Australia rearms

[Neil]

Well, at least they have the good sense not to name those ugly little tin cans after shitty (i.e.: Republican) Presidents like we do.

Where is the U.S.S. William J. Clinton? 

Clinton's not dead, and it thus be inappropriate.  Of course, they've been naming them for living presidents for a little bit, but it's still stupid.

[Barrister]

Well, at least they have the good sense not to name those ugly little tin cans after shitty (i.e.: Republican) Presidents like we do.

Where is the U.S.S. William J. Clinton? 

Clinton's not dead, and it thus be inappropriate.  Of course, they've been naming them for living presidents for a little bit, but it's still stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_George_H._W._Bush_(CVN-77)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_vessels_named_after_living_Americans

[Viking]

Reagan is brain dead, Carter is politically dead and HW Bush is republicanny dead.

[Neil]

Well, at least they have the good sense not to name those ugly little tin cans after shitty (i.e.: Republican) Presidents like we do.

Where is the U.S.S. William J. Clinton? 

Clinton's not dead, and it thus be inappropriate.  Of course, they've been naming them for living presidents for a little bit, but it's still stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_George_H._W._Bush_(CVN-77)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_vessels_named_after_living_Americans

And it's wrong.

[jimmy olsen]

I've got to agree with Neil, the route that the Navy has taken on naming their vessels since World War II is a travesty that just seems to get worse and worse.

[Admiral Yi]

I've got to agree with Neil, the route that the Navy has taken on naming their vessels since World War II is a travesty that just seems to get worse and worse.

Is that better or worse than appaling?

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I don't think the chinese have the ability to land more than 20 000 men at a time.
I mean, Taiwan is a hell of a lot closer than Australia...

What's the latest report on the chinese troop-transport capabilities?

In theory they can lift far more than that, and have been investing heavily in new amphib designs, though none have made it past the one or two ship stage yet.

In practice they couldn't make an effective landing anywhere outside the range of their LBA, which pretty much limits their reach to Taiwan, the Koreas, Vietnam, and possibly the southern Ryukyu islands.  On top of that, they have no real experience operating a gator navy, so even with LBA an opposed landing would probably be a clusterfuck.  They are, as many other east Asian nations are, building and deploying their newer ships with disaster relief in mind.  That will allow the Chinese to develop some practical operating procedures, which is also a driving reason for the Japanese and South Koreans to start getting their gator forces into disaster relief as well.

At the moment Australia doesn't have much to worry about from China, but this is a 10 year plan, and things could be very different in 10 years.