Current Events in Asia-Pacific

Kinda scary . . . this would definitely be the main nightmare for US planners in the event of any US/Chinese confrontation over Taiwan I think. Wonder what really happened, really good Chinese skipper? US pickets asleep at the wheel? Equipment breakdowns? Really lucky Chinese Skipper? Really good Chinese diesel sub tech? Probably combination off all these things.

From Navy Times Kitty Hawk returns to Japan after China snub By Eric Talmadge - The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Nov 27, 2007 6:58:19 EST YOKOSUKA, Japan — The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and its battle group returned to Japan on Tuesday after being refused entry for a port call in Hong Kong, where the ships were set to mark Thanksgiving. The Kitty Hawk, which has its home port in this city just south of Tokyo, was forced to return to Japan early when Chinese authorities at the last minute refused to allow the warship and its escort vessels to enter Hong Kong harbor. “We are befuddled at this point,” said battle group commander Rear Adm. Rick Wren. …

From Navy Times Report: Pirate attacks up 14 percent The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Oct 16, 2007 10:52:50 EDT KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Maritime pirate attacks worldwide shot up 14 percent in the first nine months of 2007 from a year earlier, with Somalia and Nigeria showing the biggest increases, an international watchdog said Tuesday. While Africa remains problematic, Southeast Asia’s Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest waterways, has been relatively quiet, the International Maritime Bureau said in its report. A total of 198 attacks on ships were reported between January and September this year, up from 174 in the same period in 2006, the …

From Navy Times Submarine Ohio underway in Pacific The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Oct 23, 2007 11:14:52 EDT PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — The first Navy submarine converted to fight terror instead of deter a Cold War adversary is en route to the western Pacific via Hawaii, the first time such a ship has ever deployed. The Ohio was originally equipped in the 1970s to hold 24 nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missiles. But with the Cold War over, the Navy transformed the Ohio and three other similar subs to carry conventional Tomahawk cruise missiles and dozens of Navy SEALs instead. The ship, based in Bremerton, Wash., is expected to head toward Asia to…

Source: US Delivers 30 Helicopters to Pakistan : Military Aviation : Defense News Air Force Army Navy News

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…

From DefenseNews Posted 10/16/07 16:16 Thailand Picks Sweden’s Gripen for $1B Fighter Deal By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BANGKOK Thailand will purchase 12 Swedish-made jet fighters over the next decade for 34.4 billion baht ($1 billion), the head of the air force said Oct. 17. The first lot of six JAS-39 Gripen fighters will be bought by 2011, with a second lot of six jets purchased by 2017, air force chief Chalit Phukphasuk told reporters. The Gripens, manufactured by Sweden’s Saab, will replace aging American F-5E fighters, which will be rotated out of service in 2011, he added. "It is necessary to purchase the new jet fighters to replace the retiring fighters, …

Source: Engineers unveil long range, fuel cell-powered UAV | Korea.net News Note:

Leader Vows To Modernize Military Cites global ‘trends’ in need for able army By Scott McDonald, Associated Press BEIJING — China’s sprawling military will speed up its modernization during the next five years, increasingly adopting high-tech battle systems and upgrading training, President Hu Jintao said yesterday. In his keynote speech at the opening of the Communist Party Congress, held every five years, Mr. Hu said he was committed to making China’s military more modern. “In keeping with the new trends in world military affairs and the new requirements of China’s development, we must promote innovation in military theory, technology, organization a…

Source: http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/ai...ns100013663.php

From Defense Aerospace Air Warfare Destroyers – The Foundation Laid (Source: Australian Minister for Defence; issued Oct. 4, 2007) I am pleased to announce the signing of the final contracts to build three Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs) for the Royal Australian Navy. At a total cost of approximately A$8 billion, this is the largest naval shipbuilding project ever undertaken in Australia. The signing follows two years of hard work by the AWD team in the design selection phase of the project that resulted in the Australian Government choosing the Spanish Navantia F-100 warship as the platform for Australia’s next generation Hobart-class AWDs. The first o…

China makes military strides as Iraq fight rages By Eric Talmadge - The Associated Press Posted : Saturday Sep 29, 2007 9:04:46 EDT KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — While the U.S. has been tied up in Iraq, China is modernizing its military and its air defenses are now nearly impenetrable to all but the newest of American fighters, the senior U.S. military official in Japan said. Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, commander of the roughly 50,000 U.S. forces in Japan, Washington’s biggest ally in Asia, said in an interview with The Associated Press this week that the Iraq war is reducing the availability of U.S. troops and equipment to meet other contingencies. It’s also eatin…

China Tests New Electronic Battlefield System By WENDELL MINNICK, TAIPEI DefenseNews China revealed its version of the “digital soldier” concept at its annual North Sword 0709 live-fire exercise, begun Sept. 18 at the Zhurihe training base in northern Inner Mongolia. According to a Xinhua press report, the exercise involved 2,000 soldiers, tanks and other vehicles equipped with electronic devices that instantly relayed data about battlefield conditions back to the command center. The system collected data on causalties, food, ammunition and supplies. “The system could let us know the exact conditions our troops are in under combat; how much ammunition, water and…

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 …

PORT BLAIR, Andaman Islands --- India has just concluded its most ambitious naval exercise. Called Exercise Malabar 2007, it included the participation of military vessels and aircraft from the United States, Japan, Australia and Singapore. India's navy is positioning itself to dominate its strategic waters while not trying to make waves with China, its biggest potential blue-water rival in Asia. For modern navies, there is no ship more enviable than the aircraft carrier. It can launch squadrons of attack and support planes into the skies within minutes. Among those watching American fighter jets catapulted above the Bay of Bengal from the USS Kitty Hawk was I…

U.S. May Sell Weapons To Taiwan WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (Reuters) — The Pentagon announced tentative plans on Wednesday to sell surplus P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft and air-defense missiles to Taiwan in deals potentially worth more than $2.23 billion, including related gear and services. Taiwan is seeking to buy 12 surplus P-3C maritime patrol aircraft with T-56 turboprop engines, data terminals and a mobile operation command center in a deal that could be worth $1.96 billion, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a notice to Congress. In a separate notice, the agency said it was also tentatively planning to sell Taiwan 144 SM-2 B…

From Flight International DATE:10/09/07 SOURCE:Flight International Japan to halt AH-64D Apache orders after 13th airframe By Seiji Hirokawa Tokyo's planned final purchase of one Fuji Heavy Industries/Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter in fiscal year 2008 will halt orders of the type for Japan's army after just 13 airframes way short of the 60 originally sought to replace the service's current Fuji Heavy Industries/Bell AH-1S fleet. The decision to stop Apache orders has been taken due to the type's high unit cost, and as a result of Japan's annual procurement model, under which the nation would take around 20 more years to complete its plann…

From Flight International DATE:11/09/07 SOURCE:Flightglobal.com Australia's Boeing C-17 fleet passes operational milestone By Emma Kelly The Royal Australian Air Force is ready to put its first two Boeing C-17 strategic transports into operational service, after achieving initial operating capability with the type following eight months of intensive introduction to service activities. Australia received its first of four C-17s in December 2006, with its second having followed in May and the remainder to be delivered by mid-2008. The aircraft, which can carry a load almost four times that of the RAAF's current Lockheed Martin C-130s, will provide “a q…

In Asia-Pacific, A New Alliance Of 4 By Richard Halloran NEW DELHI — By coincidence, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific, were in India at the same time last month and for the same reason — to entice India into closer security relations with their respective nations. Then President Bush, in Australia last week for an Asia-Pacific summit gathering, conferred at length with Prime Minister John Howard on Iraq and on wider issues of security in Asia. And even as they spoke, warships from Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S., plus Singapore, were training together in the Indian Ocean. …

Pacific Armadas Growing Far East Navies Mean New Challenges For U.S. By Arthur Herman SOMETHING new and menacing has entered the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, and it's not the great white shark. On Aug. 23, Japan launched its first aircraft carrier since World War Two. The Hyuga only displaces 13,500 tons, compared to the 100,000 tons of an American Nimitz-class behemoth, and it will only carry 11 or so SH-60 anti-submarine helicopters instead of the 90 aircraft and choppers on the USS Nimitz or Eisenhower - at least for now. But as Richard Dorn, naval analyst at the U.S.-based AMI International, notes, "it cannot be denied that the launch of Hyuga is …