What if...

[RecruitMonty]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

China is certainly a regional threat but it has quite a way to go before becoming a world threat (other then nuclear).
You don't build a fleet overnight, and you certainly don't get the training and experience needed to be anything but a 3rd rate one regardless of how technologically advanced your ships are in anything less then 15-20 years after you have enough ships built.
I don't care how big and advanced their army is if they can't get it anywhere and supply it once it's there it's not a major world threat.

Operating, of course, on the principal that China's competitors at the very least maintain their current standards / readiness throughout this 20-30 year period.

If the over-all quality of Western Navies deteriorates in the mean time then the experience gap becomes much smaller and is therefore more readily obtainable within a shorter time period.

Navies are expensive to run at the best of times. Sailors don't stay in the service nearly as long as they once used to either and I'm pretty sure that demographic shifts will play more of a role regarding over-all recruit quality/performance as time goes by in the West as well.