Posted on 05/31/2012 10:50:51 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Insight: From a ferry, a Chinese fast-attack boat
(Reuters) - It looked like a textbook win-win deal when Australian high-speed ferry designer AMD Marine Consulting formed a joint venture in 1993 with the engineering arm of a state-owned Chinese shipbuilder.
The joint venture partner, Guangzhou Marine Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of the giant China State Shipbuilding Corporation, gained access to state-of-the-art technology in wave-piercing, aluminum-hull designs.
For AMD, a Sydney-based private company, the payoff was a foothold in China's maritime market during a period of rapid growth.
The joint venture, Seabus International Co, began designing high-speed aluminum catamaran ferries and sea rescue vessels for China's inland and coastal waters, according to the company's website.
That's when a third winner emerged.
Attracted to the performance of these fast, stable and relatively cheap vessels, the Chinese military adopted the technology as it began replacing its aging missile boats that had been derived from an obsolete Soviet design.
The new fleet of missile boats are part of a naval buildup that back up China's claims to islets and reefs in the South China Sea, waters rich in oil and gas and which half the world's ship tonnage passes through each year.
This growing military muscle has prompted the United States to make a strategic shift toward Asia.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, on his first visit to the region since announcing that shift in January, will brief allies about it this weekend, beginning with "The Shangri-La Dialogue". The event brings together senior civilian and military chiefs from nearly 30 Asia-Pacific states to foster security cooperation and takes its name from the host Singapore hotel.
MISSILE BOAT
Since 2004, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) navy has deployed a rapidly expanding fleet of heavily armed, Houbei class fast-attack missile
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Good ol Asroc comin at ya
Bad-looking boat! Any bow-on views — showing the hull cross-section?
That’s not an ASROC. Its a C802 (Chinese Exocet knockoff).
Reminder: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."
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