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Aerial oblique view of a U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter and a fast patrol boat
Should armed conflict erupt with China, blockading the first island chain using fast attack craft—perhaps based on the Mark V or VI platform—and rotary-wing aircraft could weaken China’s economy and war effort.
U.S. Navy (Stacy Laseter)

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Blockade the First Island Chain

By Lieutenant Matthew Conners, U.S. Navy
June 2019
Proceedings
Nobody Asked Me, But . . .
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A nation reliant on seaborne trade will become less capable of, and less willing to, wage war when deprived of access to such trade. Shipping flowing into and out of the first island chain feeds the Chinese economy. If armed conflict should erupt between China and the United States, the U.S. Navy should establish and maintain a blockade around the first island chain.

British naval historian Sir Julian Corbett talked about two fundamental types of blockade: tactical blockades, which involve monitoring ports and coastlines, and strategic blockades, which control chokepoints and major shipping lanes. In the China scenario, only the latter is feasible. The numerous chokepoints in and around the first island chain make China especially vulnerable to a blockade of strategic points.

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Lieutenant Matthew Conners, U.S. Navy

Lieutenant Conners is a surface warfare officer stationed at the Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center in San Diego. A 2012 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he holds a master of arts in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School.

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