16 November, 2006

Full ahead!

Indonesia is to buy some Russian military toys, among which there's a couple of submarines.

Submarines are cool things, but they should be very careful, since the archipelago structure of Indonesia may tempt them to drive the shiny new U-boats within the country -- a feat that not many countries can accomplish. Sure, there are some deep rivers in, say, Russia or the U.S., but sailing a submarine in a river is like driving a Porsche along a railroad. Definitely you can achieve some acceleration, but you don't have any control on where to turn!

So in Indonesia they have lots of channels and outright small seas between the islands -- a fabulous playground for U-boats but a very dangerous, too, especially since they're getting two subs: start racing each other, get absorbed in the race and booom -- you've just hit the island!

And I don't think Russia will replace the subs just because the manual says "no racing between the islands!"

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