Re: 2nd/3rd rate powers - LLAR - and now Africans...

>
>--- Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com> wrote:
> > John Atkinson wrote:
> >
> > >Actually, their [PAU} battleline seems to be
> > composed of
> > >ex-ESU handmedowns,
> >
> > Er... well, yes, at least if you consider five brand
> > new Rostov-class BDNs
> > delivered straight from the spaceyards to be
> > "handmedowns"...
>
>At least as much so as I consider the T-72Gs the Sovs
>sent Iraq to be "ex-Sov handmedowns".

The Rostovs were the most modern ESU capital ship class at the time of
the 
sale to the PAU. The T-72Gs weren't exactly the best Soviet tank
available 
at the time :-/ (And for Ryan: If those five ships hadn't passed the
tests, 
the VKF admiralty probably wouldn't've been *quite* so irate with the
ESU 
leadership for selling them to the PAU...)

The PAU navy is described as "rapidly expanding and modernizing" in the 
late 2170s, so whereas John's description is probably apt for the
previous 
period it probably doesn't hold too well in the FB1/2 period (ie. the
2180s 
and -90s).

>It implies they either cannot produce capitals, or cannot produce them
at 
>a rate sufficient to make up for losses.

It implies that they couldn't produce (enough) capitals in the 2170s. In

the 2190s... who knows? In order to "expand and modernize" your navy you

need to expand the infrastructure to support it as well.

As for "ESU hand-me-downs" - judging from the pictorial evidence, the 
Kinhasa (destroyed by the KV in 2183) seems to have been a former *NAC* 
ship <g>

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."