News Story: Pakistan Navy Holds 5-Day Maritime Demonstration

Pakistan’s special forces and participating countries carried out a maritime counter-terrorism demonstration on the island of Manora in Karachi on Saturday.

Over 36 countries are participating in the five-day exercise which helps in combating drug trade, human trafficking, illegal gun trade, piracy and extremism, the Pakistan Navy said.

Speaking at the event, Pakistan’s navy lieutenant commander, Qaiser Razzaq, said: "I was in charge of the Sea Eagle team here who demonstrated free fall sky diving. It was part of the MCT demo -- Maritime Counter-Terrorism Demo. Actually, there are two types of free fall, one is called Tactical, the other is called Sports. Tactical is important from the operation point of view, especially at infiltration in the enemy land. But what we have demonstrated falls in the category of Sports."

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: South Korea to speed up hovercraft delivery

Landing Craft Air Cushion (Image: Wiki Commons)

by Ryan Maass

South Korea's defense procurement agency will move up the scheduled delivery of two hovercraft landing ships by one year.

The move, which the agency says is meant to counter North Korea's growing nuclear capabilities, brings the delivery date from 2021 to 2020 according to IHS Janes. Hanjin Heavy Industries received a $130 million contract to support the project.

"If the hovercraft landing ships are deployed in 2020, the navy's operational capabilities will receive a boost amid growing tensions from North Korea," a spokesperson for DAPA, South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration, told the Yonhap news agency.

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: China holds landing drills ahead of Taiwan swearing-in

China's military has staged at least three landing exercises in the country's southeast this month, state-run media reported Wednesday ahead of the inauguration of Taiwan's Beijing-sceptic president-elect Tsai Ing-wen.

The operations appear to be Beijing's latest warnings to Tsai, chairwoman of the traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, who will be sworn in on Friday and whose political message revolves around the importance of Taiwanese identity.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after the Kuomintang nationalist forces lost a civil war to the Communists. But Beijing has always seen the island as a renegade province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

The largest and most recent of the drills was carried out by a regiment under the 31st Group Army, based in Fujian province opposite Taiwan, reported China Daily, the military's official mouthpiece.

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: China Builds Amphibious Capabilities for Taiwan Scenario

Yuzhao class (Type 071) amphibious transport dock

Wendell Minnick

TAIPEI — China’s military is expanding its capabilities for an amphibious assault on the self-ruled island of Taiwan. This, according to the newly released “Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” which is issued by the Pentagon each year as mandated by the US Congress.

China now has two amphibious mechanized infantry divisions, one amphibious armor brigade, 11 army aviation brigades and regiments, three Airborne divisions, and two Marine brigades. For the navy, new ships include 30 tank landing ships/amphibious transport docks, 22 medium landing ships, and China has signed significant purchase contracts with Ukraine for assault hovercraft.

China’s investments in its amphibious ship force signal China’s intent to develop an expeditionary and over-the-horizon amphibious assault capability, said the report.

“Since 2005, China has built three large Yuzhao-class (Type 071) amphibious transport docks with a fourth soon to enter service, providing considerably greater and more flexible capability for ‘far seas’ operations than the older landing ships.” The Yuzhao can carry up to four of the new Yuyi-class, air-cushion medium landing craft and four or more helicopters, as well as armored vehicles and marines for long-distance deployments. Additional Yuzhao construction is expected to continue, as is a follow-on amphibious assault ship that is not only larger, but also incorporates a full flight deck for helicopters. Two Yuting II-class tank landing ships (LST) are currently being built to replace older LST units that are reaching the end of their service lives.

The Pentagon report states that Chinese writings indicate there are different operational concepts for an amphibious invasion of Taiwan, but the most prominent of these is the Joint Island Landing Campaign, which envisions a complex operation relying on coordinated, interlocking campaigns for logistics, air, naval support and electronic warfare.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: China to make nice with Ukraine for landing craft engines

China's Zubr class Landing Craft Air-Cushion (File Photo)

After forming a security partnership with Russia to counter US influence in Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific, China wants to use its military parade in Beijing on Sept. 3 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II to improve its relationship with Ukraine, according to the Global Times, a paper published under the auspices of the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

Beijing gave tacit support to Moscow by not speaking out against the annexation of Crimea last year as it sought a partnership with Russia to counterbalance the US "Asia Pivot" strategy in the Pacific. After Ukraine's Feodosia Shipbuilding Company, which manufactures the Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft, suddenly found itself in Russian hands, Beijing had to restart negotiations with Moscow to secure the second pair of four vessels it had originally purchased from Kiev.

Feodosia cannot however produce the Kuznetsov NK-12MV gas turbine engine which powers the craft. Each of the four landing craft require five of the turbines. As the Zubr-class landing craft is considered significant for China's power projection in maritime regions fraught with territorial disputes, a move to woo Ukraine would appear to be on the cards.

Read the full story at Want China Times

Editorial: Beijing Practices Invasion of South China Sea Islands

By Franz-Stefan Gady

The Chinese Navy just deployed the world’s biggest hovercraft for an assault drill on Hainan Island.

A host of Chinese landing crafts and assault vehicles were unable to breach the defenses and establish a beachhead on an island during a recent amphibious assault drill conducted in the South China Sea due to “effective measures” by the defending forces, Chinese Central Television (CCTV) lamented, according to defenseworld.net.

All hopes of victory were lost until the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) decided to send in its newest weapon, the Zubr-class air cushioned landing craft (LCAC), a move that (surprise! surprise!) ended up turning the tide and winning the day for the assault force.

“The CCTV report described the exercise as testing the PLAN’s ability to land an amphibious assault force in collaboration with other parts of the armed forces. Screen grabs from the report show what appears to be a PLA Type 99 main battle tank (MBT) emerging from the LCAC,” is IHS Janes 360′s sober assessment of the military drill.

Displacing 550 tons when fully loaded and measuring 57 meters (187 feet) long and 26 meters (84 feet) wide, the Soviet-designed hovercraft is the world’s largest. It can carry up to three main battle tanks, or ten armored personal carriers with 230 troops, or 375 fully equipped troops in its cargo compartment and land its deadly load on just about any landmass.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: PLA does live-fire excercise in response to US surveillance mission

Chinese Navy Ships on patrol (File Photo)

After Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, joined a seven hour surveillance flight over the South China Sea, China's PLA Navy launched a large live-fire exercise in the disputed region with dozens of its most advanced warships, China's nationalist tabloid, the Global Times reports.

The Global Times said that the exercise was done in order for China to demonstrate its determination to defend its maritime territory. In addition to Singapore's Changi Naval Base, the Philippines has become a new staging area for the US to deploy its warships and aircraft to the South China Sea after Benigno S. Aquino III became the president there. At the request of Aquino, the Philippines opened up eight of its military bases to station US troops, aircraft, and warships.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: PLA Navy receives its first mobile landing platform

Vessel 868: China's Mobile Landing Platform (MLP)

Guangzhou's Wenchong shipyard officially turned China's first mobile landing platform, known as vessel 868, over to the PLA Navy on June 26, reports overseas Chinese-language news outlet Duowei News.

Vessel 868 shares many similar characteristics with its American MLP counterpart, according to a Sina Military Network report. It is developed specifically to carry the PLA Navy's Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft in future amphibious operations. With a displacement of 3,200 tonnes, vessel 868 was launched on Feb. 27 and completed its sea trial a month later.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: Zubr-class LCAC to power up PLA Navy

China's ambitions to dominate the East and South China Seas will receive a powerful boost with the commissioning of four new Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft (LCAC), reports the Beijing-based Sina Military Network.

The Zubr, meaning "European bison", is the world's largest military hovercraft. Originally designed in the 1980s by the St Petersburg-based Almaz Shipbuilding, construction of the first Zubr began in 1982 and was completed in three years. Issues identified during initial trials were corrected before a second series of tests in 1986, with the vessels officially commissioned by the Soviet Union in 1988.

Apart from the Russian and Ukranian navies, the Zubr is operated today by the Hellenic Navy and the People's Liberation Army Navy. China placed an order for four of the vessels from Ukraine in 2009 for US$350 million. The first two were built under Chinese supervision on the Crimea Peninsula, while the second pair are being built under license in China.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: Russia 'stole' Chinese Zubr contract from Ukraine

An agreement is thought to have been reached between Russia and China under which the former will construct Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft (LCAC) in China. This much is assumed from a piece entitled "Russia Steals an International Defense Contract from Ukraine" on Russian online news site Vzglyad.

The contract was originally signed by China and Ukraine. The ships were to be constructed at Feodosiya Shipyard in Ukraine under an agreement with the state-owned Ukrainian Defense Industry, according to a Russian shipbuilding industry source cited in the article. Now, it seems, Russia's state-run Rosoboronexport will be responsible for the project.

Ukraine does not have exclusive rights to build and sell the air-cushioned craft, as the technology belongs to Russia, according to the online paper. In order to prevent protests from Russia, Ukraine made slight adjustments to the landing craft and renamed it the Project 958 Zubr LCAC from its previous designation of Project 1232.2. Under the terms of the contract, last spring Ukraine delivered two of the craft to China.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: China refuses to pay remaining US$14mn to Ukraine for landing craft

After the Russian annexation of Crimea, China decided to pay the remaining US$14 million for the purchase of Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft to Crimea's Feodosia Shipbuilding Company and Fiolent plant instead of the central government of Ukraine, according to the Canada-based Kanwa Defense Review.

The contract, worth US$315 million, was signed by China and Ukraine back in 2009 for Kiev to provide four Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft to Beijing. Under this contract, Feodosia Shipbuilding Company and Fiolent Plant were responsible for building two of the craft while the remaining vessels would be built in China. After the delivery of the first landing craft built in Ukraine in April 2013, China still owed US$14 million to Kiev for the second vessel constructed in Crimea.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: Has China already commissioned Zubr landing craft fleet?

A Zubr landing craft (Image: Wiki Commons)

Among photographs of various ships being built in Chinese shipyards that have recently surfaced online, two hovercrafts resembling the Ukrainian Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft appear. One of them sports the serial number 3352, a number that would only be stamped once the craft has been commissioned, reports China's Global Times.

China has a vast eastern coastline and is engaged in several disputes with neighboring countries over islands and reefs in the South and East China seas. The potential addition of the Zubr landing craft to its fleet has naturally attracted a lot of attention.

With the end of the basic construction of China's first home-built Zubr and the arrival of the second imported Zubr, a fleet is already in its infancy, said the report. When China completes the full fleet of four, it will allow the PLA's marine corps to transport supplies and replacement troops to island garrisons, as well as provide them with military support.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: USMC Cannot Meet All Its Amphibious Needs, Top Marine Says

Gen Jim Amos (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

By JAMES K. SANBORN 

The US Marine Corps cannot meet its amphibious assault needs with its current stable of ship-to-shore connectors, according to Commandant Gen. Jim Amos in a recent article he penned for the June edition of Proceedings Magazine.

Amos says the service must explore future options, despite austere budgets and cautions against letting the service’s amphibious capability atrophy further.

“Simply put, our current and proposed surface-connector inventory does not meet the current or future requirements and ability to maneuver from increased range beyond the threat,” Amos writes.

To fill the gap in ship-to-shore capabilities Amos proposes revising current programs like the Joint High Speed Vessel by modifying them to have ramps that can launch amphibious vehicles.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Chinese Navy (PLAN) conducts amphibious drills on Paracel Islands

Type 071 Yuzhao class LPD (File Photo)

A PLAN flotilla centered around a Type 071 LPD (Yuzhao-class Landing Platform Dock) has completed a two-day amphibious drill off the Paracel Islands (also called Xisha Islands in Chinese and Hoàng Sa Islands in Vietnamese) on Wednesday. The flotilla undertook a "three-dimensional" patrol of several islets, using surface vessels, Type 726 LCAC (Yuyi class) and Z-8 helicopters.

Marines with the flotilla conducted a 20-minute landing training on Wednesday. The training "attained its anticipated objectives", according to Hu Dehai, a deputy brigade commander.

Commander of the Nanhai Fleet Jiang Weilie, who also serves as the flotilla's commander, landed on the islands to greet the garrison troops.

The patrol and landing operations fall within the flotilla's annual schedule that include combat drills in the South China Sea, the West Pacific Ocean and the east Indian Ocean.

Read the full story at Navy Recognition

News Story: Can China reclaim Diaoyutai with Zubr-class landing craft?

Zubr class Landing Hover Craft (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

Wendell Minnick discussed in a recent article written for the Virginia-based Defense News whether China can achieve its ambition to "reclaim" territories in the East and South China seas with the Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft introduced from Ukraine in the next 40 years.

The Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po, a pro-Beijing newspaper, indicated in July that China plans to take over the Diaoyutai or Diaoyu islands — administered by Japan as the Senkaku and also claimed by China and Taiwan — along with the Ryukyu island chain from Japan in the East China Sea as well as seizing the Spratly islands in the South China Sea within the next 30 to 40 years. For this reason, Western military experts have begun focusing on Chinese efforts to build a viable littoral capability.

In addition to the first two Zubr-class landing craft from the Ukrainian Feodosia Shipbuilding Company at a price of US$315 million received by the People's Liberation Army Navy last May, the contract also allows two other vessels to be built in China. The landing craft can transport three medium tanks, 10 armored personnel carriers or a landing force of 500 troops. It is the largest hovercraft ever built.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: China's Littoral Ambitions Go Air-Cushioned

Zubr class LCAC (Image: Wiki Commons)

By WENDELL MINNICK

TAIPEI — China will retake the Diaoyu Islands along with the Ryukyu island chain from Japan in the East China Sea and seize the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea within the next 30 to 40 years, according to an editorial published in July by the Chinese-language Wen Wei Po newspaper.

“Six Wars China is Sure to Fight in the Next 50 Years” suggests China fight a war with Vietnam over the South China Sea, place troops on the Spratly Islands and build ports, and intimidate others who “dare to challenge Chinese domination.”

The war over territories in the East China Sea would be more difficult against Japan’s advanced military, but “payback” is necessary for what the editorial calls Japan’s illegal occupation of the islands. The result of China’s victory would turn the East China Sea into an “inner lake of China,” according to the editorial.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: LPDs Lead India's Push To Boost Sealift, Amphibious Capabilities

INS Jalashwa (Image: Wiki Commons)

By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI

NEW DELHI — The Indian Navy’s plans to add four landing platform docks (LPDs) underscore its long-term goal to boost lift capabilities throughout the vast Indian Ocean territory.

These vessels, at a cost of more than $3 billion, will join the US-built Jalashwa, acquired in 2008. In addition to the Jalashwa, the Navy has five landing ship tanks.

“The Indian Navy is in dire need of modernizing its amphibious capacity and enhancing its sealift capability,” said Probal Ghosh, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, based here. “Given its large island assets and the fact that India is emerging as a security provider and guarantor in the Indian Ocean region [which has many island nations], the need of amphibious assets cannot be understated. The addition of four LPDs is hence an instrument in the fulfillment of India’s growing strategic role.”

Defense analyst Anil Jai Singh said the Navy’s lift requirement would be about a brigade (3,000 troops), which should be adequately addressed with the induction of four LPDs. But a follow-on program would need to be initiated soon after to maintain that capability.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Zubr class amphibious hovercraft will allow Chinese Navy (PLAN) to quickly access Senkaku Islands

Zubr class Hovercraft (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

According to a report broadcast by Shenzhen Television, The new Zubr class amphibious hovercraft recently aquired and built by China will allow the PLAN to quikcly deploy troops to the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea as well as the Spratly islands and Taiwan itself.

The Senkaku Islands, also known as the Diaoyu, Diaoyutai or Pinnacle Islands are a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea. The islands are a contentious issue in the foreign relations between Japan and the PRC and between Japan and Taiwan.

According the television report, setting off from the closest naval facilities in eastern China, the Zubr-class could reach the Senkaku Islands in just three hours.

Read the full story at Navy Recognition

Editorial: South Korea Hones Its Amphibious Assault Capabilities

US Marines come ashore during a training exercise (File Photo)

By Ankit Panda

According to Yonhap News, the South Korean military launched a major military drill on Wednesday morning incorporating “more than 1,900 marines, 10 ships and craft of the Navy, Army, and Air Force." The objective of the drill was practice readiness and enhance capabilities for beach landings and assaults. South Korea regularly conducts such exercises to deter North Korean threats and provocations.

North Korea carries out similar amphibious landing exercises – a tactic it is expected to employ in any future conflict with South Korea. North Korea supposedly possesses a sizable hovercraft fleet that it is expected to use in such an operation (even though it was caught doctoring images earlier this year to make its fleet appear larger). Kim Jong-Un has personally taken great interest in amphibious landings, highlighting their potential for use against the United States in Guam or Hawaii, according to North Korean media

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Osprey vs. Bison in the East China Sea

Richard D. Fisher, Jr

China, Japan and the U.S. are ramping up their ability to deploy to disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Stability in the region between Taiwan and Japan, and the security of Taiwan, hinges on an arms race that will soon be accompanying the heightened paramilitary engagements between Japanese, Chinese and, occasionally, Taiwanese Coast Guard ships over who will control the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea.

For now this contest for control is confined to shoving matches largely between Chinese and Japanese Coast Guard ships, which take several days to deploy. However, China is now developing the means to project decisive force to these islands in hours, not days. Should China gain the upper hand in this arms race there is a greater chance it will use force to occupy the islands and then set its sights on the strategically more attractive nearby Sakashima island group.

For now, though, the upper hand is held by the United States, which has just completed the initial deployment of 24 U.S. Marine Corps Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey conventional, or twin tilt rotor aircraft, to Futenma Base in Okinawa. This unique aircraft, by virtue of its twisting rotors and engines at the ends of its wing, can take off like a helicopter, and then cruise at about 280 miles per hour, carrying up to 24 troops or about six tons of cargo to a range sufficient to reach the disputed islands. In a full-out surge, the 24 MV-22Bs at Futenma could potentially put about 500 troops or about 140 tons of weapons and material on the Senkakus or the Sakashimas in about one hour.

Read the full 2 page story at The Diplomat