China’s military hasn’t fought a war since 1979, and its new naval and air forces are untested in combat, but Chinese strategists have studied other wars and learned from other militaries, likely including lessons from the US’s use of “rings of air- and missile-defense management,” ranging from combat air patrols by carrier aircraft down to each ship’s close-in weapon systems, said Lyle Goldstein, the director of Asia engagement at Defense Priorities, a think tank.
“I think it’s fair to say that they may even be on par with us,” Goldstein said in an interview in May. “China generally gets high marks in air defense, and they’ve come a long way, and they’ve gotten a lot of coaching from the Russians.”
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