>>713550114he retrofitted it during the pandemic, maybe it was a techie survivalist move. but in any case he already sold it, which is a good thing because otherwise i would suspect him of being another US game industry glowie.
hospital ships have protected status and can invade territorial waters with minimal justification. it places the burden of proof on the violated party to justify attacking or removing the ship. in this way, hospital ships can be used as a platform for intelligence gathering or covert ops, if the defender lacks the technological sophistication to detect and expose what it is doing.
currently, the US and China have numerous hospital ships in the SCS. despite there being no active fighting there. while the US is involved in active fighting in the middle east and contributed to the massive humanitarian crisis in gaza, the USN has only deployed warships there and no hospital ships. no need to pretend or play nice with the arabs.