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Wow. Fellow military enthusiast. But should this be in this category? Maybe we can term this as defence spending and linked to ST.
I always think the LHD-160, if given a "little bit" more stretch, could become a small sized but full fledged amphibious carrier like the US Marines. Would be a piece of very provocative offensive armanent though. But way more cost effective than that aircraft carrier of Thailand.
Just put the Guards unit in and there we have our "Marines" equivalent.
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The Japanese forerunning LHD is indeed much bigger than its predecessors. If we are to look into the coming decades of military armanent build up in Asia, we can also safely say that the defense industries, esp in East Asia are accelerating.
The geopolitical situation is very touchy in South China sea. Practically everyone has suspicions over their neighbours. China, Japan, North and South Korea, even Russia has to be brought into the pitcure.
Trade is one thing that is holding everyone back from warmongering politicians. But sudden flashpoints cannot be doubted. If we are to link back to defense industries, we can think of Hyundai, Samsung, Mitsubishi coglomerates. Even Cosco which has listing in HKEX and SGX is focus on shipbuilding. Dalian shipyard, currently housing the Dragon's 1st Aircraft Carrier, is owned by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. It is listed in Shanghai Ex.
All these military advances do bring over benefits to the commerical side, in this case Cosco which builds dry bulk carriers.
China is very evidently, pursuing a course of self-reliance. Not surprisingly if someday Cosco will upsurp Hyundai Shipbuilding as world largest in tonnage constructed.
If history has anything to measure.. these companies and their complementary firms will establish a larger market share by biting into defense pie long shared by the Europeans and Americans.
Their customers would surely be the 3rd world countries. Boeing (BA), Lockheed (LMT), European Aeronautical Defence and Space (EADS) will have a much harder time to compete in terms of cost.
Cheers