[butlerweave]

but do their planes and pilots work

[Williams]

Exactly. Building carriers and effectively operating them - two different things.

[rdcbn]

No, their planes are all garbage and their pilots all have squinty eyes because they wear coke bottle goggles, just like the Japanese carrier pilots before WWII.

Or so we thought

[Leaning Right]

Back in 1904 Russia got into a little squabble with Japan. The smart money was on Russia, a great Western power. The smart money was wrong. The “inferior” Asian country won decisively.

Does a similar situation exist today? Nope. But in 20 years, who knows?

[xkaydet65]

My guess is their aircraft will be V/STOL. Nn need for catapults and wire landings. Used to be there were performance limitations on V/STOL aircraft . Don’t know if that still holds true. I do know the difficulty of landing on a carrier was a major reason for the Russkies not going in that direction.