Current Events in Asia-Pacific

I wonder if this might have the same implications as the sale of manufacturing equipment by Toshiba to the Soviet Union? It gave them huge advances in the quieting of their SSNs. Chinese Nationals Held in Alleged Scheme By GILLIAN FLACCUS The Associated Press Monday, November 7, 2005; 10:57 PM WashingtonPost SANTA ANA, Calif. -- A federal judge on Monday denied bail for two Chinese nationals accused of conspiring to steal sensitive documents on U.S. Navy warship technology and smuggle them to China. Tai Wang Mak, a broadcast and engineering director for the Phoenix North American Chinese Channel, and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, were arrested Oct. 28 in …

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…

PACAF’s “Vision” Thing By Richard Halloran Find the air force Magazine article here. A new wargame tells airmen what it will take to hold the line in the Far East. Pacific Air Forces has begun to forge a doctrine of AirSea Battle with the intent of deterring any Chinese, North Korean, or Russian military aggression in Asia and the Pacific. The doctrine is in its early stages of development, and initial findings are being drawn from a two-phase wargame called Pacific Vision, held in October. Pacific Vision’s first phase looked out to 2016, and was centered on Air Force operations. This wargame focused on the weapons, bases, and combat forces that PACAF alre…

China’s Claim That Its Fractional Orbital Bombardment System Was A Spaceplane Test Doesn’t Add Up (The War Zone)

Quantum Communications and Chinese SSBN Strategy (The Diplomat)

From China Daily China's nuke submarines up for maiden parade (Xinhua) Updated: 2009-04-21 09:12 QINGDAO -- China will display its nuclear-powered submarines for the first time in history during a fleet parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Navy, a senior navy officer said in Qingdao Monday. Ding Yiping, deputy commander of the PLA Navy, made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Xinhua, but did not disclose any further details about the submarines. In addition to the fleet parade, there will also be seminars and a sampan race that will be held off the coast of the eastern city of Qingdao during the four-day celebra…

From Jane's Japanese MoD maintains plan to pursue F-22 By Jon Grevatt and Craig Caffrey 07 January 2009 The Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) has dismissed reports that it is prepared to drop plans to evaluate the F-22 Raptor fifth-generation air superiority fighter as part of its programme to procure next-generation (FX) fighters for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). Media reports from Japan have quoted government sources as saying that the MoD will abandon efforts to seek access to the aircraft's technologies and performance data in light of increasing budgetary pressures on the F-22 programme in the United States and the continuing ban on its exp…

Image Emerges Of What Could Be A Chinese Knock-Off Of Russia's Su-34 Fullback (Foxtrot Alpha)

From Defense Aerospace MND Mulls US$4b Budget for 66 Fighters (Source: Taiwan government news; issued July 13, 2006) While Taiwan is planning to increase its defense budget to cope with military threats from China, the Ministry of National Defense is assessing a plan to buy sixty-six F-16 C/D fighters from the United States for NT$130 billion (US$4 billion) in order to strengthen its air defense capabilities. The deal was proposed in response to President Chen Shui-bian's plan to increase the percentage of the defense budget from 2.4 percent to 2.85 percent of Taiwan's GDP in fiscal year 2007, a local Chinese-language newspaper quoted sources in the MND as …

From Aviation Week Australian Air Force Campaigns For 100 F-35s Dec 3, 2008 By Bradley Perrett The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is stepping up its lobbying efforts for a full order of 100 F-35 Lightning IIs, a number that has been officially endorsed but could easily be trimmed in a defense white paper due next year. The chief of the air force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, strongly defends the choice of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 as its next fighter, arguing that it will be part of an integrated airpower system and the country could not hope to find better. He also endorses the Boeing 737 Airborne Early Warning & Control Wedgetail and Airbus A330 tanke…

From Defence Talk Hopes rise for NKorea nuclear deal Agence France-Presse | May 16, 2007 Hopes rose Wednesday that North Korea will finally start shutting down its nuclear programme after Pyongyang announced a long-running financial dispute which blocked progress is close to settlement. "The statement by the North Korean foreign ministry expressed its will to implement the February 13 agreement in the most explicit and positive way that we have ever seen," South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jae-Joung told a forum. Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said he expected the dispute "to be settled in the near future" but did not elaborate. North Korean acco…

Looks like excellent scenario fodder for any Japanese "resurgence" backgrounds. :smoke: Japan Losing Military ‘Allergy’: Top Officer By ISABEL REYNOLDS, REUTERS, TOKYO DefenseNews Japanese are developing a new respect for their country’s armed forces, in stark contrast to the distrust that prevailed for decades after defeat in World War Two, the military’s new chief of staff said on May 12. Hajime Massaki, 62, was appointed to the newly created post in March in an attempt to draw together the air, sea and ground branches of what Japan calls its Self-Defense Forces and make them more effective. Massaki, a native of the southernmost main island of …

From Defence Talk China Warns U.S. Not to Sell Fighters To Taiwan AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Mon, 24 Jul 2006, 00:33 Beijing has warned Washington not to proceed with a reported deal to sell fighterss to Taiwan, indicating it would impact on regional security and harm Sino-U.S. relations, state media said on July 21. ”The Chinese side has taken note of the report and lodged serious representations to the United States,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. The China Times reported on July 17 that a Taiwanese delegation had proposed the procurement of 66 advanced fighter planes during an annua…

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/16/politics/chinese-warship-underwater-drone-stolen/index.html All civilian crew? http://gcaptain.com/usns-bowditch-little-known-critical/ Seems less inflammatory than collecting towed arrays. What do you all think?

From DefenseNews Guessing Game: How Large Is China’s Defense Budget? By PETER HARMSEN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BEIJING While everyone knows China is a rising power, one can only guess at how strong its armed forces are, or how much it is spending to build its military might. The issue of the size of China’s defense budget re-emerged this week as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Beijing. He used every opportunity to voice concern over his host nation’s military expansion, which he said was sending “mixed signals” about China’s intentions. “Many countries … have questions about the pace and the scope of China’s military expansion,” he said a…

Royal Navy's new supply fleet could be built cheap in China By Clayton Hirst 15 May 2005 Excerpt from The Independent Britain could have its first fleet of naval ships built in China under plans being drawn up by shipbuilder VT Group. The company is preparing to bid to supply the Royal Navy with up to 15 support vessels, in a contract thought to be worth £2bn. But in a bit to reduce costs, VT is exploring the possibility of making the ships' hulls in China. The move would be controversial as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) insists that all warships be assembled in Britain. However, VT believes that because the ships in the so-called Mars programme will be…

From Jane's Defence Weekly 19 April 2007 China marches forward By Timothy Hu The regeneration of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is shifting into higher gear as it takes delivery of a new generation of home-grown arms and steps up the development of sophisticated asymmetric technologies designed to thwart more advanced adversaries. Along with the continuing importation of Russian weapons, improved training and rising levels of professionalism, China is now firmly on track to become a credible regional military power. An array of new indigenous weapon platforms has been unveiled in the past year that is at least a generation ahead of the PLA's …

Taiwan to Get U.S. Early Warning Radar By JIM WOLF, REUTERS, WASHINGTON DefenseNews The U.S. Defense Department said on June 23 it would supply Taiwan with key elements of a missile and air defense capability, a move aimed at defusing the threat from China. Raytheon Co. won a U.S. Air Force contract worth up to $752 million to supply the Early Warning Surveillance Radar by September 2009, the Pentagon said. In a move bound to anger Beijing, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, the system will let Taiwan’s air force detect and track long- and short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, enemy aircraft and surface ships with “no doubt” reliability…

From Defense Aerospace India Ready to Fire BrahMos from Submarine (Source: ddi Indian Government news; issued Jan. 29, 2007) India is almost ready with its undersea launch version of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile and wants the Navy to help in preliminary test trials by the end of the year. The Navy's help is being sought as the DRDO lacks a platform to undertake tests of the submarine launch Brahmos missile which will put India among the few countries who have the capability to launch underwater supersonic missiles. The Indian Navy's present fleet of just upgraded Kilo class submarines do not have the capability to test fire such missiles, Bra…

From Jane's Thai prime minister deposed in name of monarchy amid political uncertainty By Christian LeMiere, Jane’s Country Risk Asia Editor EVENT A military coup took place in Thailand at midnight (1700 GMT) on 19 September to depose caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was in New York at the time. The coup is a sign of military disaffection with governmental intervention and royalist fears of Thaksin's autocracy. In the immediate term, the lack of an interim prime minister poses the greatest risk. However, should a prime minister be forthcoming, the most likely short-term outcome will be democratic elections in November and a possible increase i…