Posted on 08/26/2005 5:52:25 AM PDT by Colorado Doug
I like your remark about tyrannies....see my tag line!
I see a big problem on the horizon with the Chinese Navy. There is this reoccuring nightmare I have about their using nukes on our ships before entering into any other warfare; I wouldn't put it past them.
Hiryu and Soryu were designed as carriers and were roughly contemporaries of the Yorktown class. Kaga was a conversion from a fast battleship and Akagi was a conversion from a battle cruiser.
I stand corrected, 2 of the 4 were conversions, not 3 as I stated.
They know it...and we know it. They are making their plans accordingly, as are we.
In the litoral waters around the Chinese coast and out to that first island chain, they are building the necessary sub force, surface force and air force to give us severe problems that close to their home. Taiwan, the Spratleys and numerous other strategic bottlenecks and locals all exist there that they will want to secure for thier growth towards heonomy and that we will want to deny them to secure our own passage and sea lanes and that of our allies.
I expect sometime just before 2010 there will be a test, a severe test, in that area unless the dynamics change significantly (ie., we cease our funding of their economic growth which is fueling their military growth, the Chinese people rebel and throw off the Communists...or, God forbid, a Hillary Clinton or someone of that ilk gets into the White House).
My guess is they xrayed the hull, worked through getting all of the rust treated, demagnitized her and then painted her up like new. To what purpose (training, further study, or actual complete refit) we do not know. But I do not believe that it will end up a casino.
Utter and complete strategic madness on their part if they do. They would be essentially repeating Germany's mistake in building the High Seas Fleet. And a Chinese blue water force will be just about as useful to them as the High Seas Fleet. Better to take the classic "land power" approach to sea power by building a maritime interdiction force the way France did the Germans did in WWI and WWII and the USSR did during the Cold War.
That should be "the way France did during the Napoleonic Wars, the way the Germans did during..."
They are following more along the lines of the Japanese Imperial Fleet.
I believe they hope to have a democrat in the White House and then to present us with a multi-front scenario engineered by their surrogates before they ever test us head-on over Taiwan.
I pray I am wrong, but believe we must be ever vigilant and prepared, and that we should act now, economically and through military increases to avert it.
Just my opinion.
Wal-Mart Dollars at work.
Talk about your short life span objects.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Gee how smart can these guys be if they buy a 30 year old RUSSIAN design.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Gee how smart can these guys be if they buy a 30 year old RUSSIAN design.
For those of you who don't speak Navalese, he means Submarines.
The ship doesn't matter as much as the aircraft. I don't dismiss this construction as ineffective. It's a projection of power in anybody's book.
For about 30 seconds after war is declared, then it is a very expense casket.
Especially when they paid Clinton good money for more up to date designs.
Especially when they paid Clinton good money for more up to date designs.</i>
Stay away from Ft Marcey Park C.D.! Telling the truth about a Clinton can be hazarous to one health! :-}
China doesn't have to go to war. It can just bully its neighbors and restrict itself to short 'skirmishes'. The U.S. (or anyone else) would not have a chance to intervene, China would dig in, and the results would be accepted as moot. The same tactic would could easily be repeated.
<< their "pilots are inept enough already, now they want them to try to do carrier landings ... >>
Why not? American military aeroplanes them with Naval "aviators" sitting inside!
Air Force Rules!
Per Ardua ad Astra!
Yup. As did the Brits with Courageous and Glorious. Basically if you wanted to be in the fleet carrier business in the 1920s, you did so by converting fast capital ships.
Which kind of raises another point on the Chinese getting into the naval aviation business. Only three nations have ever sucessfully accomplished fixed wing, flat deck carrier aviation and two of them are currently out of the business. What the Chinese don't have and are going to be hard pressed to develop on their own is that naval aviation history and experience. Good luck learning that without lots of time, money and blood.
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