. They've had a good 20 years to develop their technology
As have we, and we've had more resources to do it with, and less restriction in terms of access. Their air force in particular has just gotten older. Their navy is to small and generally inferior. Their speedboats only cause a big problem if you don't have security against them ready (which could happen, we could get very sloppy, but it isn't likely).
The main threats are mines, subs, and anti-ship missiles.
Mines can be dealt with. If your careful they mostly slow you down a lot, rather than sink a bunch of your ships (but they could get lucky).
Subs can be a really serious threat, but their sub force isn't very good. Still this might be one of their better chances to score a big blow.
The relevant area where they have improved the most is probably anti-ship missiles, mostly land based ones, esp. mobile ones (their air force will mostly be wiped from the skies pretty quickly if we go full force against them, their ships won't last long either, and their fixed positions will be taken out, but trucks with missiles can be hard to find). Not really a threat to carriers (since their well protected and can operate out of range of the missiles), but some threat to other surface ships (esp. if we let them get the initiative).
And of course they can put more resources in to terrorism and supporting our enemies across the world. The impact might not be as immediate but it could be important. |
