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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (54746)	7/17/2004 7:13:29 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793752

the Chinese just launched a new Diesel/electric sub as the start of a fleet of them to take on our carriers. This is the best weapon they could use. I believe our Navy has tech that makes diesel subs the easiest to track and take out.

To: LindyBill who wrote (54746)	7/17/2004 8:29:07 AM
From: Hoa Hao	Respond to of 793752

The boat in question is merely a Song type with a revamped Sail. A more professional view by one Stuart Slade is below: "The Chinese are making a major effort to upgrade the quality of their submarine crews, particularly their officer corps. They're trawling their universities and other institutions offering big incentives to qualified people to join the submarine fleet (like, for example triple or quadruple pay, big family benefits, priority in getting short-supply goodies etc). they're also trying to train them as well as they can. To me, this is a lot more significant and worrying than a new submarine design appearing in port. They're also doing a lot to improve conditions and expertise of enlisted crew and trying to create a good corps of long-term service senior enlisted. In other words, they are serious about their submarine fleet. On the quality side, they've got really serious problems. Every one of their indigenous submarine designs has turned out to be a disaster. The Songs took almost a decade to straighten out and they're only just hitting mass production now. They're still building Mings for Heaven's sake. They lost a sub last year from a cause that nobody has figured out yet (all the crew were dead; investigations still trying to work out how). They also have problems maintaining high-tech boats. Their 877s and 636s are in port most of the time waiting for spares and maintenance. This may ease when they get the next eight 636s. My guess is we're OK on the Chinese submarine fleet for a decade or so. If, during that time, they succeed in creating a cadre of really good submariners and getting the tech problems sorted out then we've got a problem looming. That's a long way down the line though."