GO AHEAD! SCREW WITH THE NAVY! Hahaha.... USS Iwo Jima is the seventh WASP-class Amphibious Assault Ship and the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. The IWO JIMA is also the Navy's third Amphibious Assault Ship designed and built from the keel up with accommodations for female sailors. USS Iwo Jima is the seventh WASP-class Amphibious Assault Ship and the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. The IWO JIMA is also the Navy's third Amphibious Assault Ship designed and built from the keel up with accommodations for female sailors. Length: 840 feet (256 meters) Flight Deck Width: 140 feet (42.6 meters) Beam: 106 feet (32,.3 meters) Draft: 26,5 feet (8.1 meters) Displacement: approx. 40,500 tons full load Speed: 23 knots Aircraft: (depends upon mission) 6 AV-8B Harrier attack planesor6 AV-8B Harrier attack planes 4 AH-1W Super Cobra attack helis 12 CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters 12 CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters 9 CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters 9 CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters 4 UH-1N Huey helicopters Assault:orSea Control: 42 CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters 20 AV-8B Harrier attack planes 6 ASW helicopters Well deck capacity: three LCAC or two LCU or six LCM-8 or 40 Amphibious Assault Vessels (AAV) (normal) or 61 AAVs (stowed) Crew: Ship: 73 officers, 1,009 enlisted Marine Detachment: 1,894 Armament: two Mk-29 NATO Sea Sparrow launchers, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, eight Mk-33 .50 cal. machine guns, two Rolling Airframe Missile Systems Cost: approx. $761 million Homeport: Norfolk, Va.
Technically true, but it was always mostly a paper navy. Most of their submarines were diesel jobs that couldn't operate outside of the Baltic Sea. Much of the Russian fleet is now rusting at anchor. They don't train much and have too few overseas bases to be a global navy. Their own best ports are either iced in by winter or the ships have to pass through straits controlled by US allies and guarded by US fleets. While they do have some spectacular nuclear submarines, the Russian Navy is incapable of sea control without an effective surface fleet. Not even in the North Atlantic, much less globally They actually built two, both oil-powered. The Kuznetsov (ex-Tbilisi, ex-Leonid Brezhnev, ex-Riga) has spent most of its life in storage. It is in service, but not currently operational. The Russians never developed an effective air wing to put on it. It's based in the Black Sea, their only warm-water port, where it is a sitting duck in case of war. The Varyag was completed in 1988, but was never fitted out and was eventually sold to the Chinese for conversion to an entertainment complex.
I knew that there was at least one, didn't realize there had been two. I agree with you 100% about the lack of overseas bases. Even at the hieght of the cold war, the Soviets were severely lacking in them, and those that they did posses were poorly located. Most of their war strategies involved the seizure of US/NATO bases early on in any conflict for their own use. We were always heavily drilled in CBR (chemical, biological, radiation) defense while stationed in Iceland. The theory was that we would be attacked in a manner that would neutralize personnel, but cause minimal damage to the base infrastructure. BTW, I'm sure most here have read Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising. It was the first book of his I read, and did so while stationed in Keflavik in 1988. It was quite spooky, to say the least.
