Only recently, the US voiced its concern over the possible development by Russia and China of a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), capable of “negating America’s advantages in stealth aircraft.”
The idea was first raised in a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper alleged that “since the start of tensions with the West, Russia has touted what it calls a strategic alliance with China, which may develop into plans to build a joint aircraft carrier.”
The publisher, however, hopes that “a falling ruble and weaker economy has forced the Kremlin to scale back its ambitious plans for a multibillion-dollar military modernization.”
Additionally, it quotes a defense industry official as saying that “China is raising its demands, and wants a controlling stake in the project.”
The magazine the National Interest goes further and gives its own reasons for and against the possible joint project for each of the sides.
It reasons that “modern aircraft carriers cost billions of dollars to design, test and manufacture. Such a possibility seems silly when one considers that Moscow is struggling to modernize its military with other expensive pieces of hardware in the face of economic sanctions and sagging oil prices.”
China, it alleges, also wouldn’t “want to throw billions of dollars into such a project”, as its economy is “starting to sour”.
Besides, it questions, “why would China place billions of dollars into carriers with Russia or even on its own when it is working to undermine the military utility of such a weapons platform in the first place?”
However, now that a certain amount of money has been released due to the failed Mistral deal with France, it is still remains to be seen whether such a project can come to life.
