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00:30What in my head was, is how in the hell is that thing floating?
00:34In Iraq, drones are used in combat for the first time.
00:37And with the suicide attack against USS Cole in 2000, a new enemy emerges. Terrorism.
00:47We're dealing with an opponent that doesn't bother with a certain number of legal rules.
00:52Now, more than ever, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is the jewel in the Navy's crown.
00:57It is an exclusive club.
01:00As an ally of the United States, France deploys the carrier Charles de Gaulle to the war in Afghanistan.
01:10To protect these giants of the seas, a Navy must anticipate all attack scenarios.
01:15In 2005, thanks to its ultra-quiet Stirling engine, the Gotland submarine demonstrates their vulnerability.
01:22Our task was to enter that screen without being detected.
01:28Today, China and Russia challenge American hegemony at sea.
01:33Poseidon, a Russian nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered torpedo, could become the world's most frightening drone submarine.
01:40It is, if you want to imagine it that way, a nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered torpedo that can move over thousands of kilometers at great depths and steer towards its target.
01:52More than ever, the sea is a strategic battleground for the world's major powers.
01:59ELECTRONIC GEDERAL
03:41The Kirov sets new standards.
03:45It replaces the traditional concept of ever-larger guns with missiles.
03:49Its main armament is 20 nuclear-tipped anti-ship missiles.
03:55Each one can take out an entire fleet of enemy ships.
03:59For defense, the Kirov has anti-aircraft and anti-submarine missiles.
04:04The U.S. Navy has nothing comparable.
04:09It has aircraft carriers, but its largest battleships are the mothballed Iowa-class from World War II.
04:15Their main armament, 40-year-old large-caliber guns.
04:25But challenging the Americans is risky.
04:29Gorbachev knows that the arms race is driving his country's economy to the brink of ruin.
04:37U.S. President Ronald Reagan wants to exploit this.
04:40Basically, the U.S. was building up its military.
04:49And, gotta love them, Ronald Reagan decided, after 30 or 40 years, to bring back the battleships.
04:56Mike Zitzer joins the Navy at 19.
05:00They're looking for sailors for the USS Wisconsin, the last Iowa-class battleship to be recommissioned.
05:08In 1988, modernization is nearly complete.
05:15I was just awestruck.
05:21I'd never seen anything that big in my life.
05:24And the thought in my head was, how in the hell is that thing floating?
05:30Since the 1970s, the U.S. Navy has relied primarily on nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.
05:40Battleships seem obsolete until the emergence of the Kirov.
05:45Upgrading the Iowa-class is cheaper and faster than building new ships.
05:50Similar to the Kirov-class, the Iowas are also equipped with modern weapons.
05:56USS Tomahawk cruise missiles.
06:03Like the Kirov's missiles, they can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
06:08Tomahawk have been in service since 1983, but have never been used in combat.
06:13We knew that the Russians were obsessed with nuclear weapons.
06:22If we put Tomahawks on a lot of ships, they couldn't tell whether the Tomahawks were nuclear or non-nuclear.
06:28They were two versions.
06:30And so they would feel compelled to track every ship with Tomahawks on it.
06:35And that would overload their efforts.
06:38They would be unable to handle the number of ships.
06:43Between 1982 and 1988, the four modernized Iowas are put back into service with great fanfare.
06:49And ceremonies including World War II veterans.
06:54It is a patriotic stage show that works as intended.
06:57At the time, as young as I was, I didn't really understand the amount of enormity that was behind it.
07:14You know, to me, I was just a 19-year-old kid on board a battleship.
07:18Mike Zitzer joins the Navy during a Cold War.
07:22For decades, the Americans and Soviets have avoided confronting each other directly.
07:28He is not expecting to be sent into combat.
07:35And then Iraqi troops invade Kuwait on August 2, 1990.
07:39Iraq's President Saddam Hussein justifies the invasion by accusing Kuwait of stealing its oil.
07:45U.S. President George H.W. Bush sees the world's oil supply in danger and intervenes.
08:05Mike Zitzer is aboard USS Wisconsin expecting a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean.
08:10After a few days at sea, he finds out those plans have changed.
08:17The old man, he got on the general announcing system.
08:21And I can't really use the words that he used because they are kind of derogatory.
08:26But he said, we're going to let the Iraqis know who's the boss.
08:31The U.S.-led coalition in the Persian Gulf includes warships from ten nations.
08:35On November 29, 1990, the U.N. Security Council issues an ultimatum to Iraq.
08:44Either immediate withdrawal from Kuwait or else.
08:48The Soviet Union, which has good relations with Iraq, also votes in favor.
08:54Saddam ignores the ultimatum.
08:58The war begins in the early morning of January 17, 1991.
09:01For the first time, the Navy uses Tomahawk missiles.
09:08It's black as night.
09:10In other words, there's no moon.
09:12You can't see anything except the red lights from the ship.
09:15And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, after they count down from five to one, there was like a hushed silence.
09:26And then this bright flash and a streak.
09:30But after you get over that initial shock, you're like, wow, that's pretty damn cool.
09:39And then after thinking about it, you know, and getting off watch and stuff and talking with the fellow shipmates, you're like, man, we're really at war.
09:50These things are going to blow shit up. These are going to kill people.
09:54In addition to Tomahawks, the Wisconsin has nine guns.
10:02Each can fire 1.2 ton shells at targets up to 30 kilometers away.
10:08Shoot it.
10:12Shoot it.
10:17Never forget the sight of a nine gun broadside in the middle of the night.
10:24Take the biggest firework you could possibly come up with, times that by 100.
10:29The heat from the blast, when the shock wave comes back at you, it's like a blast furnace.
10:37I've never been on the receiving end of one of those rounds, and I swear to God, I never want to be.
10:45Wisconsin is equipped with Pioneer drones.
10:48They are remote controlled and able to scout targets with precision.
10:51Early drones resemble model airplanes for hobbyists.
11:02But their cameras can search for targets in visible and infrared light.
11:09Wisconsin's targeting computers point guns at whatever the drone transmits by radio.
11:14Near Kuwait City, Iraqi soldiers surrender to a Pioneer drone.
11:29It is the first time in history that soldiers surrender to a robot.
11:37On February 28, 1991, USS Wisconsin fires its final salvos at Iraq.
11:42Saddam's army is crushed.
11:53Allied bombs, shells and rockets killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.
12:01They destroy Iraq's infrastructure, roads, power grids, hospitals.
12:05The civilian population suffers the consequences of the Gulf War for years to come.
12:13Of course, it wasn't a clean war.
12:16I don't think there is a clean war or conflict where innocent people don't get killed.
12:21That's why it's so important to prevent wars.
12:24That is also a characteristic of the armed forces, deterrence,
12:28so that wars do not come about or are not waged at all.
12:30September 30, 1991, six months after the Gulf War against Iraq,
12:40USS Wisconsin is mothballed again, this time probably for good.
12:49She had been brought out of retirement because the Soviet Navy had commissioned large surface ships.
12:53But the arms race of the superpowers is over.
12:57What they needed was about three times as much investment, which they didn't have.
13:12That helped destroy them.
13:13After Gorbachev's resignation in 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrates into separate states.
13:32Russia inherits the bulk of a fleet it cannot afford.
13:35The ships were deprived of funding.
13:38The fleet was tied to the berths, weakened, rusted and scrapped.
13:42And sold en masse.
13:45The Soviet Navy has long been the second largest in the world.
13:49Now its adversary, the US Navy, is providing it with money for scrapping.
13:54The US is suddenly the only remaining superpower.
13:57The symbol of its superiority are its aircraft carriers.
14:00Stationed aboard them is the world's second most powerful air force, surpassed only by the land-based US Air Force.
14:16It's firepower that we can move where we want.
14:19There's no other kind of ship that buys that.
14:21US aircraft carriers are spread halfway around the globe.
14:26Ten large carriers and their escorting ships are on active duty at all times.
14:34Some are stationed on the US Atlantic and Pacific coasts as a form of homeland defense.
14:39Others rotate between the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
14:45Another operates out of Japan.
14:46Aircraft carriers are always accompanied by several cruisers, submarines and destroyers.
15:02Each one of these carrier groups has more firepower than most of the world's navies.
15:09Then, at the beginning of the new millennium, a new enemy enters the world stage.
15:13One against which sheer firepower will not be enough.
15:18On August 8, 2000, the destroyer USS Cole departs for the Middle East.
15:26Destroyers a hundred years ago tended to be small ships that escorted larger ones.
15:30Arleigh Burke-class destroyers like the USS Cole can do the same.
15:36They are armed with anti-aircraft missiles that can protect aircraft carriers, for example.
15:41But since the retirement of the Iowas, Cole and her sisters have been the Navy's best armed surface ships.
15:47They carry Tomahawk missiles, anti-submarine missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
15:52Unlike nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that make their own power, destroyers must routinely stop and refuel.
16:04October 12, 2000, USS Cole takes on fuel in the Yemeni capital of Aden.
16:10Cole is going into a port in Aden, and the people in the port are mixed between liking us and hating us.
16:22And a boat comes nearby.
16:26The man in the boat salutes as though he's friendly.
16:29When he gets close enough, the man blows himself up with his boat.
16:39The explosion tears a large hole in the port side of the coal.
16:44Along with themselves, the two terrorists kill 17 US sailors.
16:48The Navy designers assumed that they would be attacked from other warships, or from the air, or from land, or whatever.
17:04Or maybe from mines.
17:08But it was not expected that terrorists, for example, could try to mingle with civilians or suddenly carry out suicide attacks from small boats.
17:16The attack on USS Cole is a taste of things to come.
17:27On September 11, 2001, the terrorist group Al-Qaeda carries out the largest terrorist attack in history.
17:40The US wants to strike back with military might.
17:43Naval forces play a central role in the planning.
17:46So on September 11, 2001, the attacks on the World Trade Center clearly placed the fight against terrorist activities at the top of our missions for military units in Europe, the United States, and NATO.
18:06And we had to integrate the fact that the military units could obviously themselves be the object of terrorist attacks.
18:21In 2003, Jean-Philippe Roland is assigned to the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.
18:25Together with U.S. Navy aircraft, de Gaulle's jets bomb Al-Qaeda's strongholds in Afghanistan.
18:31We are dealing with an opponent who does not encumber himself with a certain number of rules of law.
18:42And this is the asymmetry that occurs, which very often will work in favor of the terrorists.
18:49Jean-Philippe Roland commands the aircraft carrier's operations group.
18:56He plans takeoffs and landings, refueling and everything necessary to carry out flight missions.
19:01If you're going to fight someone on land, they'll need support by aircraft.
19:10If you don't have bases nearby, and you usually won't, they've got to come from the sea.
19:15There's no way out of that.
19:20Like U.S. Navy carriers, Charles de Gaulle uses steam-powered catapults to launch its planes.
19:25High-pressure steam from the carrier's reactor is stored in tanks.
19:30These are connected to long tracks built into the flight deck.
19:34The steam pushes against the so-called shuttle to which the plane's landing gears attach.
19:39A release bar holds the aircraft in position.
19:44When it is released, the steam catapults the shuttle and with it the jet forward with great force.
19:55At the end of the track, the shuttle releases the aircraft and it takes off.
20:05With these catapults, Charles de Gaulle can deploy aircrafts of similar size to U.S. carriers.
20:11French and U.S. bombers coordinate their attacks on Afghanistan.
20:14It's a mix of dedicated information systems, high-performance software that allows us to be connected automatically very far away.
20:30Modern aircraft have advanced weapons technology.
20:33Supposedly, they strike their targets with surgical precision.
20:38This is an illusion.
20:40You have to be realistic.
20:42There are very often more casualties among civilians than among soldiers engaged in these operations.
20:48But also damage to cultural heritage, damage to the environment.
20:53These are things that show that a war is never clean.
20:56In the so-called war on terror, the U.S. and its allies are vastly superior militarily.
21:05The aircraft carriers on the high seas cannot be fought by the Taliban.
21:11Unless they have a weapon that attacks invisibly, underwater.
21:15States saw a new threat in small conventional submarines.
21:25Not only focusing on big ballistic missile submarines from maybe Russia.
21:35The U.S. Navy wants to know if its carriers are safe from such submarines.
21:38It leases the HSWMS Gotland, complete with crew from the Swedish Navy.
21:45On June 27, 2005, Gotland arrives in San Diego.
21:50Paula Wallenberg is the officer responsible for navigation on board.
21:54The Gotland-class is one of the most silent submarines in the world, conventional submarines.
22:04And the fact that we have air-independent propulsion, the Stirling engine that is in itself totally silent and almost vibration free.
22:13Gotland-class submarines have two diesel engines and two Stirling engines.
22:18It is technology from the 19th century.
22:21So far, no one has used it to power a submarine.
22:29Their Stirling engines burn diesel with liquid oxygen.
22:33This happens continuously, not explosively, as in conventional engines.
22:38The heat of combustion heats gas in a cylinder.
22:41The lower part of the cylinder is cooled.
22:44The exchange between heat and cold sets a piston in motion.
22:46This generates electricity without the vibration of conventional engines.
22:51The Stirling engine does not need access to atmospheric oxygen.
22:56This enables immersion times of up to two weeks.
23:06Can the Swedish submarine, with its 19th century engine technology, take out a modern US carrier?
23:11The test object, the brand new aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, and its carrier strike group.
23:21Basically, a carrier strike group is composed of a group of ships with different tasks.
23:27So you have the carrier in the middle with the great assets of a lot of aircraft, which you have to protect.
23:33And you protect it by building screens with different operational depth.
23:39U.S. carrier strike groups vary in size.
23:44In 2005, the Reagan's carrier strike group includes the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Lake Champlain, three Arleigh Burke destroyers.
23:55The nuclear hunting submarine USS Tucson, and the supply ship USNS Rainier, a fleet with 7,500 men and women aboard.
24:06In contrast, the Gotland, length 60 meters, crew 35.
24:22An aircraft carrier is like a king in chess.
24:25Its aircraft make it the most valuable piece on the board.
24:28All other units must protect it.
24:37Normally, you have submarines way ahead that patrol far away from the carrier.
24:45And then you have destroyers and frigates in the inner circle around it to protect it.
24:49And they also carry helicopters, which is sent out and occasionally, or in a pattern, investigate to see if there's any hostile submarines.
25:04In 2005, the Ronald Reagan is considered the most modern carrier in the U.S. Navy.
25:10Operations officer Paula Wallenberg is responsible for navigating Gotland and firing the torpedoes.
25:15Her job is to hide in the ocean and then try to sink the Reagan, the most sensitive tracking devices of the mighty U.S. Navy against the small Swedish submarine.
25:28Our task was to enter that screen without being detected and sink the high-value unit, because if you do that, it's a big success.
25:46On December 6th, 2005, Gotland, Reagan, and their escort ships leave San Diego.
25:59What happens next remains top secret to this day.
26:02Gotland sneaks past one U.S. warship after another.
26:06She penetrates all of Ronald Reagan's protective shields.
26:10As proof, she takes photos of the carrier's hull.
26:23In wartime, she would have fired torpedoes instead and sunk the $6.2 billion aircraft carrier.
26:29The successful maneuver is primarily Paula Wallenberg's achievement, even if she is not allowed to reveal exactly how she did it.
26:41Stay undetected is a matter of survival, but as well it's a tool to actually get really close to something that you don't want to know that you are close.
26:58So it's a matter of tactics as well.
27:02Move silent. No one knows that you were there.
27:05Had it been a real war, it probably would have been a suicide mission.
27:10A submarine cannot fire a torpedo without giving away its position.
27:18A determined submarine commander can generally sneak through a screen.
27:23The question is whether he'll survive afterwards.
27:27And it's a deterrent.
27:29Basically, you might get in, but you won't get out.
27:35The Little Gotland costs only a fraction of an aircraft carrier.
27:39One of the rare cases where David can actually take on Goliath.
27:43Where sheer firepower is not decisive.
27:45Asymmetric warfare is, of course, a word that is often used.
27:52Asymmetric warfare has always existed as long as there has been war.
27:58That is, it's simply trying to use different means to get to the objective.
28:05Asymmetry means unequal sides.
28:08Armies lose wars when they don't win.
28:10Guerrilla forces win when they don't lose.
28:15And navies are forced to adapt.
28:21In order to get better and better control of such threats,
28:25new types of weapon systems have actually been developed.
28:28So-called non-lethal weapons, for example, sonic cannons or water cannons,
28:32which are basically there to protect against such threats in the vicinity of the ships,
28:38or pirates in the fight against pirates.
28:43Groups that operate outside international law must also fund themselves outside the law.
28:48In Somalia, scarred by decades of civil war, impoverished fishermen and terrorists join forces.
28:54When we had to fight against terrorism, what was the mission of naval resources?
29:03It was to ensure that there would be no trafficking of arms, drugs, financial resources,
29:09which are likely to support the activities of terrorists.
29:12And when you consider those areas, it's the entire northern Indian Ocean.
29:17It is the Arabian Sea, it is the Gulf of Oman, it is the Gulf of Aden.
29:21The Gulf of Aden connects the Arabian Sea with the Red Sea.
29:27You must go through it either entering or exiting the Suez Canal,
29:31one of the most important trade routes in the world for both legal and illegal goods.
29:36To protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden, France sends one of its most powerful warships.
29:42The frigate Lafayette is a product of the Cold War.
29:45When Jean-Philippe Rolland takes command in 2005, it's no longer about fighting the Soviet Union, but protecting merchant ships.
29:57What was the prerogative of state organizations, the Navy and the Air Force, now comes into the hands of militias,
30:10comes into the hands of mafias, and at sea, as on land, these groups can misuse them.
30:16It is moreover one of the roles of the frigates to ensure that the sea, which is an area of freedom, does not become a zone of lawlessness.
30:28The Lafayette frigate is striking in its design. Stairs and mooring devices are internal. Right angles are voided where possible.
30:39The ship should thus be less visible to enemy radar.
30:42Radar is radio direction and ranging. It's about bouncing radio signals off a target, and when it bounces back, you get the distance and some information about the direction of travel of the target.
31:01From the smallest fishing trawler to the largest aircraft carrier, just about every ship at sea is equipped with radar.
31:07Radar can detect things like storms and other ships. The strength of the returning signal can show their size.
31:17Lafayette's design minimizes this return signal. Its superstructure is fiberglass, plastic and wood.
31:24This allows radar waves to pass through instead of reflecting them.
31:28On radar, this makes Lafayette look smaller, more like a large fishing boat than a warship.
31:33But stealth technology at sea has its limits.
31:38The problem with the stealthy ship is that if you move through the water, you make a wake.
31:43And you can't get rid of the wake, and the wake is very visible on radar.
31:48So if you imagine an incredibly stealthy ship, and you see this big wake, and there's nothing at the front end of it, you sort of know there's somebody there.
31:56In the Gulf of Aden, the frigate Lafayette is not trying to hide it all.
32:04She wants to be seen, like a policeman on patrol.
32:08Her presence alone should be enough of a deterrent, but if it's not, she has anti-ship missiles, cannons, and an attack helicopter on board.
32:19It is a helicopter that will inform you that a particular boat that is three to four kilometers from you, or three nautical miles from you, is actually a simple fisherman.
32:33Or on the contrary, that it's a terrorist boat, because we see the rocket launches, because we have people who handle radio communication devices, and because there is no fishing gear.
32:44Like a fighter jet to an aircraft carrier, a helicopter brings range to a frigate.
32:52In a large maritime area like the Gulf of Aden, reconnaissance is as important as attack and defense.
32:59There is a lot of water for comparatively few ships, even with 30 or 40 naval units on site, which was the case at the best of times, that is still comparatively little for the sheer size.
33:10Martin Ruscha is in command of the German frigate Lubeck. Historically, frigates were designed to protect merchant shipping.
33:20Globalization and dependence on fossil fuels make this original task more important than ever.
33:24This is one reason why the EU is conducting a joint naval operation for the first time.
33:35Since 2008, several EU countries have taken turns sending warships to the Gulf of Aden.
33:39The whole maritime area is ultimately threatened by asymmetric threats there. In the end, you are not really safe in any of the ports, which means that no matter where you went, you had to take the appropriate protective measures.
33:56To deter piracy, Martin Ruscha and his crew perform maritime inspections and inspect cargo. Not every ship is willing to cooperate.
34:09When suspected pirates refuse to allow their ship to be boarded, Martin Ruscha sends a clear message.
34:14Then you just start with warning shots that go away relatively far at first with a relatively small caliber. And then, let's say, in several steps, you move your shots closer and use heavier weapons.
34:32If pirates have captured a ship, special forces are deployed. Their task is to take control of the ship and free any hostages.
34:45Pirates apprehended in the process are rarely brought to justice. Few countries are willing to press charges. And without charges, suspected pirates must be released after 12 hours.
34:56In the long run, success can only come by making piracy unprofitable. That means destroying pirates' weapons and boats before they become a menace to shipping lanes.
35:09Ships, aircrafts, helicopters and satellites are deployed for this purpose.
35:14EU warships are not the only ones patrolling the Gulf of Eden. China is also a substantial presence.
35:29It is perfectly clear that China has as much interest in protecting these maritime trade routes as any other major exporting nation or nation that imports oil.
35:38For decades, China has been striving to become a global naval power. Year after year, they invest billions in their navy.
35:55Chinese state television shows images of its own warships operating in the Gulf of Eden.
36:00China's population and the world are supposed to see the country as a major naval power. It is an effective propaganda tool.
36:13There are cases where, for example, a freed crew was held hostage by the pirates and then thanked the Chinese marines who freed them in front of running cameras and so on.
36:22Warships have two basic functions.
36:30Defense of their own coasts. And offense, the extension of their own power into the waters of their neighbors and beyond.
36:37Aircraft carriers are designed to project power.
36:43Thanks to an unfinished Soviet Navy relic, China is well on its way to owning one.
36:47The Chinese started negotiating with the Ukrainians and they said they were going to convert it into a casino in Macau.
36:55They paint it up in Chinese Navy paint, but nothing seems to happen.
36:59And then suddenly things start happening. They cut the superstructure off.
37:04They build a new Chinese superstructure with different electronics.
37:08And all of a sudden the thing gets finished as a carrier.
37:11The rechristened Lau Ning officially enters service on September 25, 2012.
37:24Pilots practice takeoffs and landings from a specifically built replica of Lau Ning's flight deck.
37:32Lau Ning is powered by oil-fired steam turbines.
37:35Unlike nuclear reactors, these do not generate the power necessary for catapult launches.
37:42To take off, the planes rely on their jet engines alone.
37:46But these are not powerful enough to reach takeoff speed on a straight runway.
37:52The solution is a ski jump ramp.
37:54It throws the accelerating aircraft upward into a ballistic arc.
37:58This gives the planes a few more seconds of acceleration, which is enough to make them airborne.
38:03When Lau Ning's keel was laid in the Soviet Union in 1985, she was already considered obsolete.
38:16China equips her with modern electronics and new combat aircraft.
38:20However, she can hardly compete with U.S. carriers.
38:24In October 2013, the Americans launched USS Gerald R. Ford, the first of a third generation of nuclear-powered carriers.
38:31With a price tag of $13 billion, it is the most expensive warship ever built.
38:40Lau Ning and Ford are both powerful weapons systems, but differ in size and capabilities.
38:46Lau Ning's hangars have space for a total of 40 aircraft.
38:49Its main weapons are 26 Shenyang J-15 fighters.
38:53In addition, there are 14 helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and transport.
38:57Gerald R. Ford carries up to 75 aircraft, a mix of F-A-18 fighter bombers, E-2 Hawkeye radar aircraft, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, and helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and transport.
39:15The Ford has an improved flight deck design compared to older models.
39:28This optimizes takeoffs and landings.
39:31It also has electromagnetic catapults.
39:34These are smaller, weigh less, and increase the maximum takeoff frequency.
39:37The measure of effectiveness for a carrier is largely how many targets it can handle on a daily basis.
39:48So that depends on how fast you can launch airplanes.
39:53It depends on how fast you can turn them around, how fast you can reload them.
39:57Supposedly, the different arrangement of the flight deck makes for much faster turnaround.
40:04So it makes for a much more efficient ship.
40:08The U.S. Navy still tops China's in terms of combat power, but China seems determined to close the gap.
40:15And after years of weakness, an old Chinese friend, an American foe, is also aggressively re-entering the game of naval power.
40:23Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been stationed in Crimea since 1783.
40:32The port of Sevastopol gives Russia, and later the Soviet Union, access to the Mediterranean.
40:41After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of Ukraine.
40:44In 2014, Russian troops occupied the peninsula. A short time later, Russia annexes Crimea.
40:59After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is in a deep economic crisis.
41:04Even the Kirov-class battlecruisers can no longer be maintained.
41:07Under Putin, however, a turnaround begins, mainly thanks to the sale of raw materials abroad.
41:15Putin wants Russia to be strong and respected again.
41:19The Navy is a big part of his plans.
41:20The annexation of Crimea is clearly linked to securing the port and the military facilities that are there, from Russia's point of view.
41:34And it's against international law. Access to the Black Sea must be maintained, and military means are chosen to enforce this.
41:52The West protests and imposes sanctions, but Putin knows that no one will go to war over Crimea.
42:11In the state media, he presents himself as a determined supporter of the army and navy.
42:15At least two of the Cold War Kirov battlecruisers are being modernized and put back into service.
42:29On March 1, 2018, Putin announces novel nuclear naval weapons that are, quote, invincible.
42:35The impact of nuclear deterrence is that even if you have very good reason to think that the other side can't do it, you don't really want to bet your country that you're right.
42:49One of these new weapons is called Poseidon, a long-range torpedo with a nuclear warhead.
42:55It is, if you want to imagine it that way, a nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered torpedo that can move over thousands of kilometers at great depths and steer towards its target.
43:13Until now, submarine-launched ballistic missiles were the means of nuclear deterrence.
43:19But they are easy to detect after launch.
43:25Poseidon would not be.
43:29The Russian navy claims a miniature nuclear reactor gives the torpedo a range of 10,000 kilometers.
43:35If true, Poseidon could be launched anywhere in the sea and approach a coastal target undetected.
43:44The weapon reportedly carries a 100 megaton nuclear warhead more than 6,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
43:51A nuclear explosion of this magnitude could contaminate the entire east coast of the USA.
43:58In addition, if the Russians are to be believed, devastating consequences from the effects of the explosion deep underwater.
44:05In more detail, the creation of an artificial tsunami, the infection of the states, the destruction of all living things on the coast by this wave, and the contamination of soil and water for many years to come, will make the soil uninhabitable.
44:24That's all.
44:25It's all scary. It can be done. Technically nothing is impossible. That's all you can do.
44:34The largest nuclear explosion to date is a Soviet test of 50 megatons.
44:39Poseidon would be twice as destructive.
44:40With both the Chinese and the Russians closing in, America must up its military spending.
44:53In 2019, 719 billion dollars went into the US military, of which 194 billion went into the Navy.
45:00China is putting 266 billion into its military in the same year.
45:07The Navy portion is classified, and Russia, 64 billion.
45:12The US has the largest warships, with 11 aircraft carriers, 24 cruisers, and 67 destroyers.
45:18If you count smaller ships, such as frigates and corvettes, China is ahead.
45:25All three countries have submarines with strategic nuclear missiles.
45:31Whether nuclear or conventional, the arms race continues.
45:35For many reasons, building ships is cheaper in China. They continue to catch up.
45:39More than 40% of all civilian ships worldwide are already built in China.
45:47A second aircraft carrier is already in service.
45:50Two more, and dozens more warships are to follow.
45:57That means, after 15, 20 years of a rather cooperative, collaborative maritime thinking,
46:03especially during the 2000s, we are now entering a new era of confrontation and future sea warfare.
46:16It may be surprising, but history always is.
46:25More than 5,000 years after the first man-made boats, today's warships are deadly high-tech machines.
46:32Yet, their mission is basically the same as it has always been.
46:36To rule the sea, in order to control what happens on land.
46:40The constant push and pull between new technologies to attack, and new technologies to defend, leads to a simple maxim.
46:48If you want peace, you have to build the navy of tomorrow.
46:53What that means for the men and women who serve on warships is usually of no consequence to the great strategists.
46:58Mike Zitzer moves to the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower before retiring from the navy.
47:09Jean-Philippe Rolland is now Special Chief of Staff to the French President.
47:15Paula Wallenberg is appointed Commanding Officer of HSWMS Gotland in 2011.
47:24Martin Rouchet is now a frigate captain in the German Navy.
47:29John Rouchet is now a frigate captain in the German Navy.
47:30John Rouchet is now a frigate captain in the German Navy.
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