Current Events in Asia-Pacific

From Defense Aerospace Government Welcomes ASPI Strategic Insights Paper -Cutting Edge: The Collins Experience (Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued Feb. 23, 2006) The Australian Strategic Policy Paper, Cutting Edge: The Collins Experience, highlights the many initiatives taken by the Howard Government over the past ten years to both reform Defence procurement and deliver a world class submarine capability to the Royal Australian Navy. Through utilising our Alliance relationship with the United States of America, reforming the way we do business in Defence Procurement and investing in local industry the Coalition Government is delivering this st…

Excerpt from: Naval War College CHINA’S MATURING NAVY Rear Admiral Eric A. McVadon, U.S. Navy (Retired) Naval War College Review, Spring 2006, Vol. 59, No. 2 STARTING WITH QUESTIONS The following questions and answers may be an unusual way to begin probing the specific naval aspects of the issue, but they focus on an often neglected, but arguably the most surprising, single PLAN acquisition program—its bold move to build quickly a modern nuclear submarine force despite its troubled past in this arena. These incisive questions—posed to the author in 2005 by experts on the Chinese submarine force—are especially useful in that they take the PLA’s Ta…

Recent Changes in Kim Jong Un’s High Command (38 North) Great info here.

From Jane's Defence Weekly China develops anti-ship missile By Ted Parsons JDW Correspondent Virginia, US The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is in the advanced stages of developing a revolutionary anti-ship ballistic missile to supplement its well known Ying-Ji family of anti-ship cruise missiles. The development programme has been confirmed by both US government and Asian military sources, with the latter estimating that the PLA may be able to deploy the space targeting systems needed to make its anti-ship ballistic missile operational by 2009. PLA efforts to provide terminal guidance capabilities to both its 600 km-range DF-15 (CSS-6) short-ran…

Maybe interesting? Until last week, when the billionaire Paul Allen began tweeting images of deep-sea wreckage — a coral-encrusted anchor, a green valve hairy with algae — the annals of vanished ships contained no entry more mysterious than that of the Musashi, a massive Japanese battleship sunk off the Philippines toward the end of World War II. To call Musashi massive, actually, doesn’t begin to do it justice. It was, and remains, one of the largest battleships ever launched — 70,000 tons of water displaced, with a crew of more than two thousand. Its nine 18.1-inch guns, the largest caliber ever mounted on a ship, were designed to fire 3,000-pound shells at a rang…

From The Diplomat [excerpt]

Los Angeles Times - April 10, 2007 China Missile Test Seen As A Threat To Taiwan Exercise showed ability to blind U.S. satellites that would help defend the island, study says. By Associated Press WASHINGTON — China's anti-satellite test in January increased the country's military threat to Taiwan by demonstrating a limited ability to blind the U.S. satellites that would be deployed in defense of the island, according to a report by an independent private research group to be released today. "The test is a vivid example of how China's emerging military capabilities will complicate the strategic environment confronting U.S. forces for decades to come,"…

China’s Expanding Ability to Conduct Conventional Missile Strikes on Guam (US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, pdf)

From the DEW Line [excerpt]

China’s ‘aircraft-carrier killer’ missiles successfully hit target ship in South China Sea, PLA insider reveals

China warns U.S. it will not allow violations of its waters (Reuters) The USN needs to go ahead and call China's bluff on this. To fail to do so (or, rather, to continue to fail to do so) will be a tacit (and dangerous) acknowledgement of China's ridiculous claims as legitimate.

International Court Issues Unanimous Award in Philippines v. China Case on South China Sea (The Diplomat) Link to the court news release here Link to the full text (pdf) of the decision here CV32: The big question is what will China do next.

China working up first carrier group (Defense Aerospace)

Sri Lanka rebel naval HQ destroyed: defence ministry 1 hour, 53 minutes ago Sri Lankan warplanes "bombed and completely destroyed" a key Tamil Tiger naval base Wednesday, the defence ministry said, drawing an immediate denial from the rebels. Israeli-built Kfir jets pounded what the defence ministry said was the "Sea Tiger headquarters" of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Puthukkudiyiruppu, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the coast, in the northeast of the country. The LTTE said there were no casualties from the bombing, which they said took place near the "White Pigeon" charity, which helps victims of landmines. "The bombs fell about 60…

China’s Artificial Islands Are Bigger (And a Bigger Deal) Than You Think (War on the Rocks) Great article if you're considering a South China Sea scenario!

Russia Delivers 1st S-400 Missile Defense Regiment to China (The Diplomat)

From Defence Talk US offers advanced missile system to India IANS | Jan 30, 2007 NEW DELHI: The US is offering India one of the world's most formidable shipboard missile systems that has the potential of being integrated with the country's indigenous missiles. There was "some interest" in the Indian defence establishment in the Aegis system but neither has the US made an offer nor has India made any formal request for it, says Royce Caplinger, managing director of Lockheed Martin India, whose US parent manufactures the system. "I am sure though that if you ask for it, you will get it," India Strategic defence magazine quotes him as saying. The feelers…

This is how nuclear war with North Korea would unfold (Washington Post) CV32: There is an underlying political message (of course!) but at least the scenario is interesting.

From Aviation Week China Asat Test Called Worst Single Debris Event Ever By Frank Morring, Jr. Chinese delegates will have some explaining to do in Vienna later this month, when they sit down with representatives of other spacefaring nations to adopt international guidelines designed to mitigate the growing problem of man-made space debris in Earth orbit. The document drafted by a technical subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is aimed at preventing the sort of accidental events that have gradually engulfed Earth in a cloud of potentially destructive high-speed debris since the flight of Sputnik 1 kicked off orbital spaceflig…

Full Story (h/t Alert 5)