeable every night, so although China now has the largest Navy in the world, they don't have anything like this in terms of aircraft carriers, they don't, but they are working towards it and they have two operational aircraft carriers right now.

They are China's two diesel-powered and the US's 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that can carry a total of about a thousand more attack aircraft than the navies of all other nations on Earth combined. I'll tell you this, we are here to stay in the same place. South China Sea and in this part of the world, and I think that is the message that we really want to convey not only to China but to the whole world: we will sail wherever international law allows. Lieutenant Commander David Ash flies an FA-18 briefed on China's growth. The military threat and the progress that their Navy is making absolutely yes, we absolutely do and they are making great strides in many key areas, the Chinese, Chinese art from a military point of view, this video from the Weapons Systems officer, the Lieutenant Commander Matthew Carlton, shows his 18 strafing of ground targets with a machine gun at a US weapons range near Guam.

Thank you. Nimitz pilots also conduct daily air-to-air combat or dogfighting exercises. intercepts when they move within a single digit feet of other aircraft by displaying the weapons they have on board the aircrew of other aircraft operating in international airspace maneuvering their aircraft in such a way that denies them the ability to turn in one direction if you are safe and professional then no problem, everyone has the right to fly and sail wherever international law dictates, but the Chinese are putting pressure on it. China's increasingly aggressive moves in the Western Pacific encroach on territory, fish illegally and build bases in between. of the South China Sea have pushed nations such as Japan and the Philippines to forge closer military ties with the US, and last week Britain, the US and Australia signed a historic agreement to jointly develop submarine attack submarines. nuclear propulsion to patrol the Pacific.

This is how China and Taiwan appear on most maps This is how the Chinese Communist Party views the Western Pacific, including the South and East China Seas from Beijing Taiwan is the foothold in what China's leaders call the first island chain, a constellation of US allies that extends along its entire coast. Control of Taiwan is the strategic key to unlocking direct access to the Pacific and the sea routes through which approximately 50 percent of world trade is transported. China has accused the United States of trying to contain them. What do you say to China? I would say: It is necessary to contain it.

Is it expanding? Are you an expansionist power? To a large extent, the United States was the champion of China's rise and in no way did we seek to contain China. What we are looking for is that they follow the rules. China's Navy is The branch of the People's Liberation Army is now the largest in the world. China is also using its 9,000 miles of coastline to rewrite the rules of fighting at sea, as these images from Chinese state media show its military has invested heavily in long-range precision-guided weapons like the DF-21 and df-26s that can be used to target ships The Chinese People's Liberation Army Rocket Force calls them carrier killers and has practiced firing them at mock-ups of American ships in the desert that look a lot like the Nimitz from the United States.

The United States has been operating in China's backyard in the Western Pacific. They have been developing missiles to attack our assets. Don't they have specific missiles? Absolutely. First I will say that the United States is also a Western Pacific nation, so it is not China's backyard. You know it's a free and open Indo-Pacific that encompasses numerous treaty partners and allies and yes, we have seen them greatly improve their power projection capabilities. How much do you care about the Pla rocket Force? I worry, you know, I would be a fool. I don't have to worry, of course, I worry about the Los Angeles rocket force, of course, I work every day to develop the tactics, techniques and procedures to counter them and continue to develop the systems that can also defend against them, especially how far away they are.

We from mainland China, 1500 nautical miles, they can attack us, yes they can, if they have the targets in place, they could attack this aircraft carrier, if I don't want to be attacked, there is something I can do about it. US Navy planners are not only planning how to evade China's rocket force, but also how they could effectively defend themselves from the vicinity of Guam, none of this ship's aircraft have the range to get close to Taiwan without refueling ships like the US destroyer Wayne e Meyer, part of the Nimitz strike group would need to sail much closer to China to fire its missiles at any force invading Taiwan.

One

naval

academic we spoke to compared it to a boxing match in which one fighter, in this case China, has much longer arms than its potential opponent, the US. I will give you many examples where a fighter longer low was able to prevail over a long Farm Fighter by staying alert when maneuvering and we can also stay and move while developing those longer range weapons. There is another area of ​​modern naval warfare where the United States had an advantage and retains a large advantage over China. I just noticed out of the corner of my eye that this is a 688 class attack submarine, Los Angeles class, this is the most capable submarine on the planets.

We know that, with the exception of the Virginia class, our newest class of submarines, the exact number is classified, but our best estimate is that there are about a dozen nuclear-powered fast attack submarines patrolling the Pacific at any given time, They are difficult to detect and track. China is trying to work out how much more advanced American submarine technology is than Chinese capability. Generation generation and by generation I think 10 or 20 years, but in general terms I do not talk in depth about submarine capabilities, it is the silent service since Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. China's own military leaders have remained silent and ignored the US military's efforts to keep lines of communication open even as a Chinese spy balloon reached US airspace and was shot down by the US if the US and Chinese militaries cannot communicate via via a Chinese spy balloon, so what is going to happen when there is a real crisis in the South China Sea or with Taiwan?

We hope they answer the phone; Otherwise, we will do our best evaluation based on the things they openly say. source and based on their behavior to guess their intentions and will act accordingly, isn't that mutuality even more dangerous if the US and Chinese militaries aren't talking? Yes, multiple sources inside the Pentagon tell 60 Minutes that if China were to invade Taiwan, it could very well start in outer space with both sides targeting the other satellites that enable precision-guided weapons cyberattacks against American cities and the sabotage of ports on the west coast of the continental US could follow a recent unclassified war game if the US had prevailed but lost 20 ships.

Including two aircraft carriers, does that seem right? It's a plausible outcome. I can imagine a more pessimistic outcome and I can imagine a more optimistic outcome. We should be clear-eyed about the costs that could potentially be generated. There are about 5,000 Americans aboard the The Nimitz ship is almost half a century old, given the Navy's current needs in the Pacific and because fuel remains in its nuclear reactors, the carrier's life at sea will be extended. Do you expect the power of the US Navy to force posture? of the U.S. Navy will deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, I do not expect it to be my duty, along with my allies and partners, to incur intolerable costs for anyone who disrupts order in violation of the nation's security or in violation of the nation's interests, which is if you want peace, prepare for war as China's 11th president prepares for a state visit to Russia tomorrow to strengthen that Alliance, we discuss critical issues about the state of the US Navy.

USA and its preparation when we return. 60 Minutes has spent months talking to the current ones. and former naval officers, military strategists and politicians on the state of the U.S. Navy, a common thread in our reporting is concern about both thesize of the US Fleet as well as its willingness to fight the Navy. Ships are being retired faster than they are replaced, while the PRC Navy grows larger and more lethal with each passing year. We asked U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo about this on our visit to the USS Nimitz, the Navy's oldest aircraft carrier.

The story will continue. at one point we called it the decade of worry, we have seen a tenfold increase in the size of the PRC Navy, technically speaking the Chinese now have the largest Navy in the world in terms of number of ships, right Do numbers matter? It says that quantity has its own quality at some point they will reach numbers that we cannot prevail. I'm not comfortable with the trajectory if you look at a map in the Indo-Pacific, one thing is clear: there is a lot of water on that map, so ours has to be a maritime strategy.

Republican Mike Gallagher and Democrat Elaine Lauria served together on the House Armed Services Committee in the last Congress. What is it about the US Navy that has allowed you two to find common cause? I think we share a sense of urgency as we see growing threats from China, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, we feel that we are not moving fast enough to build a larger Navy. Congressman Gallagher is a Navy veteran who represents Green Bay Wisconsin chairs the new House committee on China. He worries that under the Navy's current plan, the fleet will be reduced to 280 ships by 2027, the same year the CIA says China is set to have the ability to take Taiwan by force, so we will be more Weak when our enemy is potentially stronger, China.

Greater rhetoric and possible aggression against Taiwan we are going to have to be prepared to respond today with the forces we have today Former Congresswoman Elaine Lauria represented Virginia Beach until last January, an Annapolis graduate , Lauria had a 20-year naval career before being elected to Congress, what would you say is the state of the US Navy today? I believe the Navy has not received the attention and resources it needs for two decades. I mean, I served on six different ships, each of those ships was built during or in a product of the fleet that was built in the Cold War, both Mike Gallagher and Elaine Lauria have lobbied for government money for shipyards in or near their districts, but they say this is less about jobs and more about Homeland Security if we don't get this.

Well, all of these other things we're doing in Congress may ultimately not matter if you think about what a coherent grand China strategy would be. Hard power would be the most important part of that and the Navy would be the most important component of its hard power. Investments Over the past two decades, the Navy spent $55 billion on two investments that didn't pan out. The first was a class of destroyers known as Zumwalts, the futuristic combat ships that were supposed to revolutionize naval warfare. They were ordered but only three were released. The cost of each ship, by one estimate, was more than $8 billion, making them the three most expensive destroyers ever seen.

Another example is the littoral combat ship or LCS designed to be a multi-role fast. shallow water warship $30 billion later the program ran aground due to structural defects and engine problems within the Navy the LCS earned the unfortunate nickname little shit ship the last few decades of the Navy have been described as A Lost Generation of shipbuilding is so dramatic that I don't think so, we are still struggling to build chips on time and on budget and that is something we absolutely need to fix in the future. Last week we spoke with Admiral Mike Gilday at the Pentagon, he is the chief of naval operations and is responsible for construction. maintain and equip the entire US Navy is the Navy in crisis no, the Navy is not in crisis the Navy is on point every day it is being surpassed by China no our Navy is still in a position to prevail, but that is not blind trust in us.

We are concerned about the trajectory China is taking with its behavior, but we are in a good position at the moment. If we ever had to fight them, how would you describe what China has been able to do militarily over the last 20 years? The most alarming. The issue is the growth not only of its conventional forces but also of its strategic nuclear forces. There is cyber capability. There is space capability and how they are using it to force other nations' navies out of certain areas in the South China Sea instead of recognizing the international law they want. to control where those goods flow and how what lessons has the U.S.

Navy learned from some of the shipbuilding mistakes of the past 20 years. I think one of the things we learned was that we need to have a well-defined design before we start bending. metal and then we go back to the past, to what we did in the 80s and 90s, the Navy has the advantage. There is a tendency among great powers to view each other's naval

buildup

s with deep suspicion. Toshi Yoshihara of the Strategic and Budgetary Assessments center may know more about China's Navy than any academic in the West. China will have around 440 ships by 2030 and according to the Pentagon, why is China able to build more warships faster than the US?

China has clearly invested in this defense. industrial infrastructure to produce these ships, allowing them to produce multiple ships simultaneously, essentially surpassing many of the Western navies. The combined Chinese Navy joining a burgeoning commercial shipbuilding industry kept afloat by generous state subsidies, cheap materials and cheap labor in the United States is a different story. After the Cold War ended, the shipbuilding industry consolidated and many of the shipyards where ships were built and maintained closed. What do you see when you look at China's shipbuilding program? It is very solid. Do we have enough shipyards? No. I wish we had more commercial shipyards.

Throughout my career, we have gone from having more than 30 shipyards to about seven that we rely on every day to build boats. One of those shipyards is run by Huntington Ingalls Industries, which built the latest in technology. new Ford-class aircraft carrier after controlled explosions in 2021 to prove it could withstand combat, Ford approached deployment six years late and billions of dollars over budget, Navy not only struggling to build new ships on time, according to the Government Accountability Office or GAO, there is a several-year delay in repairing the fleet's ships. Our maintenance backlog is one of the main things I'm working to fix, which is why just three years ago we had 7,700 days of backlog, meaning extra days in a shipyard by ships. when they were not operational we reduced it to three thousand we are not satisfied maintenance delays means sailors can't return home because the ship that is supposed to replace them is not ready means longer deployments means being further away from your family, that en A huge pressure on the workforce, the more ships we can have available to send out to sea, it alleviates a lot of those problems that you pointed out.

Sailors joined the Navy to see the world, so it's my job to make sure those maintenance backlogs reach zero. and we can get those ships to see as quickly as possible in the last year alone, at least 10 sailors assigned to ships in maintenance or working in maintenance facilities have died by suicide. It is a problem that we are taking very, very seriously and even every leader in our Navy everyone has a responsibility to take care of each other to take care of each other there is no wrong door to knock on when you need help Admiral Gilday says that the US Navy's main advantage over China is American sailors.

Their goal is to modernize the U.S. fleet and have those sailors serving alongside hundreds of unmanned vessels by 2045. I think unmanned is the future, so I think about 40 percent of our fleet In the future it will be unmanned, they are like underwater drones. Some of them are highly capable of transporting minds and perhaps other types of weapons. Admiral Gilday is talking about the Orca, a large unmanned underwater vehicle with additional law. Can you say what it will do or is it well classified? At a minimum, it will have a clandestine minelaying capability, so it will be done in a very secret but very effective way, but the GAO reports that it is already a quarter of a billion dollars over budget and three years behind schedule.

That particular platform is behind schedule. It's the first. of one type when delivered, I see a very high ROI from that particular platform because, because it will be among the most lethal and stealthy platforms in the US Army Arsenal, the total budget request for the Navy for fiscal year 2024 is more than a quarter. $1 trillion an increase of $11 billion over last year attention is focused on China US defense posture seen as aggressive by the Chinese Foreign Minister just said look, stop the containment this can lead to conflict perhaps a Chinese minister will not like the fact that the US Navy is operating in collaboration with dozens of navies around the world to ensure that the Maritime Commons remains free and open to all nations.

The Chinese want to dictate those terms and that's why they don't like our presence, but our presence. is not intended to be provocative, its goal is to assure and reassure allies and partners around the world that those sea lanes remain open, the global economy literally floats on sea water, how similar Top Gun graduates compare the film to reality in 60

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