“Their learning curve will be steep, but I have no doubt they’ll become proficient with that ship.”
Don’t be so sure. The Russians have a hard time keeping their carriers functioning.
I used to read a certain military author until one book described the Iranians proficiently landing on a carrier. I couldn’t help but laugh and put the book down. I never read a page of any of his books again.
Top speed of 32 knots.....that’s so cute. They will have troubles recovering an aircraft with a flap problem in light winds.
This story can’t be right. After all we had all the FR posters who gobbled up all the casino/ hotel BS and who downplayed the idea that the Chinese could ever deploy a carrier. And those buck-toothed four-eyed little Nips could never be any threat to our mighty Pacific Fleet battleship force either.
Incidentally, I think they got the “hotel/casino” cover story because that was an idea put forward upon the retirement of the destroyer killer HMAS Melbourne.