Tuesday, November 09, 2010

How much runway does an aircraft carrier need?

Moscow is taking an interest in the US military's renewed interest in things Guam.

In Moscow's case, either they need some better analysts, or better interpreters. Don't know.

US to built super base on Pacific island of Guam
The USA is building an 8 billion super military base on the Island of Guam. The work is currently being done on the U.S. Air Force Base in Guam to build docks for aircraft carriers....

Naturally, Americans do not say officially that this base is being created to contain China’s military build-up. But if we look at the map and compare the military potential of the countries surrounding the Pacific Ocean, it won’t be difficult for us to understand that, most likely, China is exactly the key factor, which is taken into consideration here.

However, there’s reason to believe that China’s answer to the on-going construction will be a new increase in assignments for the development of its navy. Because the Chinese fear that U.S. domination of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean may hamper China’s efforts in the settlement of the Taiwan issue.

If we compare the military might of China and the USA, we’ll see that China has to work much to catch up with the USA, the Russian expert says. We can say nothing about China’s parity or its ability to resist the USA on the high seas either. However, the dynamism of the development of the Chinese naval forces is an object of concern for the Pentagon strategists. There’s an opinion that if this tendency remains and if the USA fails to increase considerably the budget of its naval forces, in 15 to 20 years China will pose a serious threat to the U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific Region.

There’re many American military facilities in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, Kortunov says. They are scattered over a large territory north of Alaska across Okinawa and as far as the Hawaiian Islands, where, traditionally, the U.S. Navy has a stronghold. Which means that there’re many U.S. military facilities there, which form an arc and which must guarantee America’s hegemony in the Pacific Ocean.

As Americans say, these facilities have been set up to guarantee the security of commercial communications in the region, including the security of oil supplies from the Persian Gulf area to the western coast of the USA. But taking into account the current tendencies, this infrastructure is regarded by many people in Beijing as one that is aimed against China.

Asked whether the new super base will infringe on Russia’s interests, the head of the New Eurasia Foundation said that, as it appears, it would be beneficial for Russia to distance itself from the current arms race.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

How much runway? I would be good if an AWACS or a C-130 can land on the aircraft carrier

9 November 2010 at 8:00:00 pm GMT+10  

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