Current Events in Asia-Pacific

China's Aircraft Carrier Heads to South China Sea (ABC News)

From Aviation Week [excerpt]

Limited liftoff looming: Y-20 transport prepares for first flight (The Diplomat)

Long march ahead for Chinese naval airpower (Flight Global)

The “Long Pole in the Tent”: China’s Military Jet Engines (The Diplomat)

Looks Like Chinas Building a Giant New Warship (War is Boring blog) First Iran and their wooden aircraft carrier. Now China and its 'son of Kirov'? Colour me skeptical.

Is it just like everything else, that since we all have more opportunity to hear/read it, the more it "appears" to be happening. Reading navytime.com today, two more skippers have either been relieved, or have a good chance, in this case ground Arliegh Burke outside of Norfolk. CO of Arliegh Burke ran around, oh soft aground, so that's ok. CO of USS Helena (SSN) CO of USS Constitution And more than one or two over the past weeks that I am not currently able to pull up on the site. What's going on? Is it OPTEMPO? I'm not saying that there are not leadership failures in both the Army and Marines, but those forces are currently "engaged".

Lost At Sea By Robert D. Kaplan THE ultimate strategic effect of the Iraq war has been to hasten the arrival of the Asian Century. While the American government has been occupied in Mesopotamia, and our European allies continue to starve their defense programs, Asian militaries — in particular those of China, India, Japan and South Korea — have been quietly modernizing and in some cases enlarging. Asian dynamism is now military as well as economic. The military trend that is hiding in plain sight is the loss of the Pacific Ocean as an American lake after 60 years of near-total dominance. A few years down the road, according to the security analysts at the …

From Jane's Ma's victory eases tension across Taiwan Strait 01 April 2008 When Ma Ying-jeou is asked how his China-friendly attitude will play out in practice, he flinches. Although Ma just won Taiwan's presidential election in a landslide on an agenda of closer links with the island's economically attractive but politically hostile neighbour, he is very cautious. Welcome to political reality in Taiwan. While Ma has pledged not to move towards independence during his term in office, he has also committed himself not to negotiate unification. This sets a tight framework for what Ma can achieve. He has made clear that he will not try to resolve the conflict onc…

From ARES Blog On The Nose - Making Missiles go Faster Posted by Graham Warwick at 11/10/2008 9:38 AM CST Indian researchers say they have tested a novel and simple way to reduce the drag and increase the range of high-speed missiles. In hypersonic shock-tunnel tests reported in the journal Physics of Fluids, the technique resulted in a 47% reduction of drag on a blunt cone representing the nosecone of a missile or space vehicle. Blunt noses are used to reduce the aerothermal loads on missiles at high speed, but they increase wave drag. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore tested various ways of reducing drag, including mounting …

Making Sense of the Japanese Submarine Option (The Diplomat)

GLOBAL INSECURITY Private navies combat Malacca Strait pirates Waterway now so dangerous for shipping, Lloyd's classifies major seaway as warzone © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Ship captains navigating the Malacca Strait no longer have to depend on the slow response of government – or sheer luck – to safely pass through the pirate- and terrorist-infested waters since private navies have begun providing escort services for ships through the strategic seaway. The Strait, passageway to a third of the world's crude oil, has long been treacherous, with gangs armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other modern weapons ready to board, kill crews, stea…

From ARES Malaysia Takes Delivery of Its First Ever Submarine Posted by Christina Mackenzie at 1/27/2009 9:39 AM CST Malaysia took delivery today of its first ever submarine: a Scorpene built by French military shipyard DCNS in partnership with Spanish shipyard Navantia. The submarine, named the Tunku Abdul Rahman (after Malaysia's first Prime Minister following independence in 1957), completed its sea tests at the end of December and was handed over to Admiral Dato'Sri Aziz Hj Jaafar, chief of staff of the Royal Malaysian Navy at a ceremony in the Mediterranean port of Toulon. The vessel will sail to Malaysia in the summer and meantime the crew will comp…

Malaysia Summons Indonesia Envoy over Sea Dispute By REUTERS, KUALA LUMPUR From DefenceNews. Malaysia has summoned Indonesia’s ambassador and sent a protest note after ships from the neighbors’ navies confronted each other in disputed waters, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said April 14. Malaysia would continue to patrol potentially oil-rich waters off Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province, despite Jakarta’s objections, Syed Hamid said, and added Indonesia already has protested the encounter. “Indonesia’s note said it is their area and they disagreed with Malaysia’s presence there,” he told reporters. “We also sent a protest note after the incident.” …

Malaysia to establish marine corps, naval base close to James Shoal (Jane's)

From Flight Global DATE: 03/06/09 SOURCE: Flight International Malaysia to phase out troublesome MiG-29 fighters By Siva Govindasamy Malaysia has announced plans to phase out its RSK MiG-29N fighters over the next few years, with the fleet having been plagued by problems since it bought the type in the early 1990s. "I have decided that from next month, the aircraft will be phased out and we should find a way to sell them to certain companies or countries approved by the United Nations," Malaysia's new defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the official Bernama news agency. The minister did not say what would replace the MiG-29s, which are operated …

From DefenseNews Posted 10/23/07 08:35 Malaysia’s First Submarine Launched in France AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, CHERBOURG, France The first of two Scorpene-class submarines sold to Malaysia was inaugurated Oct. 23 in the northern port city of Cherbourg during a visit by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak. Designed by the French firm DCNS and Spain’s Navantia, the Tunku Abdul Rahman will be formally delivered to the Royal Malaysian Navy in early 2009 and the second submarine will follow at the end of that year. Malaysia signed the deal to establish its first fleet of subs in June 2002. With diesel-electric propulsion, the stealth Scorpene has a crew of 31 men c…

Meet the New PLAAF (Air Force Magazine, January 2013)

From DefenseNews [excerpt]

From Flight Global [excerpt]