On Sunday Russia's defense ministry announced plans to purchase two French Amphibious Assault Ships. The Mistral class ship is most similar to our LHD USS Iwo Jima a Wasp class amphibious assault ship.
The plan is to buy two Mistral class helicopter carriers plus the complete technology to enable
Russia to build their own ships. Delivery of the first ship is thought to be in 2013.
The Mistral is capable of transporting and deploying 16 helicopters, 4 landing barges up to 70 armored vehicles including 13 battle tanks and 450 personnel.
Russia plans to use their own helicopters which will require some modification to the flight deck and
elevators, making the ship a little larger.
Reports say that at present no shipyard in Russia is capable of producing the Misstral class ship, and
massive upgrades and improvements must be made before production can begin.
Also since Russia has no ship of this type in their navy all officers and crew members will require extensive training before the ship would be ready for sea.
This is one more step in the Russian plan to rebuild their military, making their navy bigger and stronger. Could it be a return to the Cold War type and size military making Russia once again a superpower to be reckoned with?
With China and Russia making their military forces stronger and larger the U.S. must continue with
our ship building program.
Talks of cutting the defense budget in the face of other countries ever growing buildup must be looked at very closely. We can not allow our country to fall behind.
---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996
No comments:
Post a Comment