Beefing Up

Apparently Venezuela is trying to beef up its submarine fleet. It is taking bids from France, Germany and Russia to buy 9 additional diesel powered submarines. It currently has 2 submarines that it acquired from Germany in 1972, that are over 30 years old. With these nine additional subs, it would have the largest submarine force in South America. Chavez seems to be gearing up in case of a conflict with the U.S. I could be wrong, but I don't expect the U.S. to invade Venezuela anytime soon. Chavez seems to think that he is more important than he really is. It looks like he is trying to provoke the U.S. into a conflict with him. I do have to admit that diesel boats are pretty quiet, but they are severely disadvantaged when up against the submarines we currently have in our fleet. Diesel subs for one run on their batteries when submerged, which need to be recharged by the very loud diesel generator every once in awhile. They are also slower and cannot carry the payload that U.S. subs can. With the L.A. class subs and the new, highly technological Virginia class subs, Chavez doesn't stand a chance. All we would have to do is stay quiet and wait for his subs to surface to recharge the batteries, and bye-bye Venezuelan sub fleet.