Military Keeps Eye On China

While Iraq and Iran take up most of the news nowadays, our military planners are planning ahead for China. China is moving to be the next super power. It is also why we have so much interest in the Middle East.

(Reuters)U.S. fears of a rising China are spurring billions of dollars worth of weapons projects, from nuclear-fueled attack submarines to fighter jets to destroyers.

I have mentioned before that one of the real reasons, if not the main reason, we went to war was to make sure that we have a say in the way oil in that region is handled. While it is easy to bash the Haliburton's of the world and Bush's relationship with oil, China is as much of a reason for us being there as any. There is only so much oil to go around, and with China coming of age, there will be an increase in the need for that oil.

Another reason the U.S. and China could have an issue would be Taiwan. Thus, our Army has changed the way they will use our Navy in the next 20 years.

Another big-ticket item that might be built in lesser numbers if not for the perceived China threat is the Virginia-class nuclear submarine. In its long-range blueprint, the Pentagon called for doubling to two per year the number bought by the Navy by 2012 at a cost of $2 billion apiece.

The first two DD(X) destroyers, which can attack land targets with precision weapons and new long-range guns, are to be purchased in fiscal 2007 at a combined cost of $6.6 billion. The Bush administration is planning to buy seven of them as part of a projected 313-ship Navy in the coming years.

"The fleet will have greater presence in the Pacific Ocean, consistent with the global shift of trade and transport," the Pentagon said in its strategy paper. It said 60 percent of U.S. submarines would be based there, up from 50 percent now, and at least six aircraft carriers, up from five now.

This is just another reason for alternative fuels. It would lessen the chance for war with China.