Archive
China’s Anti Access Future is Here
China’s may already be able to hold U.S. forces in the far western Pacific Ocean at bay, argues DT’s go to China expert and Naval War College professor Andrew Erickson in one of his latest analysis pieces.
While China can’t yet project serious military power around the globe — or even to the farthest corners of the Pacific — it’s massive military buildup may have given the nation enough muscle to create the anti-access/area denial scenario in its own neighborhood that Pentagon planners have been worrying about for several years. As Erickson says, the “the future is now.”
Here’s an excerpt from his piece titled, Near Seas “Anti-Navy” Capabilities, not Nascent Blue Water Fleet, Constitute China’s Core Challenge to U.S. and Regional Militaries.
Concerns about a Chinese “blue water navy” fundamentally mischaracterize the Read more…
Sino-India military exchanges to help build more trust: China
Days after India and China agreed to have maritime cooperation, Beijing has favoured greater military ties with New Delhi, saying such exchanges would help build more “confidence and trust” between the two countries.
“Exchanges between our militaries will help us build more confidence and trust with each other,” Deputy Director General of Asian Department in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong said.
His remarks came ahead of President Hu Jintao’s visit to New Delhi from Wednesday to participate in the fourth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit.
“Our military people are positive about military cooperation and exchange of visits with India. I think China and India are strategic partners military exchanges and cooperation are part of the partnership,” Sun said.
India had suspended Read more…
Military spending in South-East Asia
THE tiny island-state of Singapore, home to just over 5m people, has a well-deserved reputation as a quiet, clean-cut hub for banking, lawyering and golf. Yet beyond the fairways it bristles with weapons.
According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Singapore is now the fifth-largest arms importer in the world, bested only by some obvious behemoths—China, India and Pakistan—plus South Korea. Singapore accounts for 4% of the world’s total spending on arms imports. Its defence spending per head beats every country bar America, Israel and Kuwait. This year $9.7 billion, or 24% of the national budget, will go on defence.
These are striking figures, but then Singapore has been one of the Read more…
Russia’s Anti-BMD Alliance?
Andrew Riedy
Russia is seeking to form an ad-hoc “coalition of the willing” to delegitimize U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) plans and paint the United States as a major threat to global stability. As part of this strategy, Moscow is preparing an all-out information campaign that it’s expected to unveil at a conference in Moscow on May 3 to 4 to highlight what it sees as the real reason for NATO and U.S. plans to deploy ballistic missile defenses to Europe and expand cooperation with countries like India and Japan, namely tipping the strategic balance in favor of Western Powers.
Russia is hoping to form a consolidated political group to stand with it in opposing U.S. and NATO BMD deployments, and any such coalition is likely to include China. But there are dangers to bringing Beijing on board that Moscow has either not accounted for, or is at least willing to accept.
As Manpreet Sethi suggested this week, BMD has long been an irritant in the U.S.-Russian relationship. The issue was regulated until 2002 by the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, but since the United States unilaterally withdrew from the treaty, the BMD question has been a major Read more…
NEW COLD WAR: Massive NATO Exercise in Norway Provocation directed Moscow. Russian General sends “Arctic Warning” to US
The Cold Response 2012 exercise taking place in Northern Norway on the border to Russia is a provocation and a sign of NATO wanting to strengthen its geopolitical and diplomatic efforts with military might, two Russian military experts say.
The largest military exercise in Norway in ten years’ time is now taking place in Mid-Troms and involves 16,000 soldiers from 15 countries. The exercise includes the largest-ever live firing drill held on Norwegian territory.
“The current military exercise takes place amid NATO’s increased activities in the Arctic. This, in turn, is defined by the coming division of the natural resources in the region. Apparently, through flexing muscles NATO wants to show that it is set on strengthening its geopolitical and diplomatic efforts with military might”, says Chief editor of the newspaper “National Safety” Igor Korotchenko to Voice of Russia.
The exercise could as well have been held on Canadian territory, says Vladimir Yevseyev of the Center for International Security of the Institute of Global Economy and International Relations: “Nevertheless, the exercises are being held on
U.S. military unveils new non-lethal heat ray weapon
Turn up the heat: Two versions of US Marine Corps trucks are seen carrying the Active Denial System – the non-lethal weapon uses directed energy and projects a beam of man-sized millimeter waves
The U.S. military has unveiled a new weapon, a non-lethal heat ray weapon that causes a sensation of unbearable heat which appears to the victim to come from nowhere and causes a reflexive urge to flee.
China Ups Military Spending
China’s announcement of a more than 11 percent increase in declared military spending, following two full decades of double-digit increases, raises several uncomfortable questions for Asia and the West. It’s natural for a rising power like China to develop capabilities to defend its expanding array of interests. On the other hand, China’s ascent has been made possible by a benign security environment that well served China’s goal of “peaceful development.” China’s growing military capabilities now threaten to upset that order in ways that, ironically, could complicate China’s security environment at the same time as slowing economic growth intensifies its internal challenges.China’s defense spending – now officially $106 billion but estimated by the Pentagon and independent researchers to be more than $160 billion – is on track to exceed that of all its Asian neighbors combined within a few years. This is particularly striking in light of a wider Asian arms race: India is the world’s Read more…
Will Cuts Cripple Military or Help in Broader Mission?
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. shows a graph on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, during the committee's hearing on the Defense Department's fiscal 2013 budget.
WASHINGTON — Washington has a spending problem, but now that spending problem has the White House eyeing the military for massive cuts.
Many critics worry those cuts could seriously hurt America’s national defense.
For decades, no other country could rival the supremacy of America’s armed forces – its people, weapons, technology, or equipment.
But some military analysts believe President Obama and his chief military advisers are on a course to gut America’s defense, while other countries, like China and Russia, ramp up their next-generation military arsenals.
“Secretary Panetta’s magic bullet, that he can cut away all these dollars and capabilities from the U.S. military and keep it as strong as it is today, are really just words on a memo flying around the Pentagon,” Mackenzie Eaglen, research fellow for national security at the American Enterprise Institute, said.
Eaglen believes the president’s proposed $525 billion defense budget will Read more…
N. Korea says it is ready for both dialogue and war
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) visits a unit under the Command of the Korean People's Army 4th Corps stationed in the southwestern sector of North Korea, in this undated picture released by the North's KCNA in Pyongyang February 26. KCNA/REUTERS
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) — North Korea said Monday it is fully ready for both dialogue and war as South Korea and the United States kicked off joint military drills that Pyongyang claims are rehearsals for a northward invasion.
The Key Resolve, which will last through March 9, involves about 200,000 South Korean troops and 2,900 U.S. troops, according to the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.
Separately, the two allies plan to hold the Foal Eagle joint military exercise from March 1 to April 30.
South Korea and the U.S. regularly hold military exercises to bolster their readiness against a possible North Korean invasion. Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive in nature.
However, the North, which has a track record of military provocations against South Korea, routinely condemns the military drills in the South as precursors for an invasion.
“The big exercises for Read more…
Putin: Russia Must Re-Arm Because of United States Aggression
We will, under no circumstances, surrender our strategic deterrent capability. Indeed, we will strengthen it.
We will not be able to strengthen our international position or develop our economy or our democratic institutions if we are unable to protect Russia.
We see ever new regional and local wars breaking out. We see new areas of instability and deliberately managed chaos. There also are attempts to provoke such conflicts even close to Russia’s and its allies’ borders. The basic principles of international law are being degraded and eroded, especially in terms of international security.
Under these circumstances, Russia cannot rely on diplomatic and economic methods alone to resolve conflicts. Our country faces Read more…
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