[OT]Wither Canada? And Australias

> >Strange you bring it up but I was reading about the
You are absolutely right! However, one nation (Australia) sold a 19,500 ton
carrier (the HMAS Melbourne) in 1985 to the PRC for scrapping. The problem is
that it just doesn't seem to have been
scrapped and is/was being used to study carrier
operations. They tried to buy the French carrier Clemenceau but failed. The
also bought two of the
Cruser/Carrier Kiev class (45,000 tons) and are
using them as "entertainment attractions".

They did buy the 75% complete Russian CV the Varyag (67,500 tons) which was to
have been converted into a casino in Macao. The only problem is that the
company that bought it doesn't exist, the harbor is too shallow and the ship
is now in a Chinese shipyard for unspecified work. The sister ship is
operational in the Russian navy flying Mig-29s and
SU-27s.

The rumor is that the Chinese have acquired (from Russia) or are building an
80,000 ton CV(CVN?) which will be operational in 2008. If it was acquired
from Russia then it is the Ul'yanovsk which was 45-50%
complete when construction stopped.

Add 4 X Kilo(SS) Purchased, 3 X Akula (SSN) under negotiation and 4 to 6 Type
093(SSN) they are building and their attack submarine fleet is growing. They
have also leased 3 X Typhoons (SSBN) which give them a balistic missle punch.

> >Give China a couple of victories against their

The US armed forces were cut by 1/3 under Clinton
and may be cut again if the terrorist threat is precived as going down. In any
case, ships & tanks & aircraft are not the weapons to fight terrorists with so
may be allowed to vegetate in limbo in order to add more to the border patrol.
Throw in a President Hilery Clinton and the US may not want to get involved in
a "local problem" in Ausralia.

> much. But, Australia might want to watch to the

The Royal navy and Australian navy are good but it takes time to build ships
and the Chinese are building now. In another 10 years the Chinese economy and
the communist government may result in a government that will have an expand
or die mentality.
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