China expanding its naval fleet, building at least 20 warships a year: US Navy Secretary

Secretary of the US Navy Carlos Del Toro on Thursday said that China is building at least 20 warships a year and is expanding the naval fleet in a way that the US does not have the financial resources to compete with, reported Sputnik.

The Secretary also said that the United States is not matching the rate at which China is expanding its naval fleet.

"China has 17 shipyards: Last year they built 20 warships [and] this year they're building another 20 ships. I'm concerned we need to build more ships. ...We need to increase resources 3 per cent to 5 per cent over inflation. We're raising the alarm [to Congress]," Sputnik quoted Toro as saying at the Aspen Security Forum 2021.

Toro further said that Congress would approve increased appropriations that include the building of more destroyers and adapting Zumwalt class warships to carry hypersonic weapons as a result of the challenge posed to the US by China's maritime expansion.

"I'm quite confident we will be seeing multi-year procurements in support of us building DDGs [destroyers] in the future. ... Major investments we are making on hypersonic missile tubes on the Zumwalt class of ships... represents a formidable deterrent to China," Sputnik quoted Toro as saying.

The Secretary also termed China as the "most significant" pacing threat that is facing the US and said that it is "the number one threat that we have to pay attention to".

( With inputs from ANI )

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