Current Events in Asia-Pacific

From Foreign Affairs Pyongbang! Washington’s Korea Conundrum Victor D. Cha April 7, 2009 Summary -- What North Korea hoped to gain from its failed missile launch -- and how Washington can avoid falling into its negotiating trap. VICTOR D. CHA is Associate Professor, Director of Asian Studies, and D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies and Government at Georgetown University. From 2004 to 2007, he served as Director of Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council and Deputy Head of the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks. On Sunday, North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that went farthe…

China Points Finger At U.S. Over Asia-Pacific Tensions (Aviation Week/Reuters)

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…

Not certain which catagory this should fit so move it you feel necessary oh worthy administrator. Looks like some littoral warfare of Sri Lanka. Civil War Looms After Sri Lanka Sea Battle Find article here COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - At least 50 rebels were killed and 17 Sri Lankan sailors missing after a sea battle Thursday instigated by the Tamil Tigers left the country on the brink of civil war. Tamil Tigers sank a navy patrol boat off the northern coast as it escorted a troop transport carrying 710 soldiers. In retaliation, the navy downed five rebel vessels and the air force launched airstrikes on guerrilla-held territory. The escalation in viole…

From Defence Talk S.Korea won't join arms interdiction Reuters Nov 13, 2006 - 5:47:06 AM SEOUL (Reuters): South Korea will not join a U.S.-led plan to intercept North Korean ships suspected of carrying arms cargo as a part of sanctions on Pyongyang for conducting a nuclear test, reports said on Monday. South Korea has reviewed whether to expand its participation in the plan after the North's October 9 nuclear test, but it has been wary that such an operation near the Korean peninsula could escalate military tension with the North. "The government will express support for the goal and principles of the (plan) but will not formally join for the time being cons…

From Stratfor Chinese Geopolitics and the Significance of Tibet April 15, 2008 By George Friedman China is an island. We do not mean it is surrounded by water; we mean China is surrounded by territory that is difficult to traverse. Therefore, China is hard to invade; given its size and population, it is even harder to occupy. This also makes it hard for the Chinese to invade others; not utterly impossible, but quite difficult. Containing a fifth of the world’s population, China can wall itself off from the world, as it did prior to the United Kingdom’s forced entry in the 19th century and under Mao Zedong. All of this means China is a great power, but one that h…

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 crew crisis hits warships Article from: Herald Sun Ian McPhedran August 23, 2007 12:00am THE navy's warships are under threat because of a chronic shortage of qualified engineers and warfare officers. Insiders say the situation is so dire the number of principal warfare officers on the navy's five guided missile frigates has been cut from four to just one or two. On the eight Anzac class frigates, PWO numbers have fallen in some cases from three to one. And on some ships the shortage of engineers is so acute they are under way for only 12 out of every 24 hours. Similar shortfalls are occurring with weapons electrical engineering officers.…

India's Indigenous Nuclear Submarine, Agni-V ICBM Set To Launch In 2015 (The Diplomat, Flashpoints)

China's Navy Makes Strides, Work Remains To Be Done (DefenseNews) Chris Carlson, of the Admiralty Trilogy Group (and Harpoon fame), gets a quote in there.

Looks like excellent scenario fodder for any Japanese "resurgence" backgrounds. :smoke: Japan Losing Military ‘Allergy’: Top Officer By ISABEL REYNOLDS, REUTERS, TOKYO DefenseNews Japanese are developing a new respect for their country’s armed forces, in stark contrast to the distrust that prevailed for decades after defeat in World War Two, the military’s new chief of staff said on May 12. Hajime Massaki, 62, was appointed to the newly created post in March in an attempt to draw together the air, sea and ground branches of what Japan calls its Self-Defense Forces and make them more effective. Massaki, a native of the southernmost main island of …

Guam hosts talks on military buildup The Associated Press Posted : Friday Aug 24, 2007 8:30:09 EDT HAGATNA, Guam — U.S. representatives and business leaders converged on Guam this week as preparations for a $15 billion military buildup of the U.S. island territory kick into high gear. About 1,200 businessmen and women from Australia to Japan and New York to San Francisco gathered in Guam hotels to learn how they could profit from the buildup. The U.S. and Japanese governments plan to spend a combined $10 billion moving 8,000 Marines to Guam from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa by 2012. The Navy and Air Force also plan infrastructure upgrades o…

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 Navy Times Group: Pirate attacks up 10 percent in 2007 The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Jan 9, 2008 7:17:27 EST KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Global pirate attacks rose by 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years as sea robbers made a strong comeback in Nigeria and Somalia, an international maritime watchdog said Wednesday. Last year, there were 269 attacks on ships, up from 239 in 2006 and reversing a downtrend seen since 2003, the International Maritime Bureau said in its annual report released by its piracy reporting center in Malaysia. “The significant increase in the [2007] numbers can be directly attributed to the increa…

Japanese Navy Unveils Biggest Warship Since WWII

FORMIDABLE CLASS MULTI-MISSION FRIGATES, SINGAPORE Naval-Technology.com Six Formidable Class multi-mission frigates are being built for the Singapore Navy. The first of class, RSS Formidable, was launched on 7 January 2004 at the Lorient dockyard in Brittany, France. The Republic of Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) awarded the contract in March 2002 to DCN in France for the design and construction of the frigates. The contract includes a technology transfer program under which the construction of the first frigate is carried out in France and then five further frigates are built in Singapore by Singapore Technology Marine (STM) at the Benoi shipyard. The fri…

From DefenseNews [excerpt]

From DefenseNews China Seen Deploying New Missiles in 10 Years By REUTERS China is expected to deploy three new strategic missiles over the next decade as part of an aggressive military build-up seen threatening U.S. forces in the region, a U.S. intelligence official said May 3. David Gordon, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, told a commission charged with overseeing the consolidation of U.S. military bases that the arrival of new, more capable missiles coincided with China’s growing influence on the balance of power in the Taiwan Straits. “Strategic force modernization is a continuing priority, and China will likely field three new strategic mis…

As U.S. warships ply the waters, China rises on the horizon By ERIC TALMADGE Associated Press writer Friday, May 12, 2006 StarTribune ABOARD THE USS GARY -- It has been a rough few days. Steaming up the eastern coast of Japan, Cmdr. Joseph Deleon's guided missile frigate has been tossed around on heavy seas and the younger sailors, back from five months ashore, are feeling seasick. Grounded by high winds, the helicopter pilots are watching movies in the ward room. The primary mission is hunting submarines. But the Gary, like the U.S. Seventh Fleet to which it belongs, is also a showcase of American power in a region fraught with crises -- North Korea, Taiwan…

Chinese Navy Modernization Could Lead To U.S. Countermoves, CRS Report Says As concerns over the modernization of Chinese naval forces grow, Congress needs to worry about how much it should weight China's growing power in its planning for U.S. Navy capabilities, says a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. "Several elements of China's military modernization have potential implications for future required U.S. Navy capabilities," says the report. "These include theater-range ballistic missiles (TBMs), land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs), anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), land-based aircraft, submarines, surface comb…