News Report: China's Aircraft Carrier Returns from South China Sea Mission

China's first aircraft carrier has returned to its home port after a series of training exercises in the South China Sea.

It was the Liaoning's first long-distance training mission since being commissioned last year, raising concerns in the West and several nations with territorial spats with the country about China's growing naval power.

The official Xinhua news agency said the refurbished Soviet carrier "underwent a comprehensive test of its combat system and conducted a formation practice."

Xinhua quoted unnamed naval sources as saying the 37-day trip "attained the anticipated objectives," and that all tests "went well as scheduled."

Zhang Zheng, the Liaoning's captain, reported that the mission went smoothly.

News story: First Type 636 diesel submarine (SSK) ordered by Vietnam arrived at Cam Ranh base

The first of six diesel-electric submarines (SSK) of Project 636 (Kilo/Varshavyanka class), built at Admiralty Shipyards (United Shipbuilding Corporation), was delivered at Cam Ranh Bay naval base, Vietnam. The submarine named "Hanoi" was transported with heavy lift vessel Rolldock Sea.

Contract to supply six submarines for Vietnam was signed in 2009 during the visit to Moscow of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Besides the construction of submarines contract provides training Vietnamese crews, as well as the delivery of necessary equipment and technical equipment.

Crews for the submarines will be trained in India.

According to Rosoboronexport, Project 636 proved highly effective while operated by naval forces of several countries.

Read the full story at Navy Recognition

News Story: India Opts Not to Blacklist AgustaWestland

By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI

NEW DELHI — The Indian Defence Ministry will not blacklist AgustaWestland or parent company Finmeccanica, restricting its action only to canceling the €556 million (US $766 million) contract for 12 VVIP helicopters to India, MoD sources said.

The decision not to blacklist AgustaWestland allows it to remain in two Indian competitions, added one of the sources.

AgustaWestland is competing to supply 56 naval utility helicopters to the Indian Navy and 14 twin-engine helicopters to the Indian Coast Guard.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News story: (Philippines) DND may spend P4.5 B for fighter jet munitions

By Alexis Romero

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense is planning to spend about P4.5 billion to arm the 12 lead-in fighter trainer jets it is seeking to acquire from South Korea.

Defense department data show that the munitions for the fighter jets are not included in the aircraft acquisition program under the revised Armed Forces modernization law.

The acquisition of munitions for the fighter jets will be divided into four phases – P4.33 billion for the first two and P139 million for the other two.

Details of the items to be installed in the jets were not immediately available. Previous reports, however, said the aircraft being eyed can be armed with precision guided bombs and air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.

Read the full story at The Philippine Star

Editorial: Rhyme and Reason - Why 2014 Doesn’t Have to be 1914

<< British Vickers machine gun crew during the Battle of Menin Road Ridge, World War I (Image: Wiki Commons)

By Mira Rapp-Hooper

Margaret Macmillan recently warned there are dangerous parallels between the year WWI broke out and today.

In a recent Brookings Institution essay entitled “The Rhyme of History: Lessons of the Great War,” historian Margaret Macmillan argues that there are strong and haunting parallels between today’s geopolitical landscape and Europe of 1914. Pivoting off the well-know Mark Twain adage that history does not repeat itself, but does rhyme, Macmillan suggests that the one-hundredth anniversary of World War I encourages us to reflect on the “valuable warnings” of the past. The actual and potential conflicts in the year ahead are many, and some of the same structural forces that lead to the Great War a century ago will be prevalent in 2014.

Macmillan is an eminent historian (her book, Paris 1919 is a must-read), but analogies between 1914 Europe and the world today should not be drawn hastily. World War I continues to preoccupy scholars and pundits alike, in part because it was so destructive, and in part because there is still no consensus on why exactly it occurred. With the centennial of the conflict approaching, we can expect to see 1914 references made a great deal — particularly with respect to the power transition that is currently in progress in the Pacific —  but we should remain duly skeptical of this tempting parallel. Many of the conditions that were present in antebellum Europe do indeed prevail today.  Whether these forces actually raise the risk of war is far from established, however, and the expectation that they do may itself increase the chance of conflict.

In her Brookings essay, Macmillan identifies several conditions that were present in Europe before the Great War that, she argues, also raise the risk of conflict today.  The first of these conditions is globalization and its unintended consequences. In both 1914 and at present, there existed the common assumption that the world was becoming too interconnected to resort to war — conflict would be prohibitively costly. But, Macmillan points out, a hundred years ago as now, those who preached interdependence often ignored the fact that globalization can lead to job loss, foster intense localism and nativism, and provide a breeding ground for radical ideologies and movements (including those that employ terrorism). Globalization, Macmillan warns us, can also heighten interstate rivalries. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: UAVs and the F-35 - Partners in Air Power?

By Robert Farley

What role will drones play in planning for high intensity war in the Pacific? A recent report from the USNI indicates that the Navy is planning to use the UCLASS UAV, an F-14-sized piece of equipment with some stealth characteristics, as a potential missile truck.  Although knowledge that drones had a role to play in air superiority had become more or less widespread within the national security community, this is one of the best descriptions of how, specifically, the Navy envisions integrating its drones into its air defense system.

The question of how UAVs will contribute to air superiority goes to the core of the utility not just of the UCLASS, but also of the F-35C. If we envision the JSF as the centerpiece of a networked system-of-systems that includes subsurface, surface, and unmanned aerial assets, part of a chain of capabilities between see-er and shooter, it begins to look like a much more formidable weapon, its drawbacks as a fighter notwithstanding.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Why China Can’t Rise Quietly

By James R. Holmes

China wants to achieve its goals short of war while reaping the propaganda harvest it would get from war.

There’s a hidden dialogue between Clausewitz and Sun Tzu that may help clarify the lordly attitude China takes in quarrels with Asian neighbors that defy its will. It’s all about the narrative spun for target audiences, the Chinese populace most of all. Think about it. Negotiating with ‘furriners’ entails more tedium than glory. Diplomacy is dull and drawn-out and produces gradual, amorphous results. It fires few passions among those who matter. Combat is brief and exciting and, when done right, yields immediate, concrete results. It’s a focal point for national pride. China thus appears conflicted. It wants to achieve its goals short of war while reaping the propaganda harvest it would get from war.

It’s not enough, then, for Beijing to get its way quietly in international controversies. It wants to be seen compelling others to do its bidding. For dramatic value, that’s the best substitute for victory.

It’s also a slipshod way to get to yes. Going out of your way to embarrass others is bass-ackwards from normal diplomatic practice, where the Golden Rule is never to humiliate your opposite number. Corollaries include keeping things private and non-confrontational. Following these rules, though, demands a modicum of empathy. CCP leaders either don’t grasp, or don’t care, that putting foreign officials on the spot before their constituents is a tactic sure to backfire. Unfortunately, Professor Zod seems to have been teaching Negotiations 101 when Xi Jinping & Co. took the class. Neither empathy nor tact are hallmarks of Chinese foreign relations. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: India Scraps AgustaWestland Helo Deal Over Bribe Claims

NEW DELHI — India on Wednesday canceled a €556 million ($753 million) contract with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland to buy luxury helicopters for VIPs amid bribery allegations.

The deal signed in February 2010 was scrapped after Defence Minister A. K. Antony held a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose Congress-led government has been buffeted by a string of corruption scandals.

A defense ministry statement said the government “terminated with immediate effect the agreement” with AgustaWestland International Ltd (AWIL) to supply 12 helicopters “on grounds of breach of a pre-contract integrity pact and the agreement by AWIL.”

India suspended the deal in 2013 after Italian investigators began looking into accusations that AgustaWestland paid bribes to win the contract.

The Italian boss of AgustaWestland’s parent company Finmeccanica was arrested last February over the case — touching off a firestorm in India.

The latest move by the Indian defense ministry is seen as a government attempt to contain the fallout from the corruption scandal before elections due by May.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: India Awards $1B Contract for 6 More C-130Js

By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI

NEW DELHI — Top brass in the Indian Army and Air Force expressed shock over the Defence Ministry’s decision to award a $1 billion repeat contract on Dec. 27 for six additional C-130J Hercules transport aircraft, saying the military has many more pressing purchases to tackle.

“Our top priority is [to] have fighters as soon as possible, but we are surprised by the MoD move on why the government is not signing the $12 billion Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft [contract with Dassault of France] and instead is buying transport aircraft for us,” a senior Air Force official said.

An Army official pointed out that the service has no combat-worthy artillery systems and that it was hoping the MoD would finalize a deal for 145 ultra-light howitzers from the US. He added that more than $40 billion in Army procurement is in the pipeline but no significant purchased are being made.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

Editorial: Afghanistan-Pakistan - The Covert War

By Umar Farooq

With the impending drawdown of U.S. forces, a largely overlooked conflict has the potential to explode.

When American special forces plucked the second in command of the Pakistani Taliban from the hands of Afghan officials this October, they laid bare the extent of a largely covert war between Afghanistan and Pakistan that has been going on for several years. With a drawdown – perhaps even to zero – of U.S. troops from Afghanistan next year, the secret war might just become an open one.

The capture of Latif Mehsud proved to be an embarrassment for the Afghans, and a vindication for Pakistan, which has long complained that the Pakistani Taliban – called the Tehrik -e-Taliban (TTP) – receives support from Karzai’s government. Afghanistan and the United States, for their part, have laid the blame for a 12-year insurgency at Pakistan’s feet, saying its intelligence agencies support the most effective insurgency group, led by Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Latif Mehsud was a close confidant of Qari Hussain, who was one of the candidates to take over the TTP after the killing of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, by an American drone strike in 2009. When Hussain was similarly eliminated in October 2010, Latif took over as the TTP’s second in command, operating under its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud. (The two Mehsuds are from the same tribe, but not closely related.) Latif’s capture provided the intelligence the U.S. needed to kill Hakimullah, in a drone strike just a few weeks later.

Latif spent much of his time since 2010 between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it is believed he was a conduit for funding to the TTP. It now appears some of that funding might have come from Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS). 

Read the full story at The Diplomat