Prediction. Russian will turn to the Chinese to get themselves a world class LHD.
What does that mean for our allies and especially scrappy little Georgia?
They're going to be facing ships that will be far more capable. The size of the attached air wing will almost double over that of the Mistral. The same with the number of troops carried.
If I'm right China & Russia become even more intertwined, the desire to prevent improvements to the Russian Navy fail completely, the Russians still get modern shipbuilding techniques (the Chinese industry is every bit as good as the French) and since the Chinese have probably hacked the French as completely as they've hacked us...the Russians still get tech transfers.
The only question is what will China demand in payment?
Update: Naval Requirements Blog tells me that the tech transfer has already been completed and pointed me to this article. Personally I still have my doubts. The Russians are still pushing hard on this and while claims are made of being able to build Mistrals we haven't seen any move to do so. I remain in a wait and see mode.
