Rentaka - Rentaka Defence Portal

Warplanes: Chinese Engines Travel A Trail Of Tears

16/9/2014

Chinese made WS-10 engines are suppose to replace the Russian AL-31FN engines in powering China's front line fighters. ( Photo: Indian Defence Forum)

By: Strategypage (www.strategypage.com)

China continues to have problems with its locally produced military jet engines. The biggest problems are with the WS-10 series, which was designed and produced in China and the government has been pressuring the aircraft manufacturers to use Chinese made engines like this instead of Russian imports. This has not been working out as the government wants. For example, the new Chinese carrier fighter, the J-15, is supposed to have a more powerful Chinese made engine so that it can carry more weight using the ski jump deck on the new Chinese carrier. The ski jump is a cheaper and less complex take off alternative to the steam catapult. One disadvantage of the ski jump deck is that it cannot launch aircraft as heavy as a catapult can.

Fishing Vessels in China Serve as Proxy Enforcers

18/8/2014

By: Wendell Minnick (www.defensenews.com)

China’s use of swarming tactics with fishing vessels to project and protect Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea appears unstoppable, experts say.

EU FIRMS HELPS POWER CHINA'S MILITARY RISE

4/5/2014

Z-8 is PLAN's land or ship based ASW/SAR helicopter. It is a licensed manufactured version of French's Super Frelon. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

By: AFP (www.afp.org)

As China boosts its military spending, rattling neighbors over territorial disputes at sea, an AFP investigation shows that European countries have approved billions in transfers of weapons and military-ready technology to the Asian giant.

Search reveals military vulnerability for China

22/4/2014

Chinese naval supply vessel Qiandaohu. (Photo: chinadaily.com.cn)

By: Reuters (www,reuters.com)

When Chinese naval supply vessel Qiandaohu entered Australia's Albany Port this month to replenish Chinese warships helping search for a missing Malaysian airliner, it highlighted a strategic headache for Beijing - its lack of offshore bases and friendly ports to call on.China's deployment for the search - 18 warships, smaller coastguard vessels, a civilian cargo ship and an Antarctic icebreaker - has stretched the supply lines and logistics of its rapidly expanding navy, Chinese analysts and regional military attaches say.

How U.S. Military Power Benefits China

13/3/2014

AEGIS equipped US Navy cruisers and destroyers are one of the most capable ships in the world. (Photo: US Navy)

By: Stephen Ellis (www.thediplomat.com)

Often overlooked in the debates about the possibility of a future struggle between the United States and China in East Asia is the fact that the current U.S. military presence in the region actually serves and supports a number of critical Chinese strategic interests. Beijing actually benefits in a number of ways from U.S. power, suggesting that the contention that China is ultimately seeking to push the United States militarily out of the region may not be as clear cut as is often assumed and asserted.

Malaysian and international armed forces fleet involved with the sar operation of mas mh370 #pray4mh370

9/3/2014

Budget plan: Pentagon panics over possibly losing tech edge to Russia, China

6/3/2014

By: Editor (www.defencetalk.com)

The Pentagon is in fear of losing its edge in technology it has held onto for so long and is now factoring this important aspect into its budget. Worry over significant cuts in defense spending might wear down the US military, making its technological edge over Russia and China a fact of the past.

'Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick’: What is Malaysia Playing At?

3/3/2014

By: Carl Thayer (www.thediplomat.com)

For the past two years China has dispatched a flotilla of People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships to the farthest reaches of the South China Sea to assert Beijing’s claim to “indisputable sovereignty” over the waters and features lying within its nine-dashed line. Beijing’s ambitious claim covers an estimated eighty percent of the South China Sea.

On each occasion PLAN warships sailed to James Shoal, or Beting Serupai in Malay, eighty kilometers off the coast of East Malaysia. According to Bill Hayton, who is completing a book on the South China Sea, China’s claim is based on a double historical error.

Insight - China's assertiveness hardens Malaysian stance in sea dispute

26/2/2014

Chinese sailors stand at attention as the Chinese frigate Yancheng comes in to dock at Limassol port in Cyprus in this January 4, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Andreas Manolis/Files

By Stuart Grudgings (http://uk.reuters.com)

(Reuters) - The submerged reef would be easy to miss, under turquoise seas about 80 km (50 miles) off Malaysia's Borneo island state of Sarawak.

But two Chinese naval exercises in less than a year around the James Shoal have shocked Malaysia and led to a significant shift in its approach to China's claims to the disputed South China Sea, senior diplomats told Reuters. The reef lies outside Malaysia's territorial waters but inside its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.

Philippines Says China Fired Water Cannon at Disputed Shoal

25/2/2014

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Emmanuel Bautista, left, talks during the Feb. 24 Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) annual prospects forum as he sits beside US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg in Manila. The Philippines' military chief on Monday accused China's coast guard of firing water cannon at Filipino fishermen to drive them away from a disputed sea shoal. (Noel Celis / Getty Images)

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE (http://www.defensenews.com)

MANILA — The Philippines’ military chief on Monday accused China’s coast guard of firing water cannon at Filipino fishermen for the first time to drive them away from a disputed sea shoal.

Gen. Emmanuel Bautista said Chinese vessels fired cannon on Jan. 27 near Scarborough Shoal — the subject of a bitter territorial row in the strategically important South China Sea.

“The Chinese coast guard tried to drive away Filipino fishing vessels to the extent of using water cannon,” Bautista told a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

He did not say if anyone was hurt and added that China continues to maintain an armed coast guard and other vessels at the shoal.

RAAF scrambles plane to observe Chinese naval exercise

16/2/2014

By: David Wroe (www.smh.com.au)

Australia scrambled an air force surveillance plane earlier this month to monitor an unannounced Chinese military exercise that took the emerging superpower's ships closer to Australian territory than ever before.

In what observers say is a significant strategic development, China carried out combat simulations at the beginning of the month between Christmas Island and Indonesia in an apparent flexing of its growing naval muscle.

Arms Makers Try To Cash In As Asian Disputes Escalate

10/2/2014

RSAF Black Knights captivates audiences with their stunning moves (Photo: Ainonline/ Mark Wagner)

By: Agense France-Presse (www.afp.com)

Asia’s top aerospace and defense show opens Tuesday in Singapore, with major global arms makers seeking to cash in on rising military spending in China and elsewhere as territorial disputes escalate in the region.

Radars from Israel to boost Phl sea watch

5/2/2014

By: Alexis Romero

The Philippines will acquire three air search radars from Israel to boost its monitoring activities in the West Philippine Sea, where increasing Chinese military presence has been causing tension.

Malaysia to set up marine corps, naval base close to James shoal

27/1/2014

By: Dzirhan Mahadzir (www.janes.com)

Malaysia is to set up a marine corps and establish a naval base close to waters claimed by China, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said in a statement on 10 October.

According to the statement, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) base will be established at Bintulu on the South China Sea (SCS) to protect the surrounding area and oil reserves.

Malaysian sources deny PLAN drills around James Shoal

27/1/2014

By: Dzirhan Mahadzir (www.janes.com)

Malaysian military sources have said there is no basis to Chinese media claims that a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) task group conducted a patrol around the James Shoal region of Malaysia's Exclusive Economic Zone on 26 January.