News Story: China, Russia vow to enhance military ties

Top Chinese and Russian military officers pledged to further enhance military ties on Wednesday.

Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, told Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, the development of relations between the two countries and the two armed forces have maintained good momentum in recent years.

The two sides conducted fruitful cooperation in areas of high-level exchanges, strategic consultation, joint military exercises and others, said Fan.

China is willing to work with Russia to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of states, continue to enhance mutual support and coordination, expand depth and width of cooperation so as to jointly safeguard regional stability and world peace and development, said Fan.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: Taiwan urges caution as Chinese planes intrude on ADIZ

Taiwan urged China to refrain from doing anything that could increase the risk of conflict across the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, two days after Taiwan scrambled fighter jets to monitor Chinese aircraft intruding into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

Defense authorities disclosed Tuesday that Chinese surveillance aircraft intruded into Taiwan's ADIZ four times on the previous day and were intercepted by Taiwanese fighters each time to escort them out of the zone.

Maintaining peace across the strait and in the region is a common duty of Taiwan and China, said the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the Cabinet agency in charge of China affairs.

The MAC called on China not to take any steps that might escalate tension across the strait and affect the hard-built mutual trust between the two sides.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: Lineup of 36 aircraft on China's Liaoning carrier revealed

Z-18F anti-submarine warfare helicopter

China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, can carry four Z-18J airborne early warning (AEW) helicopters, six Z-18F anti-submarine helicopters, two Z-9C rescue helicopters, and 24 J-15 shipborne fighter jets, the Chinese-language Shanghai Morning Post reported on Aug. 28.

Cao Dongwei, senior colonel and researcher at the People's Liberation Army Naval Research Institute, said the aircraft carrier could gain the upper hand in any potential battle for air or sea supremacy. The lineup may differ for various missions, however. The full lineup of 36 aircraft shows that the "PLA Navy's era of aircraft" has arrived, the report said.

On the tail of the Z-18F helicopter is the image of a sea eagle sprawling its talons, which suggests that the aircraft's mission is to seek out and attack enemy submarines, according to the paper. Cao said it is common practice to mark aircraft with physically tough and fierce animals to "show the spirit of bravery of the pilot and the craft itself."

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: Australia signals readiness to help U.S. in Iraq air strikes

RAAF F/A-18F Super Hornet (File Photo)

Australia has signaled willingness to contribute its Super Hornet fighter jets to U.S.- led air strikes in Iraq, with the defense force "at a high state of readiness." Defense Minister David Johnston outlined the position on Wednesday night, saying Australia was ready to assist the U.S. with further airstrikes targeting ISIS terrorists in Iraq.

Johnston said the Australian defense force had started to develop its readiness after the emergence of "beheadings, mass executions, genocidal villages wiped out, ethnic cleansing."

He said the U.S. was already carrying out air strikes in Iraq with the purpose of "preserving civilian lives."

"Now, if this situation continues, I think it's incumbent upon nations that have a strong, clear and understandable reputation and sense of right and wrong to do the right thing here and assist a stable Iraqi government if we can get one to defend itself and to retake and assert some reasonable level of legitimate control over these villages," he said.

Read the full story at Army Recognition

News Story: Russia to supply India with Beriev A-50 AEW aircraft

Russia and India plan on signing a contract to supply India with A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft, Beriev Aircraft Company General Director-General Designer Igor Garivadsky told journalists Tuesday, 26 August.

“We plan on signing a deal with the Republic of India to deliver the A-50 aircraft,” Garivadsky said. 

The A-50 aircraft are intended to detect, track and determine the origin of air and surface targets, as well as conduct surveillance, command, control and communications functions for command posts of automatic control systems, and give guidance in hitting air and surface targets.

Read the full story at Air Recognition

News Story: Japanese Defense Ministry Requests 2.4% Budget Hike

Kawasaki P-1 (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

By PAUL KALLENDER-UMEZU

TOKYO — Japan’s Ministry of Defense has requested a budget increase of 2.4 percent in 2015 for a total budget of ¥4.9 trillion ($47.25 billion), returning the budget to its 1990s peak levels and solidifying a reversal from a decade of declines during the 2000s.

Citing the need to counter growing instability in East Asia, the MoD said its most pressing need is to improve its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), particularly regarding maritime and ballistic missile threats, and to deter potential aggression to the nation’s far-flung southern island chain.

Accordingly, among its biggest items, the MoD is requesting ¥378.1 billion to deploy 20 of the PC-3 replacement Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft in groups of five between 2018 and 2021. The second big-ticket item is two new Atago-class Aegis destroyers, with the MoD expanding Japan’s Aegis fleet to eight ships by the end of fiscal 2020.

The third is a request for ¥131.5 billion for six F-35A joint strike fighters for the air self-defense forces, up from the four requested for the current year.

The Japanese fiscal year runs April through March. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: India-Japan Talks To Focus on Strategic Ties, Possible Aircraft Deal

ShinMaywa US-2 (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI

NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to Japan will include talks on possible joint production of amphibious aircraft and other matters related to strategic and defense ties between the two countries.

Modi, who leads a new government here, personally extended his stay in Japan from a planned four days to five, beginning Aug. 30. He will be accompanied by a 20 high-ranking officials of all Indian industry, signaling the importance the new government places on ties with Japan, a source in India’s External Affairs Ministry said.

India and Japan propose to begin an early resumption of trilateral strategic talks with the US, the source added. Tokyo has been cautious toward a proposal, first mooted in 2009, to begin the trilateral talks, fearing they could upset Beijing, the External Affairs Ministry source said.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: China Defense Ministry Tells US To Stop 'Close-in' Surveillance

By Kelly OLSEN

<< This image of the Chinese J-11B fighter was taken from a US P-8A Poseidon aircraft over the South China Sea on Aug. 19. / US Defense Department 

BEIJING — China's military on Thursday told the United States to end air and naval surveillance near its borders, saying it was damaging relations between the Pacific powers and could lead to "undesirable accidents."

The US should "take concrete measures to decrease close-in reconnaissance activities against China towards a complete stop," defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said at a monthly briefing.

Yang's comments came with Beijing and Washington at odds over an incident last week in the skies 220 kilometers (135 miles) off China's Hainan island.

The US said that an armed Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US military aircraft, while China countered in a ministry statement carried on state media that the allegations were "totally groundless".

Read the full story at DefenseNews

Editorial: Is North Korea’s Summer of Hostility Winding Down?

By Clint Richards

As joint US-ROK military drills close, now is the time to gauge Pyongyang’s appetite for dialogue.

North Korea, isolated from even its traditional allies like China for most of this year, appears to be making another periodic or cyclical turn toward opening up to its neighbors, as more signs of economic problems and food shortages emerge. Importantly, its neighbors and other interested regional powers are showing an interest in facilitating such an opening. Whether the nascent overtures will turn into something more substantial is a matter of speculation at this point, but it is worth looking at what has happened so far in order to measure those prospects.

Last Friday a North Korean official made furtive statements to a South Korean politician that Seoul has taken to mean Pyongyang is interested renewed dialogue. The North Korean official said Seoul should implement their past agreements, and remember that South Korea had said it “would discuss any issues arising between the two Koreas.” Another South Korean official said Pyongyang is interested in the removal of economic sanctions, and that “it [North Korea] will respond in some form once the ongoing joint exercises come to an end.”

Concerning those ongoing joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea, codenamed Ulchi Freedom Guardian, the Combined Forces Command (CFC) said it had completed its drills ahead of schedule this year. Sources who spoke with Yonhap News said the early finish may have been intended to reduce tension with North Korea that had flared before the drills started, just as Seoul had proposed high-level talks. While the lack of an official reason for the early finish leaves its relation to North Korea ambiguous, it allows the North to infer what it likes, and perhaps use it as domestic justification for later cross-border talks. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Afghanistan and Pakistan Crises Throw US Planning Into Flux

By Ankit Panda

U.S. foreign policy will need to react flexibly and creatively to possible outcomes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

As the United States’ planned deadline for withdrawal from Afghanistan fast approaches, the situation on both sides of the Durand line is far from optimal. In Kabul, presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah just boycotted the hard-brokered power-sharing deal and audit that temporarily defused a broader crisis over the future of Afghanistan’s democracy. In Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif’s democratically elected government is under siege from Imran Khan and his supporters. For the United States, everything is not going to plan in the perpetually troublesome “Af-Pak” region.

In Washington’s ideal scenario, Afghanistan’s presidential palace would have had a new occupant by this time, who’d have been settled in and acclimated to the demands of running Afghanistan. This person would have presumably signed the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), thereby eliminating a great deal of ambiguity about the United States’ future role in Afghanistan (both candidates in the run-off, Ghani and Abdullah, have said that they would sign the BSA if elected). With Pakistan, Washington has gotten somewhat used to never having an ideal state of affairs, but it at least expected Nawaz Sharif’s government to maintain order and rein in the military. Neither has proven true. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat