China has a new aircraft carrier. Well, it’s new for them. China didn’t build it. They bought it from The Ukraine, an almost land locked nation. The ship is a 1998 vessel that was slated to be refurbished and dry docked. The plan to turn it into a themed restaurant for the 25th anniversary of the Chernbyl nuclear disaster failed because no one thought ‘Vodka Infused Beets’ should glow that much.
According to the ad placed in the Odessa Daily Worker, it was driven by a little old sea captain who only took it out on Sundays to trawl for Sturgeon. The ship had only 145,000 sea miles on it and was due for an oil change and a new ‘serpentine’ belt. The time was right for a garage sale.
To sweeten the deal, they also threw in fishing rights off Sevastopol. After the test cruise they were brought into the ‘closer’s office’ where the paper work took 3 days. The Chinese had a habit of signing something and going back an hour later and signing it again.
If you think China now occupies space on the world’s oceans as a formidable force just because it has an aircraft carrier, think again.
They don’t have planes capable of landing on their new toy. Training for the pilots has been carried out on land. The only problem here is that land doesn’t move. That’s like training for an Olympic sport that doesn’t exist.