Early in the morning of December 4, the Southern Theater of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) issued a statement saying that the USS Giffords, a littoral combat ship of the US Navy, had illegally intruded into the waters near Ren'ai Jiao without China's approval. I believe that many netizens received relevant push messages after getting up that day, but because the United States has often trespassed into the waters adjacent to China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea in recent years, everyone has not paid too much attention to this information. However, this action of the United States ** is by no means just a formality, but a major conspiracy.
First of all, from the point of view of time, the notice issued by the PLA Southern Theater at about 6 o'clock in the morning shows that the US "Giffords" littoral combat ship wanted to take advantage of the cover of night to forcibly enter Ren'ai Jiao. In fact, when the Southern Theater issued the announcement, the PLA's maritime forces had already completed the task of following and monitoring the United States, which shows that the United States' forcible intrusion operation is very likely to occur in the middle of the night. However, fortunately, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has formed a 24-hour all-weather surveillance capability on Ren'ai Jiao, and any foreign ships that attempt to approach the reef will be driven away by the liberation plane, which has frustrated the US plan to take advantage of the darkness to break into Ren'ai Jiao.
Second, unlike the previous dispatch of the "Aegis" destroyer, the US military dispatched the "Giffords" littoral combat ship with a smaller tonnage and weaker firepower, and this is precisely the insidious aspect of the US military. The "Giffords" belongs to the "Independence" class littoral combat ship, and the biggest feature of this battleship is that it adopts a three-body structure, and the contact area between the hull and the water surface is much smaller than that of ships of the same tonnage, and it has the potential for high-speed sailing. Fueled by two MT30 gas turbines and two 16PA6B STC diesel engines, the Littoral Combat Ship "Giffords" reached a maximum speed of an astonishing 50 knots (926 km/h), and the maximum speed of most sea boats is only 30 knots (556 kilometers per hour), which means that it is difficult for the Chinese sea boat to catch up with the littoral combat ship "Giffords", which poses a difficult problem for the PLA Southern Theater of Operations.
Third, in the past, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) dispatched its fighters when it drove away the United States, but this time, the "Giffords" littoral combat ship only dispatched naval forces and did not dispatch fighters, which makes people intriguing. As we mentioned above, the "Giffords" littoral combat ship is a high-speed combat ship with a maximum speed of up to 50 knots, and at present, only the 022 missile boat can keep up with the speed of the "Giffords" in the PLA Navy's combat sequence, but the 022 missile boat is small in size and cannot play a deterrent role in the US ship. Like the "Giffords" littoral combat ship, the 022 missile boat also adopts a three-body structure, and the maximum speed has reached 50 knots, but the full load displacement of the 022 missile boat is less than 300 tons, while the full load tonnage of the "Giffords" is as high as 2780 tons, so in terms of size, our 022 missile boat is at an absolute disadvantage.
Since the 022 missile boat and the "Giffords" littoral combat ship are both high-speed ships, it is easy to collide in the process of chasing between the two sides, and once an accident occurs, it will be extremely unfavorable to our side, so in the face of the high-speed intrusion of the "Giffords", the 022 missile boat may not be strongly intercepted, which can explain why the PLA maritime forces only tracked and monitored the "Giffords" this time.
Therefore, through the above three points, we can find that the forced intrusion of the US "Giffords" littoral combat ship into the waters adjacent to Ren'ai Jiao was a long-planned action, and the purpose was to test the PLA's response speed at night. If we are unable to respond in a timely manner to the USS Giffords, then the United States may directly resupply the Philippine Navy's "Sierra Madre" tank landing ship that is "beached" in the shoals of Ren'ai Jiao, and once the "Sierra Madre" receives reinforcement building materials, then the Philippine military will remain on Ren'ai Jiao for a long time.
In 1999, the Philippine military deliberately drove the USS Sierra Madre tank landing ship onto the shoals of China's Ren'ai Jiao, resulting in the fact of illegal "beaching." After the "beaching," dozens of Philippine Navy soldiers were stationed on the landing ship "Sierra Madre" all year round, and China had repeatedly ordered the Philippines to tow away the "Sierra Madre," but more than 20 years later, this old ship from World War II is still relying on Ren'ai Jiao. However, after a long period of sea corrosion, the "Sierra Madre" landing ship has long been decayed, there have been many large holes in the rust at the waterline, and the interior of the cabin is no longer suitable for human survival, so the Filipino soldiers moved the living quarters to the deck. It is foreseeable that if the "Sierra Madre" continues to suffer from seawater corrosion, then the complete disintegration of the ship is a high probability event, and the Philippine soldiers will have no place on Second Thomas Shoal.
However, since the beginning of this year, the Philippine Coast Guard has repeatedly tried to illegally resupply the "Sierra Madre" landing ship in an attempt to reinforce the ship and "renew the life" of the old ship. However, every illegal supply operation of the Philippines was blocked by the Chinese coast guard, so the Philippine side also knew that it would be difficult to "prolong the life" of the "Sierra Madre" by relying on its own strength, so it began to actively seek help from the United States. In this regard, the United States has also made it clear that it will provide support services for the Philippines in repairing the "Sierra Madre" landing ship, and the specific services include escort and supply operations, so we have reason to suspect that the "Giffords" littoral combat ship forcibly intruded into the waters near Ren'ai Jiao in the middle of the night in preparation for the illegal supply of the "Sierra Madre" landing ship in the future.
Considering that the "Giffords" littoral combat ship can carry 2 MH-60R S*** or one CH-53 "Super Stallion" transport *** with a certain vertical supply capacity, the ship can quickly lift and reinforce building materials for the "Sierra Madre" landing ship, which we have to guard against.
Since the 022 missile boat could not take on the task of driving away the US littoral combat ship, the PLA's Mischief Island airfield, which is only more than 30 kilometers away from Ren'ai Jiao, from where it only takes a few minutes for fighters to take off and reach the skies over Ren'ai Jiao, which can quickly intercept any foreign ship that tries to approach Ren'ai Jiao. If the US military dares to directly carry out vertical replenishment of the "Sierra Madre" landing ship, then the possibility of a mismatch between China and the United States cannot be ruled out.
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