The author might be jumping to conclusions though. From the article itself,
Shuggart concluded the ship near Guangzhou might not be an assault ship at all, but rather a research vessel capable of supporting helicopters. He even located an artist’s rendering of a “research” carrier that closely matches what he saw in that satellite imagery
Of course there are many dual-use things, and in the event of an actual war or invasion many things that were genuinely meant only for civilian purposes will be commandeered for military use.
There are all kinds of things happening in the South China Sea. I don’t think it’s three civilian vessels for aircraft to take off from.
There doesn’t even have to be any particular thing they plan to do with it. They might just be building up capabilities because they expect exciting things to keep happening, and there are a lot of islands in the area they expect it to happen in, and they want to be prepared.
Plausible. I can get behind the whole “building up capabilities” and “they want to be prepared” theory.
But of course, just being prepared and preparing to invade are two very different things. (Then again, considering how much I’m hoping an invasion attempt doesn’t kick off, it could also be a case of me having the rose-tinted glasses on a bit too tight.)
The author might be jumping to conclusions though. From the article itself,
Of course there are many dual-use things, and in the event of an actual war or invasion many things that were genuinely meant only for civilian purposes will be commandeered for military use.
There are all kinds of things happening in the South China Sea. I don’t think it’s three civilian vessels for aircraft to take off from.
There doesn’t even have to be any particular thing they plan to do with it. They might just be building up capabilities because they expect exciting things to keep happening, and there are a lot of islands in the area they expect it to happen in, and they want to be prepared.
Plausible. I can get behind the whole “building up capabilities” and “they want to be prepared” theory.
But of course, just being prepared and preparing to invade are two very different things. (Then again, considering how much I’m hoping an invasion attempt doesn’t kick off, it could also be a case of me having the rose-tinted glasses on a bit too tight.)