Current Events in Asia-Pacific

Last night during the Zoom meeting there was talk about the PLAN super carrier and that they were going to use the same cats that we're using. Maybe not....to this old shipfitters eyes it looks like a standard Kuznetov design with a ski ramp and no angle...which means they can't launch and recover at the same time....oops.... Byron

From Defense Aerospace Breakthrough in Japan for Stirling AIP (Source: Kockums AB; issued July 11, 2005) Kockums has signed a contract with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) concerning delivery of Stirling engines for Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems of Japan’s submarine programme. The order has been placed following several years evaluation of Stirling engines aboard the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) training submarine. Japan has decided to adopt the AIP system that is based on Kockums' Stirling engine technology for its new submarines. “We are very pleased for the new orders for Stirling engines from Japan, including our long-term …

Wall Street Journal April 18, 2007 Pg. 9 Singapore Prime Minister Urges U.S. To Bolster Its Ties In Asia By Yaroslav Trofimov and Paul Beckett SINGAPORE -- Distracted by problems elsewhere, the U.S. isn't paying enough attention to Southeast Asia, losing its regional influence to a rising China and potentially weakening antiterrorism cooperation, Singapore's prime minister cautioned. In Southeast Asia, the U.S. has "many friends and many strategic interests," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told The Wall Street Journal ahead of his talks with President Bush, scheduled for early next month in Washington. "It's important for us to continue to nourish this,…

Leaked by SOAB Snowden: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/our-french-submarine-builder-in-massive-leak-scandal/news-story/3fe0d25b7733873c44aaa0a4d42db39e

From Air Force Times U.S. gauges China’s anti-satellite plan By Vago Muradian - Staff writer Posted : Friday Feb 2, 2007 11:10:30 EST As worldwide attention focuses on China’s first successful anti-satellite missile test, U.S. officials are questioning why some Chinese spacecraft are in orbits that bring them close to key U.S. satellites, according to military sources. The big question is the scale and progress of the Chinese anti-satellite program, including whether the Chinese spacecraft are benign or time bombs that can someday be used to threaten the space assets on which the U.S. military and economy depend for everything from reconnaissance and droppin…

NIDS China Security Report 2016 (National Institute for Defense Studies (Tokyo), pdf)

From Aviation Week [excerpt]

From Defence Talk India hopes to test ICBM in 2010: official Agence France-Presse | Feb 16, 2009 Bangalore, India: India hopes to test-fire a home-built inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) before the end of next year, a senior defence official said Friday. "Efforts are on to test the next longer range Agni-V missile before December 2010," M. Natarajan, the scientific adviser to India's defence minister told reporters on the sidelines of the Aero India international air show here. The Agni-V will have an ICBM range in excess of 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles). The shorter range Agni-I and Agni-II ballistic missiles are currently being introduced …

From Aviation Week China Close To Testing Next-Gen Fighter Nov 16, 2009 Bradley Perrett/Beijing A Chinese fighter of nominally the same technology generation as the Lockheed Martin F-22 will soon enter flight testing, while a jet airlifter larger than the Airbus A400M should be unveiled by year-end. Beijing’s fighter announcement suggests a serious failing in U.S. intelligence assessments, mocking a July 16 statement of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that China would have no fifth-generation fighters by 2020. Industrial competition looks more remote than strategic competition, however, since China will want to fill domestic requirements before offering …

London August 18, 2006 IT'S not every day that a foreign diplomat publicly tells the US to "shut up and keep quiet", but China's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva did just that during a BBC interview on the subject of Beijing's growing military spending. Interviewed for a BBC radio program yesterday, Sha Zukang also said China would sacrifice its own people's lives if any nation supported a declaration of independence by Taiwan. Responding to jitters in the Bush Administration about Beijing's rising military budget, Mr Sha said the US itself accounted for half of the world's military spending. "The China population is six times or five times that…

Honolulu Advertiser April 18, 2007 Indonesia, U.S. Join Forces In Exercise By William Cole, Advertiser Military Writer About 80 U.S. soldiers are in Indonesia, including some Hawai'i National Guard members, for what is being described as "opening a new chapter" between the U.S. and Indonesian armies. Garuda Shield 2007 in West Java represents the resumption of brigade-level, army-to-army exercises after U.S. military ties with Indonesia were cut by the Clinton administration in 1999. The U.S. broke off ties after troops backed by the Indonesian government used deadly force to try to suppress East Timor's ultimately successful quest for independence. …

For those familiar with the Harpoon Classic game, this idea sounds a lot like the Cold War concept platform, Mitchel Offshore Base, that is found in the GIUK and NACV Battlesets. Looks like what was old is new again. US and Japan plan floating runway Justin McCurry in Tokyo Monday August 29, 2005 The Guardian Japan and the US are planning to build a giant floating runway off the coast of western Japan in a bid to reduce noise pollution by US military aircraft, local media reported yesterday. The "megafloat" will be built six miles off Iwakuni, home to a US marine base, at a cost of up to ¥500bn (£2.5bn), the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said, quoting go…

Sale of Aegis Weapons Systems to Australia Proposed By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE DefenseNews The Pentagon on May 23 announced the possible sale of three Aegis naval weapons systems to Australia, saying it would increase the ability of the U.S. and Australian navies to operate together. The Defense Security and Cooperation Agency (DSCA) estimated the value of the sale at as high as $350 million. Aegis systems are centered on a sophisticated computerized command system that can cue air defense missiles to enemy missiles and aircraft detected by targeting radar. Using its AN/SPY-1 phased array radar, it can track more than a hundred targets simultaneously. N…

Drills put U.S. Navy on notice By RICHARD HALLORAN Special to The Japan Times HONOLULU -- Soon after Adm. Gary Roughhead took the helm as the new commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Chinese and Russian armed forces gave him something to think about. Those two forces in the western Pacific have just completed eight days of joint maneuvers centered on the Shandong Peninsula, across the Yellow Sea from the Korean Peninsula. The drills were conducted with 10,000 military people on land, at sea, and in the air, about 8,500 of them Chinese. That's not large as those things go, but it was the first such exercise done together since the breakup of the Soviet …

From Navy Times Kitty Hawk leaves Japan The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday May 23, 2007 10:19:16 EDT TOKYO — The carrier Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s oldest ship in full active service, embarked on its last major maneuvers Wednesday before being decommissioned next year. The 46-year-old vessel — the only American aircraft carrier permanently deployed abroad — eased out of its berth at the Navy base in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, escorted by a carrier strike group of cruisers and guided-missile destroyers, Naval spokesman John Nylander said. The voyage, to last several months in the western and central Pacific Ocean, was expected to be the last major mi…

Japan, U.S., India to hold joint naval drill The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Apr 3, 2007 9:32:29 EDT TOKYO — Japan, the U.S. and India will hold their first three-way naval drill later this month, a Japanese defense official said Tuesday, amid efforts by Tokyo to boost ties with the region’s naval powers. An Indian missile ship, two U.S. destroyers and three escort ships of Japan’s Self-Defense Force were among the vessels slated to take part in the joint exercise off Chiba prefecture on Japan’s eastern coast on April 16, according to defense official Yoshihito Fukabori. The drill, which Fukabori described as a goodwill exercise, will consist of bas…

China's Navy Forms First Carrier-Borne Jet Force (Defense Aerospace)

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt]

From eDefense It took seven years, but Singapore has finally chosen a replacement for its aging fleet of A-4SU Super Skyhawks: the Boeing (St. Louis, MO) F-15T, a variant of the F-15E Strike Eagle. The Singapore Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) announced on Sept. 6 that it is now in the process of seeking final clarifications and contract negotiation with Boeing under its New Fighter Replacement Program (NFRP), under which Singapore aims to procure 20 (although perhaps as many as 24) new fighters to replace its A-4SUs, which "will soon be at the end of their operationally useful life," according to a MINDEF spokeswoman. The NFRP, with an estimated value of some $1 bi…