Asia Pacific beefs up maritime defences
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
SINGAPORE: Navies in the Asia-Pacific are expected to spend 108 billion US dollars to boost submarine and other maritime defences over the next 10 years, organisers of a defence conference said on Monday.
They said the spending would outstrip maritime defence expenditure in the US and Europe. Nearly 30 percent, or 30 billion dollars, will go to acquiring submarines, while the rest will buy anti-submarine vessels, patrol ships, fast attack craft and amphibious vessels, organisers of the IMDEX Asia 2007 maritime defence show said.
Regional countries are expected to acquire a total of 841 vessels by 2016, they said. Of these, 83 will be submarines, with the most orders coming from emerging Asian power China. This would include five nuclear-powered missile submarines and 30 attack submarines to add to its current fleet, figures released by the organisers showed.
Senior US officials have spoken critically of China’s military budget, expressing concerns that the Chinese are under-reporting the size of their spending and that it is expanding too quickly. China announced in March a 17.8 percent rise in military spending for this year to 45 billion dollars.
“The projected 108 billion US dollar expenditure makes the region the number one market for naval procurement over the next decade,” said Roger Marriott, managing director of IMDEX Asia, the region’s biggest maritime defence show. afp
Could this be the blue print for the end of American naval domination in the region?