In an article published in Le Journal du Dimanche on Saturday, Borrell took a swipe at French President Emmanuel Macron’s sense of detachment on Taiwan as reflected in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month. Borrell argued in the French publication that “Europe must in fact be very present on this issue [of Taiwan], which concerns us economically, commercially and technologically.”
Borrell continued: “That is why I call on European navies to patrol the Taiwan Strait to signify Europe’s commitment to freedom of navigation in this absolutely crucial area. At the same time, we must be vigilant against provocations and overbidding.”
I wonder how much washington paid him for this
The number of vertical launch cells is a quick and dirty way of assessing naval strength of surface combatants since VLS systems are the main offensive and often defensive armament of modern surface ships.
The Royal Navy has in total 672 vertical launch cells for missiles across all of its fleet.
A single Chinese Type 055 Destroyer carrys 112 VLS cells. This means that just the 8 currently active Type 055s have more firepower than the entire Royal Navy.
Not even accounting for the Type 055s having bigger VLS cells, more advanced anti-ship missiles, and the angry swarm of missiles and aircraft the Chinese could flood the Taiwan strait with on short notice.