Text 4196, 67 rader
Skriven 2012-09-23 10:07:00 av Paul Quinn (3:640/384)
   Kommentar till text 4195 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Love those USAians
==========================
Hi! Bj÷rn,

On Sun, 23 Sep 12, you wrote to me:

 PQ>> Mmm... just imagine the amount of oil saved from burning by a
 PQ>> nuke-powered aircraft carrier over a 22-year lifetime, for
 PQ>> instance.

 BF>    Yes indeed.

I think I erred.  22 years isn't the lifetime.  It's the period between
refuelling the two nuke reactors on board.

 BF> But why do you want an aircraft carrier?

To launch & recover aircraft, silly.  ;-)  Nothing else can do the job.

 BF> Unless of course you intend to go way outside your own territory --
 BF> AKA offence rather than defence.

Ask the Brits, following their need/use back in 1982.  My (plural) intentions
would serve both requirements.  The events that unfolded in 1982 confirmed the
need for (any) carriers, as the Brits were on the pointy-end of the dilema at
that time: do we need them or not.  It's the ages-old maxim, all over again:
it's best to have them and not have a need than to have the need, and not have
them.

 BF>    If you only want to defend your own territory, you usually have
 BF> lots of air strips available without those floating attack vessels.

Not for countries larger than Tasmania.  The logistics (and consequent fiscal
requirement) make it prohibitive, in peacetime.

 BF>    But I must admit I too have been impressed by those ships. If only
 BF> they could be converted to cruise ships for tourists.

There's a l-o-t of ocean out there, and after a while it all looks like the
last patch of ocean from yesterday.  Now cruises to the far side of the moon,
or Mars, or, Venus, etc, could have better entertainment value (it looks good
in the '5th Element' Bruce Willis flick).  However the prequisites aren't
available yet.  Too many (religious and other) f#ckwits running old world
empirates, you see.

 BF>    And the same goes for the nuke subs. Imagine stripping one of
 BF> those of all the military shit and replacing the missile and whatever
 BF> space with living quarters. Put windows in every cabin, and then take
 BF> cruises in the fabulous waters around your continent, in the
 BF> Caribbean or Mediterranean.

The idea is a nice one.  That's my favourite boyhood Jules Verne reading.  (No
venetian blinds, now! :-)

 BF>    I bet lots of people would go for that. After all, under the
 BF> surface there are no storms or heavy waves...

Yep.  It's a notion being explored even by survivalists.  With notions of
small-country-sized surface vessels, even.  Of course, such plans represent
those who have given up on all hope of establishing the pre-requisite
conditions for absolute disarmament.  Maybe planet Splong, not on Earth in this
epoch.

Cheers,
Paul.

... Experience is what you got when you didn't get what you wanted.
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox
 * Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)