WeChat<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Shugart, a former US submariner and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, noted the barges add to a growing list of innovative platforms, munitions and weapon systems the Chinese military has tested in recent years. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like them in the West. I have never seen anything like what we\u2019re seeing here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s defense ministry said it had assessed that the new barges were \u201cdesigned with an extendable ramp to serve as a makeshift dock, enabling the rapid offloading of main battle tanks and various vehicles in support of amphibious operations.\u201d It said it would continue to monitor the barges and assess their capabilities and operational limitations. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Chinese researchers from state-affiliated institutions claimed to have developed a powerful deep-sea device: a cable cutter capable of severing heavily fortified communication and power lines at depths of up to 4,000 meters \u2013 nearly twice the depth of the world\u2019s deepest undersea cable. <\/p>\n
The new design, published last month in the peer-reviewed Chinese journal Mechanical Engineer and first reported by the South China Morning Post, emerges amid growing concerns over the vulnerability of Taiwan\u2019s critical infrastructure. Recently, suspicious damage to the island\u2019s undersea cables has fueled fears of Chinese efforts to undermine the island\u2019s communications with the outside world. <\/p>\n
Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, said cable-cutting tools are commonly used for maintenance, and a breakthrough in the ability to sever cables at record depths with great efficiency isn\u2019t alarming in itself. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut what is alarming here is the political context that we attach to it,\u201d he noted, pointing to recent incidents of undersea cable damage involving Chinese vessels around Taiwan and in the Baltic Sea. <\/p>\n
The concern is that in the event of an invasion, China could sever the undersea cables around Taiwan, sowing panic among its public and potentially disrupting the island\u2019s military communication with the US and other partners. <\/p>\n
But Koh pointed out that the new cable-cutting design may have existed so far only in the experimental stage. \u201cWhether it has translated into operationalized tool for use is a big question mark,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The video of the landing barges offered the first close-up look at what the Naval News reported in January as \u201cspecial and unusual barges\u201d spotted at Guangzhou Shipyard. The outlet described them as reminiscent of Britain\u2019s Mulberry Harbors, which were built for the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. <\/p>\n
While some analysts suggest the barges could serve civilian purposes such as humanitarian relief, many experts \u2013 both in and outside Taiwan \u2013 believe they were built primarily for a military purpose. <\/p>\n
Su Tzu-yun, a director at the Institute for National Defense Security Research in Taiwan, said the barges could offer the PLA a strategic advantage by creating makeshift costal landing points \u2013 particularly if Taiwan destroys its own ports in self-defense in the event of an invasion. <\/p>\n
\u201cSuch barges have six or eight hydro feet that can lift them out of the water to create a stable platform, and then they can create a bridge from shallow water to a deeper area,\u201d Su said. <\/p>\n
Shugart, the former submariner, said the barges could even potentially drop a ramp across seawalls or other obstacles onto a coastal road, allowing the PLA to send troops and equipment to shore. <\/p>\n
He added that the barges also enhance operational speed. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen them set up and broken down and set up again multiple times within a matter of days,\u201d Shugart said, citing satellite images. <\/p>\n
However, due to their size and slow speed, these vessels are highly vulnerable to enemy fire and would likely only be deployed as part of a second wave, following the initial landing forces across the Strait, which is around 80 miles wide at its narrowest point, experts say. <\/p>\n
\u201cBefore they even think about embarking a landing force and sending troops across the (Taiwan) Strait, they would already make sure that they have seized air, information and naval dominance all the way across the strait,\u201d Shugart said. <\/p>\n
The barges \u201cwouldn\u2019t be brought forward until the environment had been made safe for them, just like in World War II D-Day, the US had complete air control and sea control before the landing forces went ashore,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Collin, the expert at RSIS in Singapore, said the barges are not designed for high intensity warfare at sea. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are slow, they are not so well protected on their own, and they require escorts, which must go at the same speed as those barges. And for some of the war fighting assets, speed is the essence,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Days before the video of the barges surfaced on Chinese social media, the Marine Safety Administration of Guangdong province issued a notice banning ships from entering a long, narrow body of water due to \u201cmaritime tests.\u201d The geo-coordinates of the restricted zone matched the location of the barges confirmed by satellite imagery. <\/p>\n
By March 21, satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed that the barges had moved about 15 kilometers south along the coast. The images also captured a roll-on\/roll-off (RO-RO) ferry docked beside the third and largest barge, positioned farthest from shore. Days later, a Planet Labs satellite image showed another RO-RO cargo ship approaching the same barge from the opposite side. <\/p>\n
According to Shugart, Chinese authorities may be testing the barges\u2019 ability to interface with civilian RO-RO vessels, which could significantly boost the PLA\u2019s sealift capabilities by enabling the rapid transfer of large numbers of wheeled and tracked vehicles. <\/p>\n
Designed to transport large numbers of vehicles to overseas markets, RO-RO ships have proliferated globally, but especially in China in recent years to meet the surging global demand for Chinese electric vehicles. But Chinese military planners and state media have also taken note of their dual-use capabilities to support the PLA\u2019s operations. <\/p>\n
In a 2021 military drill, China\u2019s state broadcaster CCTV praised RO-RO ferries for enabling \u201clarge-scale, full-unit land and sea deployment with immediate unloading and loading.\u201d Footage aired by the broadcaster showed rows of tanks neatly lined up inside such a ferry. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese barges can significantly improve the PLA capability to deliver logistics following an invasion,\u201d said Dahm, the former US Navy intelligence officer. <\/p>\n
But he noted they are only part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping\u2019s ambition to modernize the PLA and transform it into a \u201cworld class\u201d military. <\/p>\n
American officials believe Xi has instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, though they have stressed that doesn\u2019t mean an invasion will occur in 2027. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the context of all of the other improvements that we\u2019re seeing to PLA capabilities and especially to PLA infrastructure, the barges are just the shiny object that draws attention to the fact that the PLA is making these preparations to be prepared to act on Xi Jinping\u2019s orders in the next several years, if called upon to do so,\u201d Dahm said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From a chain of massive barges stretching from a Chinese beach into the sea, to a powerful new design for cutting undersea cables at record depths, China\u2019s latest maritime innovations have captured the attention of defense experts \u2013 fueling concerns about their potential role in a future invasion of Taiwan. While these new tools may <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}