China’s newest nuclear-powered submarine sank pierside in the spring and the Chinese Navy tried to conceal the loss...

Military shipbuilding is incredibly difficult and requires expertise one can only learn by operating the designs on an ongoing basis, in peacetime and wartime. Amp that difficulty up by several orders of magnitude when building subs due to the physics and pressures involved and the redundancy and reliability required. The conservatory that takes care of the USS New Jersey posts videos on YouTube about that ship's current restoration. That ship is eighty-four years old and even though all weaponry and modern electronics have already been removed by the Navy for security reasons, there are still areas of the remaining vessel that cannot be shown or even seen by the curators themselves. Doors to them are welded shut so no one gets in.

Even with all of the modern simulation and CAD tools available, it appears there are still aspects of hull design that have been informed by over a century of experience that cannot be learned from the outside looking in and have not been shared beyond maybe Britain, France and maybe Germany. Our foes would literally KILL to get that expertise.
We certainly know Russia was unable to learn any of these lessons when building its fleet between the USSR and Russia eras. The only aircraft carrier in Russia's fleet must be flanked by tugboats anywhere it goes because it has been unable to power itself through ANY of its cruises.


WTH

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