Posted on 09/07/2008 2:55:40 AM PDT by DJ Elliott
The general also confirmed that a decision to build new aircraft carriers for the Russian Navy had been adopted.
Russia's Navy commander, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky, said in July that the Navy command had decided to form in the future 5-6 aircraft carrier task forces to be deployed with the Northern and Pacific fleets.
(Excerpt) Read more at en.rian.ru ...
I was just going to say... with what money ? Sure they’ve made a killing with oil and gas lately, but ships are extremely expensive.
They better hope oil prices stay high.
But note they don’t define what type carriers. We know one can slap a flight deck on a Liberty Ship and have a “carrier”. If they are talking half a dozen full sized carriers they are playing games with the west yet again. If they are talking small ships comparable to the British and Italian ski-jump carriers, might be true.
Overall, I’d call this more bluff and fantasy.
The problem Russia has is that one of the reasons they have money now (other than oil) is because Moscow has become a tourist and financial center. There is a lot of money going through there. If they start up their cold war crap again, the tourists will be gone and the investors pull their money out.
Which means their entire economy would rest upon oil and natural gas. Talk about skating on thin ice...
They’ll use their proxies Iran and/or Venezuela to rattle their swords to drive oil prices up. So far it has worked like a charm. I suspect you can only cry war so many times though before it is ignored. Then they’ll have to up the ante...
Ping
They don’t have an economy capable of building even 2-3 of those, let alone 5-6.
Pure bluff and fantasy.
Check out the RSI since the Russian invasion of Georgia. It has seriously tanked. The investors are already bailing out.
Another reason to support Palin. Higher domestic oil supply = lower oil prices = less cash for Russia and Iran.
McCain has to make oil a bigger issue than he has so far.
Oil wealth is empowering our enemies.
High oil prices are sapping the strength of America.
McCain has to do a better job of emphasizing how important this single issue — oil — actually is.
As for confining his new drilling initiatives to “off shore” (and leaving Artic Oil in the ground), maybe he should point out that “off shore” includes ALL our American coastlines:
Atlantic
Gulf Coast
Pacific
Bering Sea
Artic Ocean
I read several articles last week talking about the investor drain. People have already pulled out billions of $s and their stock market took a crash last week. They want it both ways. Won’t happen.
Exactly. It looks like the mere threat that the US would develop our own energy resources has been enough push oil prices down by over $20 a barrel and stabilize the dollar despite the mortgage mess.
To win Cold War II the US needs to make a major push for energy independence.
““off shore” includes ALL our American coastlines:
Atlantic
Gulf Coast
Pacific
Bering Sea
Artic Ocean”
+1
McCain/Palin 08!
Worse than that, the Russian defense industry workforce is aging and ever less capable of producing modern weapons and systems. Russia's demographic decline will soon make it much harder to man their military, and their impending oil industry decline will make their finances shaky after another ten years.
All you say is correct; the construction of a Nimitz class carrier such as the Ronald Reagan is the most complex and expensive project, perhaps second only to our space program, that the Russians could undertake. Then, the manning, training, execution of various tasks is beyond the scope and ability of the Russian military. Long story short, let's do hope that the Russians would be so stupid to pour huge amounts of their money, resources and energy down what would be a sink-hole for them. I don't think it will happen, wish it would though...
Let ‘em spend all they like. You don’t build naval avaition overnight.
High ?
They had better hope oil hit $1,200.00 a barrel for that kind of spending spree!
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