Andrew S. Erickson

Bradley Perrett, “Pacific Projections: Could—And Would—China Target U.S. Ships with its DF-21D Ballistic Missile?” Aviation Week & Space Technology, 29 August-5 September 2011: 67-68.
China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile system presents one of the world’s most decisive challenges in the field of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), with potentially far-reaching consequences for international affairs. …
The main […]

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Barry Watts, The Maturing Revolution in Military Affairs (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 3 June 2011).
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments is pleased to release The Maturing Revolution in Military Affairs. The report, authored by Center Senior Fellow Barry Watts, considers the maturation of the precision-strike regime and five of the most […]

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“China’s ‘Starter Carrier’,” Defense Tech, 29 August 2011.
Here are some thoughts on the significance of China’s new aircraft carrier that Andrew Erickson, an expert on the PLAN at the U.S. Naval War College, passed on to Defense Tech. While China’s “starter carrier” may not compare to one of the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz class supercarriers, it […]

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David Axe, “US ‘Misled Over Stealth Bomber’,” The Diplomat, 29 August 2011.
In 2008, a B-2 crashed at Guam, reducing the stealth fleet to its current level. In the wake of the accident, critics bemoaned the Pentagon’s tendency to concentrate increasing combat power in a decreasing number of ultra-expensive ‘platforms.’

In February 2010, there was another […]

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Walter Russell Mead, “China’s Growth To Slow By 50 Percent?” Via Media Blog, The American Interest, 29 August 2011.
 
Key conclusions from a paper by Gabe Collins and Andrew Erickson at China Sign Post… Read the whole thing.  … Of course nobody, including the Chinese, know what comes next in China, but these authors make […]

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Adam Segal, “Sometimes It’s Not China (Though This Is Probably Not the Week To Be Saying It),” Asia Unbound Blog, Council on Foreign Relations, 25 August 2011.
This week we’ve had a rash of reporting that suggests the links between the state and Chinese hackers.
Smoking Cursor: First reported in the Epoch Times, and then picked up […]

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David Axe, “China, the US and Transparency,” The Diplomat, 22 August 2011.
Lately, every major Chinese military development has provoked the same response from the US government. The American reaction to the appearance of new aircraft, ships and missiles is to ask, essentially, ‘What’s it for?’ …
But this lack of transparency can cut both ways, according […]

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Aaron L. Friedberg, A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011).
An explosive examination of the fast-escalating Sino-American struggle for geopolitical predominance.
There may be no denying China’s growing economic strength, but its impact on the global balance of power remains hotly contested. Political […]

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Trefor Moss, “Decoding China’s Aircraft Carrier,” The Diplomat, 13 August 2011.
… The first aircraft carrier in People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN’s) history, which began sea trials earlier this week and churned up no shortage of media conjecture as it got underway, has to be understood on two different levels: the symbolic and the purposive.
Symbolically, the […]

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Galrahn, “Ex-Varyag Begins Sea Trials,” Information Dissemination, 10 August 2011.
Early this morning the Ex-Varyag was assisted by several tug boats as the ship ventured out on sea trials. …
Today China has taken the next step in what is a very long road towards the operation of an aircraft carrier. This specific step is both strategic […]

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Ronald O’Rourke, “China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service, 22 July 2011.
The question of how the United States should respond to China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has emerged as a key issue in U.S. defense planning. Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the […]

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Hu Yinan and Li Xiaokun, “Carrier Set for Maiden Voyage,” China Daily, 28 July 2011.
China is making use of an obsolete aircraft carrier that was bought from Ukraine and is being refitted for scientific research and training purposes, a top military spokesman said on Wednesday.
The undated photo released by Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday shows […]

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This is simply the best net assessment of Sino-American undersea warfare capabilities that I have yet seen. If you only have time to read one study on this vital subject, it should be Coté’s. He offers valuable education on relevant technologies and related principles for all but the most specialized experts.
Owen R. Coté Jr., “Assessing […]

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David Axe, “Stealth Fighter or Bomber?” The Diplomat, 26 July 2011.
A photo from a Chinese aerospace exhibit, posted on an Internet forum, provides the first new evidence in more than six months regarding the role and capabilities of China’s first stealth fighter prototype. …
Many of China’s most impressive weapons developments in recent years, including the […]

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Jonathan F. Solomon, Defending the Fleet from China’s Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile: Naval Deception’s Roles in Sea-Based Missile Defense, M.A. thesis, Georgetown University, 15 April 2011.
This thesis project tests the hypothesis that U.S. Navy active missile defenses’ utility against China’s Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM) reconnaissance-strike system can be significantly increased when paired with emerging Electronic Warfare (EW) […]

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Michael G. Gallagher, “More Firepower for the Navy? Convert!” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, 137.7 (July 2011): 22-25.
To offset the vulnerability of its aircraft carrier force and prepare for a possible military conflict with China, the U.S. Navy should build a dedicated class of modified cruise-missile submarines based on the stealthy Virginia-class template.
The May 2010 report […]

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Lt. Cdr. Matthew Harper, “Chinese Missiles and the Walmart Factor,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, 137.7 (July 2011): 16-21.
Scenarios of a military conflict with a rising China are pointless if they leave out a glaring detail—the global economy.
Multiple news outlets recently carried stories about a Chinese antiship ballistic missile (ASBM) that could target U.S. aircraft carriers […]

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Michael D. Swaine, America’s Challenge: Engaging a Rising China in the Twenty-First Century (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011).
Michael D. Swaine is a senior associate in the Carnegie Endowment’s Asia Program. The author of more than ten monographs on security policy in the region, Swaine is one of the most prominent U.S. analysts […]

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James Holmes, “Blue Water Dreams: Why China Wants an Aircraft Carrier,” Foreign Policy, 27 June 2011.
On a visit to Washington this month, Chinese Gen. Chen Bingde, chief of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff, confirmed what Asahi Shimbun and the Financial Times reported last December: China, he said, has officially committed itself to deploying aircraft-carrier […]

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