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Saturday, September 10, 2016

Crisis, Meet Opporunity

The framework of the modularized auxiliary cruiser that I think United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) would find valuable to project power has to be a lot cheaper to acquire these days:

Hanjin Shipping, the largest cargo shipping firm in South Korea, has filed for bankruptcy protection, and the move has stranded a good portion of its fleet.

Concerns that the company may not be able to pay docking fees have left 85 cargo ships from Hanjin's fleet floating in international waters, unable to unload their cargo and even running out of food.

The company has 14 container ships that might have a candidate of the right size to be leased to America for a bargain to make the AFRICOM Queen.

UPDATE: The Philippines has a sea problem:

The Philippines has demanded an explanation from China over what it said was an increasing number of Chinese boats spotted near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea (SCS), Reuters news agency reported on 4 September.

Could the Philippines use a good sized modularized auxiliary cruiser equipped with weapons, troops, and supplies that would be too big to be intimidated by much smaller Chinese coast guard and semi-regular "militia" vessels?

Deliver troops and building materials to stake out claims, eh?