World Defence Forum

A guided-missile cruiser has sailed through the Taiwan Strait just a day after the Chinese military criticized Washington for “adding complexity to regional security” and warned it to stay clear of the island. The transit of USS Antietam (CG-54) through the narrow waterway “demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, said, stressing that the US will continue to conduct their 'freedom of navigation' voyages, which Beijing has repeatedly condemned. The Chinese military warned the US to stay clear of Taiwan on Wednesday, vowing to use force, if necessary, to prevent any attempts to split the island from the mainland. “The PLA will resolutely defeat anyone attempting to separate Taiwan from China and safeguard national unity at all costs,” the newly released white paper on national defense stressed. China held military drills off the coast of Taiwan earlier this month after Washington...

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A mysterious photo from China recently appeared on the Internet showing what appeared to be a mock-up of a Russian T-90 tank built on the chassis of a heavy truck. The photo came from a Chinese army weapons testing facility and while the mock-up seems to accurately replicate the key elements of a T-90 chassis, from the ground you don’t have to be too close to see the truck wheels beneath the “tank.” It was unclear what this mock-up was for until you consider that while Russia is a Chinese ally the largest user of T-90s in the world is India, not Russia. It is known that China is building new fire control systems make their helicopter gunships and fighter-bombers more effective when using guided missiles and smart bombs against armored vehicles. Then consider the fact that the T-90, like most current Chinese tanks are also based on the T-72 design and that China provides Pakistan (another enemy of India) with most of its modern tanks as well as air-to ground missiles and smart bombs a...

Russia has warned the US-led NATO alliance over a recent decision to beef up military presence in the Black Sea, saying such a move would further increase tensions in the volatile region. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Friday that the decision by the Western military alliance to strengthen its position in the sea “is not a surprise” for Moscow. “We are talking about the strengthening of military and maritime forces of NATO member states, first and foremost, Romania and Bulgaria, plus non-coastal states entering the Black Sea more often,” he said. "It is our understanding that this activity aggravates the situation in the sphere of security,” Grushko added. The Russian diplomat made the remarks in response to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said on Thursday that the alliance was considering an expansion of its presence in the region in an effort to support Ukraine. He also said that the military alliance is prepared to carry out war games i...

The US military has rolled out a number of its B-2, F-22 and F-35 stealth aircraft to simulate “high-end combat scenarios” in the Pacific, as Washington turns its attention to the region in order to curb China and Russia’s growing influence there. During the drills, which were conducted with the assistance of the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship, F-22 Raptors and B-2 Spirit bombers performed Day One operations, where the so-called “door kicker” aircraft take out enemy defenses and pave the way for follow-up attacks by less stealthy aircraft, the Business Insider reported Friday. ​The B-2s spent their time near Hawaii "going out to an airspace and practicing realistic threats," while an F-22 flew on each of their wings, said Lt. Col. Robert Schoeneberg, commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. He noted that the region "is of high importance as of late," and would continue “to be of high importance." Interestingly, the F-35 L...

The Russian Navy is on track to deploy up to 32 of its “Poseidon” thermonuclear drones across four submarines, according to Russian state media. Citing a military insider source, TASS reported earlier this week that "Two Poseidon-carrying submarines are expected to enter service with the Northern Fleet and the other two will join the Pacific Fleet. Each of the submarines will carry a maximum of eight drones and, therefore, the total number of Poseidons on combat duty may reach 32 vehicles." Poseidon is an underwater drone weapon, armed with a 2-megaton nuclear or conventional payload that can be detonated “thousands of feet” below the surface. This is meant to generate a radioactive tsunami capable of destroying coastal cities and other infrastructure several kilometers inland. Poseidon can remain submerged at up to one kilometer, travels at a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour, and is programmed to execute three-dimensional evasive maneuvers in response to intercepti...

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has begun the development of an improved variant of the FA-50 Golden Eagle, with enhanced air-to-ground capabilities. Known as the FA-50 Block 10, the upgraded batch will integrate the Lockheed Martin AN/AAQ-33 Sniper targeting pod, allowing the aircraft to self-designate and deploy laser-guided munitions. A KAI senior manager told AIN in an exclusive interview that work started in October 2018 and that the project aims to be completed no later than 2021. He added that current FA-50 users can still benefit from the software upgrade and that no physical modifications are to be made to the aircraft. “Our current priority is to promote the Block 10 to a Southeast Asian FA-50/T-50 user who is looking for more jets,” the manager said. He added that KAI has conducted a workshop with the said air force and found it is keen to enhance the air-to-ground capability of its FA-50s. Currently, the Golden Eagle is flown in the region by the Philippines, Indones...

The United States Air Force AC-130 gunship is an awesome capability, but one which likely be far too expensive and difficult to justify for the Australian Defence Force. Australian troops in Afghanistan certainly benefitted the AC-130’s ability to rain down hellfire from its onboard 105mm howitzer and, depending on variants, Bofors 40mm gun, 25mm cannon and 7.62 miniguns. US defence giant Northrop Grumman is now developing a gunship-lite, in the form of its Palletised Weapons System (PaWS), in which a GAU-23 30mm Bushmaster cannon, ammunition and operator consoles slot in and out of the hold of a C-27J Spartan on standard cargo pallets. The company advertises a conversion time of four hours but says it has done it in two. That means any of the RAAF’s 10 new Spartans could be delivering cargo one day and flying as a gunship in support of troops the next. This isn’t yet a capability for which the ADF has yet expressed a requirement, although it has discussed it with Northrop Grumma...

A ground-based version of Kalibr sea-based complexes with a long-range cruise missile should be developed in 2019-2020 in response to the US decision to suspend its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday. "In 2019-2020, we should develop a ground-based version of sea-based Kalibr complexes with a long-range cruise missile, which has proved to be effective in Syria. During the same period, we should create a ground-based missile complex with a long-range hypersonic missile," Shoigu stated, adding that the measures would be taken in light of Washington's decision on the INF Treaty. "Besides, it is important to increase the range of land-based missile systems, which are currently being developed," Shoigu added. Speaking further, the senior official said that the experience of conducting combat operations with the help of high-precision weapons in Syria demonstrated that Russ...

The U.S. Air Force flew two B-52 bombers over the East China Sea and Sea of Japan in what it described as a routine training amid trade tensions with China. Two nuclear-capable B-52H Stratofortress aircraft conducted the training mission Monday as part of regular exercises in the area that have gone on for about 15 years, U.S. Pacific Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Victoria Hight told UPI. The bombers, of the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, departed Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. territory of Guam, conducted training exercises near Okinawa, Japan, and then returned to base. "U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's continuous bomber presence operations have been ongoing since March 2004," Hight said. "This recent mission is consistent with international law and United States' long-standing commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific." Spots, a Twitter account tracking movements of military aircraft, showed that the exercise took the bombers over the East China Sea a...

The Russian air force could receive the first of up to 50 new Tu-160M long-range bombers as early as 2021, defense minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Jan. 30, 2019. The air force wants 50 of the swing-wing bombers. But that goal could prove unrealistic for the cash-strapped Kremlin. The Tu-160 is not a new aircraft. The 177-feet-long, four-engine Tu-160 first flew in 1981. Tupolev built for the Soviet air force 36 of the huge bombers including nine prototypes. For two decades the Tu-160 was the USSR's, and later Russia's, only supersonic, nuclear-armed strategic bomber. The Tu-95 strategic bomber is subsonic. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, newly-independent Ukraine inherited 19 Tu-160s. Kiev ultimately returned to Russia eight of the bombers and scrapped the other 11. By the turn of the millennium, just a handful of Russia's Tu-160s were airworthy. One of the bombers crashed in 2003. In the early 2000s, Moscow paid Kazan, a subsidiary of Tupolev, to finish asse...

A Su-27 jet fighter was filmed confronting an F-15 as it fended off the US-made aircraft by executing a risky maneuver mid-air, while both warplanes flew dangerously close to each other. A 40-second clip, which began circulating on Russian social media on Thursday, shows what appears to be an F-15 jet fighter flying in close proximity to an unnamed aircraft. The Su-27 warplane can be seen approaching the American-made jet from the side. As the two planes get extremely close to each other, the Su-27 makes a breathtaking maneuver, forcing the F-15 to turn away, fly further from the plane and ultimately disappear from sight. It is not clear when and where the altercation was filmed. Commenters on social media suggested that the F-15 might have come too close to a Russian aircraft transporting government officials.

Images broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV) of the locally designed and developed Dong Feng-26 (DF-26) intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) during recent exercise firings show that the missile is highly manoeuvrable and "capable of targeting a moving aircraft carrier", according to a 27 January report by the state-owned Global Times newspaper. The Global Times report, which showed images of the missile's guidance and warhead section, focuses on the scepticism that has been expressed by some Western analysts concerning the missile's capability to effectively function as an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) because no evidence has emerged of it being trialled against a moving target at sea. Quoting "military experts", the report states that the recent exercise "demonstrated the missile's capability" and that the four control fins around the nose section "provide super manoeuvrability" so that "the missile ca...

The US naval chief said on Monday that the US and Chinese navies are engaged in “continuous dialogues” to reduce the risk of a military miscalculation in the South China Sea. Admiral John Richardson told an audience at the Washington-based Brookings Institute that the interchanges between the two navies aim to build communication to avoid a potentially disastrous blunder. The discussions are a positive sign that China and the US are moving forward with a plan to reduce tensions in the disputed waters. Concerns about the chances of an incident at sea occurring grew in September after a PLA Navy ship nearly collided with an American destroyer, the Decatur, which sailed near an islet claimed by Beijing in the Spratly archipelago, known in China as the Nansha Islands. The Chinese ship came within 41 metres (135 feet) of the US vessel, leading the Pentagon to accuse the PLA Navy of conducting an aggressively “unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre”. “Let's not make it difficult for o...

An Edwards Air Force Base F-16 sits at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, along with an AQM-37D supersonic target, Nov. 28, 2018. Two F-16s and maintenance Airmen from Edwards assisted the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy with a test of a RAN ship’s combat system late last year. Airman 1st Class Cierra-Mae Hanson, 412th Maintenance Group, inspects an AQM-37D supersonic target before it is loaded on to an Edwards Air Force Base F-16 at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, Nov. 28, 2018. Two F-16s, a KC-135 Stratotanker, and maintenance Airmen from Edwards assisted the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy with a test of a Royal Australian Navy ship’s combat system late last year. Airmen from the 412th Maintenance Group are assisted by members of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division's Threat/Targets Department at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California. They are loading an AQM-37D supersonic target, Nov. 28, 2018. Two F-16s, a KC-135 Stratota...