Thatz exactly why i mentioned we need to curb this growth at some point but it cant be done in the Chinese way.
China Military News & Updates
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Joint STARS surveillance radar systems to be demonstrated by Northrop Grumman
HANSCOM AFB, Mass., 9 Aug. 2009. Radar systems designers at the Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems Western Region in El Segundo, Calif., will provide radar technology demonstration equipment for an upgraded Joint STARS surveillance radar under terms of a $27.2 million contract awarded Friday.
The Joint STARS airborne radar is a side-looking military radar system and radar processing subsystems designed to detect and track targets on the ground, such as columns of military vehicles. Joint STARS stands for Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.
Northrop Grumman engineers will provide a demonstration unit of the initial radar signal processing and other parts of the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program MP-RTIP for the Joint Stars E-8 airborne radar surveillance aircraft, which is a converted Boeing 707 jetliner.
Awarding the contract were officials of the U.S. Air Force Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft Program Office at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
MP-RTIP program seeks to develop three sizes of a common modular, scalable radar, in three sizes: a large, wide area surveillance version for the Joint STARS aircraft, a medium-size version for NATO, and a small version for the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.
The program is to use scalable Active Electrically Scanned Array or AESA radar technology modules for manufacturing radar antennas and radar systems of different sizes.
MP-RTIP is a high-resolution synthetic-aperture ground surveillance radar for an upgraded E-8 Joint STARS aircraft that eventually will be applied to a new manned wide-area surveillance (WAS) aircraft, which is to be a converted Boeing 767 jetliner.
The MP-RTIP's resolution reportedly has been improved to about one foot, from more than 12 to 14 feet in the Joint STARS radar. The system consists of the antenna, the radio frequency electronics, and the signal processor.
Joint STARS surveillance radar systems to be demonstrated by Northrop Grumman - Military & Aerospace Electronics
HANSCOM AFB, Mass., 9 Aug. 2009. Radar systems designers at the Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems Western Region in El Segundo, Calif., will provide radar technology demonstration equipment for an upgraded Joint STARS surveillance radar under terms of a $27.2 million contract awarded Friday.
The Joint STARS airborne radar is a side-looking military radar system and radar processing subsystems designed to detect and track targets on the ground, such as columns of military vehicles. Joint STARS stands for Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.
Northrop Grumman engineers will provide a demonstration unit of the initial radar signal processing and other parts of the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program MP-RTIP for the Joint Stars E-8 airborne radar surveillance aircraft, which is a converted Boeing 707 jetliner.
Awarding the contract were officials of the U.S. Air Force Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft Program Office at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
MP-RTIP program seeks to develop three sizes of a common modular, scalable radar, in three sizes: a large, wide area surveillance version for the Joint STARS aircraft, a medium-size version for NATO, and a small version for the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.
The program is to use scalable Active Electrically Scanned Array or AESA radar technology modules for manufacturing radar antennas and radar systems of different sizes.
MP-RTIP is a high-resolution synthetic-aperture ground surveillance radar for an upgraded E-8 Joint STARS aircraft that eventually will be applied to a new manned wide-area surveillance (WAS) aircraft, which is to be a converted Boeing 767 jetliner.
The MP-RTIP's resolution reportedly has been improved to about one foot, from more than 12 to 14 feet in the Joint STARS radar. The system consists of the antenna, the radio frequency electronics, and the signal processor.
Joint STARS surveillance radar systems to be demonstrated by Northrop Grumman - Military & Aerospace Electronics
masterofsea
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Yes,yankees stealed a continent from American Indians by decimatimg them to a tiny numbers and repackaged it as their own .
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yes, Chinese massacred people in Tibet and unlawfully took over their lands and exiled the rightful rulers of mainland china to Taiwan...I can keep going if you want.....
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Wants Unmanned Ground Vehicles
WASHINGTON - As pilotless U.S. drones do battle from the sky in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, a top U.S. Army officer is urging the military to step up the deployment of unmanned vehicles on the ground.
"It's all about saving lives," said Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the III Armored Corps and the holder of a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"There's got to be a sense of urgency," Lynch told delegates Aug. 11 at an exhibition here featuring manufacturers from around the world of unmanned ground, maritime, air and space systems.
While serving in Iraq, Lynch said he lost a total of 153 soldiers under his command, and "80 percent of those soldiers didn't have to die."
"I am so tired of going to demonstrations of technology," he said. "The technology is there. We've got to get past the demonstrations and into the field.
"If you're not fielding, you're failing," he said.
The U.S. military makes extensive use of unmanned drones against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq both for surveillance and launching missile strikes.
But ground operations are mostly limited to the use of small camera-equipped robots to detect improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
Lynch, who also commands Fort Hood, Texas, the largest U.S. military base, said aerial surveillance and weapons systems were useful but "the bad guys know that if the weather turns bad we can't see them from the air."
He said among the "immediate applications" for unmanned vehicles were route clearance, surveillance and in convoys.
"We're going to be fighting this war on terror for the next 10 years, and the enemy's weapon of choice is the IED," he said. "It is today and it will be in the future."
Lynch said unmanned vehicles exist that are "excellent at clearing routes," which can go from point A to point B and even detect and avoid obstacles.
"Let's get those kids out of the vehicles," he said.
The general said unmanned vehicles should also be deployed to carry out what he called "persistent stare."
"The bad guys in Iraq and Afghanistan, they've got their favorite places where they want to place their IEDs," he said.
When aerial surveillance is not available, "we watch those IED hotspots with human beings, which puts them at risk," he said.
Unmanned robots can "watch these IED hotspots for extended periods of time .... and kill those bad guys before they can plant the IEDs," he said.
Lynch said the technology exists to use unmanned vehicles in convoys, as lead or trailing vehicles, for example, cutting down on the number of drivers and the risks.
"We're losing so many soldiers in convoys it's an embarrassment," he said. "Why does every vehicle have to be occupied by a human being?"
He said an unmanned vehicle could also be used as a "robotic wingman" - a fighting platform which mirrors the actions of a manned vehicle.
Lynch invited participants in the exhibition, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), to attend a Sept. 1-3 "Robotics Rodeo" that he is holding at Fort Hood.
"Bring your systems to Fort Hood and allow the soldiers who just got back from combat to use them," he said. "They'll tell you 'This is going to work. I know that ain't going to work.' "
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Wants Unmanned Ground Vehicles - Defense News
WASHINGTON - As pilotless U.S. drones do battle from the sky in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, a top U.S. Army officer is urging the military to step up the deployment of unmanned vehicles on the ground.
"It's all about saving lives," said Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the III Armored Corps and the holder of a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"There's got to be a sense of urgency," Lynch told delegates Aug. 11 at an exhibition here featuring manufacturers from around the world of unmanned ground, maritime, air and space systems.
While serving in Iraq, Lynch said he lost a total of 153 soldiers under his command, and "80 percent of those soldiers didn't have to die."
"I am so tired of going to demonstrations of technology," he said. "The technology is there. We've got to get past the demonstrations and into the field.
"If you're not fielding, you're failing," he said.
The U.S. military makes extensive use of unmanned drones against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq both for surveillance and launching missile strikes.
But ground operations are mostly limited to the use of small camera-equipped robots to detect improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
Lynch, who also commands Fort Hood, Texas, the largest U.S. military base, said aerial surveillance and weapons systems were useful but "the bad guys know that if the weather turns bad we can't see them from the air."
He said among the "immediate applications" for unmanned vehicles were route clearance, surveillance and in convoys.
"We're going to be fighting this war on terror for the next 10 years, and the enemy's weapon of choice is the IED," he said. "It is today and it will be in the future."
Lynch said unmanned vehicles exist that are "excellent at clearing routes," which can go from point A to point B and even detect and avoid obstacles.
"Let's get those kids out of the vehicles," he said.
The general said unmanned vehicles should also be deployed to carry out what he called "persistent stare."
"The bad guys in Iraq and Afghanistan, they've got their favorite places where they want to place their IEDs," he said.
When aerial surveillance is not available, "we watch those IED hotspots with human beings, which puts them at risk," he said.
Unmanned robots can "watch these IED hotspots for extended periods of time .... and kill those bad guys before they can plant the IEDs," he said.
Lynch said the technology exists to use unmanned vehicles in convoys, as lead or trailing vehicles, for example, cutting down on the number of drivers and the risks.
"We're losing so many soldiers in convoys it's an embarrassment," he said. "Why does every vehicle have to be occupied by a human being?"
He said an unmanned vehicle could also be used as a "robotic wingman" - a fighting platform which mirrors the actions of a manned vehicle.
Lynch invited participants in the exhibition, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), to attend a Sept. 1-3 "Robotics Rodeo" that he is holding at Fort Hood.
"Bring your systems to Fort Hood and allow the soldiers who just got back from combat to use them," he said. "They'll tell you 'This is going to work. I know that ain't going to work.' "
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Wants Unmanned Ground Vehicles - Defense News
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China warns against missile defence systems
China's foreign minister warned on Wednesday that there was a "looming danger" of an arms race in outer space, as he urged countries not to deploy missile defence systems that could undermine global security.
"The practice of seeking absolute strategic advantage should be abandoned," Yang Jiechi told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
"Countries should neither develop missile defence systems that undermine global strategic security nor deploy weapons in outer space," he added.
US President Barack Obama has been reviewing a planned missile defence shield championed by his predecessor, which remains a major source of tension with Russia.
The Obama administration has not backed down from the shield, which would partly be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, but insists that is not directed against Russia.
Russia's air force commander said on Monday that Moscow was developing new missiles to counter space-based systems that could soon be deployed by the United States.
"Outer space is now facing the looming danger of weaponisation," said Yang.
"Credible and effective multilateral measures must be taken to forestall the weaponisation and arms race in outer space," he added, calling such steps of "high strategic significance."
Both Russia and China have proposed a new treaty banning the use of weapons in space, but the idea has been rejected by the United States.
Nonetheless, the issue is one of those up for international discussion under the Conference on Disarmament's recent landmark decision to revive talks after more than a decade of deadlock.
In a speech reaffirming China's commitment to international nuclear weapons safeguards and disarmament, Yang backed attempts to strengthen the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
"The international security situation is undergoing the most profound change since the end of the Cold War," Yang acknowledged. "Unprecedented opportunities now exist in international disarmament."
Yang reiterated China's insistance on a peaceful resolution of the nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran, and called on the IAEA to play a greater role in promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
That should include "the possibility of establishing a multilateral nuclear fuel supply mechanism," he added. Western countries have been sceptical of the idea proposed by Russia.
The Chinese foreign minister stopped short of signalling Beijing's swifter ratification of a ban on nuclear tests.
"The Chinese government is dedicated to promoting early ratification of the treaty and will continue to make active efforts toward this end," Yang said, pledging to work with the international community for "early entry into force."
Although China was amongst the first to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, it is one of nine nations that are preventing its entry into force because they have either not ratified or signed it.
The only other traditional nuclear power not to have ratified is the United States.
However, Obama announced in April that he wanted to press ahead with US ratification, reversing the stance of George W. Bush's administration.
The other outstanding ratifications are Egypt, Indonesia, Iran and Israel.
India, Pakistan, and North Korea have not signed the test ban treaty, which is regarded as a cornerstone of efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament.
AFP: China warns against missile defence systems
China's foreign minister warned on Wednesday that there was a "looming danger" of an arms race in outer space, as he urged countries not to deploy missile defence systems that could undermine global security.
"The practice of seeking absolute strategic advantage should be abandoned," Yang Jiechi told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
"Countries should neither develop missile defence systems that undermine global strategic security nor deploy weapons in outer space," he added.
US President Barack Obama has been reviewing a planned missile defence shield championed by his predecessor, which remains a major source of tension with Russia.
The Obama administration has not backed down from the shield, which would partly be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, but insists that is not directed against Russia.
Russia's air force commander said on Monday that Moscow was developing new missiles to counter space-based systems that could soon be deployed by the United States.
"Outer space is now facing the looming danger of weaponisation," said Yang.
"Credible and effective multilateral measures must be taken to forestall the weaponisation and arms race in outer space," he added, calling such steps of "high strategic significance."
Both Russia and China have proposed a new treaty banning the use of weapons in space, but the idea has been rejected by the United States.
Nonetheless, the issue is one of those up for international discussion under the Conference on Disarmament's recent landmark decision to revive talks after more than a decade of deadlock.
In a speech reaffirming China's commitment to international nuclear weapons safeguards and disarmament, Yang backed attempts to strengthen the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
"The international security situation is undergoing the most profound change since the end of the Cold War," Yang acknowledged. "Unprecedented opportunities now exist in international disarmament."
Yang reiterated China's insistance on a peaceful resolution of the nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran, and called on the IAEA to play a greater role in promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
That should include "the possibility of establishing a multilateral nuclear fuel supply mechanism," he added. Western countries have been sceptical of the idea proposed by Russia.
The Chinese foreign minister stopped short of signalling Beijing's swifter ratification of a ban on nuclear tests.
"The Chinese government is dedicated to promoting early ratification of the treaty and will continue to make active efforts toward this end," Yang said, pledging to work with the international community for "early entry into force."
Although China was amongst the first to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, it is one of nine nations that are preventing its entry into force because they have either not ratified or signed it.
The only other traditional nuclear power not to have ratified is the United States.
However, Obama announced in April that he wanted to press ahead with US ratification, reversing the stance of George W. Bush's administration.
The other outstanding ratifications are Egypt, Indonesia, Iran and Israel.
India, Pakistan, and North Korea have not signed the test ban treaty, which is regarded as a cornerstone of efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament.
AFP: China warns against missile defence systems
Arms Race=Deterrence Race
Global Security=Balance of Deterrence
Both Nucs and ABMs are ways of achieving Deterrence and of countering it.
Chinese have a point, a Chinese point. Others have there own points.
The oldest game in town. Everybody plays it.
Not worth raking your head over. (just my view though)
Global Security=Balance of Deterrence
Both Nucs and ABMs are ways of achieving Deterrence and of countering it.
Chinese have a point, a Chinese point. Others have there own points.
The oldest game in town. Everybody plays it.
Not worth raking your head over. (just my view though)
yusuf cut,copy,paste whatever they do but they are producing it and why cant we do the same cut,copy,paste?
just give one f16 and ask india to reverse engineer it?
am not supporting china but we should appreciate their technical skills
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ABL Successfully Completes Low-Power Laser Tests Against Instrumented Boosting Target
ABL Successfully Completes Low-Power Laser Tests Against an Instrumented Boosting Missile Target
August 13th, 2009
The Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser (ABL) prototype aircraft successfully acquired, tracked, provided atmospheric compensation and simulated the directed energy kill sequence against an instrumented boosting missile target using three onboard low-power lasers on Aug. 10 at 9:50 p.m. PDT. The missile was launched from San Nicolas Island, located in the Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range, off
the central California coast.
This marks the third successful ABL missile engagement in just over two months. The ABL previously engaged two sounding rockets with the low-power lasers – this latest test was the first time laser performance data was collected at the target missile. The Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument is similar in size and geometry to a ballistic missile, but with a section of sensors to record and measure the laser performance.
Plans call for ABL to engage progressively more difficult targets in coming months, culminating with a lethal demonstration against a boosting threat-representative ballistic missile target later this year.
http://frontierindia.net/abl-successfully-completes-low-power-laser-tests-against-an-instrumented-boosting-missile-target
The YAL-1 Airborne Laser
Image Courtesy: defenceindustrydaily; dvice.com
ABL Successfully Completes Low-Power Laser Tests Against an Instrumented Boosting Missile Target
August 13th, 2009
The Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser (ABL) prototype aircraft successfully acquired, tracked, provided atmospheric compensation and simulated the directed energy kill sequence against an instrumented boosting missile target using three onboard low-power lasers on Aug. 10 at 9:50 p.m. PDT. The missile was launched from San Nicolas Island, located in the Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range, off
the central California coast.
This marks the third successful ABL missile engagement in just over two months. The ABL previously engaged two sounding rockets with the low-power lasers – this latest test was the first time laser performance data was collected at the target missile. The Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument is similar in size and geometry to a ballistic missile, but with a section of sensors to record and measure the laser performance.
Plans call for ABL to engage progressively more difficult targets in coming months, culminating with a lethal demonstration against a boosting threat-representative ballistic missile target later this year.
http://frontierindia.net/abl-successfully-completes-low-power-laser-tests-against-an-instrumented-boosting-missile-target
The YAL-1 Airborne Laser
Image Courtesy: defenceindustrydaily; dvice.com
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Boeing’s Airborne Laser passes in-flight test
Thursday, August 13, 2009, 1:45pm MDT
The Boeing Co. and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully completed the Airborne Laser’s first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile on Aug. 10.
Under development in New Mexico and California since 1994, the system uses a high-powered laser mounted on a modified Boeing 747 to destroy ballistic missiles just as they take off.
In the latest test, the Boeing craft used its infrared sensors to find a target missile launched from San Nicolas Island off the central California coast. The system successfully tracked and shot its laser at the instrumented target, which was similar in size and geometry to a ballistic missile, but with a section of sensors to record and measure the Airborne Laser’s performance.
The test follows the Airborne Laser’s successful engagement of two un-instrumented missiles in early June, which allowed the development team to fine-tune the engagement sequence, said Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and head of the Airborne Laser program, in a news release.
“This test demonstrates that the Airborne Laser can fully engage an in-flight missile with its battle management and beam control/fire control systems,” Rinn said. “Pointing and focusing a laser beam on a target that is rocketing skyward at thousands of miles per hour is no easy task, but the Airborne Laser is uniquely able to do the job.”
Boeing (NYSE: BA) is the prime contractor on the project, which has absorbed more than $5 billion over the last 15 years.
Boeing employs 450 people in New Mexico, 200 of them directly on the Airborne Laser program. The company annually spends up to $150 million on local procurement of goods and services.
http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2009/08/10/daily46.html
Thursday, August 13, 2009, 1:45pm MDT
The Boeing Co. and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully completed the Airborne Laser’s first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile on Aug. 10.
Under development in New Mexico and California since 1994, the system uses a high-powered laser mounted on a modified Boeing 747 to destroy ballistic missiles just as they take off.
In the latest test, the Boeing craft used its infrared sensors to find a target missile launched from San Nicolas Island off the central California coast. The system successfully tracked and shot its laser at the instrumented target, which was similar in size and geometry to a ballistic missile, but with a section of sensors to record and measure the Airborne Laser’s performance.
The test follows the Airborne Laser’s successful engagement of two un-instrumented missiles in early June, which allowed the development team to fine-tune the engagement sequence, said Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and head of the Airborne Laser program, in a news release.
“This test demonstrates that the Airborne Laser can fully engage an in-flight missile with its battle management and beam control/fire control systems,” Rinn said. “Pointing and focusing a laser beam on a target that is rocketing skyward at thousands of miles per hour is no easy task, but the Airborne Laser is uniquely able to do the job.”
Boeing (NYSE: BA) is the prime contractor on the project, which has absorbed more than $5 billion over the last 15 years.
Boeing employs 450 people in New Mexico, 200 of them directly on the Airborne Laser program. The company annually spends up to $150 million on local procurement of goods and services.
http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2009/08/10/daily46.html
Colombia, U.S. Finalize Deal on Military Bases
BOGOTA - Colombia says it has finalized an agreement with the United States allowing Washington to use its military bases to track drug-runners, despite anger elsewhere in Latin America over the idea.
"This agreement reaffirms the commitment of both parties in the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism," Colombia's foreign ministry said in a statement Aug. 14.
Officials here said the two countries agreed the text of an agreement, which now has to be reviewed by government agencies in Bogota and Washington before getting a final signature.
The controversial deal would permit the U.S. military to operate surveillance aircraft from seven bases to track drug-running boats in the Pacific Ocean.
A senior U.S. general said Aug. 15 that the United States needed to reassure regional powers about the deal, after reports of negotiations rankled several leaders and prompted Venezuela to claim that the "winds of war" were blowing.
"I think we need to do a better job of explaining to them what we're doing and making it as transparent as possible, because anybody's concerns are valid," Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference.
Washington sought out its ally Colombia to make up for the loss of its hub for counternarcotics operations in Manta, Ecuador.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa had refused to renew an agreement that allowed the U.S. military to fly out of Manta for the past 10 years.
The deal is worth over 40 million dollars for Bogota, along with expanded U.S. military assistance for Bogota's counternarcotics efforts, according to a U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cartwright and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said this week the deal was not a unilateral move but the product of a partnership with Colombia designed to target drug cartels.
"The strategic intent is, in fact, to be able to provide to the Colombians what they need in order to continue to prosecute their efforts against the internal threats that they have," Cartwright said.
Colombia raised concern throughout the region, which has a troubled history of U.S. military interventions, after announcing July 15 that it was negotiating the deal.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led the charge, alongside his Ecuadorian counterpart and ally Correa.
Speaking in Quito at a regional summit last weekend, Chavez said he was fulfilling his "moral duty" by telling fellow leaders that the "winds of war were beginning to blow."
"This could generate a war in South America," he said.
Other regional leaders, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have asked Colombia to explain its decision.
Responding to criticism, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Aug. 14 the purpose of the deal was to "defeat terrorism," adding that the accord with the United States will serves "as an insurance policy for neighboring nations."
Uribe said he would attend an emergency summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) that will gather on August 28 in Bariloche, Argentina, to discuss the situation created by the Colombian base agreement.
However, Frank Mora, a U.S. Defense Department official for Latin America, said the controversy was a storm in a teapot.
"This agreement simply formalizes what already almost exists right now," he told AFP.
In his remarks, Uribe also extended an olive branch to Ecuador, saying the two countries "could have dialogue" and "resolve their differences in the future."
Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia over last year's air strike by the Colombian military against a Colombian leftist guerrilla base located in the Ecuadorian selva. Raul Reyes, a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed in that attack.
"I apologize for that," Uribe said. "But we are interested in the future, and the same goes for Venezuela."
Colombia, U.S. Finalize Deal on Military Bases - Defense News
Colombia, U.S. Finalize Deal on Military Bases
BOGOTA - Colombia says it has finalized an agreement with the United States allowing Washington to use its military bases to track drug-runners, despite anger elsewhere in Latin America over the idea.
"This agreement reaffirms the commitment of both parties in the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism," Colombia's foreign ministry said in a statement Aug. 14.
Officials here said the two countries agreed the text of an agreement, which now has to be reviewed by government agencies in Bogota and Washington before getting a final signature.
The controversial deal would permit the U.S. military to operate surveillance aircraft from seven bases to track drug-running boats in the Pacific Ocean.
A senior U.S. general said Aug. 15 that the United States needed to reassure regional powers about the deal, after reports of negotiations rankled several leaders and prompted Venezuela to claim that the "winds of war" were blowing.
"I think we need to do a better job of explaining to them what we're doing and making it as transparent as possible, because anybody's concerns are valid," Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference.
Washington sought out its ally Colombia to make up for the loss of its hub for counternarcotics operations in Manta, Ecuador.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa had refused to renew an agreement that allowed the U.S. military to fly out of Manta for the past 10 years.
The deal is worth over 40 million dollars for Bogota, along with expanded U.S. military assistance for Bogota's counternarcotics efforts, according to a U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cartwright and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said this week the deal was not a unilateral move but the product of a partnership with Colombia designed to target drug cartels.
"The strategic intent is, in fact, to be able to provide to the Colombians what they need in order to continue to prosecute their efforts against the internal threats that they have," Cartwright said.
Colombia raised concern throughout the region, which has a troubled history of U.S. military interventions, after announcing July 15 that it was negotiating the deal.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led the charge, alongside his Ecuadorian counterpart and ally Correa.
Speaking in Quito at a regional summit last weekend, Chavez said he was fulfilling his "moral duty" by telling fellow leaders that the "winds of war were beginning to blow."
"This could generate a war in South America," he said.
Other regional leaders, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have asked Colombia to explain its decision.
Responding to criticism, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Aug. 14 the purpose of the deal was to "defeat terrorism," adding that the accord with the United States will serves "as an insurance policy for neighboring nations."
Uribe said he would attend an emergency summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) that will gather on August 28 in Bariloche, Argentina, to discuss the situation created by the Colombian base agreement.
However, Frank Mora, a U.S. Defense Department official for Latin America, said the controversy was a storm in a teapot.
"This agreement simply formalizes what already almost exists right now," he told AFP.
In his remarks, Uribe also extended an olive branch to Ecuador, saying the two countries "could have dialogue" and "resolve their differences in the future."
Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia over last year's air strike by the Colombian military against a Colombian leftist guerrilla base located in the Ecuadorian selva. Raul Reyes, a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed in that attack.
"I apologize for that," Uribe said. "But we are interested in the future, and the same goes for Venezuela."
Colombia, U.S. Finalize Deal on Military Bases - Defense News
U.S. Offers Technology To Win Brazil Fighter Deal
BRASILIA - The U.S. is prepared to make an unprecedented offer to transfer technology behind its F/A-18 fighter jets to Brazil to score a multi-billion-dollar contract, U.S. officials said Aug. 5.
U.S. State Department under-secretary for arms control Ellen Tauscher and Pentagon acquisition and technology chief Ashton Carter said they outlined the proposal to Brazilian officials on Aug. 4 and 5.
Accompanied in Brasilia by President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Marine Gen. Jim Jones, they said the technology transfer was part of a final gambit to try to persuade Brazil's air force to buy 36 new combat aircraft.
The deal is worth up to an estimated $4 billion and involves delivering the aircraft from 2014 to replace Brazil's aging fleet of 12 French-made Mirage-2000 jets.
"The transfer... would be something that we had never done before, and specifically because the relation with Brazil is so prized, so significant for us," Tauscher told reporters.
She stressed that the move would be a "big departure from what the U.S. typically does" when it exports sophisticated weaponry, and added that a decision would be made in the next 45 to 60 days.
Carter said: "We want to have a technology relationship with Brazil that gets deeper and deeper with the time. This is just the first step."
The offer appeared an attempt to blunt competing bids from France's Dassault, which was putting forward its advanced Rafale fighter, and Sweden's Saab, which was proposing its yet-to-be-built Gripen NG.
The Rafale, which has stealth-like technology and cutting-edge cockpit interfaces and threat detection, was seen as Brazil's favored choice, largely because France was offering full transfer of technology - the key demand in the tender.
Saab, too, has promised to share know-how with Brazil - even though the Gripen's engines were U.S.-designed and therefore subject to U.S. foreign military sales authorization.
It was not clear what technology the U.S. was prepared to share from the F/A-18, which was the oldest model aircraft on offer, having been flying since 1980.
One consideration, both for Brazil and for the U.S., was likely to be how the F/A-18 might stack up against Venezuela's air force should any future confrontation take place.
Venezuela recently purchased 24 Russian and Chinese-developed Su-30MK2s, a modern fighter considered to have superior performance over the U.S. plane.
U.S. Offers Technology To Win Brazil Fighter Deal - Defense News
U.S. Offers Technology To Win Brazil Fighter Deal
BRASILIA - The U.S. is prepared to make an unprecedented offer to transfer technology behind its F/A-18 fighter jets to Brazil to score a multi-billion-dollar contract, U.S. officials said Aug. 5.
U.S. State Department under-secretary for arms control Ellen Tauscher and Pentagon acquisition and technology chief Ashton Carter said they outlined the proposal to Brazilian officials on Aug. 4 and 5.
Accompanied in Brasilia by President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Marine Gen. Jim Jones, they said the technology transfer was part of a final gambit to try to persuade Brazil's air force to buy 36 new combat aircraft.
The deal is worth up to an estimated $4 billion and involves delivering the aircraft from 2014 to replace Brazil's aging fleet of 12 French-made Mirage-2000 jets.
"The transfer... would be something that we had never done before, and specifically because the relation with Brazil is so prized, so significant for us," Tauscher told reporters.
She stressed that the move would be a "big departure from what the U.S. typically does" when it exports sophisticated weaponry, and added that a decision would be made in the next 45 to 60 days.
Carter said: "We want to have a technology relationship with Brazil that gets deeper and deeper with the time. This is just the first step."
The offer appeared an attempt to blunt competing bids from France's Dassault, which was putting forward its advanced Rafale fighter, and Sweden's Saab, which was proposing its yet-to-be-built Gripen NG.
The Rafale, which has stealth-like technology and cutting-edge cockpit interfaces and threat detection, was seen as Brazil's favored choice, largely because France was offering full transfer of technology - the key demand in the tender.
Saab, too, has promised to share know-how with Brazil - even though the Gripen's engines were U.S.-designed and therefore subject to U.S. foreign military sales authorization.
It was not clear what technology the U.S. was prepared to share from the F/A-18, which was the oldest model aircraft on offer, having been flying since 1980.
One consideration, both for Brazil and for the U.S., was likely to be how the F/A-18 might stack up against Venezuela's air force should any future confrontation take place.
Venezuela recently purchased 24 Russian and Chinese-developed Su-30MK2s, a modern fighter considered to have superior performance over the U.S. plane.
U.S. Offers Technology To Win Brazil Fighter Deal - Defense News
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Seems like the Su-30 really has the US shitting in its pants. They know the aircraft is more than a match for its F15s and F16s, and since the F22 program is being wound down, they're probably thinking, "Better these South American countries get American weapons so that we have some influence over them than Su-30s or Rafales and pose a serious future threat to US air dominance in the region". 
This probably also means that the signals that they've got from the $11 billion MRCA deal for the F/A 18 are not very positive.
This probably also means that the signals that they've got from the $11 billion MRCA deal for the F/A 18 are not very positive.
U.S. To Cut Arms to Boost Army Size
The White House has sent a formal request to Congress for permission to shift roughly $1 billion of next year's proposed Pentagon budget to pay for a previously announced temporary boost in Army end strength, aimed at reducing strain on the heavily deployed force.
To cover that cost, the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force - as well as the Army - would all take modest hits to procurement funds requested in the overseas contingency operations portion of the 2010 federal budget.
In an Aug. 13 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., President Barack Obama asked that Congress consider amending the 2010 Pentagon budget request by reallocating money from "lower-priority DoD contingency operations' requirements." The letter said these items are no longer needed "due to changed circumstances."
Obama didn't elaborate, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
But the words would appear to be a clear reference to the administration giving higher priority to the war in Afghanistan than the war in Iraq, and the positive official assessments of the development of Iraqi security forces. That development is key to maintaining the security of U.S. troops as they withdraw - an effort expected to accelerate following the January 2010 elections in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he plans to increase Army end strength from its current 547,400 to 562,400 in 2010 and to a peak of 569,000. He has said that he will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget and Congress to fund the buildup in the succeeding two years.
For the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, the administration wants to reprogram just over $1 billion from its current request to cover the cost of recruiting and training an additional 15,000 soldiers, according to a letter from OMB Director Peter Orszag that Obama attached to his letter to Pelosi.
Orszag made his recommendations with input from each of the services and with Gates' blessing, according to the letter.
The Army would cough up most of the funding, a total of $700.6 million that was targeted for its initial request for Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) trucks and other vehicles.
The plan reduces the Army's request for more Humvees due to "large recent procurements" that raised its inventory to roughly 120,000, OMB said. The Army also is reassessing its requirements given the number of MRAPs, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, being procured.
Cutting funds for the FMTV trucks would be done by slipping the 2009 contract award into the coming year and moving vehicles slated for assembly in 2010 into 2011, OMB said.
DRAWN FROM CONTINGENCY FUNDS
The total would be about 1 percent of the procurement money the Army is requesting in the overseas contingency fund for the coming year.
The Navy and Air Force would take equal $156 million hits, according to OMB.
The Navy and Marine Corps would lose 5 percent of the weapons-buying funds in their 2010 contingency request. The offset "reflects reductions, not eliminations," in weapons, ammunition and support equipment procurements. But, OMB said, the Navy says it can make up the difference with money provided in the 2009 supplemental appropriation.
The Navy would trim $23 million from its request for Hellfire missiles; OMB said the 4,276 missiles in production and the remaining 1,219 requested in 2010 "are sufficient for immediate needs."
Another $28.8 million would be taken from proposed funding for Navy and Marine Corps machine gun ammunition; OMB said the 4.2 million rounds in production and the remaining 2010 procurement are similarly sufficient.
The Marine Corps would lose $54 million of the total requested for 155mm Lightweight Towed howitzers; $12.6 million from its night vision equipment request; $10.2 million from an account for the procurement and installation of motor transport modifications; $17 million for physical security equipment; and $10.4 million for training devices, OMB said.
The Air Force would lose a little more than 4 percent of its contingency procurement request for the coming year under the proposed amendments. But the cuts would do little damage, OMB said. Production of the C-130 Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures modifications is already at maximum capacity, allowing a trim of $124.4 million, OMB said. And a total of $11.6 million was made available due to schedule delays in kit procurement and installation that resulted from contracting issues.
OMB also said that as a result of the Combat Air Forces restructure and the Air Force's ability to retire more Block 25 F-16 fighter jets, the Air Force can trim $20 million for reduced F-16 Secure Line-of-Sight and Beyond-Line-of-Sight capability.
The overall $1 billion request would cover pay and benefits, training, additional costs to installations for items such as housing and food, related benefits for troops and their families, and the processing of additional Army recruits.
The Army, the largest service, has taken the brunt of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates said the "persistent pace of operations" in the two wars has steadily increased the number of troops unavailable for duty.
In addition, Gates said the decision to end the Army's "routine use" of the controversial "stop-loss" program, which held troops in place beyond their scheduled separations or retirements, required a larger "personnel float" for deploying units with troops whose contracts expire during their deployments.
The latest expansion of the Army follows a recent permanent end-strength increase of 65,000 in the Army and 27,000 in the Marine Corps, both also aimed at reducing strain on the force during the ongoing wars.
U.S. To Cut Arms to Boost Army Size - Defense News
U.S. To Cut Arms to Boost Army Size
The White House has sent a formal request to Congress for permission to shift roughly $1 billion of next year's proposed Pentagon budget to pay for a previously announced temporary boost in Army end strength, aimed at reducing strain on the heavily deployed force.
To cover that cost, the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force - as well as the Army - would all take modest hits to procurement funds requested in the overseas contingency operations portion of the 2010 federal budget.
In an Aug. 13 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., President Barack Obama asked that Congress consider amending the 2010 Pentagon budget request by reallocating money from "lower-priority DoD contingency operations' requirements." The letter said these items are no longer needed "due to changed circumstances."
Obama didn't elaborate, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
But the words would appear to be a clear reference to the administration giving higher priority to the war in Afghanistan than the war in Iraq, and the positive official assessments of the development of Iraqi security forces. That development is key to maintaining the security of U.S. troops as they withdraw - an effort expected to accelerate following the January 2010 elections in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he plans to increase Army end strength from its current 547,400 to 562,400 in 2010 and to a peak of 569,000. He has said that he will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget and Congress to fund the buildup in the succeeding two years.
For the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, the administration wants to reprogram just over $1 billion from its current request to cover the cost of recruiting and training an additional 15,000 soldiers, according to a letter from OMB Director Peter Orszag that Obama attached to his letter to Pelosi.
Orszag made his recommendations with input from each of the services and with Gates' blessing, according to the letter.
The Army would cough up most of the funding, a total of $700.6 million that was targeted for its initial request for Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) trucks and other vehicles.
The plan reduces the Army's request for more Humvees due to "large recent procurements" that raised its inventory to roughly 120,000, OMB said. The Army also is reassessing its requirements given the number of MRAPs, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, being procured.
Cutting funds for the FMTV trucks would be done by slipping the 2009 contract award into the coming year and moving vehicles slated for assembly in 2010 into 2011, OMB said.
DRAWN FROM CONTINGENCY FUNDS
The total would be about 1 percent of the procurement money the Army is requesting in the overseas contingency fund for the coming year.
The Navy and Air Force would take equal $156 million hits, according to OMB.
The Navy and Marine Corps would lose 5 percent of the weapons-buying funds in their 2010 contingency request. The offset "reflects reductions, not eliminations," in weapons, ammunition and support equipment procurements. But, OMB said, the Navy says it can make up the difference with money provided in the 2009 supplemental appropriation.
The Navy would trim $23 million from its request for Hellfire missiles; OMB said the 4,276 missiles in production and the remaining 1,219 requested in 2010 "are sufficient for immediate needs."
Another $28.8 million would be taken from proposed funding for Navy and Marine Corps machine gun ammunition; OMB said the 4.2 million rounds in production and the remaining 2010 procurement are similarly sufficient.
The Marine Corps would lose $54 million of the total requested for 155mm Lightweight Towed howitzers; $12.6 million from its night vision equipment request; $10.2 million from an account for the procurement and installation of motor transport modifications; $17 million for physical security equipment; and $10.4 million for training devices, OMB said.
The Air Force would lose a little more than 4 percent of its contingency procurement request for the coming year under the proposed amendments. But the cuts would do little damage, OMB said. Production of the C-130 Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures modifications is already at maximum capacity, allowing a trim of $124.4 million, OMB said. And a total of $11.6 million was made available due to schedule delays in kit procurement and installation that resulted from contracting issues.
OMB also said that as a result of the Combat Air Forces restructure and the Air Force's ability to retire more Block 25 F-16 fighter jets, the Air Force can trim $20 million for reduced F-16 Secure Line-of-Sight and Beyond-Line-of-Sight capability.
The overall $1 billion request would cover pay and benefits, training, additional costs to installations for items such as housing and food, related benefits for troops and their families, and the processing of additional Army recruits.
The Army, the largest service, has taken the brunt of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates said the "persistent pace of operations" in the two wars has steadily increased the number of troops unavailable for duty.
In addition, Gates said the decision to end the Army's "routine use" of the controversial "stop-loss" program, which held troops in place beyond their scheduled separations or retirements, required a larger "personnel float" for deploying units with troops whose contracts expire during their deployments.
The latest expansion of the Army follows a recent permanent end-strength increase of 65,000 in the Army and 27,000 in the Marine Corps, both also aimed at reducing strain on the force during the ongoing wars.
U.S. To Cut Arms to Boost Army Size - Defense News
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I thought the US Army numbered about 1.4 million. This article says it's half that number?
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China's war games unnerve neighbors
War games launched last week by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have alarmed China's neighbors and raised further questions about Beijing's military intentions. The games, dubbed "Stride-2009", are scheduled to stretch over the next two months. They involve only 50,000 troops from China's 2.3 million-member standing army - the largest in the world - but the sophisticated nature of the far-flung deployments has captured the attention of military experts all over Asia and beyond.
For the first time, forces from the four major regional military commands - stationed in the cities of Shenyang, Lanzhou, Jinan and Guangzhou - will all be engaged in live-fire drills at least 1,200 kilometers from their bases. Some soldiers will reportedly be involved in maneuvers as far as 1,600 kilometers from home. Previously, military exercises had only been conducted by troops under a single regional military command. This has led military analysts to speculate that one of the purposes of the war games is a test run for reforming the command system.
The official Xinhua News Agency described the exercises as a test of the PLA's "long-range force projection" that will involve high-speed civilian rail and air links in the rapid deployment of troops. This will be the army's "largest-ever tactical military exercise", the agency said.
What Xinhua failed to mention is how such elaborate, high-profile war games - on top of perennial double-digit increases in the military budget for most of the past two decades - are consistent with China's promise of a "peaceful rise". Certainly, China's regional neighbors seek constant reassurance on this pledge. And the United States, still by far the pre-eminent military power in the region, is also looking on with a wary eye.
The exercises, however, appear to be aimed more at bolstering the internal security of China, with its 9.6 million square kilometers in land and 1.3 billion people, than projecting military power abroad. Some analysts even see these games as a direct response to the recent riots in the western autonomous region of Xinjiang, which left nearly 200 people dead and more than 1,700 injured. But the war games were planned long before the ethnic clashes last month between Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.
That said, separatist movements in Xinjiang and neighboring Tibet have long worried China's military leaders, and things seem to be growing worse, not better, in these restive regions. The Urumqi riots were this year's embarrassment. In March of 2008, as China prepared to host the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, the government crackdown on violent protests in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas put a damper on Beijing's international coming-out party.
These internal trouble spots figure prominently in the rapid, long-distance deployments the PLA is now practicing. Disaster relief, however, is also important to military planners. Last year's magnitude eight earthquake in Sichuan province was a grave reminder of the devastating power of Mother Nature and of the folly of having no coherent national emergency plan in place. While the central government responded to the quake with unprecedented speed and openness - and PLA troops played a key role in the rescue effort - in the end the effort was hampered by lack of coordination and inefficiency.
The quake left more than 80,000 people dead and another 370,000 injured. A better plan, including a more rapid, coordinated response by the PLA, could have reduced the death and suffering.
The flawed rescue effort after Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan on August 9 is another regional reminder of the perils of poor emergency planning. The island's president, Ma Ying-jeou, is now mired in criticism amid reports that more than 500 people may have died as rescue helicopters carrying relief supplies passed obliviously over villages buried in mudslides.
A US military C-130 transport aircraft has flown to Taiwan, the first American military deployment on the island since 1979, to aid in the relief effort, and two US military helicopters are also expected.
In southeastern China, Morakot forced the evacuation of 1 million residents of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, underscoring improved disaster relief as an imperative for Beijing.
Although internal concerns may be the primary motivation for "Stride-2009", China's regional rivals are increasingly uncomfortable with the nation's growing military prowess. India's military, which fought a border war with China in 1962, is particularly alarmed.
It probably doesn't help that the war games focused on projecting PLA power over long distances began less than a week after China-India talks resumed in New Delhi over the long-standing border dispute. A day before the games began, India's most senior military commander, navy chief of staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta, admitted that his country was now completely overmatched by China's armed forces and issued a stark warning.
"In military terms, both conventionally and unconventionally, we can neither have the capability nor the intention to match China force-for-force," the Hindustan Times quoted the admiral as saying. He added, "China is likely to be more assertive on its claims, especially in the immediate neighborhood."
But Mehta's comments pale in comparison to those made by former head of the Indian Air Force, Fali Homi Major, who before his retirement two months ago called China a greater threat to India than Pakistan.
The perceived China threat is one big reason India has chosen to cozy up to the US and thus been rewarded with a complex, painfully negotiated deal guaranteeing full civil nuclear cooperation between the two nations.
The Chinese goal of gaining access to ports and airfields in the South China Sea, across the Indian Ocean and into the Persian Gulf - Beijing's so-called "String of Pearls" strategy - has the potential to jeopardize both Indian and US interests.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan, America's staunchest ally, will continue to rely on US might to ward off any challenge from China. As will Taiwan, whose possible eventual reunification with the mainland makes its traditional reliance on American military support appear more ambiguous.
In other words, this is a Sino-US face-off - although, all the apprehension over China's military expansion notwithstanding, on paper it still appears to be more of a face-down. Despite Beijing's more assertive posture - which has included refusing US warships entry to Hong Kong for the Thanksgiving holiday in 2007 and in March blocking a US surveillance ship in the South China Sea - China's professed military spending of US$70 billion for 2009 is dwarfed by the Pentagon's $500 billion budget. Even if, as many Western analysts insist, the Chinese figure is a gross underestimate, the discrepancy remains huge and US military power in the region unchallenged.
Nevertheless, China's military spending is now roughly equal to that of Japan, Russia and Britain, and the outgoing commander of US forces in Asia has identified North Korea and China as the Pentagon's chief concerns in the region. North Korea is the biggest worry because of its nuclear ambitions, Admiral Timothy Keating told the Voice of America (VOA) last month, but uncertainty about China's military aims was second on his list.
"We'd like to understand better their intentions, their military intentions," said Keating, who will be succeeded after his retirement in October by Admiral Robert Willard, current commander of the American Pacific Fleet.
"I'm not so concerned about China challenging our pre-eminence," Keating told VOA. "We enjoy significant capability, so China's not going to challenge our pre-eminence any time soon. That's not the concern. It's the notion that, absent [of] dialogue, there's the potential for lack of communication leading to confusion, leading to a crisis."
The admiral was speaking after China and the US agreed to resume military consultations, which Beijing had cut off last October over former president George W Bush's decision to sell US$6.5 billion in arms to Taiwan.
The current US administration under President Barack Obama hopes to increase communication and cooperation with Beijing on all fronts, including regular talks between the top military brass in the two countries. And, like his predecessor, Obama will need Beijing's diplomatic help to rein in North Korea.
But the first Pentagon report of the Obama presidency, issued in March, echoed familiar complaints. "The limited transparency in China's military and security affairs poses risks to stability by creating uncertainty and increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation," the report stated.
The report also expressed concern over Beijing's plans to build multiple aircraft carriers by 2020, its development of weapons for use in space and its enhanced capabilities in electromagnetic and cyber warfare.
Answering complaints about its lack of transparency, the PLA has launched something of a charm offensive. Foreign reporters were recently invited for a rare tour of an infantry base near Beijing during which they witnessed a counter-terrorism drill, and on August 1, the 82nd anniversary of the foundation of the PLA, the Ministry of National Defense launched a multi-media, bilingual website in English and Chinese. The site, unlike its staid predecessor, aims to be informative and user-friendly.
A ministry spokesman said the site signals the PLA's new "openness" and is intended to "increase understanding between countries and raise trust between militaries".
These are worthy aims, but it will take more than a flashy new website and a public-relations tour of an infantry base to achieve them.
Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong Kong News and Business.
War games launched last week by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have alarmed China's neighbors and raised further questions about Beijing's military intentions. The games, dubbed "Stride-2009", are scheduled to stretch over the next two months. They involve only 50,000 troops from China's 2.3 million-member standing army - the largest in the world - but the sophisticated nature of the far-flung deployments has captured the attention of military experts all over Asia and beyond.
For the first time, forces from the four major regional military commands - stationed in the cities of Shenyang, Lanzhou, Jinan and Guangzhou - will all be engaged in live-fire drills at least 1,200 kilometers from their bases. Some soldiers will reportedly be involved in maneuvers as far as 1,600 kilometers from home. Previously, military exercises had only been conducted by troops under a single regional military command. This has led military analysts to speculate that one of the purposes of the war games is a test run for reforming the command system.
The official Xinhua News Agency described the exercises as a test of the PLA's "long-range force projection" that will involve high-speed civilian rail and air links in the rapid deployment of troops. This will be the army's "largest-ever tactical military exercise", the agency said.
What Xinhua failed to mention is how such elaborate, high-profile war games - on top of perennial double-digit increases in the military budget for most of the past two decades - are consistent with China's promise of a "peaceful rise". Certainly, China's regional neighbors seek constant reassurance on this pledge. And the United States, still by far the pre-eminent military power in the region, is also looking on with a wary eye.
The exercises, however, appear to be aimed more at bolstering the internal security of China, with its 9.6 million square kilometers in land and 1.3 billion people, than projecting military power abroad. Some analysts even see these games as a direct response to the recent riots in the western autonomous region of Xinjiang, which left nearly 200 people dead and more than 1,700 injured. But the war games were planned long before the ethnic clashes last month between Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.
That said, separatist movements in Xinjiang and neighboring Tibet have long worried China's military leaders, and things seem to be growing worse, not better, in these restive regions. The Urumqi riots were this year's embarrassment. In March of 2008, as China prepared to host the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, the government crackdown on violent protests in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas put a damper on Beijing's international coming-out party.
These internal trouble spots figure prominently in the rapid, long-distance deployments the PLA is now practicing. Disaster relief, however, is also important to military planners. Last year's magnitude eight earthquake in Sichuan province was a grave reminder of the devastating power of Mother Nature and of the folly of having no coherent national emergency plan in place. While the central government responded to the quake with unprecedented speed and openness - and PLA troops played a key role in the rescue effort - in the end the effort was hampered by lack of coordination and inefficiency.
The quake left more than 80,000 people dead and another 370,000 injured. A better plan, including a more rapid, coordinated response by the PLA, could have reduced the death and suffering.
The flawed rescue effort after Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan on August 9 is another regional reminder of the perils of poor emergency planning. The island's president, Ma Ying-jeou, is now mired in criticism amid reports that more than 500 people may have died as rescue helicopters carrying relief supplies passed obliviously over villages buried in mudslides.
A US military C-130 transport aircraft has flown to Taiwan, the first American military deployment on the island since 1979, to aid in the relief effort, and two US military helicopters are also expected.
In southeastern China, Morakot forced the evacuation of 1 million residents of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, underscoring improved disaster relief as an imperative for Beijing.
Although internal concerns may be the primary motivation for "Stride-2009", China's regional rivals are increasingly uncomfortable with the nation's growing military prowess. India's military, which fought a border war with China in 1962, is particularly alarmed.
It probably doesn't help that the war games focused on projecting PLA power over long distances began less than a week after China-India talks resumed in New Delhi over the long-standing border dispute. A day before the games began, India's most senior military commander, navy chief of staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta, admitted that his country was now completely overmatched by China's armed forces and issued a stark warning.
"In military terms, both conventionally and unconventionally, we can neither have the capability nor the intention to match China force-for-force," the Hindustan Times quoted the admiral as saying. He added, "China is likely to be more assertive on its claims, especially in the immediate neighborhood."
But Mehta's comments pale in comparison to those made by former head of the Indian Air Force, Fali Homi Major, who before his retirement two months ago called China a greater threat to India than Pakistan.
The perceived China threat is one big reason India has chosen to cozy up to the US and thus been rewarded with a complex, painfully negotiated deal guaranteeing full civil nuclear cooperation between the two nations.
The Chinese goal of gaining access to ports and airfields in the South China Sea, across the Indian Ocean and into the Persian Gulf - Beijing's so-called "String of Pearls" strategy - has the potential to jeopardize both Indian and US interests.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan, America's staunchest ally, will continue to rely on US might to ward off any challenge from China. As will Taiwan, whose possible eventual reunification with the mainland makes its traditional reliance on American military support appear more ambiguous.
In other words, this is a Sino-US face-off - although, all the apprehension over China's military expansion notwithstanding, on paper it still appears to be more of a face-down. Despite Beijing's more assertive posture - which has included refusing US warships entry to Hong Kong for the Thanksgiving holiday in 2007 and in March blocking a US surveillance ship in the South China Sea - China's professed military spending of US$70 billion for 2009 is dwarfed by the Pentagon's $500 billion budget. Even if, as many Western analysts insist, the Chinese figure is a gross underestimate, the discrepancy remains huge and US military power in the region unchallenged.
Nevertheless, China's military spending is now roughly equal to that of Japan, Russia and Britain, and the outgoing commander of US forces in Asia has identified North Korea and China as the Pentagon's chief concerns in the region. North Korea is the biggest worry because of its nuclear ambitions, Admiral Timothy Keating told the Voice of America (VOA) last month, but uncertainty about China's military aims was second on his list.
"We'd like to understand better their intentions, their military intentions," said Keating, who will be succeeded after his retirement in October by Admiral Robert Willard, current commander of the American Pacific Fleet.
"I'm not so concerned about China challenging our pre-eminence," Keating told VOA. "We enjoy significant capability, so China's not going to challenge our pre-eminence any time soon. That's not the concern. It's the notion that, absent [of] dialogue, there's the potential for lack of communication leading to confusion, leading to a crisis."
The admiral was speaking after China and the US agreed to resume military consultations, which Beijing had cut off last October over former president George W Bush's decision to sell US$6.5 billion in arms to Taiwan.
The current US administration under President Barack Obama hopes to increase communication and cooperation with Beijing on all fronts, including regular talks between the top military brass in the two countries. And, like his predecessor, Obama will need Beijing's diplomatic help to rein in North Korea.
But the first Pentagon report of the Obama presidency, issued in March, echoed familiar complaints. "The limited transparency in China's military and security affairs poses risks to stability by creating uncertainty and increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation," the report stated.
The report also expressed concern over Beijing's plans to build multiple aircraft carriers by 2020, its development of weapons for use in space and its enhanced capabilities in electromagnetic and cyber warfare.
Answering complaints about its lack of transparency, the PLA has launched something of a charm offensive. Foreign reporters were recently invited for a rare tour of an infantry base near Beijing during which they witnessed a counter-terrorism drill, and on August 1, the 82nd anniversary of the foundation of the PLA, the Ministry of National Defense launched a multi-media, bilingual website in English and Chinese. The site, unlike its staid predecessor, aims to be informative and user-friendly.
A ministry spokesman said the site signals the PLA's new "openness" and is intended to "increase understanding between countries and raise trust between militaries".
These are worthy aims, but it will take more than a flashy new website and a public-relations tour of an infantry base to achieve them.
Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong Kong News and Business.
