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Retired US Navy Adm. James Stavridis said the US Navy needs more ships to counter China.
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China has the world’s largest navy, with more than 355 ships in its fleet.
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“We have more experience, but quantity has its own quality,” Stavridis said.
Retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis said if the United States wants to keep pace with China’s military, it needs to expand its naval power and acquire more ships.
“You don’t have to be a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician to understand that Chinese ships will continue to outnumber us,” Stavridis, a former NATO commander, told Sunday radio’s “The Cats Round.” He said in an interview with “The Table.”
US Navy information leaked in July stated that China’s shipbuilding capacity is 232 times that of the US.
In 2021, the U.S. Naval Research Institute reported that China has the world’s largest navy with more than 355 ships. In the same year, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that the United States had 296 ships.
“We have more experience, but quantity has its own quality,” Stavridis told radio host John Catsimatidis. “We need to build more warships. We need to think about the U.S. Navy approaching 350 ships.”
Stavridis added: “We don’t want to be the world’s police officers, but we do want to live in safe neighborhoods, and sometimes that means having a very capable military. We need a bigger navy,” he added.
This is not the first time Stavridis has considered the naval powers of the United States and China and how they compare. In an interview on “The Michael Medved Show” in December, Stavridis said China was not ready to fight the United States.
“Although China is building a large fleet and acting very aggressively, it is still not ready to have everything it needs to counter the U.S. Pacific Fleet,” Stabb said. Liddis said.
A former top NATO commander said the strength of the US military alliance would blunt Chinese aggression.
“If we go to war with China, it’s not just the United States and China. We have treaty allies who have committed to participating in such a military operation,” Stavridis said.
“That’s Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand,” he added. “So when you put it all together, it’s a lot of firepower.”
A representative for Mr. Stavridis did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of normal business hours.
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