Current Events in Asia-Pacific

From Navy Times Kitty Hawk leaves Japan The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday May 23, 2007 10:19:16 EDT TOKYO — The carrier Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s oldest ship in full active service, embarked on its last major maneuvers Wednesday before being decommissioned next year. The 46-year-old vessel — the only American aircraft carrier permanently deployed abroad — eased out of its berth at the Navy base in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, escorted by a carrier strike group of cruisers and guided-missile destroyers, Naval spokesman John Nylander said. The voyage, to last several months in the western and central Pacific Ocean, was expected to be the last major mi…

Navy launches show of force off Iran coast By Barbara Surk - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday May 23, 2007 9:12:42 EDT DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coast Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf. The strike groups led by the carriers John C. Stennis and Nimitz were joined by the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard and its own strike group, which includes landing ships carrying members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Navy said nine U.S. warships passed throu…

SINGAPORE — Though small in size, the city state of Singapore resides in a busy neighborhood. It’s the home of the busiest port in the world, and it’s not uncommon to see several hundred container ships stacked up in neat rows stretching out dozens of miles from the downtown skyline. The Malacca and Singapore Straits also see about 1,400 vessels pass through their narrow channels each day. For a small nation with no natural resources or agricultural industry, maritime and port security are essential to the nation’s economic well-being. And security in the straits has global implications, experts say Col. Tay Kian Seng, head of naval operations for the Royal Si…

Report: Japanese navy leaked missile data The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday May 22, 2007 9:05:19 EDT TOKYO — Classified information about a U.S.-developed missile defense system was leaked from Japan’s navy to students at a naval academy, a news report said Tuesday, as officials investigated security gaps in military information shared between the allies. Investigators say the leak involved ship-to-air SM-3 interceptor missiles that are to be deployed on Japanese ships later this year, Kyodo News agency reported, citing unidentified officials. Investigators are already looking into the alleged leak of information about the U.S.-developed high-tech Aeg…

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".

From Navy Times New subs will keep Pearl busy By William Cole - Honolulu Advertiser Posted : Sunday May 20, 2007 16:10:31 EDT The new nuclear attack submarine Hawaii and other Virginia-class subs will be the major source of work for the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in coming years, officials said. The $2.4 billion vessel was commissioned May 5 in Groton, Conn., and is expected to arrive for the first time at its home port of Pearl Harbor in 2009. Submarines account for about 90 percent of the work done by Pearl Harbor’s shipyard, the state’s largest industrial employer with a work force of 4,740. Pearl Harbor has 16 Los Angeles-class submarines. The s…

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…

Japan To Vote On Modifying Pacifist Charter Written By U.S. By Norimitsu Onishi TOKYO, May 14 — The Japanese Parliament passed a bill on Monday calling for a national referendum on amendments to the country’s pacifist Constitution. The government will be able to hold the referendum as early as 2010, but experts say it may take far longer than three years to persuade voters and opposition lawmakers to back constitutional change. Polls show that Japanese remain split, especially on the Constitution’s Article 9, which renounces war and forbids Japan to have a full-fledged military. But Parliament’s action was an important preliminary step toward rewriting the…

From DefenseNews Posted 05/10/07 10:15 Russia Throws Wrench in S. Korea’s Global Hawk Plan AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, SEOUL South Korea’s plan to buy a U.S.-made unmanned spy plane to keep watch over North Korea has hit a snag because Russia opposes the easing of a global arms control pact, a news report said May 10. Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, quoting a diplomatic source, said any U.S. sale of the $50 million Global Hawk would need a revision to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). "The U.S. is trying to persuade MTCR member states to revise the MTCR regulations but Russia is opposed to revising it or making any exceptions," the source said. "South Korea’s pl…

From Air Force Times F-22 fighters headed home from Okinawa By Eric Talmadge - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday May 9, 2007 8:24:25 EDT TOKYO — A dozen F-22 stealth fighters are heading back to the U.S. after completing their first overseas mission, a four-month deployment to Okinawa aimed at showcasing the fighter’s capabilities and giving pilots a chance to train in a new setting. The fighters, which arrived on the southern Japan island of Okinawa in February, will fly out of Kadena Air Base early Thursday, the Air Force and Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in separate statements. The fighters are based at Langley Air Force Base, Va. The deployment…

Admiral stresses more talk between navies By Rod McGuirk - The Associated Press Posted : Thursday May 3, 2007 8:05:12 EDT CANBERRA, Australia — China will likely expand its navy and send its ships further out on the high seas to take a more active role in securing global sea lanes vital to its burgeoning economy, the U.S. naval commander in Japan said Thursday. Rear Adm. James Kelly said the strategic shift heightened the need for operational transparency between the world’s navies “so we don’t have a misinterpretation of something out on the high seas.” “As their economy continues to grow ... I suspect that China is thinking that they need to have a blue…

From Defense Aerospace Joint Strike Fighter (Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued Feb. 1, 2007) Australia says it may lease 24 F-18Es as a stop-gap solution pending delivery of its JSFs. Australia’s planned acquisition of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) remains on track. Initial Operational Capability of the first squadron of JSF is expected in 2014/2015. In December I signed on behalf of the Australian Government the JSF Production, Sustainment and Follow-on Development (PSFD) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The full complement of JSF will be phased in over the next decade. Statements that JSF will be far less capable than initia…

N. Korea missile could hit Guam, report says The Associated Press Posted : Monday Apr 30, 2007 13:27:31 EDT North Korea displayed a newly developed ballistic missile capable of reaching the US territory of Guam during a massive military parade last week, a news report said Sunday. The parade in Pyongyang on Wednesday featured three new models, including the medium-range missile that can travel 2,500km to 4,000km, the Chosun Ilbo reported. The report cited an unidentified South Korean government official familiar with an analysis of U.S. satellite images. “All three [new] models are ground-to-ground missiles,” the official was quoted as saying. “Of them, t…

From Aviation Week [Hot on the heels of the report of a request by Israel for export of the F-22 ... ] F-22 attractive to Japan as missile threats grow David A. Fulghum/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report Japanese military officials are eyeing the F-22 Raptor as an antidote to growing regional missile threats, Aviation Week & Space Technology will report on April 23. The Lockheed Martin-built fighter is expected to become a key element in missile defense because it can detect and destroy small cruise missiles and also evade sophisticated air defenses to bomb ballistic missile launch sites. Whether Japanese law might be interpreted to allow the countr…

Submarines A Top Priority In China By Richard Halloran An American military intelligence officer, asked some years ago how far the Chinese could project their military power, answered only half-jokingly: "About as far as their army can walk." That is changing rapidly today as China's leaders fuel the budgets of the People's Liberation Army, which comprises all of their armed forces. Says a new report from the Council on Foreign Relations, the think-tank in New York, China is driven both by "a clear operational objective," which is to take Taiwan, the island Beijing claims, and "a clear strategic objective," which is to be a modern power. China's military p…

PRC navy faces issues with carrier protection By Cheng Ta-chen Taipei Times Tuesday, Apr 24, 2007, Page 8 Advertising Advertising The media have begun to hype up news of plans by China to obtain a new aircraft carrier. This kind of attention has its precedents, such as recent rumblings that China was in the process of building a nuclear-powered carrier, or that it planned to deploy two carrier groups in the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea. It is difficult to know what to make of all these developments. A carrier group requires effective integration of fighting forces in the air, on the water and below the surface. Even if China could overcome the tech…

War and Conflict Flying Tigers strike Jaffna military base Apr 24, 2007 Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels flying light aircraft bombed a military airbase on Sri Lanka's northern peninsula of Jaffna on Tuesday, killing at least six people, officials and the guerrillas said. If confirmed it would be the second air attack in two months by the Tigers, although it was denied by the defence ministry who said the rebels only fired artillery. Guerrilla spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said two light aircraft from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) headed toward the Palaly military air field in the Jaffna peninsula just after midnight. "We have carried out o…

Seafarers warned to be on alert in Malacca Strait Sun Apr 22, 1:33 AM ET The International Maritime Bureau on Sunday warned seafarers to remain on alert while travelling on the piracy-prone Malacca Strait despite a fall in attacks. Pottengal Mukundan, London-based director of IMB, told AFP that there was "no room for complacency," since pirates were merely lying low due to aggressive patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Mukundan said if the three Southeast Asian countries that border the Malacca Strait let up in their patrols, "pirate attacks will rise again." Maintaining and securing the waterway has always been regarded as the responsibility of …

Los Angeles Times April 16, 2007 N. Korea Reminded To Fulfill Its Pledge U.S. is displeased by the failure to shut a nuclear reactor but says it will wait a few more days. By Associated Press SEOUL — The U.S. said Sunday that North Korea must act within days on a pledge to halt its nuclear weapons program, after the Pyongyang government failed to meet a Saturday deadline to shut down and seal a nuclear reactor. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Washington was prepared "to hold on for a few more days" after his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, asked the U.S. for patience. "We're not happy that the [North] essentially has missed…

Honolulu Advertiser April 18, 2007 Indonesia, U.S. Join Forces In Exercise By William Cole, Advertiser Military Writer About 80 U.S. soldiers are in Indonesia, including some Hawai'i National Guard members, for what is being described as "opening a new chapter" between the U.S. and Indonesian armies. Garuda Shield 2007 in West Java represents the resumption of brigade-level, army-to-army exercises after U.S. military ties with Indonesia were cut by the Clinton administration in 1999. The U.S. broke off ties after troops backed by the Indonesian government used deadly force to try to suppress East Timor's ultimately successful quest for independence. …