Russia gives up on Mistrals

originally posted by: Greathouse
a reply to: Zaphod58

Which country is the most likely candidate to except delivery? I would be inclined to think somewhere in the Pacific.

Perhaps the US will borrow the money from China, then act as a loan shark and broker a deal so that the Philippines can buy the ships from the CIA. The Phillippines can then confront their local bully “China” thus dragging the US into the fray and giving Uncle Sam an excuse to default on all outstanding debts to China.
It seems so simple to me. France gets paid, Russia gets stiffed on their war ships, the Philippines defend them selfs, the US stops Communist aggression in the south Pacific once again. With out the US debt on the books China falls back to the number 2 economy. The only down side is the US has to find another country to buy rubber dog # from. Maybe someone in North Africa next time?

a reply to: Greathouse

Japan or South Korea.

As long as Russia doesnt end up with them, the swedish military will let out a sigh of relief.

A question, just to keep this interesting thread alive...

What will Russia do now? Will they attempt to build themselves or ask someone else? I assume the advantage the Mistrals gave Russia was a degree of technology / shipbuilding knowledge transfer. Did any of that actually happen. Could Russia now churn out their own version of the Mistral?

I read once that the reason why Russian went for a foreign build because their shipbuilding methods were not up to Western standards and the Mistral was the foot in the door that would drive domestic improvements.

a reply to: paraphi

From what I've read they're planning to build a similar hull. It won't be an exact copy, but will be very similar.