Former Ukraine Minister of Defense cynical about foreign combat ships and subs

Ukraine is resorting to foreign made combat ships and subs rather than building up its own Navy.

However, this is most likely to be exaggerated or misinterpreted comments about the recent contacts regarding the potential deal of acquiring decommissioned US warships and subs by the Ukraine. Publicly, former Defense Minister and MP Alexander Kuzmuk spoke about a purchase of two to three corvettes and two subs. He maintains that the cost to do so is totally unacceptable for the Ukraine in the conditions of the global financial crisis and internal chaos. Kuzmuk said: “Ships are not bought within a year. It is a year – a year and half period, it is necessary to study the matter on site, to train crew, minimum two crews, then to arrange new base and solve the problem with technical support and maintenance. “One should keep in mind that a combat ship or sub is not mere metal, it has many complexes of arms and control. It requires stocks of spare ammunition, rockets, mines, torpedoes.” A large proportion of the Ukrainian experts are also highly pessimistic about the potential deal. They believe that it will cause negative consequences in US-Russia relations regarding military-technical cooperation.
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