China Arms a Container Ship | Picket/Surveillance | First Strike | Cost Effective | Expendable

China's Armed Merchant Cruiser December 29, 2025 In this episode, Sal Mercogliano — a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner — discusses the outfitting by the Chinese of Zhongda 79 as an armed merchant cruiser and discusses its potential applications. #chian #navy #cruiser #zhongda79 Support What's Going on With Shipping via: Patreon: www.patreon.com/wgowshipping Twitter: @mercoglianos Bluesky: @mercoglianos.bsky.social Facebook: @wgowshipping Email: [email protected] 00:00 China Converts a Containership into an Armed Warship 03:17 Armed Merchant Cruisers vs Commerce Raiders 05:33 Why Did China Arm Zhong Da 79? 07:44 China's Merchant Marine as a Naval Auxiliary Force 10:56 How does this compare to US Navy's Battleship and Frigate programs? 13:03 Strategic Use and First Strike Capability 16:48 Cost Effectiveness and Expendability - Battleship or Armed Merchant Cruisers? Marine Traffic www.marinetraffic.com Chinese Cargo Ship Packed Full Of Modular Missile Launchers Emerges https://www.twz.com/sea/chinese-cargo... German WW2 Commerce Raiders https://naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/ge... Pentagon Annual Report on Chinese Military and Security Developments https://news.usni.org/2025/12/24/pent... Alarming Navy Intel Slide Warns Of China’s 200 Times Greater Shipbuilding Capacity https://www.twz.com/alarming-navy-int... Mysterious Guided Rocket Launcher Disguised In A Shipping Container At Fort Bragg Identified https://www.twz.com/land/mysterious-g... Army Counter Drone System Pops Out Of A Shipping Container https://www.twz.com/army-counter-dron... What We Know About Ukraine’s Mass Drone Assault On Russian Bombers https://www.twz.com/news-features/wha... Mind the Gap: How China’s Civilian Shipping Could Enable a Taiwan Invasion https://warontherocks.com/2021/08/min... Chinese Barge Usable For Potential Taiwan Beach Landings Seen In Action In New Image https://www.twz.com/sea/chinese-barge... China Maritime Studies Institute https://www.usnwc.edu/Research-and-Wa...