Yeah, pretty much what I said. They are now building aircraft equivalent to 70's and 80's era western tech like the F16, and trying to buy in modern electronics for them. Building diesels and AIP stuff is not the same as building quiet nuclear boats. They are striving to become a global player, but are still lacking advanced tech in many areas.
Non nuke subs are little mobile minefields, no good for projecting power globally at all, which is why the US (and more recently the UK) stopped using them. Fine if you just want a local defence, or don't have the resources for nuclear, but you can bet the PLAN would be building lots of them if they could make them work well. Long range diesels or AIP are not in the same league. Given time and their constant growth in all arenas, they will get there someday soon.
|