November9, 2006:
China has halted the building of some surface ships, and is instead
building more experimental ships. Some of these look like the new American LCS
(littoral combat ship), which currently comes in two competing designs. The
Chinese apparently believe that, like a century ago (when the modern submarine,
battleship and destroyer were developed), warship design is about to go through
another transformation. So the Chinese don't want to spend a lot of money on
ships that will rapidly become obsolete. Innovation and experimentation goes
beyond new ship shapes. Chinese companies have been showing, at trade shows,
new designs for combat ship control centers. These use lots of flat panel
displays and snazzy graphics. For over a decade, China has been developing
military software for use on inexpensive personal computers. The Chinese believe
that the rapidly developing consumer electronics industry will be a major
contributor of new ideas, and hardware, for the military, and especially the
navy.