China's Shipyards Are Ready for a Protracted War. America's Aren't

In a "protracted war", ships will be better known as "high value targets" --- just waiting for a cheap (relative to the cost of the ship) missile, drone or bomb to take them out.

Sinking an expensive ship is not a technological problem, it is a political one. In any sort of "protracted war", political restraints would presumably be removed.

In which case, a bigger problem will become apparent --- how to make such a war "protracted". Any such attempt would likely be over in a matter of days.

In the Pacific War in the 1940s, the US was able to build replacements for its ships that were sunk, but Japan wasn't. Japan started the war with about 3 times the number of carriers than the US had, but soon ran out of carriers (and other ships). The US meanwhile had the manufacturing capacity to replace its lost ships and build extras.

In today's world, China has the manufacturing capacity to outbuild and replace lost ships and the US hasn't.

The US should not repeat Japan's mistake of starting a war that it doesn't have the capacity to win. But it seems it will. History always repeats.

EDIT: Downvoted rapidly. Seems Americans just can't let go of that 'We're Exceptional!' mindset. Actually, that's a very good thing.

I assume in a war the shipyards would be bombed.

First Reaction: Irrelevant, because America falls miserably short of being able to fight any sort of "protracted" war with China.

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