Territorial disputes in the South China Sea have highlighted the ongoing tensions between China and countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, with the US also weighing in recently with its proposals for a bigger military presence in the region.

Both Vietnam and Malaysia are undergoing regional military build-ups, and the Philippines doubled its defence budget in 2011 after pledging to conduct joint military exercises with the US.

By: Craig Whitlock (www.washingtonpost.com)

More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a year-long Washington Post investigation.

Since the outbreak of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, military drones have malfunctioned in myriad ways, plummeting from the sky because of mechanical breakdowns, human error, bad weather and other reasons, according to more than 50,000 pages of accident investigation reports and other records obtained by The Post under the Freedom of Information Act.

By: Nick Brown (www.janes.com)


The new Land Rover-based surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems destined for Indonesia went on public display for the first time at the Defence Vehicle Dynamics (DVD 2014) exhibition at Millbrook Proving Ground on 25 June.

Indonesia ordered the Thales Starstreak SAMs as part of a wider ForceShield air defence package in January 2014 and is understood to have subsequently signed up to acquire Thales' Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) in mid-June. Both missiles share a similar physical footprint and are virtually identical from the warhead back, with exactly the same physical connector on their canisters to link into the pedestal mount, enabling the weapons to be carried in mixed loads.

Gambar daripada Mymil forum:
http://mymil.forums2u.com/t1000p300-mpsa-news-2#172201

Gambar dari Pusat Media PDRM

By Haris Hussain - 28 June 2014 (http://www.nst.com.my)

The Royal Malaysian Air Force and the United States Air Force engage in an air combat exercise called Cope Taufan. Haris Hussain joins the ‘furball’

“FIGHT’s on! Fight’s on!”

‘Mogwai’ immediately picks up his target off the port side. He’s chugging along at a fairly fast clip. Together, the closure speed of both aircraft is nudging north of 900 knots.

As the two fighters merge and pass within an eyelash of each other in a blur of black and grey, Mogwai doesn’t even have time to flinch as he rolls the jet, yanks the control stick back into his gut and reefs his big fighter into an eye-wateringly tight left turn.

G-forces rip into his body and Mogwai sucks in a lungful of oxygen as he cranes his neck to keep his adversary, a United States Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor, square in his sights.

He works the throttles and makes constant changes to the engine settings. His eyes are fixed on the target but one eyeball is cocked to the airspeed reading on his heads-up display (HUD). At this turn rate, he’s bleeding off airspeed and energy like they’re going out of style. Dogfighting is all about energy management.

The two jets are in a classic turning fight at 15,000 feet (4.57km) over the air combat range in Grik, Perak. Mogwai and ‘Smegs’, his weapons systems officer (whizzo in RMAF parlance), are flying the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s latest and most capable aircraft, the Sukhoi Su-30MKM Super Flanker multirole fighter.

Outside, the twin nozzles of their thrust-vectoring Lyulka AL-31FP engines crank up at a crazy angle and Mogwai begins to “walk up” the nose of his huge fighter onto the Raptor’s centre fuselage.

Up front, Mogwai eyeballs the Raptor, which is also blessed with thrust-vector control, but only in the pitch plane. The target designator box (TDB) on his HUD is locked onto the stealth fighter. The trick now is for Mogwai to bring the “pipper” or gunsight square inside the TDB before he can squeeze off a shot. In the back seat, Smegs provides a running commentary of the unfolding fight.

“Makan dia! Makan dia, beb! Lagi! Lagi! Lagi!” Smegs yells into the hot mike in his Ulmer oxygen mask. His job is that of part tactician, analysing the threat picture, part cheerleader, pushing his pilot on, and as an extra pair of eyes for Mogwai.

This particular evolution is a 1v1 (one-versus-one) engagement, which calls for the employment of short-range air-to-air missiles or guns. The Raptor is armed with the AIM-9M Sidewinder heat-homer and an internal, six-barrel, Gatling-type 20mm M-61A Vulcan cannon. The Super Flanker is carrying the super-agile Vympel R-73 Archer air-to-air missile and has the 30mm, single-barrel Gsh-301 cannon embedded in the starboard leading edge root extension (LERX).

Launching off from Fightertown RMAF Butterworth, this is the second engagement for the two fighters as part of the biggest air combat exercise in the country. Called Cope Taufan, the joint biennial exercise between the RMAF and the USAF is primarily to enhance bilateral training in a realistic environment, ramp up combined readiness, and improve interoperatability between the two fighting forces. In the first “hop” earlier, the advantage went to the Sukhoi boys. Because both aircraft were still hauling bags of gas, the exercise director gave the go-ahead for another fight.

Oleh: Arifin Asydhad (detik.com)

Modernisasi alutsista yang dilakukan Kementerian Pertahanan (Kemhan) Republik Indonesia tidak hanya dengan memesan tank Leopard, namun juga memesan produk-produk persenjataan canggih lainnya. Salah satunya adalah meriam Caesar 155, sebuah meriam berkaliber 155 mm yang memiliki daya tembak sejauh 39 KM. Meriam ini dibuat PT Nexter, sebuah perusahaan persenjataan di Roanne, Prancis. 

Rabu (25/6/2014) pukul 13.00 waktu Prancis, tiga buah truk bermesin 2.500 cc yang dilengkapi dengan meriam berukuran panjang dan besar itu sudah diparkir rapi di sebuah ruangan besar di pabrik Nexter untuk menyambut Wamenhan Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin dan delegasi. Ini merupakan tiga dari total 37 meriam Caesar 155 yang telah dipesan Indonesia pada 2013 lalu. 

By: Matikas Santos (inquirer.net)

China has published a new map of the entire country including the islands in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) in order to “better show” its territorial claim over the region.

The government-run Xinhua news agency of China published photos of the map made by Hunan Map Publishing House and said in the caption “Islands in South China Sea share the same scale with mainland and are better shown than traditional maps.”

TUDM telah melaksanakan latihan  Air Droppable Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (ADRHIB) di Perairan Tanjung Gelang, Kuantan. Latihan ini merupakan salah satu siri latihan dalam Eksesais Cope Taufan/Teak Mint yang sedang berlangsung.

By: Camille Diola (www.philstar.com)

Malaysia also has overlapping claims with China on several coastal territories in the South China Sea, but it has a "broad consensus" with the Asian power.

This is what the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed in its statement to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, answering queries on why Malaysia has been downplaying the sea row when its Southeast Asian neighbors like the Philippines and Vietnam have been outspoken against China's show of force in the maritime region.

Dalam memperkatakan tentang isu keselamatan dan pertahanan, tidak dapat tidak, kita sudah pastinya akan menyentuh berkenaan kelengkapan dan persenjataan. samada kita menyedarinya ataupun tidak, kedua- duanya adalah sangat berkait rapat dengan kejuruteraan dan bersifat teknikal. Untuk setidak- tidaknya membolehkan seseorang itu memahami apa yang diperkatakan tentang kelengkapan tentera atau sistem persenjataan, sedikit aspek teknikal haruslah difahami terlebih dahulu dan ilmu tersebut boleh didapati dengan mudah melalui pembacaan.

Oleh: Malik Saedon (rentaka.weebly.com)

Rata- rata ramai diantara rakyat Malaysia menyedari akan masalah pencerobohan pengganas daripada negara jiran. Masalah ni bukan saja memalukan negara tapi juga menjadikan ramai penduduk di negeri Sabah tidak begitu yakin akan jaminan keselamatan yang diberikan oleh pemimpin tertinggi negara. Bukan itu saja, malah industri pelancongan di Sabah turut sama menerima tempiasnya. 

Oleh: Markas Armada TLDM

Langkawi, 17 Jun – Op PATKOR MALINDO 124/14 telah berjaya dilaksanakan dengan kerjasama antara Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) dan Tentera Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Laut (TNI-AL). Op PATKOR MALINDO adalah operasi bersama rondaan di laut di antara kedua-dua buah negara. Op PATKOR MALINDO yang bertujuan meningkatkan kerjasama dan kemuafakatan antara TLDM dan TNI-AL dilaksanakan 4 kali setahun dan siri pada kali ini adalah siri kedua untuk  tahun 2014 telah disertai oleh KD HANDALAN dan KD GANYANG mewakili TLDM manakala KRI ALAMANG dan KRI SIRIBUA mewakili TNI-AL.