On Nov 20, 10:09 pm, Bill Kambic wrote:
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:50:28 -0800 (PST), wrote:
See:

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russ...t_One_999.html

Nice plans, but can they be carried out?

Very possibly, yes.

The Russians are swimming in a river of petrodollars and at
$100/barrel they will have the money to do the project.

The expertise? They've got some "in house" and might just be able to
hire the rest. We're not at war with Russia, and maybe not even in
real competition with them. So if a Russian naval attache' offered a
retired USN/USNR officer/enlisted, say, $150,000USD per year for a two
year gig in some aspect of design, construction, or operation of a CV
what might that person say? (These are tax free dollars, by the way.)

And also consider that the USN is not the only operator of CVs. How
might an RN, French Navy, Brazilian Navy, or Argentine Navy type
respond to such an offer?

While this would be a real mountain to climb for the Russian Navy it's
one that could be conquered if enough greenbacks were piled high
enough. Of course there are other "claimants" in Russian society for
the petro-wealth they are generating. Thus it's much more a political
question for them than a technical one.

I believe they got the details of nuclear physics handed to them
gratis. They built better rockets than the US too. A mixture of
ideology and money can indeed work wonders but when push comes to
shove their engineering ability is bloody good.

They are better at keeping secrets too so who knows what they have
brewing while who doesn't know what the US and the Europeans have?