Current Events in Asia-Pacific

From Aviation Week China adds precision strike to capabilities Apr 8, 2009 By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. China has been developing and purchasing weapons for precision-strike warfare. This is the hard edge of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) doctrinal drive toward using increasingly sophisticated information technologies such as C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) to improve the capabilities of weapon systems (DTI March, p. 39). The PLA’s near-term goals appear to be greater asymmetric capabilities to target U.S. naval assets in the western Pacific and in space as part of an anti-access strategy. Lon…

From Defence Talk Indian Air Force Retires More Old MiGs Agence France-Presse | Mar 21, 2007 India’s air force bid farewell March 20 to some of its last active Soviet-era jets, which are set to be replaced by new hardware from either Russia, the U.S. or Europe. Four of its five remaining MiG-23 jets, which have top speeds of up to 2,500 kilometers (1,150 miles) an hour, staged a fly-by from an air base in western India before the entire squadron was declared retired, an air force spokesman said. The planes — referred to by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as "Floggers" — were bought from the Soviet Union in the early 1980s during a frenetic a…

Seafarers warned to be on alert in Malacca Strait Sun Apr 22, 1:33 AM ET The International Maritime Bureau on Sunday warned seafarers to remain on alert while travelling on the piracy-prone Malacca Strait despite a fall in attacks. Pottengal Mukundan, London-based director of IMB, told AFP that there was "no room for complacency," since pirates were merely lying low due to aggressive patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Mukundan said if the three Southeast Asian countries that border the Malacca Strait let up in their patrols, "pirate attacks will rise again." Maintaining and securing the waterway has always been regarded as the responsibility of …

China Military Power 2018 (pdf)

Japan To Vote On Modifying Pacifist Charter Written By U.S. By Norimitsu Onishi TOKYO, May 14 — The Japanese Parliament passed a bill on Monday calling for a national referendum on amendments to the country’s pacifist Constitution. The government will be able to hold the referendum as early as 2010, but experts say it may take far longer than three years to persuade voters and opposition lawmakers to back constitutional change. Polls show that Japanese remain split, especially on the Constitution’s Article 9, which renounces war and forbids Japan to have a full-fledged military. But Parliament’s action was an important preliminary step toward rewriting the…

From Defence Talk North Korea Threatens To Wipe Out US Forces In South Korea AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Mon, 19 Jun 2006, 00:32 Seoul: North Korea on Sunday threatened to "mercilessly wipe out" US forces in case of war during a national meeting to mark leader Kim Jong-Il's 42 years' work at the ruling party. The threat, in a ruling party report carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), came as North Korea was reportedly preparing to test-fire a long-range missile despite strong protests from the United States and its allies. Choe Thae Bok, a ranking Workers Party official, said Washington was "hell-bent on provocations of war of aggression" in the repo…

From Aviation Week Pacific, Korean Commanders Declare 'Overmatch' By Michael Bruno/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report The four-star chiefs of the U.S. Pacific and Korea combatant commands declared March 7 that the United States and its allies enjoy an overwhelming "overmatch" of naval and air forces in the region against any challenger, but the Korea commander noted concern with longer-term supplies of air-delivered munitions. U.S. Navy Adm. William Fallon, head of Pacific Command, and U.S. Army Gen. Burwell Bell, the military commander in South Korea, told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) that they are not in immediate need of additional weapons, …

Air Defense Options for Taiwan: An Assessment of Relative Costs and Operational Benefits (RAND, pdf)

From Stratfor China, the Olympics and the Visa Mystery July 29, 2008 By Rodger Baker Something extraordinary is happening in China, and we are not talking about the Olympics. Rather, Chinese officials have been clamping down on visa applications and implementing bureaucratic impediments to new and renewed visa applications under the guise of pre-Olympic security. In some ways, Beijing’s plan for a safe and secure Olympics appears based on the premise that if no one shows up, there can be no trouble. But placing restrictions on the movement of managers and employees of foreign businesses operating in China, even if for a limited time as Chinese officials have…

I am working on creating a new scenario and was wondering, how does China group its surface ships? Do they have groups similar to US destroyer squadron? Or carrier battle groups? I understand they just commissioned their first carrier so they probably have not completely established their naval strategy, but with other surface ships, is there any methodology the PLAN uses? Thanks for any help, this site and forum has been such a blessing

There are at least one boatload of sailors in the Royal Canadian Navy who can fully empathize with their Australian counterparts. Sub 20 seconds from death By Cameron Stewart July 23, 2005 News.com.au AN Australian submarine carrying 55 sailors was seconds from sinking to the bottom of the Indian Ocean following a catastrophic on-board flood off the coast of Perth. The near-tragedy has forced the navy to permanently reduce the diving depth of its fleet of six Collins-class submarines for safety reasons - a move that has weakened their military capability. An investigation by The Weekend Australian has revealed that an accident on board HMAS Dechain…

Global Security

Navy 'too weak' for big role in Korea blockade By Thomas Harding, Damien McElroy in Washington and Richard Spencer in Beijing (Filed: 16/10/2006) Telegraph Plans to impose a blockade of North Korea to prevent the regime acquiring nuclear weapons were thrown in disarray last night. China said it would oppose attempts to inspect suspect vessels and Royal Navy commanders said Britain was unable to make a significant military commitment to the proposed United Nations naval task force. advertisement The United States is leading attempts to put together a force that would prevent suspect cargoes from entering the Marxist dictatorship and stop North Korea e…

From Aviation Week Chinese ASAT strike was third try; had mobile element Amy Butler/Web Exclusive COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright says the Chinese made two unsuccessful attempts at an anti-satellite intercept before the successful test in January. During those earlier tests, at least one of which took place last year, the Chinese interceptor boosted into space but missed the target. The re-entry vehicles later fell back to Earth, an intelligence official says. Cartwright says the test was a pivotal moment for the U.S.'s presence in space, but he cautioned against an overreaction. "This is not in my mind the defining momen…

From Flight International DATE: 23/09/08 SOURCE: Flight International Wrangling over Raptor By Siva Govindasamy Would it surprise anyone if the favourite song right now in Japan's Ministry of Defence is The Rolling Stones' You can't always get what you want? For the last two years, Japan's politicians and civil servants have been intensely lobbying their counterparts in the USA to secure information on the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor for their country's upcoming F-X competition. Their efforts have only led them to a brick wall. Being one of Washington's closest allies in East Asia is not enough to get access to data on the highly coveted fifth-genera…

From Jane's Intelligence Watch Report 26 March 2007 Tamil rebels take to skies to attack Sri Lankan base EVENT On 25 March, the ethnic insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) became the world's first non-state armed group to undertake a bombing raid using its own aircraft without external support. The LTTE’s use of air power is not unexpected. The Sri Lankan government has long accused the rebels of developing an air wing, possibly called Vaanpuligal, stating in mid-2005 that the LTTE had built and was maintaining a 1,250 m air strip in Mullaitivu district. Photographs released by the LTTE on 26 March show the LTTE leader Prabhakaran with six a…

From Defence Talk Russia to lease only one nuclear sub to India Navy News — By RIA Novosti on June 23, 2009 at 5:20 am MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian government official dismissed on Monday media rumors that Russia planned to lease several nuclear submarines to India, saying a contract envisioned only the transfer of the Nerpa vessel. "We will lease only one submarine. In my opinion, India needs the sub more for enhancing its prestige rather than for accomplishing specific goals," Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti. India reportedly paid $65…

From Defence Talk Japan says it can go nuclear but won't Agence France-Presse Oct 31, 2006 - 5:28:02 AM TOKYO: Japan said Tuesday it has the legal right to develop nuclear weapons despite its pacifist constitution but has no intention even to consider the long-taboo idea. Prominent lawmakers have called on Japan, the only nation to suffer nuclear attack, to debate the nuclear option after communist neighbor North Korea on October 9 said it had tested its first atom bomb. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki argued that the US-imposed pacifist constitution allows Japan "the right to possess minimum capability" for self-defense. "Theoretically and…

From Defense Aerospace [it's been (and I'm sure, will continue to be) interesting to watch Japan's shifting attitude towards its constitution, the concept of self-defence and the role of nuclear arms. See, for example, my post on Oct 31/06. Stay tuned ... ] Japan Can Hold Nuclear Arms for Self-Defence: Govt (Source: ddi Indian Government news; issued Nov. 14, 2006) Japan has said that its constitution allows it to possess nuclear weapons as long as they are kept to a minimum level necessary for self-defence. However, the country has no intention of holding such arms, the government said in a statement. The statement, written in response to a question fr…

From DefenseNews Chinese General Warns U.S. Over Taiwan By JOHN RUWITCH, REUTERS, BEIJING A Chinese general has warned that China was ready to use nuclear weapons against the United States if Washington attacked his country over Taiwan, the Financial Times reported on July 15. Zhu Chenghu, a major general in the People’s Liberation Army who said he was expressing his own views and did not anticipate a conflict with Washington, nevertheless said China would have no option but to go nuclear in the event of an attack. “If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition onto the target zone on China’s territory, I think we will have to respon…