There is a significant message in this Star Wars looking arrangement - the Chinese are no longer copying us, they are innovating on their own and don't need to rip off from us anymore
For years, the U.S. Military felt they were the high art form of JLOTS.
For the military expert and wonk, this means “Joint Logistics Over The Shore” or for the untrained lay-person, hick, and hayseed, it is a fancy way of saying, “how do you get all of your stuff off ocean going ships to the shore and beyond when a developed port is not available?” For years, JLOTS was a Joint problem set that Army and Navy worked on together which traced to the high watermark of this art form - World War II.
Since then, much of the U.S. Military JLOTS art form has lived on conceptual powerpoint slides with little development and fielding of capabilities other than nominal tests and demonstrations that Big Army and Big Navy conducted every so often and pretended to be interested in.
When JLOTS was needed (rightly or wrongly) to supply Gaza during the era of the Biden Committee running the U.S. into the ground, the simplistic Gaza Pier was an utter disaster. This showed the true fecklessness of DOD JLOTS.
The Chinese have just introduced their version of a beach landing/bridging craft.
Their barges, or “unnamed” bridge vessels could potentially create a viable and resilient bridge network between Chinese Navy ships and Taiwan, or outlying beachheads.
The “self-jacking” barges are significant leap ahead of the JLOTS powerpoint conceptual slides the Chinese have been downloading for years off of DOD websites.
My concern is that DOD strategic thought, clarity, and innovation have been catastrophically dulled by decades of DEI and Pre-DEI Group Think.
Our best and brightest couldn’t think strategically, much less actually implement, even in a prototype mode.
This is the most disturbing take away from the scary and chilling Chinese Navy photos.
JLOTS and the entirety of the maritime domain has been identified by President Trump as a foundational imperative for the Golden Age of America. President Trump preemptively committed to the Nation’s return to American ship-building and increasing maritime and naval world-wide capabilities, via an Executive Order.
The U.S. Navy and Army need to up their game and catch up. The Chinese have stopped downloading our powerpoint slides and are now doing their own thing, in a much more advanced manner.
What if there's 5 feet of clay and silt upon a muddy bottom ?