Excess water and salt on deck can lead to slipping hazards as well as accelerated rusting of the deck and equipment affixed to it. Ordinary seamen often bear the brunt of the swabbing duties, and many look forward to earning their able seaman’s ticket and being done with swabbing. — Wikipedia
via The Brigade
China has launched their second hand aircraft carrier to much fanfare despite not having a single plane that can land on it. military experts are disdainful of the development but none more so than American officials:
US military planners have played down the significance of the commissioning of the carrier. Some navy officials have even said they would encourage China to move ahead with building its own aircraft carrier and the ships to accompany it, because it would be a waste of money.
Other military experts outside China have agreed with that assessment.
“The aircraft carrier is useless for the Chinese navy,” You Ji, a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, said. “If it is used against America, it has no survivability. If it is used against China’s neighbours, it’s a sign of bullying.”
Len Brown should bid against the Aussies for the base for a US Carrier Group. the economic benefits would far outweigh a silly taxi race around Pukekohe:
A report for the US military contains a recommendation to expand America’s defence presence in Australia by massively expanding a base in Perth for a US aircraft carrier and supporting fleet.
The report’s authors will give testimony before Congress’s Armed Services Committee on Wednesday in the US.
The CSIS was directed to consider how the US military could undertake the “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region announced by President Barack Obama last year in response to China’s increasing influence.
The third option in the report – formally titled US Force Posture Strategy in the Asia Pacific Region: An Independent Assessment - details moving a US carrier strike group to the HMAS Stirling base in Perth.
The strike group would include a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, a carrier air wing of up to nine squadrons, one or two guided missile cruisers, two or three guided missile destroyers, one or two nuclear powered submarines and a supply ship.
“Australia’s geography, political stability, and existing defence capabilities and infrastructure offer strategic depth and other significant military advantages to the United States in light of the growing range of Chinese weapons systems, US efforts to achieve a more distributed force posture, and the increasing strategic importance of south-east Asia and the Indian Ocean,” says the report.
Watch this awesome video of the USS Carl Vinson:
