China is building a powerful navy to take on the US in the Pacific — here's what its arsenal looks like

• China's naval force is growing at an incredible rate, not just in size but also in combat capability. It's reportedly growing faster than any other great-power navy.
• The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is fielding a variety of new warships and submarines, as well as new weapons, to tip the scales in its favor in the region.
• Here are some of the vessels the PLAN is adding to its expanding arsenal.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is one of the largest naval forces in the world, and it continues to grow. More importantly, though, China is rapidly building and fielding increasingly capable naval vessels, weapons that could tip the scales in the US-dominated Pacific.

The Chinese PLAN has probably benefited the most from the country's major military-modernization plan, the goal of which is to transform the Chinese armed services into a world-class fighting force capable of defeating another great power.

In the mid-1990s, China's naval forces were weak, consisting of an almost entirely defenseless collection of just under 60 destroyers and frigates and 80 attack submarines, most of which were old diesel-electric Soviet models. The Chinese navy also had a few nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines, but they were extremely noisy, Rand Corp. said in a report on the development of the PLAN over the past few decades.

But the nature of China's navy is changing, both in terms of size and capability as the PLAN equips its ever-expanding fleet with more advanced weapons and sensors.

China has been churning ships out at an incredible rate. In 2016 and 2017, China commissioned 18 and 14 ships, respectively. (Some other observers have put that number even higher.) The US Navy commissioned only five and eight ships during those years. As of last year, China had more than 300 ships, far more than the US Navy. The Center for Strategic and International Studies predicts that China could have as many as 430 surface ships and 100 submarines within the next 15 years, if not sooner.

Here is what China has been and is adding to its naval arsenal, according to the Pentagon and Reuters, citing analysts.

Conventional and nuclear submarines.

The Pentagon expects China's submarine force to grow to 78 by 2020, according to the Department of Defense's (DOD) 2018 China-military-power report. Modernizing the submarine force remains a priority for the PLAN.

Type 022 Houbei missile boats.

The Chinese PLAN has at least 60 of these stealthy guided-missile fast-attack ships, according to the Pentagon.

Type 056 Jiangdao corvettes.

"The PLAN is augmenting its littoral warfare capabilities, especially in the South China Sea and East China Sea, with high-rate production of the Jiangdao-class corvettes," DOD said. Reuters reported that the PLAN has already taken delivery of more than 40 of these ships, with as many as 60 expected to join the fleet.