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The Chinese PLA Navy and Air Force seem to have made it a regular practice to harass aircraft and ships of other nations in global skies and waters. Such coercive activity by the Chinese has made Taiwan the most focused target.
The Chinese PLA aircraft have also performed dangerous movements in close proximity to aircraft and ships of other navies. Such dangerous flying or sailing has been resorted to by the Chinese towards US, Taiwanese, Indonesian, and Philippine aircraft and ships. However, last week, it went a little further than just that. While most such Chinese actions have been encountered in the South China Sea area, this time, the scene shifted to the Western Pacific.
Two Chinese aircraft carriers sailed across the Pacific on a training mission. A Japanese P3C Patrol aircraft took to the skies to follow the flotilla. Tokyo’s defence ministry said a J-15 fighter shadowed its P-3C patrol aircraft operating over the Pacific for about 40 minutes from 10.30 am on Saturday and again for around 80 minutes from 2 pm on Sunday, 08 June 2025. Chinese J-15s flew close to the Japanese Patrol plane, even flying across the Patrol craft to converge just about 900m ahead of it. Both J-15s had taken off from the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong.
With the growing preponderance of such activities being undertaken by the PLA Navy, it would be prudent to estimate the PLA Navy’s strength.
Chinese Navy Strength
The Chinese Navy is already the largest in the world in terms of number of boats. It has a total of 3,84,000 personnel, including 50,000 aviators and 55,000 marines. Indians have about 70,000 personnel.
In terms of ships and submarines, China is ahead of the US, the predominant sea-going power. It has over 370 surface ships and submarines, while the United States has 292. However, the PLA Navy falls short in terms of tonnage. Americans, with 11 Supercarriers and 21 Amphibious assault ships, make more tonnage. Chinese ships are more recent and lighter. China sails a total of only three aircraft carriers, compared to 11 that the Americans sail. However, China has one more advantage: its industrial capacity to manufacture ships, which leads the Americans by a huge margin.
Issues of Import
Two Issues of greater import in the entire episode are the fact that the Chinese brought in two aircraft carriers to train together in the Pacific and the other is the coercive display by their J-15s. Incidentally, Two Chinese aircraft carriers {were} seen in the Pacific for the first time, Japan says.
The Japanese had no aircraft carriers until very recently when they decided to induct two of their old Izumo-class helicopter carriers as full-fledged aircraft carriers. According to a news report, “Each ship will be able to operate at least 12 F-35B fighters and 16 helicopters simultaneously.”
Connected to the issue of coercive display is their spillover to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Even today, five to eight Chinese ships are always there in the IOR. Some of these ships are for a survey of the ocean bed, an activity of great value to submarine operations. Although there are choke points restricting the sailing of Chinese naval assets from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), these cannot be denied to the Chinese during peacetime.
Wars May Erupt Unannounced
A major lesson from this decade’s wars is that wars can erupt unannounced more often than not. The defender may be compelled thereby to use lethality in the conventional arena, with decisive weightage and discerning targeting. A few examples of such operations are the Israel – Hamas conflict that was initiated on 07 October 2023, when Hamas carried out an unprecedented terror attack on the Israelis. A 2nd example is that of Pakistan-based terrorists killing 26 civilians on 22 April 2025, near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, after ascertaining the victims’ religion. The Indians retaliated on 7 May, and Pakistan asked for a ceasefire soon after. Even the surprise AL Qaida attack on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 led to the most protracted battle of our lives.
Though it may be argued that such situations can only occur where one of the contestants is a terrorist group or terror sponsor state, an error in judgement or a simple human failure may provide the fuel for immediate escalation, especially when the contestants involved are nation states already on edge. Chinese aircraft playing risky games over Taiwan skies could be one such situation.
Requirements For Quicker Response in Indian Context
The quicker the response, the better it is. The capability also needs to be multi-domain and supported by a sound logistics tail. Certain key areas, as seen primarily from the Operation Sindoor point of view, are discussed further.
Force Readiness levels
In the Indian context, it’s a critical imperative. Our forces need to have the best equipment. The quality of our manpower, their motivation and their commitment will come to nought if they cannot shoot further and with greater accuracy if they fail to dominate all domains of warfare, and finally, not be able to dominate the narratives battle. The narrative battle in the information space will require domination well before and much after the flames have been controlled.
Atmanirbharta
It is absolutely necessary to address this issue, which is well understood. One look at Ukraine will convince the worst sceptic. However, over-reliance on domestic products that are not at the cutting edge in their spheres in the global market is dangerous. We didn’t launch a Corps, in fact, not even a division, or, for that matter, a single battalion, to break Pakistan’s back. However, we launched some top-end missiles, aircraft, artillery, Air Defence Systems and technology-driven initiatives in multiple domains of war. Yes, our forces did it all really, really smart and gave us the bang for the buck.
Information Operations
Our attempts to get unequivocal support from the US, EU, Russia and many more countries were bound to be difficult, with an attack on Iran by Israel being there on the cards. Pakistan’s geography provides a safe zone from where to launch US missiles into Iran. Further, Pakistan and Iran share borders and also a barely suppressed animosity. The IMF has cleared $7 billion for Pakistan. Under the circumstances, neither the EU nor the US was expected to condemn Pakistan outright.
Our media utilisation had quantitative and qualitative gaps in content. It lost credibility as the battle progressed and, in some instances, regressed to ridiculous. Information operations need to be a continuous cycle, operative in both peacetime and wartime, with the resources garnered in peacetime providing for the launch of campaigns during conflicts. Information operations must be based on truth, not false inputs.
Budget for the Navy
Our land-centric thinking hasn’t shifted adequately towards the oceans. However, there has been a reduced pre-dominance of the Pakistan factor influencing our threat perception. Yet, if we take stock of the Chinese Navy and compare it with us, we are miles behind. Our Nuclear triad is barely there, while the Chinese have a refined system in place.
However, our objectives are limited to IOR being stable. In achieving that limited goal, our geography provides us with adequate leverage against a Chinese threat and any other threats that Pakistan may pose.
Our shipping industry also needs a boost. We require immediate procurement, manpower enhancement, skill development, and capital investment to become a maritime power of consequence in the region.
Conclusion
The rising belligerency being wantonly displayed by China could provoke an unintended response with its spiralling dynamics. The extension of the theatre, where such displays were previously limited to the South China Sea, to now include the Western Pacific as well is quite disturbing. The obvious approach involves a higher level of force preparedness. A significantly higher fund allocation is essential if we are to keep our frontiers defensible. Such allocations must be made quickly, as time is not on our side.
Brig SK Chatterji (Retd)
Editor, Bharatshakti.in
