MOSCOW – According to recent research published by the Center of Strategicand Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a think tank based in Washington, DC, theUS fleet risks losing its superiority, as it faces difficulties incountering “the challenges posed by great powers like China and Russia”.

A new report by the CSBA entitled “Regaining the high ground at sea”, whichconsiders the prospects of the US Navy in a changing environment, claimsthat without the ability to support new missions, carriers and theiraircraft “would likely have gone the way of the battleship and left thefleet decades ago”.

The authors of the report, while giving assessments of possible futurethreats, examine the US military strategy and the country’s capabilities,warning that if current US naval and marine defence strategies were nottransformed, the US fleet wouldn’t be able to gain the upper hand in abattle with either Chinese or Russian military vessels.

The report recommends modernizing American Carrier Air Wings, which arelacking “the range, endurance, survivability, and specialization to carryout the operational concepts needed to defeat great power militaries”.

While analyzing how American and Soviet military capabilities evolvedduring the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, the authors say that eventhough the US “did not face a peer adversary” in the years following theCold War, the current situation has changed.

The authors note that missile defence systems, “including directed energyweapons and short-range interceptors”, which are being pursued by theDepartment of Defense, will not be sufficient in the case of potentialChinese and Russian missile launches.

Suggesting different naval force compositions, the researchers admit thattheir alternative plan “will be more expensive” than the one whichcurrently exists, however, in order to preserve the relevance of the USfleet it would be necessary. – Sputnik