[Francohio]

Hey don't sweat it. The Russkis know from nothing about carriers. Probably one of those ski-jump jobs, or a carrier for that funky combloc VTOL naval fighter.

I wouldn't worry about the Chicom developing catapults ... on the other hand if your local Wal-Mart runs out of bungee cord ... then, I might worry.

Can they tow it fast enough to launch planes?

[Orangedog]

It's not the Russian carrier itself that concerns me, but the technology it takes to build one. Having the husk of a former super-power's flat top will save the Chicoms years in developing one from scratch. While Soviet hardware is the most advanced, it's functional.

In 10 years they will be able to nuke any city in the U.S. I mean, with them having that kind of capability, how many carriers would they really need to become an even more serious national security threat?

[rmlew]

Hey don't sweat it. The Russkis know from nothing about carriers. Probably one of those ski-jump jobs, or a carrier for that funky combloc VTOL naval fighter.

The Admiral Kuznetsov class are not American style supercarriers but they are more than just V/Stol carriers.
The Kuznetsov class is an evolution of the Kiev class designed to carry navalized fixed wing SU-27k and Mig-29K as well as helicopters. Like the Kiev it has a ski-jump (instead of catapults) and serious ant-shipping capabilities.