Current Events in Asia-Pacific

Australia, U.S. launch joint exercises By Meraiah Foley - The Associated Press Posted : Monday Jun 18, 2007 7:32:59 EDT SYDNEY, Australia — Australia and the U.S. launched their biggest joint war games Monday, with 27,500 troops backed by a U.S. aircraft carrier engaging in exercises aimed at consolidating the allies’ military dominance in the Asia Pacific region. The biennial Talisman Sabre exercise pits 20,000 U.S. troops and 7,500 Australian forces against two fictional enemies — the Kamarians and Musorians — in a variety of land and sea-based scenarios designed to test their skills in combat, peacekeeping and humanitarian relief efforts. The exercise,…

Source: The Korea Herald - http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail...=20120127000919 Teaser: An underwater tug-of-war is intensifying among countries such as China, Russia and the United States in the seas around Japan. A very interesting piece that has some definite scenario potential.

From Flight International DATE: 25/06/10 SOURCE: Flight International Boeing applies to export F-15SE to South Korea By Stephen Trimble Boeing has applied for an export licence to brief South Korea on sensitive details of a stealthier version of the F-15E that is within a few months of its first flight. The US government approved an export policy in the second quarter for the F-15SE Silent Eagle after Boeing submitted details of its radar cross-section about six months earlier, says Brad Jones, Boeing programme director for F-15 development programmes. The export policy allows Boeing to request an export licence for specific customers, with South Kor…

From American Enterprise Institute China's Defense White Paper What It Does (and Doesn't) Tell Us By Dan Blumenthal, Christopher Griffin Posted: Thursday, January 25, 2007 China Brief (vol. 7, no. 2) Publication Date: January 24, 2007 Credit should be given where it is due, and if one reads between the lines, the four Chinese defense white papers released every even year since 2000 have provided clearer insight into Beijing’s strategic aims and defense planning than ever intimated by Zhongnanhai through the 1990s. While the China’s National Defense in 2006 white paper should be primarily read as a piece of propaganda--part of China’s public campaign to assur…

From DefenseNews Posted 10/09/06 10:35 Defiant North Korea Conducts Nuclear Test By JACK KIM, REUTERS, SEOUL North Korea said it conducted an underground nuclear test on Oct. 9, defying a warning from the U.N. Security Council and opening its crippled economy to the risk of fresh sanctions. South Korea put its troops on heightened alert after the announcement, which came just minutes before Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe landed in Seoul for a visit. The move could heighten regional tension and deal a fresh foreign policy blow to U.S. President George W. Bush ahead of mid-term elections. The White House branded the act "provocative" and said it expected the…

From Defense Aerospace New Torpedoes and Combat System for Collins Class Submarines (Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued Nov. 14, 2005) Australia’s Collins-Class Submarines are undergoing a major capability boost with work about to start fitting out the first submarine with a new tactical combat system and upgraded state-of-the-art Heavyweight Torpedoes. Defence Minister Robert Hill said the design and installation of the Replacement Combat System and Heavyweight Torpedo System are on schedule and on cost. Senator Hill said the $857 million capability investment will significantly boost the combat effectiveness of the Collins Class making…

From Aviation Week's ARES Blog Navy Reacts To Missile Threats Posted by Bill Sweetman at 8/14/2008 7:00 AM CDT Tests this summer of Raytheon Standard Missile 2 weapons from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie were intended to demonstrate technology for a quick-reaction defense against ballistic missiles in their terminal phase. In the dry terminology of missile defense, this may not sound critical, but it indicates that the Navy is very worried about a new threat: the anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). Indications are that China, in particular, is developing an ASBM - an intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a guided warhead. The weapon outranges any…

From Flight International DATE: 06/11/08 SOURCE: Flightglobal.com PICTURE: J-10 debuts at Airshow China 2008 By Barbara Cockburn China's J-10 strike fighter aircraft, made its debut during an aerial display on 4 November in front of a crowd of spectators at the 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, known as Airshow China, held in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province.

Admiral stresses more talk between navies By Rod McGuirk - The Associated Press Posted : Thursday May 3, 2007 8:05:12 EDT CANBERRA, Australia — China will likely expand its navy and send its ships further out on the high seas to take a more active role in securing global sea lanes vital to its burgeoning economy, the U.S. naval commander in Japan said Thursday. Rear Adm. James Kelly said the strategic shift heightened the need for operational transparency between the world’s navies “so we don’t have a misinterpretation of something out on the high seas.” “As their economy continues to grow ... I suspect that China is thinking that they need to have a blue…

Has China Been Practicing Preemptive Missile Strikes Against U.S. Bases? (War on the Rocks)

China raises stakes in Japan oil row By Hamish McDonald China Correspondent Beijing October 4, 2005 TheAge A CHINESE warship trained its guns on a low-flying Japanese military patrol aircraft last month in the intensifying confrontation between the two Asian powers over disputed seabed oil and gas reserves. According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, the incident occurred on September 9 when the Japanese navy sent a P-3C aircraft to look at five Chinese warships that had sailed close to a contested boundary between economic zones claimed by both countries. One of the ships trained its guns on the aircraft, Kyodo quoted Japan Self-Defence Agency officials as s…

Indian Navy declines to buy British Harriers HindustanTimes Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, October 13, 2006 The Indian Navy has declined to buy eight British Sea Harrier FA.2 fighter jets that were phased out of the Royal Navy in March 2006. According to a report in the October issue of the defence magazine India Strategic, the eight Harriers, which were also the last to serve the Royal Navy, were on offer but without some vital components like missiles and the Blue Vixen fire control radar. The prime consideration was to use them to train pilots and to fill in the gaps caused by the loss of six Harriers in the Indian Navy due to accidents spread over…

From DefenseNews Posted 08/14/07 20:17 U.S. Sees Looming China Threat to Satellites By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE China may be just three years away from being able to disrupt U.S. military satellites in a regional conflict, a senior U.S. military leader said Aug. 14, citing a recent antisatellite test and other advances. The warning came amid calls at a conference in Alabama for intensified efforts to ensure U.S. “space superiority” in the wake of China’s shootdown Jan. 11 of one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile. “It is not inconceivable that within about three years we can be challenged at a near peer level in a region,” said Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell,…

From Flight International DATE: 10/06/08 SOURCE: Flight International BREAKING NEWS: Wedgetail 737 deliveries to Australia slip again By Andrew Doyle First deliveries of Boeing 737 airborne early warning and control system aircraft to launch customer Australia have been hit by a further four-month delay. The US manufacturer says the initial operational capability date for the first pair of aircraft under Australia's Wedgetail surveillance programme has slipped to July 2009, due to the need to "extend validation and flight test". The project - which had already been running around two years late - has also encountered delays in development of the airc…

Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2015 (pdf, US DOD)

From Aviation Week DSP Satellites See Aggressive New Chinese Missile Testing By Craig Covault China is beginning an unprecedented surge in the flight test of new ballistic missiles at the same time that the U.S. is starting a lengthy transition of missile-warning satellite systems, critical for providing intelligence on this test activity. The current Defense Support Program (DSP) missile-warning spacecraft and new Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) spacecraft, just starting to be launched, have a primary job of attack warnings. But the powerful infrared telescopes on the DSPs are especially providing vital intelligence on new Chinese, as well as Iranian…

DefenseNews Taiwan Successfully Test Fires First Cruise Missile By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, TAIPEI, TAIWAN Taiwan has successfully test fired its first cruise missile, which would allow the island to hit major military targets in southeast China, a newspaper here reported June 5. The Hsiung Feng cruise missile, developed by the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, has a range of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) and could be used to attack military bases in southeast China, the China Times said. “Once deployed, it would mark the first time that Taiwan is able to put ‘strategic weapons’ into use. Its political and military impact would be fa…

From CNN February 20th, 2009 Rebels jets attack Sri Lankan capital Posted: 02:10 PM ET COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) — Two Tamil rebel aircraft swooped into this capital city Friday, with one dropping a bomb that killed at least two people and wounded 47 just before it crashed, officials said. Officials said the casualties occurred in and around the head office building of the Department of Revenue. The wreckage of the plane was found on top of the building. It was not clear if the aircraft was shot down or if the pilot had intended a suicide attack. The building is two blocks away from the Air Force headquarters, which officials believe the attacker meant t…

From DefenseNews Posted 07/04/07 11:12 Indonesian Minister Says Singapore Trying To Scuttle Defense Pact By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS, JAKARTA Indonesia’s defense minister has accused Singapore of trying to scuttle a bilateral defense pact so it will not have to sign an extradition treaty as part of the deal, reports said Wednesday. The defense pact and landmark extradition treaty were signed in April between the two nations, but still need to be ratified by their parliaments to be put into effect. A scheduled signing of three implementing agreements (IAs), detailing specific areas of cooperation, was delayed at the last minute because Indonesia requested changes, S…

CV32: Or, is it that Okinawa is needed to defend Taiwan? From DefenseNews U.S. Says Okinawa Base Needed To Defend Japan By SHAUN TANDON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: 17 Mar 2010 21:37 WASHINGTON - The United States said March 17 that it needs to maintain a base on the Japanese island of Okinawa to defend the region, as the new government in Tokyo considers scrapping a previous plan. Senior U.S. officials told Congress that while they respected the decisions of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's six-month-old government, they hoped to go ahead with a plan to move the Futenma air base within Okinawa. Michael Schiffer, a senior Pentagon official, told a…