Word: fleets
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...powers have long used gunboat diplomacy to intimidate troublesome local rulers. Only now the gunboats have grown considerably larger. A U.S. aircraft carrier displaces up to 90,000 tons and carries enough conventional firepower to level all the airfields in, say, Libya. Normally, the U.S. Sixth Fleet has at most two carriers in the Mediterranean, but soon there will be three. This week, the America leaves Norfolk, Va., to join the Saratoga and the Coral...
...carriers are Ronald Reagan's big stick of intimidation against Middle East terrorism. With a dozen support ships around each carrier and 70 to 85 planes soaring off each ship, the biggest threat to the fleet seems to be a midair or midsea collision. "We'll need a traffic cop," jokes a Pentagon official. The Saratoga should return to the U.S. in April. Still, this effort to impress Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi is not cheap: operating a carrier at sea costs about...
...Malmo. Thage Peterson, Sweden's Industry Minister, said the government has pumped $4.7 billion into the shipbuilding industry over the past decade, but finally decided to end the Kockums subsidies because the firm had received no new orders in more than two years. In Hong Kong, the Tung family fleet of some 150 ships has nearly gone aground because of $2 billion in debts. A group of the Tungs' bankers helped bail out the company this month by giving it easier payment terms. The demand for cargo ships has been slackening since the mid-1970s, when oil prices went...
...financial crunch has depleted the once proud merchant marines of Western countries. Britain's fleet has shrunk in a decade from more than 1,600 ships to just 614. One reason is the country's high labor costs. A British crew for a bulk carrier costs an estimated $1.5 million a year, vs. only $550,000 for Korean sailors or $275,000 for Chinese...
Most shipowners around the world now avoid the steep costs of union wages and government regulations at home by registering their fleets with developing countries, notably Liberia, Cyprus and Panama. The latest popular flag belongs to a tiny South Pacific island group, Vanuatu, which charges a bargain- basement registration fee of $14,460, even lower than Liberia's $21,005. Vanuatu's fleet now numbers 100 ships...