DTN News - MYANMAR DEFENSE NEWS: Myanmar Acquiring License From China To Produce Its Own Xiaolong / JF-17 Fighters

Asian Defense News: DTN News - MYANMAR DEFENSE NEWS: Myanmar Acquiring License From China To Produce Its Own Xiaolong / JF-17 Fighters

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 25, 2014: The Government of Myanmar is planning to acquire technologies from China and Pakistan to build JF-17 multirole combat aircraft at its own aircraft factory to boost its Air Force.

If JF-17 production is carried out in Myanmar it may induce an arms race with neighbouring countries who would in turn acquire sufficient air defence capabilities of their own. The Royal Thai Air Force already operates 12 Saab JAS 39C/D Gripen’s whilst the Bangladesh Air Force is planning to acquire combat aircraft from China and Russia.

At present the Myanmar Air Force is composed of 23,000 personnel. It is primarily responsible for the air defence of Myanmar and counter insurgency operations in support of the ground forces.

There are 10 operational air bases in Myanmar where its inventory of up to 32 MiG-29B and MiG-29SE’s are stationed along with 25 older F-7M, 21 Nanchang A-5C and a mix of 16 Chinese and Serbian jet trainers used for ground attack roles besides providing pilot training. The air force is also equipped with 9 Mi-35 attack helicopters over 90 transport and utility helicopters. In recent times it acquired Chinese 11 Sky 02A UAV’s to perform basic surveillance missions. Another 24 has been built in-country as Yellow Cat A2. The fixed wing transportation fleet consists of 4 Shaanxi Y-8, 2 Fokker F-27, 2 ATR-72, 2 Harbin Y-12 and 5 Pilatus PC-6. Maritime surveillance is conducted by 5 unarmed Britten-Norman Islander aircraft transferred by India.

The force is plagued by serviceability issues due to lack of spare parts and trained manpower however introduction of JF-17 would mean that Myanmar Air Force will be investing in such areas to mitigate its short comings.

Author Tony David from Jane’s notes that “In both new fixed-wing and rotary-wing capabilities, regional analysts note that a lack of pilot experience and weaknesses in maintenance and ground-to-air links still limit the operational effectiveness of the [Myanmar Air Force],”

The JF-17 is a light weight single engine multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by China and Pakistan. It can be armed with a variety of bombs and missiles including PL-5EII, PL-9C and PL-12 AAMs, C-802A anti-ship missiles, general purpose bombs, laser guided munitions and countermeasures on its 7 hard points (four underwing, 2 wingtip, 1 under fuselage). The aircraft’s standard set of armaments are supplemented by a 23 mm GSh-23-2 twin barrel cannon or 30 mm version of the same.

The avionics suite includes DEEC electronic warfare suite, NRIET KLJ-7 multi-mode fire control radar, night vision goggles compatible with glass cockpit, helmet mounted sights (HMS) and externally mounted pods such as KG-300G self-protection radar jamming pod and WMD-7 day/night targeting pod.

A Russian RD-93 powers the JF-17 to a maximum speed of Mach 1.6. The combat radius of the aircraft is 1,352 km, ferry range being 3,482 km and service ceiling 16,920 m. The thrust to weight ratio on the aircraft is 0.95. Its maximum takeoff weight is 12,383 kg.
The standard export price for the JF-17 Block I is $20 million and Block 2 being $25 million.
Pakistan Air Force is the lone operator of the JF-17 with 54 aircraft operational including 6 prototypes.

The JF-17 was offered to the Bangladesh Air Force on numerous occasions but it was declined in favour of more sophisticated multi-role combat aircraft from China and Russia.

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources 
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Pentagon Confirms New Chinese Long-Range ICBM Development

Asian Defense News: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Pentagon Confirms New Chinese Long-Range ICBM Development

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Bill Gertz
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 8, 2014: China is developing a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple nuclear warheads as part of a large-scale strategic and conventional forces buildup, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday in its annual report to Congress.

“China also is developing a new road-mobile ICBM known as the Dong Feng-41 (DF-41), possibly capable of carrying multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV),” the report says.

It was the first time since 2007 that the Pentagon acknowledged the development of the road-mobile DF-41, which U.S. officials said was test launched twice since 2012, most recently in December.

The Washington Free Beacon first disclosed details of the DF-41 last year. The missile is part of China’s large-scale strategic nuclear missile buildup, that includes three other ICBMs, the DF-31, DF-31A road-mobile missiles, and the JL-2 submarine-launched missiles.

The DF-41 is assessed by U.S. intelligence agencies of being capable of carrying up to 10 MIRVs.

“We have been seeing pictures of [the DF-41] since 2007, but now we know that the Pentagon knows that [People’s Liberation Army] PLA nuclear warheads will be increasing faster with the introduction of this ICBM,” said Rick Fisher, a China military analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

“The Second Artillery continues to modernize its nuclear forces by enhancing its silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and adding more survivable mobile delivery systems,” the Pentagon report said, referring to China’s Second Artillery Corps, as the strategic nuclear missile forces service is known.

The report also said China has deployed three Jin-class ballistic missile submarines and that up to five of the submarines will be built before a newer generation missile submarine comes online.

“China is likely to conduct its first nuclear deterrence patrols with the JIN-class SSBN in 2014,” the report said.

The Pentagon said that China’s new generation of mobile missiles with multiple warheads and penetration aids designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses “are intended to ensure the viability of China’s strategic deterrent in the face of continued advances in U.S. and, to a lesser extent, Russian strategic [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance], precision strike, and missile defense capabilities.”

In addition to new missiles, the Chinese military is deploying new command, control, and communications for its nuclear forces, an enhancement the Pentagon assessed is making its strategic forces more lethal.

“Through the use of improved communications links, China’s ICBM units now have better access to battlefield information and uninterrupted communications connecting all command echelons, and unit commanders are able to issue orders to multiple subordinates at once, instead of serially, via voice commands,” the report said.

On cyber warfare, the report said China, along with Russia, is seeking to promote intergovernmental control over the Internet. China has been a major promoter of seeking to remove control of the Internet from the United States.

Once focused mainly on developing weapons and tactics for a conflict over Taiwan, the Pentagon now regards China’s military buildup as expanding beyond a Taiwan contingency.

“China is investing in military programs and weapons designed to improve extended-range power projection and operations in emerging domains such as cyberspace, space, and electronic warfare,” the report said.

The Chinese military is developing high-technology forces as part of what Beijing calls “informationization” capabilities.

In addition to kinetic, battlefield weapons such as its large-scale missile and naval forces, China also is working on a military capability to launch an “information blockade” during a conflict. China “envisions the use of military and non- instruments of state power across the battlespace, including in cyberspace and outer space to deny information superiority to its adversaries,” the report said.

“China’s investments in advanced electronic warfare systems, counterspace weapons, and computer network operations —combined with propaganda and denial through opacity—reflect the emphasis and priority China’s leaders place on building capability for information advantage,” the Pentagon said.

Chinese military and government hackers also are continuing cyber attacks against the Pentagon the report said.

“In 2013, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military,” the report said.

“These intrusions were focused on exfiltrating information,” the report said. “China is using its computer network exploitation capability to support intelligence collection against the U.S. diplomatic, economic, and defense industrial base sectors that support U.S. national defense programs.”

The report for the first time said China’s buildup of air forces is significant, and includes two new radar-evading warplanes and several armed drones.

China’s air force “is pursuing modernization on a scale unprecedented in its history and is rapidly closing the gap with Western air forces across a broad spectrum of capabilities including aircraft, command and control, jammers, electronic warfare, and data links,” the report said.

Most of its jet fighters will be advanced, fourth-generation fighters within the next several years, including two new stealth fighters, the J-20 and the J-31.

The J-31 “is similar in size to a U.S. F-35 fighter and appears to incorporate design characteristics similar to the J-20,” the report said.

The H-6 bomber fleet has been upgraded to increase its lethality by deploying new standoff weapons on the aircraft, such as anti-ship cruise missiles and land attack cruise missiles.

“Modernizing the H-6 into a cruise missile carrier has given the PLA Air Force a long-range stand-off offensive capability with precision-guided munitions,” the report said.

China also is modernizing its ground forces with rapid deployment capabilities over long distances, along with advanced special operations forces.

Strategically, the Pentagon report states that the Chinese military has adopted what is being called “new historic missions” that seek to bolster the power of the ruling Communist Party of China.

The report highlights China’s ongoing territorial disputes, mainly in the South China Sea against Vietnam and Philippines and in the East China Sea against Japan.

In the South China Sea, the Pentagon criticized China for not observing international maritime laws during a dangerous encounter in December involving the USS Cowpens, a guided missile cruiser.

The Cowpens was sailing in international waters 32 miles south of China’s Hainan Island when it was harassed by two Chinese naval vessels.

“Two PLA Navy vessels approached USS Cowpens,” the report said. “During this interaction, one of the PLA Navy vessels altered course and crossed directly in front of the bow of USS Cowpens. This maneuver by the PLA Navy vessel forced USS Cowpens to come to full stop to avoid collision, while the PLA Navy vessel passed less than 100 yards ahead.”

The action was “inconsistent with internationally recognized rules concerning professional maritime behavior,” the report said.

The Free Beacon first disclosed the dangerous encounter involving the Cowpens in December.

Fisher, the China military affairs expert, said the latest report, which omitted all photos of Chinese military hardware, appeared to be part of the Obama administration’s policy of not portraying the PLA as a Cold War enemy.

Still, “the 2014 Pentagon PLA report has come a long way to presenting a more useful listing of China’s military direction,” Fisher said.

“But it is now time for this report to take the next step,” he said. “It needs to become an illustrated book translated into multiple languages. This document defines the Chinese military’s trajectory more than any other statement by any other country—which is why the Chinese government hates it and wants to shut it down.”

The Pentagon for the first time in its annual report also discloses brief details of China’s development of missile defenses.

China’s government has denounced U.S. and allied missile defenses as destabilizing Asia.

However, China has been secretly developing anti-missile capabilities at the same time.

“While specialists have been watching this since the 1990s, it is time to assess that the U.S. deterrent posture must now factor in a future Chinese national missile defense capability,” Fisher said.

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*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources  Bill Gertz
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
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DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Mystery

Asian Defense News: DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Mystery

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Fox News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 10, 2014: Vietnamese aircraft spotted what they suspected was one of the doors belonging to the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Sunday, as troubling questions emerged about how two passengers managed to board the Boeing 777 using stolen passports.

The discovery comes as officials consider the possibility that the plane disintegrated mid-flight, a senior source told Reuters.

The state-run Thanh Nien newspaper cited Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of Vietnam's army, as saying searchers in a low-flying plane had spotted an object suspected of being a door from the missing jet. It was found in waters about 56 miles south of Tho Chu island, in the same area where oil slicks were spotted Saturday.

"From this object, hopefully (we) will find the missing plane," Tuan said. Thanh Nien said two ships from the maritime police were heading to the site.

An authority told Reuters that it was too dark to be certain the object was part of the missing plane, and that more aircraft would be dispatched to investigate the site in waters off southern Vietnam in the morning.

Rahman said that the search area has been increased to 50 nautical miles, from 20, and includes 34 aircraft and 40 ships. Aircraft are conducting 12-hour searches, until sundown, while ships are scheduled to continue the search throughout the night.

Meanwhile, Interpol says no country checked its database for information about stolen passports that were used to board the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared with 239 people on board Saturday less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing.

In a sharply worded criticism of shortcomings of national passport controls, the Lyon, France-based international police body said information about the thefts of an Austrian passport in 2012 and an Italian passport last year was entered into its database after they were stolen in Thailand.

Interpol said in a statement it was investigating all other passports used to board the flight and was working to determine the "true identities" of the passengers who used the stolen passports.

"I can confirm that we have the visuals of these two people on CCTV," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference late Sunday, adding that the footage was being examined. "We have intelligence agencies, both local and international, on board."

Hussein declined to give further details, saying it may jeopardize the investigation. Hussein said only two passengers had used stolen passports, and that earlier reports that the identities of two others were under investigation were not true.

European authorities on Saturday confirmed the names and nationalities of the two stolen passports: One was an Italian-issued document bearing the name Luigi Maraldi, the other Austrian under the name Christian Kozel. Police in Thailand said Maraldi's passport was stolen on the island of Phuket last July.

A telephone operator on a China-based KLM hotline on Sunday confirmed to The Associated Press that "Maraldi" and "Kozel" were both booked to leave Beijing on a KLM flight to Amsterdam on March 8. Maraldi was then to fly to Copenhagen, Denmark, on KLM on March 8, and Kozel to Frankfurt, Germany, on March 8.

She said since the pair booked the tickets through China Southern Airlines, she had no information on where they bought them. The ticket purchases reportedly took place almost simultaneously, and the tickets were numbered consecutively, according to the BBC.

A U.S. official told Fox News that a key priority is clarifying the status of the passports, whether they were lost or stolen, and determining through airport security screening and video who got on the flight under those names.

The statements came as officials said finding the wreckage of the flight is “the utmost priority."

“There is still no sign of the aircraft,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Department of Civil Aviation, said during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

The U.S. Navy sent a warship, the USS Pickney, which was conducting training and maritime security operations off the South China Sea, and a surveillance plane. Singapore said it would send a submarine and a plane. China and Vietnam were sending aircraft to help in the search.

It is not uncommon for it to take several days to find the wreckage of an aircraft floating on the ocean. Locating and then recovering the flight data recorders, vital to any investigation, can take months or even years.

When pressed on reports of fake passports used by at least two passengers on board the flight and the possibility of a terrorist attack, Rahman re-stated that the priority is to find the aircraft and that any probe investigating a terror link is independent of the search mission. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has also said it is “too early to make any conclusive remarks.”

Earlier, Malaysia’s air force chief told reporters that military radar indicated that the plane may have turned from its flight route before losing contact.

Rodzali Daud didn't say which direction the plane might have taken when it apparently went off route.

"We are trying to make sense of this," he told a media conference. "The military radar indicated that the aircraft may have made a turn back and in some parts, this was corroborated by civilian radar."

Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said pilots were supposed to inform the airline and traffic control authorities if the plane does start to return. "From what we have, there was no such distress signal or distress call per se, so we are equally puzzled," he said.

Vietnamese air force planes spotted two large oil slicks late Saturday in the first sign that the aircraft had crashed. The slicks were each between 6 miles and 9 miles long, the Vietnamese government said in a statement.

But there was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.

The plane was carrying 227 passengers, including two infants and 12 crew members when it “lost all contact,” with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2:40 a.m., two hours into the flight, the airline said. The plane was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. Saturday.

Around the time the plane vanished, the weather was fine and the plane was already at cruising altitude, making its disappearance all the more mysterious.

Just 9 percent of fatal accidents happen when a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet accidents done by Boeing. The plane was last inspected 10 days ago and found to be "in proper condition," Ignatius Ong, CEO of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly airlines, said at a news conference.

The lack of a radio call "suggests something very sudden and very violent happened," said William Waldock, who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

The plane "lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam's air traffic control," Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said in a statement issued by the government.

U.S. officials said late Saturday that a team of safety experts had been dispatched to Southeast Asia to assist in the investigation. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board told Fox News that the team, which includes investigators from the agency and technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, had been sent to the region despite the fact that the plane had not been located due to the lengthy travel time from the U.S. and the team's desire to be in a position to assist local authorities right away. The FBI is also assisting in the search.

Meanwhile, a former intelligence official told Fox News that the information about stolen passports from two adjacent European countries, combined with recent warnings for flights to the United States about the risk of possible shoe bomb attacks, is concerning.

The airline said onboard the plane, there were 152 passengers from China, 38 from Malaysia, seven from Indonesia, six from Australia, five from India and three from the U.S. and others from Indonesia, France, New Zealand, Canada, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and the Netherlands.

The U.S. State Department later confirmed in a statement that three Americans were aboard the jetliner.

In the United States, a friend confirmed to the Associated Press that an IBM executive from North Texas named Philip Wood had been aboard the jet. Freescale Semiconductor, a company based in Texas, also confirmed Saturday that 20 of its employees -- 12 from Malaysia and eight from China -- were passengers.

The airline says the plane's pilot is Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old who has been with the airline for over 30 years. The plane's first officer is Fariq Ab.Hamid, a 27-year-old who joined the airline in 2007. Both are Malaysians.

At Beijing's airport, authorities posted a notice asking relatives and friends of passengers to gather at a hotel about nine miles from the airport to wait for further information, and provided a shuttle bus service.

Malaysia Airlines has 15 Boeing 777-200 jets in its fleet of about 100 planes.

The 777 had not had a fatal crash in its 20-year history until the Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco in July 2013.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Dan Gallo, as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Fox News
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DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China Announces Surge In Military Spending To Almost $132 Billion

Asian Defense News: DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China Announces Surge In Military Spending To Almost $132 Billion

*China continues years of double-digit rises in military spending to alarm of Asian nations and US

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Telegraph UK
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 5, 2014: China has announced a 12 per cent increase on its military, already the largest in the world, sparking concerns among its Asian neighbours and the US.

Beijing has for years been raising spending on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in double-digit steps, reflecting its military ambitions as it asserts its new-found economic might and its claims in a series of territorial disputes with Japan and others.

"The appropriation for national defence is 808.23 billion yuan (£79 billion), up 12.2 percent," said a budget report prepared for the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's Communist-controlled parliament, which began on Wednesday.

"We will resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests," Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening session.

"We will safeguard the victory of World War II and the post-war international order, and will not allow anyone to reverse the course of history," he said - a phrase China often uses in relation to rival Japan.

Beijing would also "place war preparations on a regular footing" and "build China into a maritime power", Li added.

In comments ahead of the gathering, NPC spokeswoman Fu Ying sought to play down foreign worries about China's defence expenditure.

"Certain countries have been selling the idea of China as a major threat," she said. "Based on our history and experience, we believe that peace can only be maintained by strength."

This year's stated increase follows rises of 10.7 percent in 2013, 11.2 percent in 2012 and 12.7 percent in 2011.

Analysts believe China's actual military spending is significantly higher than publicised, with the Pentagon estimating it at between $135 billion and $215 billion in 2012.

The United States itself remains far ahead as the global leader in defence spending, with Washington approving a 2014 budget of $633 billion in December.

China devotes about three times as much as India to defence, and more than neighbours Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam combined.

Beijing's spending could match that of Washington by the 2030s, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in February, but added that its capabilities, expertise and ability to project power would require several more years to catch up.

Nonetheless the increases have raised concerns in the US and Asia, particularly in Japan, with the two countries embroiled in an escalating row over East China Sea islands called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.

After the latest figure was revealed, Japan expressed concern about Beijing's level of openness about the PLA.

"The transparency of China's defence policy and military capacity, or lack thereof, has become a matter of concern for the international community, including Japan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

China's actions will both fuel the concern of its neighbours and encourage them to beef up their security cooperation with each other and the US, said Denny Roy, an expert on China's military at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

"This would add to the momentum of something that's already in motion," he told AFP.
In December, the cabinet of Japan's hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to spend 24.7 trillion yen (£144 billion) between 2014 and 2019 in a strategic military shift towards areas of the country facing China - a five per cent boost to the defence budget over five years.

China decried Japan's increase at the time as an issue of "great concern to neighbouring countries in Asia and the international community".

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*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Telegraph UK
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