On Tue, 5 Jan 2010 11:09:02 -0500, "vaughn"
wrote:


"jkochko68" wrote in message
...

I don't see why China bought that carrier unless they really want to use
it to confront the U.S. which they are nowhere near in a position to
effectively do unless they are crazy or very smart and ... (Political screed &
trollish crossposting snippped)

My guess is that they bought it simply to gain valuable and (perhaps) cheap
experience in carrier design and carrier air ops.

I don't think it's possible to have "cheap" experiences with any
carrier. :-)

The last folks who tried to create a "carrier capability" from scratch
were the Soviets. It really didn't work out all that well for them in
spite of massive amounts of money thrown at the problems. Having a
ship is only a part, and maybe a small part, of the whole system. You
need aircraft, crews (flight and deck), unrep capability, etc.

There's an old saying that "amateurs study tactics, professionals
study logistics." The logistics of carrier ops in local waters would
be significant. To try "blue water ops" would make them massive. It
took the USN, IJN, and RN a couple of generations to figure out
effective support and use of a carrier force. It will take the
Chinese that long (no matter how much expertise they can buy). It
will be interesting to see if they really want to spend that kind of
money.