In a war with China, achieving sea control would require defeating or degrading the surface and submarine forces of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to reduce the cruise missile threat to U.S. Navy ships. Today, however, the Navy lacks sufficient platforms to conduct long-range antisubmarine and surface warfare strikes at the scale that would be required.1 Until the Naval Strike Missile, Maritime Strike Tomahawk, and improved SM-6 missiles arrive in large numbers, surface combatants also lacks a credible long-range surface warfare capability. F/A-18s, F-35s, and the P-8 Poseidon carry a relatively limited number of antiship cruise missiles and are hardly adequate for the task.

China currently has between 313 and 342 warships—including some 70 attack submarines and 115 destroyers, frigates, and corvettes—concentrated in its near seas within the umbrella of antiship cruise and ballistic missiles.2 As of 2018, the U.S. Navy had 285 “deployable battle force ships” spread across the globe.3

In short, the U.S. Navy cannot win this fight alone.