Current Events in Asia-Pacific

Reporting name "Musudan", looks like a SS-N-6 conversion.

Kopp and the gang continue to be unhappy about the impending demise of the RAAF F-111 force: F-111: Deadly strike fighter to be trashed

I am thinking that Avatar must have been filmed in Indonesia, because apparently the defense ministry there has struck upon a large deposit of unobtainium. Indonesia plans to buy 180 Flankers

From Defense Aerospace U.S., South Korea Plan Anti-submarine Exercise (Source: U.S Department of Defense; issued September 24, 2010) YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea --- South Korean and U.S. forces will conduct an anti-submarine warfare exercise in the waters west of the Korean peninsula Sept. 27 to Oct. 1. The exercise is part of a series of combined naval training events that are defensive in nature and enhance interoperability, officials said. The exercises also are designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea, they added, while improving the overall anti-submarine warfare capabilities of the U.S.-South Korean alliance. Participating uni…

Ares story Seems to have been a navigational error; the pilot would have survived had he not hit a house on landing. Could have been a defection attempt; might not have been.

From DefenseNews Slated U.S. Carrier Visit to Yellow Sea Irks China By WENDELL MINNICK Published: 13 Aug 2010 10:17 TAIPEI - Chinese government and state-run media outlets are angrily protesting the Pentagon's Aug. 5 announcement to send the aircraft carrier George Washington into the Yellow Sea (West Sea) in upcoming exercises with South Korea. The exact date the aircraft carrier would enter the Yellow Sea was not released. The George Washington did not enter the Yellow Sea during exercises last month, supposedly after Chinese objections, but plans to do so in upcoming exercises have once again enraged Beijing. China "won't stand for U.S. naval provocat…

Useful scenario fodder to be found here ... From Jane's Atomic revelation - Defector reveals Myanmar's nuclear programme By Robert Kelley and Allison Puccioni 22 July 2010 Processing facility at Thabeikkyin: 11 May 2010. The area on the right appears dishevelled in appearance but has been expertly cleared and reinforced within the last 18 months. It is heavily secured with a perimeter fence and a road access point. There is a straight line stemming from a concrete-lined open water tank (red arrow, bottom left) through to a processing area into several buildings. These components indicate ore processing takes place. (2010 DigitalGlobe) That Myanmar has a …

By MARK THOMPSON / WASHINGTON Mark Thompson / Washington – 24 mins ago If China's satellites and spies were working properly, there would have been a flood of unsettling intelligence flowing into the Beijing headquarters of the Chinese navy last week. A new class of U.S. superweapon had suddenly surfaced nearby. It was an Ohio-class submarine, which for decades carried only nuclear missiles targeted against the Soviet Union, and then Russia. But this one was different: for nearly three years, the U.S. Navy has been dispatching modified "boomers" to who knows where (they do travel underwater, after all). Four of the 18 ballistic-missile subs no longer carry nuclear-tip…

From DefenseNews N. Korea Declares 'No Sail' Zone Off West Coast AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: 25 Jun 2010 09:55 SEOUL - North Korea has announced a ban on shipping off part of its west coast and South Korea is watching for any signs of missile tests, the defense ministry in Seoul said June 25. "The move is seen as part of a routine exercise by North Korean troops, but we are closely monitoring their activities," a spokesman told AFP. The ministry declined to confirm a report by Yonhap news agency that the no-sail zone was declared from June 19-27 near the western port city of Nampo, north of the disputed inter-Korean sea border. It is unclear whet…

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…

Link to download page for ASPI's RAAF capability review 2010 (PDF)

From Defense Aerospace Details of New Japanese 'Helicopter Destroyer' (Source: Forecast International; issued June 17, 2010) TOKYO --- Rumors that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's third "aircraft carrying destroyer" would mark a major improvement in size and capability over the Hyuga class ships now entering service have been confirmed. The new 22DDH will be 248 meters long and 39 meters in beam, and displace more than 24,000 tons. This makes her almost 50 percent larger than the Hyuga class and places an unbearable semantic strain on the use of the term "destroyer" to describe these ships. To put the size of the ship into context, she is comparable wi…

From Aviation Week Indian Navy Pursues Fixed-Wing Carrier AEW Jun 16, 2010 By Asia-Pacific Staff New Delhi The Indian navy is trying to move ahead with an effort to buy four carrier-based fixed airborne early warning and control aircraft, and a request for information is now on the streets. The request for information (RFI) calls for aircraft capable of providing “airborne surveillance, detection and tracking of airborne and surface contacts and control.” The navy presently operates a fleet of nine Kamov Ka-31 airborne early warning (AEW) helicopters. The comparatively limited range and time-on-station of an AEW helicopter, however, continues to drive t…

From DefenseNews Chinese Delegates At Shangri-La Express Frustration With N. Korea By WENDELL MINNICK Published: 6 Jun 2010 15:45 SINGAPORE - Members of a Chinese delegation attending the 9th Asia Security Summit earlier this month indicated Beijing officials are flustered by North Korean hijinks. Also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue the summit, held annually in Singapore, is run by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). North Korean issues shared the spotlight at Shangri-La with difficulties over China's refusal to continue military exchanges with the U.S. A Chinese government official at Shangri-La said he "was puzz…

Breaking news, folks, doesn't look good ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8589507.stm http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/26/south...h-korea/?hpt=T2 http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2...000100315F.HTML

From DefenseNews S. Korea Fires Warning Shots at N. Korean Ships AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: 16 May 2010 15:16 SEOUL, - South Korea's navy fired warning shots to drive away North Korean patrol boats from the disputed inter-Korean sea border, amid tension over the sinking of a Seoul warship, officials said May 16. The warning shots were fired late May 15 when two North Korean patrol boats violated the Northern Limit Line (NLL) border and strayed into South Korean waters, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff office said. A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP the North's patrol boats retreated without responding to the fire. No casualties occu…

From Jane's Chinese naval J-11s spotted in the open By Ted Parsons 10 May 2010 In early May Chinese military websites featured images outside the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation factory indicating that new single- and twin-seat J-11 fighters are probably being produced for the People's Liberation Army Navy Air Force (PLANAF). The images showed J-11s in a very light grey livery consistent with the PLANAF's Sukhoi Su-30MKK2 fighters, 24 (one regiment) of which were delivered in 2004. The single-seat fighters reportedly have the designation J-11BH, a new variant of the J-11B, which in turn is Shenyang's significantly modified version of Sukhoi's Su-27SK that Shen…

Researching data for Harpoon, I've finded Vikrant preserved as museum in Mumbai, in this interesting site, Warbirdsofindia.com : http://www.warbirdsofindia.com/maharashtra/ins-vikrant.html But not without problems of continuity, I see ... http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mu...how/5798936.cms

From Defense Aerospace Problems with Malaysian Scorpene (Source: Forecast International; issued February 15, 2010) KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia --- The Malaysian Navy reports that Malaysia's first Scorpene class submarine, delivered in September 2009, has developed problems that have left it unable to submerge. "The submarine can still dive but when we detected the defects, we were advised that it should not dive," Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said. "The defects are still covered by warranty, so the supplier and contractor are repairing them," he added. This is the third fault found with the Scorpenes built for Malaysia. Malaysian Navy commander…

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…