World Defence Forum

Washington  should offer to sell aerial refueling tankers to help   Taiwan   to counter   China ’s ongoing military constriction involving air and sea exercises surrounding the island democracy, and its dangerous manipulation of sensitive airliner routes over the   Taiwan   Strait. On Jan. 5,   China   unilaterally announced that airlines can use four new flight routes over the   Taiwan   Strait, including three extension routes that connect perpendicularly to the major route M503, which runs close to and parallel to the sensitive “mid line” of the   Taiwan   Strait. Starting these routes unilaterally violates International Civil Aviation Organization (IACO) rules requiring consultation with affected parties, as it violates a March 2015 Chinese agreement with  Taiwan  that it only operate southbound M503 flights and not use the extension routes. China ’s use of all four routes increases the chance o...

China may be getting ready to overtly “militarize” its island bases in the South China Sea. After years of counter-accusing the United States of militarizing the region while maintaining that its man-made islands were “necessary defense facilities,” Chinese officials are using a recent transit by a U.S. warship to lay the groundwork for deploying real force projection capabilities to its outposts. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that a U.S. Navy destroyer violated its sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal by sailing within 12 nautical miles of the disputed feature in the South China Sea on January 17th. In an unusual step, China was the first to reveal that the transit occurred and may be using it to signal future military deployments to the bases it has built on reclaimed islands in the Spratly Islands. Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. ship’s passage gravely threatened the safety of Chinese vessels and personnel in the area, but...

The U.S. Marine Corps is expanding its use of a new automatic rifle, issuing it to all Marine infantry and other Marines at the very tip of the spear. The M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle will replace the M4 carbine in many combat-related positions. Other troops will continue to use the M4. The Marine Corps adopted the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle in 2010 to replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. The Marines valued  the M27’s ability to fire short, accurate bursts of suppressive fire at longer distances and issued the firearm to one Marine per infantry fire team, or three per squad. The fast-firing, high-capacity (though less accurate) M249 remains in Marine Corps service and can still be issued as needed. Now the Marine Corps has decided that the M27 is sufficiently better than the M4 carbine to warrant forking over the $3,000 cost for almost all frontline Marines. According to  a Military.com interview  with Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Nell...

Japan's top military officer has sounded the alarm over the expansion of Chinese naval operations in the Indian Ocean. Speaking with the Nikkei Asian Review and other media in New Delhi, Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, Japan's Chief of the Joint Staff, warned that the Chinese navy is steadily expanding the scope of its operations, referring to the country's rapid military build-up and its move to open a naval base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Kawano was in the Indian capital to attend Raisina Dialogue 2018, a multilateral conference for top government officials and experts on geopolitical and other issues. On Thursday, Kawano delivered a speech on the operations of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force in the Indo-Pacific region, in a session entitled "Uncharted Waters: In Search for Order in the Indo-Pacific." Kawano also held talks with senior military officers of the U.S., Australia and the U.K. In the interview, the head of the Self-Defense Force...

The government is making arrangements to introduce a new missile intercept system on two new Aegis-equipped destroyers that will be deployed in fiscal 2019 and 2020, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. According to several government sources, the new intercept system will improve the ability of the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Aegis vessels to protect the nation if North Korea launches a wave of ballistic missiles. Under the new system, an Aegis vessel stationed in the Sea of Japan that had exhausted its supply of intercept missiles would share radar information with another Aegis vessel stationed elsewhere. This second vessel would use the information for targeting and shooting down the North Korean missiles. Aegis vessels equipped with SM-3 interceptors form the main pillar of Japan’s missile defense system. Although these destroyers already share radar information, launching an SM-3 requires the vessel actually firing the missile to use its own radar to lock on to the target...

Catch Me But You Can't: World's Top Ferrari-Fast Nuclear Submarines Being able to move at high speeds is one the most crucial features of modern nuclear-powered multirole submarines. A submarine needs to be fast to hunt down an enemy but also escape from an enemy’s anti-ship forces. During  the Cold War, the United States and the USSR fiercely competed for global military dominance, including in terms of underwater warfare. The best American and Soviet constructors and engineers invested much time and energy in developing cutting-edge submarines with outstanding specifications and capabilities. We takes a look at the five fastest submarines ever built. 5. Los Angeles-class submarine - The  Los Angeles  class  is a class of  nuclear-powered   fast attack submarines  ( SSN ) in service with the  United States Navy . The submarines are also known as the  688 class , after the hull number of lead v...

In December 2017, Saudi Arabia has announced a defense budget of about $56 billion for 2018, an increase of 10% compared to year 2017. According to the statement of the Saudi Arabia budget for 2018, around 5% will be spent for the development of new programs and projects. Another $5 billion will be invested to enhance military capabilities, and the local defense industry . The Saudi defense budget will be the fourth largest in the world after the United States, China, and Russia. This is the large defense budget for Saudi Arabia since many years, in 2017 and 2016, military spending came in a close second to education. Saudi Arabia is involved in the Yemen war since 2015, leading a coalition of nine African and Middle East countries, to influence the outcome of the Yemeni Civil War in favour of the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Code-named 'Operation Decisive Storm, the intervention initially consisted of a bombing campaign on Houthi Rebels and lat...

China's Communist Party adopted a secret plan in September to bolster the North Korean government with increased aid and military support, including new missiles, if Pyongyang halts further nuclear tests, according to an internal party document. The document, labeled "top secret" and dated Sept. 15—12 days after North Korea's latest underground nuclear blast—outlines China's plan for dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue. It states China will allow North Korea to keep its current arsenal of nuclear weapons, contrary to Beijing's public stance that it seeks a denuclearized Korean peninsula. Chinese leaders also agreed to offer new assurances that the North Korean government will not be allowed to collapse, and that Beijing plans to apply sanctions "symbolically" to avoid punishing the regime of leader Kim Jong Un under a recent U.N. resolution requiring a halt to oil and gas shipments into North Korea. A copy of the four-page  Chines...