Reports: Russia Has Not Delivered S-300 Missiles to Syria

MOSCOW — Russia has not yet delivered any S-300 air defense missile systems to the Syrian regime and may hold back from shipping the weapons this year or even indefinitely, Russian media reports said Friday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appeared to imply Thursday that Russia could have already shipped part of the highly controversial consignment, without naming the missiles directly.

Meanwhile, Interfax also reported that Russia could supply 10 ultra-modern MiG-29 fighter jets to Syria under a possible contract being discussed with a visiting delegation from Damascus.

The Vedomosti daily cited a Russian defense industry source as saying it was unclear if the S-300s would be delivered to Syria at all this year while the Kommersant daily quoted its source as saying that delivery was only planned in the second quarter of 2014.

The Interfax news agency quoted an arms export source as saying that any deliveries of the S-300s, were they to take place at all, would be made “no earlier than autumn.”

Assad had said in an interview with Al-Manar television broadcast Thursday: “All the agreements with Russia will be honored, and some already have been recently.”

But both sources quoted by Kommersant and Vedomosti said that no delivery of the missiles had taken place yet. The contract was agreed in 2010 and according to Vedomosti is worth US $1 billion.

Vedomosti said the contract involved four systems of S-300 missiles, but Kommersant said six systems were in question.

Kommersant added that after delivery in 2014, a minimum of another six months would be needed for the training of personnel and tests before the systems were fully operational.

Interfax’s source said that while a delivery in autumn was theoretically possible, “much would depend on the situation in the region and the position of Western countries on solving the Syria conflict.”

The source quoted by Vedomosti meanwhile said that while the Russian government is insisting in public that the contract will be fulfilled, this does not mean that the actual deliveries will take place.

According to Interfax, the deliveries could yet be put on hold indefinitely. Its source said this has been the case with Russian Iskander missiles that Syria wanted several years ago but Moscow had refused to deliver.

The widely admired missile systems are seen by analysts as having huge military importance for Assad in the conflict against rebels as the weapons could be used to ward off Western or Israeli air strikes against regime targets.

A report in Kommersant had also emphasised the risk of any third party such as Israel seeking to destroy the S-300s once they were inside Syria, given that Russian specialists would be present on the ground to ensure they functioned properly.

“If just one single Russian citizen is hurt as a result, the political consequences are going to be very serious,” an arms source told the paper. “No leadership with any common sense is going to take such a step.”

Russian news agencies also quoted MiG corporation Director General Sergei Korotkov as saying Moscow and Damascus were discussing details of an apparently new contract supplying 10 MiG-29 fighter jets.

“There is a Syrian delegation in Moscow at the moment. We are determining the details of this contract,” Interfax quoted Korotkov as saying.

“I think that they will be delivered to Syria,” he added. The Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies said the contract involved 10 fighters.

Yet President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told news agencies that he was not aware of new arms contracts being agreed with Syria at this time.

Ushakov said that as far as he was aware, “Russia does not intend to conclude any new contracts.”

Defense News

Hagel delivers warning to China

SINGAPORE - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is delivering a two-pronged message to China , holding out hope for a slowly improving military relationship while issuing a stern warning on cyberattacks.

Speaking at a security conference in Singapore, Hagel also is assuring Asian nations that despite sharp budget cuts, the Pentagon will continue to shift its military troops, ships and aircraft to the Pacific region.

He says the U.S. has expressed concerns about the growing cyberthreat, some of which appears to be tied to the Chinese government and military. He is not the first U.S. official to publicly blame China for computer-based attacks that steal U.S. government and industry secrets, but he delivered the rebuke in China's backyard, with members of Beijing's government in the audience.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20130531_ap_hageldeliverswarningtochina.html

Philippines, Vietnam Cry Foul Over Chinese Vessels in Disputed Waters

It is fishing season once again in the South China Sea and, as in past years, clashes between Chinese fishermen and those of their maritime neighbors are on the rise.

Filipino fishermen bring their fish to shore in the coastal town of Infanta, Pangasinan province, northwestern Philippines, May, 7, 2013.

China is aggressively asserting its sovereignty over the disputed waters while some of its neighbors are also defending their claims with diplomatic might.

Days after a 32-vessel fishing fleet from China headed for the Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea, the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest.

On May 10, the Philippines said China had a military frigate, two surveillance ships and some fishing boats around Second Thomas Shoal, in an area that Manila says is within its 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.

Foreign Affairs Spokesman Raul Hernandez called the presence of the Chinese vessels provocative and illegal.

“The concern of the Philippines is that this area, this shoal, is really an integral part of our national territory,” Hernandez said. ​​

This is the second year in a row that military vessels have escorted a Chinese fishing fleet so far south at this time of year.

China bans fishing near its own shores from mid-May until August to permit the rehabilitation of fish stocks. That's when the fleets head out into waters claimed by China's neighbors: the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei.

The fishing ban causes special problems for Vietnam, which refuses to recognize the prohibition in waters it claims as its own.

That has led to regular clashes, some of them violent.

This week, Hanoi filed a diplomatic protest saying one of its ships was rammed by a Chinese vessel on May 20.

Li Mingjiang, a security expert at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the Chinese excursions to the Spratlys have been going on for decades.

But he said the tension has escalated since last year.

“In the context of… this more tense relationship between the Philippines and China since April last year when the Scarborough Shoal conflict broke out… the Philippines seems to be more vigilant of any Chinese activity,” Li said.

A year ago, Philippine maritime officials tried to arrest Chinese fishermen in waters off Scarborough Shoal, which Manila says is well within its exclusive economic zone.

Hernandez said this year’s Chinese fishing trip may appear to be routine.

“But this is all part of their strategy to aggressively claim the whole of the South China Sea,” he noted. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has consistently said China's sovereignty over the Spratlys is "indisputable" and that its behavior is “beyond reproach.”

While it wages a diplomatic fight, the Philippines is also talking tough.

Last week, President Benigno Aquino announced $1.8 billion in new funding for the country's notoriously weak military and said the Philippines will always stand up to anybody who threatens it.

But Carl Thayer, a security analyst with the Australian Defense Force Academy, said Aquino will have a hard time backing up his rhetoric.

“Until their force modernization takes hold, which is years away, there’s nothing much they can do except make public protests," Thayer remarked.

Rommel Banlaoi of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research said Manila is pushing that strategy as hard as it can.

“Now there is a systematic attempt to really use all possible diplomatic channels, all possible diplomatic means, to protect the Philippines’ interest in the South China Sea,” he said.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the Philippines is ready to file more protests for as long as the intrusions take place.

VOA

Vietnamese Prime Minister Welcomes Larger Role for U.S. in regional tensions

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said on Friday he would welcome the U.S. playing a larger role in tempering regional tensions, as China and some of its Southeast Asian neighbors remain deadlocked over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

“No regional country would oppose the strategic engagement of extra-regional powers if such engagement aims to enhance cooperation for peace, stability and development,” Mr. Dung said in a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. “We attach special importance to the roles played by a vigorously rising China and by the United States — a Pacific power.”

The South China Sea area, which is crossed by more than half the world’s total trade and is thought to contain vast energy and mineral reserves, is broadly claimed by China and in part by such nations as Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

In his speech, Mr. Dung also reiterated Vietnam’s position that Southeast Asian nations should engage Beijing as a unified bloc, and resolve their disputes in accordance with the decade-old “Declaration of Conduct,” which sets out broad principles on conflict resolution in the South China Sea.

That framework is a precursor to a potential narrower code of conduct, which countries like Vietnam want implemented but China has in the past been hesitant to support.

WSJ

Photo: Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung gives the keynote address at the 12th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 31, 2013. Mr Dung has called for greater strategic trust in the Asia-Pacific, arguing that simmering tension and the territorial disputes of recent years threatened the region's prosperity.

America's China mistake: China plots to "kill" US

As Beijing becomes more bellicose, Washington clings to the hope that military-to-military relations will somehow relieve tensions. They won't.

China's Navy conducts occupying islands exercise

By Gordon G. Chang and James A. Lyons Jr

This spring, China's navy accepted the Pentagon's invitation to participate in the 2014 Rim of the Pacific — RIMPAC — naval exercise to be held off Hawaii. This will be the first time China takes part in the biennial event.

Our allies should signal their intent to withdraw from the exercise if China participates. Failing that, the invitation should be withdrawn. RIMPAC is for allies and friends, not nations planning to eventually wage war on the United States. Russia sent ships in 2012, but while its senior officers may occasionally utter unfriendly words, they are not actively planning to fight the United States. Analyst Robert Sutter was surely correct when he wrote in 2005 that "China is the only large power in the world preparing to shoot Americans."

That assessment, unfortunately, remains true today. Beijing is configuring its forces — especially its navy — to fight ours. For instance, China has deployed along its southern coast its DF-21D, a two-stage solid-fuel missile that can be guided by satellite signals. The missile is dubbed the "carrier killer" because it can be configured to explode in midair, raining down sharp metal on a deck crowded with planes, ordinance, fuel and sailors. Its apparent intent is to drive U.S. forces out of East Asia.

A pattern of aggressive Chinese tactics also points in that direction. Especially troubling is the harassment in international waters of unarmed U.S. Navy reconnaissance vessels for more than a decade, most notably the blocking of the Impeccable in the South China Sea in 2009. And there was the 2001 downing of a Navy EP-3 and the surfacing of a Song-class attack submarine in the middle of the Kitty Hawk strike group near Okinawa in 2006.

Since then, we have been hearing bold war talk in the Chinese capital, from new leader Xi Jinping to senior officers and colonels who say they relish combat — a "hand-to-hand fight with the U.S.," as one of them put it in 2010.

Why do China's officers want to go to war? There is an unfortunate confluence of factors. First, there is a new Chinese confidence bordering on arrogance. Beijing leaders, especially since 2008, have been riding high. They saw economic turmoil around the world and thought the century was theirs to dominate. The U.S. and the rest of the West, they believed, were in terminal decline.

The Chinese military also has gained substantial influence in the last year, perhaps becoming the most powerful faction in the Communist Party. Beginning as early as 2003, senior officers of the People's Liberation Army were drawn into civilian power struggles as Hu Jintao, then the new leader, sought their support in his effort to shove aside Jiang Zemin, his wily predecessor who sought to linger in the limelight. Last year, the civilian infighting intensified as the so-called Fifth Generation leadership, under the command of Xi, took over from Hu's Fourth. Like a decade ago, feuding civilians sought the support of the generals and admirals, making them arbiters in the party's increasingly rough game of politics.

The result of discord among civilian leaders has been a partial remilitarization of politics and policy. Senior officers are now acting independently of civilian officials, are openly criticizing them and are making pronouncements in areas once considered the exclusive province of diplomats.

The remilitarization has had consequences. As Huang Jing of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy said: "China's military spending is growing so fast that it has overtaken strategy. The young officers are taking control of strategy, and it is like young officers in Japan in the 1930s. They are thinking what they can do, not what they should do."

What do China's admirals want? They are supporting their nation's territorial ambitions to close off the South China Sea to others. This brings them into conflict with nations surrounding that critical body of water and pits them against the U.S. If there has been any consistent U.S. foreign policy over the course of two centuries, it has been the defense of freedom of navigation.

According to a white paper it issued in April, China is building a navy capable of operating in the ocean's deep water, and has 235,000 officers and sailors. Its navy last year commissioned its first aircraft carrier, and it is reportedly building two more. China has about a dozen fewer submarines than the U.S., but the U.S. has global responsibilities. The Chinese, therefore, can concentrate their boats in waters close to their shores, giving them tactical and operating advantages.

While the Chinese plan to dominate their waters and eventually ours, we are helping them increase their effectiveness with invitations to RIMPAC and other exercises and by including them in joint operations like the one directed against Somali piracy. The U.S. Navy at the same time is continuing to reduce its fleet, currently at 283 deployable ships. As Beijing's behavior has become more troubling, the Pentagon has clung to the hope that military-to-military relations will somehow relieve tensions with the Chinese.

Yet as Ronald Reagan taught us, the nature of regimes matter. We are now helping an incurably aggressive state develop its military — to our peril. There is something very wrong at the core of the Obama administration's and the Pentagon's China policies.

Gordon G. Chang, a writer on Asian affairs, is the author of "The Coming Collapse of China." Twitter: @GordonGChang. James A. Lyons Jr., a retired admiral, was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from 1985 to 1987.

LA Times

The idea for changing the article title by dantri.com.vn

In pictures, U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton UAV takes off

On May 22nd, 2013 the first production model of the U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton UAV took off and began its flight testing. This first flight lasted 80 minutes and the UAV went as high as 6,100 meters (20,000 feet). Previously the navy had just been using two air force MQ-4Bs modified to Triton specs for testing. The naval patrol version of the U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk is called the MQ-4C Triton and BAMS (Broad Area Maritime Surveillance). The navy version has additional protection against salt damage and a set of sensors optimized for monitoring water rather than land.

Earlier this year the navy began forming its first Triton UAV squadron. Called VUP (Unmanned Patrol Squadron) 19 it will be in service by October on the east coast of the United States, where it will handle operations over the Atlantic. A second squadron will enter service next year on the west coast to cover the Pacific. The navy plans to buy 68 Tritons and 117 P-8As jet aircraft to replace prop driven 250 P-3Cs. This replacement program is supposed to be complete in about a decade. The new surveillance aircraft provide more information over a wider area and do it more quickly.

The Triton has already been in service on an experimental basis using the modified RQ-4Bs. Last year, two years after extensive tests in the Middle East, the Triton began operating with a carrier task force at sea. Circling above the task force at 22,500 meters (70,000 feet), Triton monitored sea traffic off the Iranian coast and the Straits of Hormuz. Anything suspicious is checked out by carrier, land based aircraft, or nearby warships. The Triton aircraft can fly a 24 hour sortie every three days. The first production Triton was delivered in late 2012 and now is in the air.

In 2009, the first year of Triton testing consisted of 60 flights and over 1,000 hours in the air. The flights were over land and sea areas, even though the UAV sensors are designed mainly to perform maritime reconnaissance. Air Force Global Hawk maintenance personnel assisted the navy in tending to the navy RQ-4 while it was on the ground and for landings and takeoffs. The UAV was operated by navy personnel back in the United States at Patuxent River Naval Air Station. A year earlier the navy began training four of its personnel (three P-3 pilots and one civilian) to operate RQ-4s. The four navy operator trainees were in an accelerated course (four months instead of five) and were available to help fly U.S. Air Force RQ-4s before the navy RQ-4s test model became operational in 2009.

The manned P-3 replacement (the P-8A) is expected to complement Triton. Although the Boeing 737 based P-8A is a two engine jet, compared to the four engine turboprop P-3C it is replacing, it is a more capable plane. The P-8A has 23 percent more floor space than the P-3 and is larger (an 18 percent longer wingspan) and heavier (83 tons versus 61). Most other characteristics are the same. Both can stay in the air about ten hours per sortie. Speed however is different. Cruise speed for the 737 is 910 kilometers an hour, versus 590 for the propeller driven P-3. This makes it possible for the P-8A to get to a patrol area faster, which is a major advantage when chasing down subs spotted by sonar arrays or satellites. However, the P-3 can carry more weapons (9 tons versus 5.6). This is less of a factor as the weapons (torpedoes, missiles, mines, sonobouys) are more effective, and often lighter, today and that trend continues. Both carry the same size crew, of 10-11 pilots and equipment operators. Both aircraft carry search radar and various other sensors. While the Triton can stay in the air longer, the P-8A carries weapons and is more effective at finding, and destroying, submarines (and even surface ships lacking long-range air defense systems).

The 737 has, like the P-3, been equipped with bomb hard points on the wings for torpedoes or missiles. The B-737 is a more modern design and has been used successfully since the 1960s by commercial aviation. Navy aviators are confident that it will be as reliable as the P-3. (The P-3 was based on the Electra civilian airliner that first flew in 1954. Although only 170 were built, plus 600 P-3s, about 20 Electras are still in service.) The Boeing 737 first flew in 1965, and over 5,000 have been built. The P-8A will be the first 737 designed with a bomb bay and four wing racks for weapons.

The Navy is buying a modified version of the B model of the RQ-4 for over $60 million each. This version is larger (wingspan is 5 meters/15 feet larger, at 42.2 meters/131 feet, and it's nine percent longer at 15.5 meters/48 feet) than the A model and can carry more equipment. To support that, there's a new generator that produces 150 percent more electrical power. The RQ-4 has a range of over 22,000 kilometers and a cruising speed of 650 kilometers an hour.


The first three RQ-4Bs entered service in 2006. At 13 tons the Global Hawk is the size of a commuter airliner (like the Embraer ERJ 145) but costs nearly twice as much. Global Hawk can be equipped with much more powerful and expensive sensors, which more than double the cost of the aircraft. These "spy satellite quality" sensors (especially AESA radar) are usually worth the expense because they enable the UAV, flying at over 20,000 meters (62,000 feet), to get a sharp picture of all the territory it can see from that altitude. The B version is supposed to be a lot more reliable. Early A models tended to fail and crash at the rate of once every thousand flight hours.

The maritime RQ-4 is seen as the ultimate replacement for all manned maritime patrol aircraft, at least once it is equipped with more anti-submarine sensors and weapons. The P-8A will probably be the last manned naval search aircraft. Some countries are using satellite communications to put the sensor operators who staff manned patrol aircraft on the ground. Some nations propose sending aircraft like the P-3 or P-8 aloft with just their flight crews, having all the other gear operated from the ground. This enables the aircraft to stay in the air longer and carry more gear.

Article: Strategy Page/ Photos: Xinhua News

Rare Video Shows US Spyplane Used To 'Find, Fix, And Finish' Bad Guys

The following video shows an MC-12W Liberty of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing during a mission over Afghanistan.

Although scarcely known, the MC-12W is one of the most valuable U.S. ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) platforms: it is used to support ground forces tracking high-value and time-sensitive targets, including people, as well as provide tactical intelligence and airborne command and control for air-to-ground operations.

Indeed, the MC-12W, that took part to the last Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base in February 2013, is a spyplane specialized to “find, fix, and finish” bad guys.


The footage is particularly interesting as scenes not only include take off and recovery operations but also show the interior of aircraft, Wescam sensors, night operations, operators and tactical systems operators: a rare glimpse inside such a rare, spooky bird.


Note the HD live video provided to the sensors operators on board the Liberty by the aircraft’s Wescam camera.

The MC-12W is a military version of the Hawker Beechcraft Super King Air 350 and Super King 350ER: the U.S. Air Force plane was given a full array of sensors, a ground exploitation cell, line-of-sight and satellite communications datalinks, along with a robust voice communications suite.

The aircraft is equipped with an electro-optical infrared sensor and other sensors as the mission requires. The EO/IR sensor also includes a laser illuminator and designator in a single sensor package. The MC-12 system is capable of worldwide operations.
It lacks only weapons. At least for the moment …

http://www.businessinsider.com/spy-plane-find-fix-and-finish-bad-guys-2013-5

Hagel Set for Vietnam Embrace as Wary Asia Eyes Rising China

(By Daniel Ten Kate & David Lerman- Bloomberg) When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel served in Southeast Asia as a U.S. Army sergeant, Nguyen Tan Dung fought to expel him and other American troops from Vietnam.

More than four decades later Dung, 63, is his country’s prime minister. He will be among the Asian leaders seeking Hagel’s reassurance that the U.S. will maintain a strong regional military presence to counter a more assertive China. Both will speak this weekend at a gathering of top defense officials in Singapore.

The U.S. is “on track” with its plans to boost security ties with Asia, Hagel, 66, told reporters on his plane en route to Singapore. “We have been undertaking more new bilateral initiatives with partners than we ever have.”

Hagel must balance concerns among U.S. allies about China’s territorial ambitions against a need to cooperate with President Xi Jinping’s government in halting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Disputes over fish, oil and gas in waters off China’s coasts risk disrupting trade among emerging Asian powers that are driving global economic growth.

President Barack Obama, who will meet Xi in California on June 7, last month said U.S. budget cuts wouldn’t affect the administration’s bid to focus on Asia while winding down its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. That includes money for weapons systems in Japan and South Korea, a rotational deployment of marines in Australia and enhancing Philippine maritime capabilities.

Vietnam is expected to request from the US government the sale of Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), a senior company official told IHS Jane's on 10 April.

‘Main Doubt’

“The main doubt among countries in this region is whether the U.S. can sustain its rebalancing” to Asia, said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “As long as the U.S. helps maintain the rule of law” its greater focus will be welcome, he said.

The White House has also underscored moves to cooperate with China despite disagreements over how strongly to respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, Iran’s weapons program and Syria’s civil war. The administration has repeatedly accused China of a massive cyber-espionage campaign aimed at stealing U.S. military and commercial technology.

Obama “is firmly committed to building a relationship defined by higher levels of practical cooperation and greater levels of trust, while managing whatever differences and disagreements that may arise between us,” U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told Xi in Beijing on May 27.

‘Pretty Hard’

Hagel said he would discuss in Singapore the need for better cyber-security measures, and plans to meet informally with lower-level Chinese officials. He didn’t directly address allegation of China’s involvement in cyber attacks, saying “it’s pretty hard to prove that they are directed by any specific entity, but we can tell where they come from.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on May 21 the U.S. has no hard evidence China is behind cyber attacks and called for healthy relations between the two. Xi told Donilon this week that ties are at a “critical juncture to build on successes and open up new dimensions for the future.”

Hagel said he has invited his Chinese counterpart to come to Washington for a visit in August.

Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, will lead China’s delegation to the Shangri-La Dialogue, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

‘Not Reasonable’

China’s neighbors are making claims in the South China Sea that are “not reasonable” because they want access to oil resources, according to Ni Lexiong, professor of international military affairs and diplomacy at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

“If China doesn’t take back its territory, domestic public pressure will be very strong,” Ni said by phone.

At the conference, Hagel wants to show the Pentagon’s pivot toward Asia -- announced in October 2011 by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Foreign Policy magazine -- will be maintained, said a defense official who briefed reporters this week on condition of anonymity. The rebalancing will mean that 60 percent of the Navy’s fleet will be based in the Pacific by 2020, from about 50 percent today.
The Pentagon is slicing about $37 billion off its budget this year and bracing for as much as $500 billion in cuts over the next nine years -- the result of a deficit-reduction deal requiring automatic, across-the-board spending cuts.

Joint Exercises

Next month the U.S. Pacific Command will hold a joint exercise with Indonesia for the first time, Army Colonel James Barker, the command’s director of training and exercises, said in an interview. The U.S. will also grant permanent funding for exercises with Malaysia.

While military exercises with allies are expanding they “may just not be as robust,” Barker said. “In some cases we’ve had to scale back the number of troops participating in exercises.”

Hagel’s ties to Asia run deep. His father served in the Pacific in World War II. The first former enlisted man to head the Pentagon, Hagel won two Purple Hearts during his time serving with the infantry in Vietnam in the late 1960s and came back a skeptic of military power.

“The only thing we can predict is that wars are unpredictable, and they remain a fundamentally human endeavor,” he said in a May 25 commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Resource Conflicts

Hagel’s three years of experience on Chevron Corp. (CVX)’s board prior to joining the Pentagon may prove useful in managing disputes in the South China Sea. Besides fishermen, oil and gas companies have been at the forefront of conflicts in the waters.

Since 2010, when then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned against intimidating companies in the waters, China has cut the cables of survey ships working for Vietnam, chased away an exploration vessel near the Philippines and sent its first deep-water drilling rig to the region. Last year, China National Offshore Oil Corp. invited bids for exploration blocks Vietnam had awarded to companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and OAO Gazprom.

Chinese Navy ships in March visited James Shoal off Malaysia, an area near where Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Petroliam Nasional Bhd. have oil and gas operations. Last month, China moved to allow tourists to visit the Paracel Islands, which it took by force from Vietnam in 1974.

‘Clear Message’

The Philippines last week protested after a Chinese naval ship escorted a fishing vessel at a shoal it occupies, after losing effective control of the Scarborough Shoal to China a year ago. President Benigno Aquino last week pledged more funds to modernize the military and said a second refurbished U.S. Coast Guard ship would arrive in August.

“Our message to the world is clear: What is ours is ours and we can fight back and defend ourselves from threats,” Aquino said in a speech to the Philippine Navy in Cavite City.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Dung has also sought to strengthen his country’s defenses. On a visit to Russia this month he met with crew members training to operate a Kilo-class submarine, one of six Vietnam plans to buy.

Hagel’s planned meeting with Dung in Singapore could send a positive message to the region, said Richard Bush, director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited Vietnam in 2012.

“He can’t go wrong by playing up the ability and willingness of former enemies finding a path to reconciliation,” Bush said, referring to Hagel. “There are other former adversaries in Asia that could learn from that.”

By Daniel Ten Kate & David Lerman/ Bloomberg

Plucky or rash, the Philippines is right to challenge China

(By David Pilling) It is a shame others have not been bold enough to test their maritime claims

Nine dashes, five judges, two contestants. It sounds like a reality television show. In fact, it is the rather obscure – but very important – beginning of a process to delineate fiercely disputed Asian maritime borders according to the rule of law, rather than the law of the jungle.

The nine dashes belong to China. They mark what Beijing says is its historical claim to most of the South China Sea, a vast waterway that borders several other Asian countries. The five judges have been chosen to sit on a tribunal that will determine the validity of that claim under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The two contestants are the Philippines, which brought the case, and China, whose nine-dash line is being challenged. Strictly speaking, there is only one contestant, since Beijing, though a signatory of Unclos, has not deigned to recognise the process.

Asian countries, particularly the not inconsiderable number that have maritime disputes of their own with China, are watching the case with intense interest. Few, though, have dared say much in public for fear of offending Beijing. Whether you judge it plucky or rash, the Philippines has gone out on a limb.

Manila’s hope is to put its bilateral dispute with Beijing over the ownership of waters and islands close to the Philippine coast to international arbitration. There is an air of desperation about its gambit, which suggests it sees no possible progress through dialogue. Professor Jerome Cohen, an authority on Chinese and international law at New York University School of Law, says the Philippine “bombshell” has shocked Beijing with its audacity.

The case, launched in January, will take perhaps four years to chug through the Unclos system. It has potentially huge implications for a region riddled with explosive territorial disputes, including that between Japan and China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

The Philippines has asked Unclos to adjudicate on the validity of the nine-dash line, produced by China in 1947 to illustrate what it said was its longstanding jurisdiction over almost all the South China Sea. That claim overlaps with the Philippines’ 200 mile economic exclusion zone extending from its coastline.

The case will proceed with or without China. Beijing waived its right to nominate arbitrators, but they have been nominated anyway. The first thing they will have to establish is whether Unclos has jurisdiction in the case. It may not.

Concluded in 1982, the convention is actually quite narrow in scope. Mostly, it confines its activities to matters such as whether a rock counts as an island – and thus whether it generates a 12-mile territorial sea and a 200-mile EEZ. The question of whether the island belongs to country Y or country X does not fall under its remit.

Even if Unclos declares itself competent to judge the case, there are at least three things to bear in mind before we become too excited. First, contrary to what is often assumed, international law is not some Newtonian absolute. Rather, it is a set of common rules agreed by nations that emerged from a post-second world war order, and whose realities it reflects. International law is not the word of God.

Second, there is very little “morality” when it comes to territorial disputes, no matter how loud countries shout about their inalienable rights. In most cases, it is the job of international law to decide who grabbed which territory first. Nation states with their fixed borders are a relatively new phenomenon. Today’s boundaries have more to do with armies and warships than righteousness.

Third, the case for international law is undermined by the fact that the US, in whose image the postwar order has been created, often stands on the sidelines. Washington, for example, has never ratified Unclos. That makes it hard to insist that Beijing should abide by its decisions.

To cite just one example of how Washington has thumbed its nose at international law when it is inconvenient: in 1986 the International Court of Justice ruled that the US had violated Nicaragua’s rights by mining its ports and funding the Contra rebels. Ronald Reagan, then American president, simply ignored the decision. Might is generally right. Yukichi Fukuzawa, the great 19th-century Japanese student of western thinking, learnt the lesson well. “One hundred volumes of international law are not the equal of a few cannons,” he concluded.

That does not mean the Philippines is wrong to bring the case. It has done the right thing. It is just a shame that other countries have not been plucky enough to test their claim through international arbitration. Step up, Vietnam, Japan and Indonesia.

One day, China may even participate in such a procedure itself. Prof Cohen tells the story of when, in 1972, he suggested to Zhou Enlai, China’s premier, that Beijing should name someone to sit on the International Court of Justice. The room fell silent before Zhou roared with laughter at the very idea of communist China joining “a racist, bourgeois institution that would never give [it] a fair shake”.

Yet, just over a decade later, China did exactly as Prof Cohen had suggested and nominated a candidate to the ICJ. If the Philippines waits long enough, it may yet get its day in court.

Copyright @ The Financial Times Limited 2013. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

Chinese media accuses Japan of attempting to 'encircle' China

BEIJING: Fuming over Japan's efforts to forge maritime security cooperation with India during the just-concluded visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a state-run Chinese daily on Thursday accused Tokyo of attempting to "encircle" China by building strategic alliances in the neighbourhood.

Japan and the U.S. held the largest Island combat exercises on 23 Jan 2013. (Source: CNS)

"With Singh on his four-day visit to Japan, both sides have discussed maritime security cooperation. A few days ago, when Shinzo Abe, Singh's counterpart, visited Myanmar, it was seen as Japan's attempt to complete a "puzzle game" in order to "encircle China," state-run Global Times daily said in its editorial today.

"Japan's strategy for China drives its activity around China's neighbours, said an editorial titled 'Diplomatic row due to disoriented Japan'.

"But Japan's wishful thinking of encircling China is just an illusion. Besides sneaking a few bargains from its competition with China, Japan does not have the strength to prevail over China's influence in Asia," it said.

The allegation comes as China's attempts to forge close ties in India's neighbourhood were perceived as Beijing's attempt to encircle India.

China is currently hosting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa pouring billions of dollars of aid and investment, sparking concerns in India.

Today's editorial is second such comment by Chinese official media over Japan's efforts to forge close ties with India during Singh's visit.

An article in People's Daily two days ago had termed Japanese politicians "petty burglars" for courting India.

The Economic Times

India, Japan pantomime message to China

New Delhi: During a three-day visit to Japan this week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed several major infrastructure and defence-technology deals, and agreed to speed up dialogue on nuclear co-operation and conduct more joint naval exercises. His host, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, called Mr Singh a "mentor-like leader".

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shakes hands with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe at the start of talks in Tokyo this week. Photo: Reuters

But the bonhomie appeared calculated, at least in part, to send a not-so-subtle diplomatic message to Beijing in the wake of a border row between India and China last month, as well as the dispute between Japan and China over resource-rich islands in the East China Sea.

The goal, analysts say, is to isolate China with a view to limiting its territorial ambitions in the region.

On Wednesday, Mr Singh said India and Japan are "natural and indispensable partners" in efforts to bring about a "peaceful, stable, co-operative and prosperous future for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions".

Mr Abe said the two democracies, "India from the west, Japan from the east", must shoulder the task of keeping Asia peaceful.

"It is quite clear that all this is happening with China as the backdrop, because both Japan and India look upon China as a threat," said Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian diplomat and strategic affairs analyst. "The Japanese prime minister wants to redefine the Indian Ocean and the Pacific region as a community of maritime democracies. That automatically excludes China. This is an important and clever move by India, too. I think Beijing has reasons to be worried."

The message has not been lost on China. On Tuesday, the Communist Party-controlled People's Daily newspaper described China and India as natural partners, and hailed India's "great wisdom" in handling its ties with China "in a calm way, undisturbed by internal and international provocateurs". The article also criticised recent visits by Mr Abe to China's neighbours to discuss ways to contain the superpower, saying, "Some politicians just made themselves petty burglars on China-related issues."
Indian officials have portrayed Mr Singh's visit to Japan as a logical extension of India's two-decade-old "Look East" policy of seeking closer ties with countries in east and south-east Asia. After some dithering, India also appears to support the recent US emphasis on a strategic pivot towards Asia, as a response to China's rapid rise.

Mr Abe has turned in recent times not only to India, but also to south-east Asian countries to parry China's influence in the region. He visited Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam during his first overseas trip in office, and this week paid the first visit to Myanmar by a Japanese leader in 36 years.
Japan is also beginning to co-operate with countries that share concerns about China's maritime ambitions, considering training Vietnamese submarine crews and helping bolster the Philippines coastguard.

India and Japan conducted their first joint naval exercise off the coast of Tokyo last year and this week pledged to deepen the co-operation with more.

"India, Japan join hands to break string of pearls," read a headline in the Times of India newspaper on Thursday, using the catchphrase for Beijing's strategy of wooing Indian neighbours such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives by establishing commercial and strategic facilities.

This week, Japan offered to lend $700 million to help build a new metro system in India's financial capital of Mumbai, pledged to invest in India's high-speed railway system and promised to supply advanced naval reconnaissance aircraft.

"Traditional Asian rivals Japan and China are at loggerheads again, and one country stands to gain the most from the chilly ties this time round: India," the country's Hindustan Times newspaper commented.

Washington Post

Philippines to Receive Riverine Patrol Boats from US

The Philippine Navy (PN) is set to receive six riverine patrol boats (RPBs) from the United States in August under a US Navy (USN) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract.

The Silver Ship’s new 40 feet Riverine Patrol Boats can hit speeds of 40 knots. (all photos : Militaryphotos)

A Silver Ships riverine patrol boat (RPB) on trial in the United States.1513348A Silver Ships riverine patrol boat (RPB) on trial in the United States. (Silver Ships)

According to an official at manufacturer Silver Ships, a contract was signed with the USN in September 2011 and the boats were completed a year later. However, delivery was delayed until early May this year due to "non-availability of marine transport".

Although the boats are capable of open-water operations, they will be used primarily in shallow waters. They have a length of 40 ft, a beam of 10 ft 8 inches and a draft of less than two feet.

The boats feature a centre console configuration and a bow ramp to permit egress of embarked troops during beaching operations. They have three weapon mounts - two forward and one aft - for machine guns and grenade launchers as well as ballistic protection.

Powered by two Hamilton HJ-292 waterjets, each driven by a Yanmar 6LY2A-STP diesel producing 440 hp, top speed is 40 kt. Fully loaded, range is greater than 250 n miles at a cruising speed of more than 30 kt.

Besides Silver Ships, fellow US boatbuilder Willard Marine is supplying unspecified numbers of 7 m Sea Force 730 outboard rigged-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) to the PN under an FMS programme.

In other news, the PN announced in March it was looking to buy three more multi-purpose attack craft (MPAC) to add to its fleet of six vessels. "This acquisition is under our mid-term development plan for 2014-2017," said PN spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Gregory Fabic.

The MPACs are similar to the CB-90 Combat Boat. The first three were constructed by Lung Teh Shipbuilding in Taiwan, while the following three were built locally to a revised design by Propmech Corporation, based in Subic Bay. The PN is hoping to later acquire 42 MPACs but funding remains an issue.

Janes

Assad Warns Israel, Claiming a Stockpile of Russian Weapons

ANNE BARNARD from BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria displayed a new level of defiance on Thursday, warning Israel that he could permit attacks on the Golan Heights and suggesting that he had secured plenty of weapons from Russia — possibly including an advanced missile system — as his opponents falter politically and Hezbollah fighters infuse force into his military campaign to crush the Syrian insurgency.

Mr. Assad spoke in an interview broadcast on Al-Manar television, which is owned by his ally Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant group, further punctuating his message of growing confidence that he could prevail over an insurgency that is now more than two years old and has claimed more than 80,000 lives.

Asked about Russian weapons deliveries, Mr. Assad said: “Russia is committed with Syria in implementing these contracts. What we agreed upon with Russia will be implemented, and part of it has been implemented over the recent period, and we are continuing to implement it.”

He was vague on whether Russia’s deliveries had included a sophisticated S-300 air missile system — of particular concern to Israel because it could compromise Israel’s ability to strike Syria from the air and because those missiles can hit deep inside Israeli territory. The Israelis have said they would not abide a Syrian deployment of S-300s, suggesting they would use force to destroy them.

Before the broadcast, Al-Manar had sent out text messages that paraphrased Mr. Assad as saying Syria had already received a first shipment of the S-300 missiles.

It was unclear why those paraphrased comments were not included in the broadcast, and Al-Manar later said it mischaracterized what Mr. Assad had said. But American and Israeli officials have been pressing Russia to defer the S-300 system delivery to Syria, and there were other indications that the paraphrased comments may have been a premature boast or bluff.

Israeli officials and Western diplomats in the region said they did not believe such a system had yet arrived in Syria, with some saying any delivery could be at least a few weeks away. Even so, the possibility presented a new risk that the Syrian war could expand into a broader conflict.

“We’re in stormy waters indeed,” said Jonathan Spyer, a senior research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. “Somebody or other has to not do what they have openly claimed they would do. Somebody has to lose serious face, and governments don’t like to lose face at the moment of serious confrontation.”

Mr. Assad spent considerable time in the interview to warn Israel, which attacked what it suspected were weapons caches in Syria this month that the Israelis suspected were bound for Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

“We will retaliate for any Israeli aggression next time,” Mr. Assad said. He also suggested the possibility of renewed fighting in the Golan Heights, the disputed border area occupied by Israel, which has been largely quiet for more than 40 years.

“In fact, there is clear popular pressure to open the Golan front to resistance,” Mr. Assad said. The Syrian government, he said, had received “many Arab delegations wanting to know how young people might be enrolled to come and fight Israel.”

Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Mr. Assad’s comments on the Golan were worrisome in the context of other recent statements from Syria, particularly its assertion that Israel had violated the 1974 agreement that has allowed for the calm along the cease-fire line.

“It’s a very sensitive, explosive situation being created by the new level of rhetoric,” Mr. Yaari said. “You ask yourself whether the rhetoric is not going to lead to actions at some point.”

Mr. Assad reiterated the Syrian government’s intention to attend a United Nations peace conference on Syria, which Russia and the United States have been seeking to convene in Geneva in coming weeks despite their own differences over the conflict. But he said any agreements that might result from such a conference would have to be approved by Syrians in a referendum.

Even as Mr. Assad’s broadcast was aired, fissures within the Syrian opposition widened, with rebel military commanders demanding a significant new role in the main exile organization.

The disparity underscored the fact that Mr. Assad appeared to be consolidating his position, buttressed on both military and political fronts by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, while the Western-backed opposition stumbles toward ever more serious disarray.

All week, the 63-member Syrian Coalition, the main rebel group, has been entangled anew in petty disputes over how many seats to add. Its leadership announced Thursday that it would boycott the peace conference. It attributed the boycott on Iranian and Hezbollah interference in Syria, but analysts saw it as a position born of weakness and the inability to forge a strong, united bargaining front.

“This is a low point,” said Amr al-Azm, a Syrian-born history professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio who tracks the opposition. “Unlike earlier screaming matches, you have a bad military situation on the ground and Geneva is looming and the opposition has nothing to play. This is as bad as it gets.”

Both the United States and Russia face difficult prospects in getting the Geneva talks to even begin. Representatives of the organizers are expected to meet in Geneva on June 5 to discuss details, including a concrete date.

Moscow faces the challenge of getting Mr. Assad to send a strong enough delegation to make real decisions about a cease-fire and a political transition — essentially a delegation that will agree to limit his power. The ministers he has named to the delegation so far are political appointees with no real power and no role in the inner circle.

It will be tough to convince Mr. Assad because he feels that he is negotiating from a position of strength, analysts said. The thud of artillery has diminished around Damascus and there are few checkpoints in the past couple weeks, according to recent visitors. With a fresh infusion of Hezbollah fighters, government forces might soon expel the opposition from the important crossroads town of Qusayr, which they have held for months.

That would mean Mr. Assad controls all the territory he cares about most, analysts said, namely the area around the capital and the key route to the coastal stronghold of his Alawite minority, which dominates the government.

For the United States and its allies, the first challenge is creating a united delegation from an opposition that has always been anything but united.

The Syrian Coalition has been plagued by internal turmoil since its inception in late 2011.

The group has failed to deliver on most of its promises, ranging from distributing humanitarian aid to areas outside government control, to creating a unified military command, to becoming a serious government-in-exile.

Instead the uneasy, distrustful members — dominated by long-exiled members of the Muslim Brotherhood, academics living abroad for decades and political activists fleeing Syria — have spent most of their time in luxury hotels arguing over which faction should claim what responsibility.

The coalition’s problems have not been lost on Mr. Assad, who spoke contemptuously of his political adversaries in the Al-Manar television interview, describing them as exiles and paid stooges of hostile foreign governments — another indication that prospects for the Geneva conference are dim.

“We will attend this conference as the official delegation and legitimate representatives of the Syrian people,” he said. “But, whom do they represent? When this conference is over, we return to Syria, we return home to our people. But when the conference is over, whom do they return to — five-star hotels?”

Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations. Reporting was contributed by Hala Droubi from Beirut, Jodi Rudoren and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem, Steven Lee Myers and Michael R. Gordon from Washington, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

NY Times

Chinese navy seaplane crashes off port of Qingdao

BEIJING — China’s Defense Ministry says a navy seaplane has crashed into waters near the eastern port city of Qingdao.

A notice posted on the ministry’s website said the plane went down Thursday morning while conducting a training mission in Jiaozhou Bay. It said a search and rescue mission was launched by the navy but gave no word on casualties.

Reports of crashes and other military mishaps were relatively rare in the past, but the traditionally secretive People’s Liberation Army has been making greater efforts at transparency as it seeks to transition into a modern military.

The North Sea Fleet operates four Shuihong 5 seaplanes dating from the 1980s that are used primarily for low-altitude maritime patrol and surveillance missions. Each carries five crew members.

In pictures, USS Blue Ridge appears in South China Sea

The American command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC19) and missile destroyer Chung-Hoon (DDG93) appear in the South China Sea on Wednesday May 29, 2013. The US navy is currently cruising in the South China Sea, the Philippine Sea, the Java Sea, and the Straits of Malacca. It also is working with the navies of Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia and other countries in exchanges of military personnel and joint training. The Blue Ridge is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge-class command ships of the US Navy, and the command ship of the United States Seventh Fleet. [Photo: huanqiu.com]

The Blue Ridge (LCC 19) is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge-class command ships of the US Navy, and the command ship of the United States Seventh Fleet. It was constructed on February 27, 1967 and commissioned on November 14, 1970. As the largest command ship since World War II, the Blue Ridge is a command and control facility integrating sea, air and land operations during amphibious warfare. [Photo: huanqiu.com]

Japan Coast Guard personnel onboard the USS Blue Ridge on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 listen to a US sailor explaining the ship's performance.The Blue Ridge is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge-class command ships of the US Navy, and the command ship of the United States Seventh Fleet. [Photo: huanqiu.com]

A US soldier talks with Indonesian navigators on the USS Blue Ridge on Wednesday, May 29, 2013. The Blue Ridge is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge-class command ships of the US Navy, and the command ship of the United States Seventh Fleet. [Photo: huanqiu.com]

CRI English

Indian Navy eyes high-tech options for future aircraft carriers

General Atomics briefs navy on magnetic catapult that launches unmanned fighters

The Indian Navy --- one of just nine navies that operate aircraft carriers --- is thinking high-tech in planning its second indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vishal. The admirals are deciding whether INS Vishal, still only a concept, should launch aircraft from its deck using a technology so advanced that it is not yet in service anywhere: the Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).

Getting a fully loaded combat aircraft airborne off a short, 200-metre-long deck is a key challenge in aircraft carrier operations. The INS Viraat, currently India’s only aircraft carrier, uses Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) since its Harrier “jump-jets” take off and land almost like helicopters. INS Vikramaditya, which Russia will deliver this year, uses Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR). The Vikramaditya’s MiG-29K fighters will fly off an inclined ramp called a “ski-jump”; and land with the help of arrester wires laid across the deck, which snag on a hook on the fighter’s tail, literally dragging it to a halt. This system will also be used on the first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which Cochin Shipyard plans to deliver by 2017.

But INS Vishal, which will follow the Vikrant, might employ a third technique that India has never used --- Catapult Assisted Take Off But Arrested Recovery, or CATOBAR. Perfected by the US Navy since World War II, this has a steam-driven piston system along the flight deck “catapulting” the aircraft to 200 kilometres per hour, fast enough to get airborne. With greater steam pressure, significantly heavier aircraft can be launched. US Navy carriers launch the E-2D Hawkeye, a lumbering Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft that scans airspace over hundreds of kilometres.

EMALS, the new-generation catapult that the Indian Navy is evaluating, uses a powerful electro-magnetic field instead of steam. Developed by General Atomics, America’s largest privately held defence contractor, EMALS has been chosen by the US Department of Defence for its new-generation aircraft carriers. The first EMALS-equipped carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will enter service by 2016.

In Delhi Last Thursday, General Atomics briefed thirty Indian Navy captains and admirals on EMALS. Scott Forney III, the senior General Atomics official who conducted the briefing, told Business Standard that tight US controls over this guarded technology required special permission from Washington for sharing technical details of EMALS with India.

Senior Indian naval planners tell Business Standard that INS Vikrant, India’s next 40,000 tonne aircraft carrier, will use STOBAR to operate its complement of MiG-29K and Tejas light fighters. But Vikrant’s successor, the 65,000 tonne INS Vishal could well be a CATOBAR carrier that launches larger and more diverse aircraft.

“While current fighters like the MiG-29K can operate with STOBAR systems, our options will increase with CATOBAR. We could operate heavier fighters, AEW aircraft and, crucially, UCAVs (unmanned combat air vehicles). A UCAV would require a CATOBAR system for launch,” says one admiral.

The navy is closely following UCAV development in India and abroad. On May 14, the X-47B UCAV that Northrop Grumman is developing for the US Navy became the first UCAV to be catapulted off an aircraft carrier, the USS George HW Bush.

Naval planners believe that, with INS Vishal likely to enter service in the early 2020s, they should plan on operating UCAVs from that carrier, as well as an AEW aircraft, and medium and light fighters.

“We could greatly expand our mission envelope with UCAVs, using the pilotless aircraft for high risk reconnaissance and SEAD (suppression of enemy air defences). Mid-air refueling would let us keep UCAVs on mission for 24-36 hours continuously, since pilot fatigue would not be a factor,” says a naval planner.

General Atomics has emphasized the EMALS’ ability to launch multiple aircraft. It has told the navy that EMALS causes less wear and tear on carrier-launched aircraft since electric power can be delivered more accurately than steam. It also launches aircraft quicker; requires less personnel to operate; and its high acceleration allows launches in still conditions, when STOBAR aircraft carriers must sail at 20-30 knots to generate “wind-over-deck,” needed to create the lift required for take off.

“We have completed 134 test launches across five classes of aircraft, including the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter; the F/A-18E Super Hornet; the C-2A Greyhound (delivery aircraft); the T-45 Goshawk trainer; and the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye,” Forney briefed the navy.

While the navy is impressed by the EMALS’ capabilities, there is apprehension that buying it may prove difficult. It would be a “single-vendor” procurement of a system that is untested in operational service, making it hard to validate General Atomics’ claim of being cheaper in the long term.

But industry watchers point out that cutting-edge equipment like EMALS is what New Delhi wants from US-India defense relations. “The EMALS enhances India’s strategic capability. If New Delhi deems this a priority for collaboration, the US might well sanction the release of this technology,” says Manohar Thyagaraj, of the Observer Research Foundation.

Business Standar

Japan mulls export to India of SDF search-and-rescue aircraft

Japan and India have agreed to establish a joint working group to explore prospects of exporting to India a costly search-and-rescue aircraft developed by the Defense Ministry.

The agreement was reached in May 29 talks between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Indian Navy officials began expressing interest in the US-2 short takeoff and landing, search-and-rescue amphibian aircraft a few years ago.

If future discussions proceed as Japanese officials hope, it would be the first instance of an export of defense equipment used by the Self-Defense Forces that had been converted for civilian use.

The US-2 is produced by ShinMaywa Industries Ltd., which is based in Hyogo Prefecture. The aircraft has a range of about 4,500 kilometers and its amphibious landing capabilities make it suited for search-and-rescue operations.

Government officials are seeking to export the aircraft to reduce the procurement costs for each aircraft. Mass production could dramatically lower production costs for each aircraft.

Indian government officials have begun discussions on whether to purchase the aircraft.

However, because the US-2 carries sensitive communications equipment and other equipment, there were concerns that exporting the aircraft would violate Japan's three principles banning the export of weapons.

Government officials have concluded that if the equipment in question were removed beforehand, the aircraft itself would not constitute a weapon and the three principles would not be violated.

A major problem with the US-2 is its high cost. The aircraft costs about 11 billion yen ($108 million), much higher than similar competing aircraft.

According to government sources, India has not yet decided whether to purchase the US-2.


THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Indian Light Combat Fighter jet Tejas hopes for final clearance next year

The Defence Minister AK Antony today expressed hope that the country’s indigenously developed fighter aircraft, LCA TEJAS, will get Final Operational Clearance of the Indian Air Force by the end of next year.

Speaking at the Annual Awards Functions of DRDO here, Antony said, all stakeholders including the DRDO, IAF and HAL must put their energy together in a focused manner to achieve the objective of getting final operational clearance for this Light Combat Aircraft.

Mr. Antony said countries that depend on imported arsenals cannot become great nation. We continue to be the largest importer of Defence equipment and the share of indigenous content in Defence procurement is low, he said. “Our experience has been that foreign vendors are reluctant to part with critical technologies. There are delays in the supply of essential spares. There are exorbitant price increases. The Services too realize that we cannot be eternally dependent on foreign equipment and platforms”, he said.

Get a glimpse of this fighter plane in the next page and read more.

Bhaskar

Pentagon aircraft, missile defense programs are targets of China cyber threat

"The benefits to the cyber espionage are high and there is no cost, there are no sanctions, no diplomatic actions, no financial disincentives"

WASHINGTON – New revelations that China used cyberattacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies have increased pressure on U.S. leaders to take more strident action against Beijing to stem the persistent breaches.

The disclosure, which was included in a Defense Science Board report released earlier this year, but is only now being discussed publicly, comes as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel heads to Southeast Asia, where he will discuss the escalating cyberthreat with counterparts from a number of area nations.

While officials have been warning for years about China's cyber espionage efforts aimed at U.S. military and high-tech programs, the breadth of the list underscored how routine the attacks have become.

And, as the U.S. looks to grow its military presence in the Asia Pacific, it heightens worries that China can use the information to blunt America's military superiority and keep pace with emerging technologies.

"It introduces uncertainty on how well the weapons may work, and it means we may have to redo weapons systems," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"If they know how it works precisely, they will be able to evade it and figure out how to better beat our systems."

A chart included in the science board's report laid out what it called a partial list of 37 breached programs, which included the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon — a land-based missile defense system that was recently deployed to Guam to help counter the North Korean threat.

Other programs include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, and the hybrid MV-22 Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane.

The report also listed another 29 broader defense technologies that have been compromised, including drone video systems and high-tech avionics.

The information was gathered more than two years ago, so some of the data is dated and a few of the breaches — such as the F-35 — had actually already become public.

The details of the breaches were first reported by The Washington Post.

According to a defense official, the report is based on more than 50 briefings that members of the board's task force received from senior leaders in the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence community, national laboratories and business.

The official was not authorized to discuss the report publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials have been far more open about discussing the China cyberattacks over the past year or two, beginning with a November 2011 report by U.S. intelligence agencies that accused China of systematically stealing American high-tech data for its own national economic gain.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, in its latest report on China's military power, asserted publicly for the first time that Beijing's military was behind computer-based attacks targeting federal agencies.

"In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military," said the report, which was released earlier this month.

Cybersecurity experts have for some time been urging the government to use sanctions or other punishments against China for the breaches.

The benefits to the cyber espionage are high and the costs are low, said Shawn Henry, former cyber director at the FBI and now president of CrowdStrike Services, a security technology company.

"There is no cost, there are no sanctions, no diplomatic actions, no financial disincentives," said Henry, adding that the U.S. intellectual property losses are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

He said that the U.S. needs to have a discussion with Chinese leaders about "what the red lines are and what the repercussions will be for crossing those red lines."

U.S. leaders, including President Barack Obama, however, have instead been using the bully pulpit to increase pressure on the Chinese to confront the problem.

Obama is expected to raise the issue with China's new leader Xi Jinping during a summit next month in Southern California.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Tuesday that the Pentagon maintains "full confidence in our weapons platforms," adding that the department has taken a number of steps to strengthen its network defenses and monitor for threats.

Defense contractors, meanwhile, declined to say whether their systems had been breached.

But recent filings to shareholders indicate these companies see intrusions as a serious risk to their business, particularly when they must rely on third-party suppliers.
In its most recent annual report, Lockheed Martin — a primary contractor on missile defense programs — told shareholders that prior cyberattacks "have not had a material impact on our financial results," and that it believed its security efforts were adequate.

However, suppliers and subcontractors have "varying levels of cybersecurity expertise and safeguards and their relationships with government contractors, such as Lockheed Martin may increase the likelihood that they are targeted by the same cyber threats we face," according to the 2012 report.

In a statement emailed to reporters on Tuesday, Lockheed Martin said it has made "significant investments" in cybersecurity and that the company was trying to secure its supply chain given that "program information resides in a large cyber ecosystem."
Similar risk disclosures to shareholders have been made recently by Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Raytheon.

For example, Northrop Grumman wrote in its 2012 annual report that cyber intrusions "could damage our reputation and lead to financial losses from remedial actions, loss of business or potential liability."

Company spokesman Randy Belote on Tuesday declined to say whether Northrop Grumman's systems had been breached, citing company policy.

But, he added, "the number of attempts to breach our networks (is) increasing at an alarming rate."

Associated Press

PLA joint cyberwarfare drill to show new strength and sophistication

Massive, multi-pronged military exercise to test electronic and conventional capabilities - and send a clear message to Tokyo and Manila

PLA prepares massive drill to show off its new strength and sophistication

The People's Liberation Army will conduct its first joint combat drills involving cyberwarfare, special troops, army aviation and electronic countermeasures units next month to test the integration and co-ordination of its land and air forces, state media reported yesterday.

Eight military academies will also join the exercises. Military experts said the high-profile drills were aimed at showing the world China had successfully narrowed the gap with Western countries in terms of modern warfare strategies.

Xinhua said the joint exercises would be staged at the mainland's biggest military training area, at the Zhurihe base inInner Mongolia , late next month.

It quoted the PLA's general staff department as saying that forces from the 38th and 65th combined corps of the Beijing military area command and academies including those focused on special operations, army aviation and defence information, and the air force's early-warning school would take part.

It would be the first PLA exercise to focus on different combat forces and using digital technology in a modern warfare scenario, Xinhua said.

The drill will simulate "non-contact assaults" alongside conventional operations.

"'Non-contact assaults' means digital operations, including cyberwarfare, electronic warfare and intelligence warfare systems, as well as others," said Xu Guangyu , a former general who is now a senior researcher at the Beijing-based China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

"'Assault operations' doesn't mean the PLA will stage a 'pre-emptive strike' drill, but [is] based on the existing 'active defence strategy' to simulate how to fight back if our country is invaded," he said.

Antony Wong Dong, of the Macau-based International Military Association, said the participation of the eight academies meant the drill would also test some military theories.

"It's a rare, massive drill, covering so many different kinds of combat troops and military researchers, with the institute of special operations and the air force's early-warning school being new military research organisations," he said. "It also indicates the PLA is trying to catch up with the US Army in integrating digital operations into different combat forces on the land and in the air."

Shanghai-based military commentator Ni Lexiong said the unprecedented joint exercise showed that the PLA's air and land forces wanted to show the world - and especially neighbouring countries involved in territorial disputes in the East and South China seas - their military muscle following a recent focus on the mainland's naval buildup.

Last week, the PLA Navy also carried out a rare joint exercise involving its three fleets - the North Sea, East Sea and South Sea fleets - in the South China Sea as disputes drag on between Beijing and Tokyo over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea and between Beijing and Manila over Second Thomas Shoal 80 miles off the Philippines, which China sees as part of the Spratly Islands.

SCMP