Thai-Anti-Terrorism

 

U.S. gives Australia top military technology in pact

Wed Sep 5, 2007 9:51AM IST

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The United States is giving Australia more access to top-secret American military technology under a new defence cooperation treaty they signed on Wednesday.

 

President George W. Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard signed a defence trade cooperation treaty "that will strengthen our already robust alliance" a White House statement said.

 

"Good job," Bush said as he shook hands with Howard after the signing at Howard's office in Sydney.

 

"The treaty will reduce barriers to the exchange of defence goods, services, and information between Australia and the United States, increasing interoperability and providing our forces with the most effective means to counter new threats," the White House said.

 

"The treaty will also help our respective defence industries share their rich technical expertise, and increase collaboration and communication between the industries and armed forces," it added.

 

Australia is a strong ally of the United States and has troops alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Australia-U.S. military alliance is the cornerstone of Australia's defence policy.

 

But Australia has long complained of U.S. restrictions on the use, manufacture and repair of top-secret U.S. weapons technology and information because of Washington's concerns about keeping the information secure from espionage.

 

 

Both countries are negotiating the A$16 billion ($13 billion) sale of advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, while the U.S. recently agreed to Australia buying 24 FA-18F Super Hornet fighters for A$6.6 billion.

 

Australia is also buying U.S.-built cruise missiles and airborne early warning aircraft for its air force and sophisticated radars for a new fleet of destroyers.

 

"I think one of the very significant things in this potential (deal) is the arranging for greater access for the Australian military, in its purchase of military hardware, to classified and secret technical information about weapons systems and operations," U.S. ambassador to Australia Robert McCallum told Australian television this week.

 

The development, he said, would allow Australian and U.S. forces to work more closely together on joint military operations stretching from the Middle East to the Pacific

 

Indonesia sub plans no sweat for navy Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Cameron Stewart and Stephen Fitzpatrick | September 06, 2007

INDONESIA'S plans to buy Russian Kilo-class submarines will notcause Australian navy submariners to break out into a coldsweat.

 

Although the two navies are unlikely ever to find themselves fighting each other, submarine experts say that if they did, Australia's Collins-class submarines would be likely to send the Kilos to the bottom of the ocean.

 

"The Kilos are less technically advanced than the Collins-class, and the Kilo does not match up in either capability or performance," one submariner, who asked not to be named, told The Australian yesterday.

 

"In their day, the Kilos were a leap forward in technology, but best of luck to them if they tried to match it with the Collins today. I think they would lose."

 

Indonesia has reportedly agreed to buy two Kilo-class submarines from Russia, and hopes to purchase up to eight more. If so, it would be the first time a significant, potentially rival, submarine fleet was based on Australia's doorstep.

 

The Kilo and the Collins are of similar size and share a similar range, although the Collins has greater firepower and usually carries more torpedoes and mines than the Kilo.

 

The Kilos are showing signs of age, having been first commissioned in 1982.

 

The greatest advantage the Collins would have over an Indonesian navy Kilo is that the Indonesians are not familiar with modern submarine warfare and would probably be a relatively easy target for their better-trained and better-resourced counterparts in the Australian navy.

 

Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono yesterday hailed increased military and business ties with Russia, telling the world to expect similarly strengthened links between Jakarta and neighbouring giant China.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will spend today in Jakarta with a business and military delegation expected to sign deals worth up to $US10 billion ($12billion). These include a $US1 billion line of credit to be used on Russian military hardware, including tanks, helicopters and submarines.

 

Dr Sudarsono, who is overseeing a rebuilding of Indonesia's weakened defence forces, said this week that he would travel to China next month to seal electronics and radar deals.

 

Russia is flexing its muscles in the region, so the first visit of a Russian president to Jakarta was regarded by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as being important enough to delay his departure to the APEC summit in Sydney.

 

 

Russia To Build Over 4,500 Aircraft By 2025

 

Alexei Fyodorov, who also heads Russia's MiG corporation, said by 2025, Russia will be producing about 300 civilian aircraft, 100 transport and special-purpose planes and 100 military aircraft every year.

by Staff Writers

Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Aug 16, 2007

Russia is planning to manufacture more than 4,500 civilian and military aircraft by 2025, worth $250 billion, the head of the Russian aircraft manufacturing mega-holding said Wednesday. "We are planning to build over 4,500 aircraft, both civilian and military, under contracts totaling $250 billion [by 2025]," said Alexei Fyodorov, general director of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).

UAC is a majority state-owned corporation consolidating aircraft-building companies and state assets engaged in the manufacture, design, and sale of military, civilian, transport, and unmanned aircraft.

 

According to Fyodorov, the Russian aircraft industry will shift the future focus from manufacturing military aircraft to building civilian planes, including passenger planes and heavy transport aircraft.

 

"While the current manufacturing ratio is seven military aircraft to every civilian aircraft, by 2025 we will be making two civilian planes to each military plane," the official said.

 

Fyodorov, who also heads Russia's MiG corporation, said by 2025, Russia will be producing about 300 civilian aircraft, 100 transport and special-purpose planes and 100 military aircraft every year.

 

UAC has also determined the forms and the amount of direct annual investment into Russia's aircraft manufacturing industry for the next three years.

 

"We have decided to make a direct annual investment in the aircraft industry to the amount of 6 billion rubles ($235 million) during 2008, 2009, and 2010," Fyodorov said.

 

The state will also contribute to the development of the industry with subsidies worth billions of rubles allocated directly to aircraft manufacturers rather than air carriers as it used to be in the past.

 

UAC, which was formed in 2006 to help overcome the crisis in Russia's aircraft industry, incorporates many of the country's best-known aircraft builders, including Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Sukhoi, Tupolev, and Yakovlev, and other enterprises in the industry.

 

Fyodorov said the holding would finalize the strategy for the development of Russia's aircraft manufacturing industry by the end of 2007.

 

 

Source: RIA Novosti

 

 

Analysis: India's integrated defense plan

 

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

by Kushal Jeena

New Delhi (UPI) Aug 16, 2007

An Indian government-backed expert group has asked the government to prepare a 20-year defense plan that will make defense management more efficient.

"India requires a holistic and integrated defense perspective plan for 20 years through a process of inter-state service prioritization," said a parliamentary standing committee report attached to the Defense Ministry.

 

It said the Defense Ministry may be directed to ensure timely completion of the plan, apart from introducing all suggested measures to bring about efficiency in defense expenditure.

 

The parliamentary standing committee has observed that over the past five years, actual defense expenditure had been below the amount required by the defense services to perform efficiently the tasks allotted to them. India is formulating its 11th defense plan in consultation with the services and it would be forwarded to the Finance Ministry for budgetary approval.

 

"With the creation of new bodies there is a need to clearly lay down the field of responsibility between the Ministry of Defense and three services," said Balasaheb Vikher Patil, the chairman of the standing committee.

 

The Defense Ministry is assigned with drawing up defense policies, both five-year and long-term, which include border management, entire defense infrastructure, requirements of all three wings of the services and whole expenditure for defense, both services and non-services. Three services have to prepare plans for their respective forces. Actual implementation of the policies and achievement of targets have to be the part of the three services themselves.

 

The committee also recommended that the defense plan should be on a zero-based budgeting approach and all ongoing schemes may be examined on the same concept in a time-bound manner. It asked for formation of a study group by the Ministry of Defense to go into the details of the functioning of the ministry and the three services.

 

The committee said the study group, after conducting a detailed study of India's defense system and security infrastructure, could suggest measures to improve defense efficiency and a new system for national security and border management as western and eastern borders of the country are considered vulnerable. Despite the fencing all along the borders, illegal migration from Bangladesh and cross-border terrorism from Pakistan continue.

 

The Defense Ministry has said it has already constituted a study group to make recommendations on budgetary reforms. It said the group has submitted its report, which the ministry has accepted and implemented. The ministry has declined to comment on the suggestion of setting up of another study group for the purposes other than the financial aspects of the Defense Ministry and three services.

 

The ministerial study group on financial aspect said the budgetary allocation to the Defense Ministry should be based on various schemes to be taken up during the period of the five-year plan. It said the ministry should have the authority to spend that sanctioned amount within the five-year plan period and not in a particular financial year.

 

The standing committee has in its report strongly felt that the Defense Ministry needs reforms and procedural changes to implement the principle of zero-based budgeting. It recommended the government that the Defense Ministry should carry out the necessary reforms and make concerted efforts to utilize the sanctioned amount within the particular financial year itself to avoid the surrender of non-utilized amount.

 

The Indian government had, after the Kargil conflict in 1999, constituted a high-level expert committee, which looked into the whole Indian defense structure and in its report made various suggestions to bring about more professionalism and modernization of the Indian armed forces.

 

The parliamentary standing committee has endorsed the view of the Kargil committee that the armed forces need to maintain a younger age so that they are at their fighting best at all times. The ministry said there are a number of problems in lateral induction of soldiers into the central paramilitary forces like border security force and central reserve police force.

 

The intelligence apparatus of the Indian armed forces has always been an area in question. The Kargil invasion had evoked much controversy, and the failure of Indian intelligence agencies to gather early inputs about the invasion of Pakistani troops in Indian soil was construed as the major reason that led to an armed conflict between two South Asian nations.

 

"Kargil invasion was the first regular war India had fought since 1971 and it has evoked much controversy and the extent of intelligence available and the action taken thereon," said A B Mahapatra, a defense analyst and executive director of Center for Asian Strategic Studies, a non-governmental think tank. "The Kargil review committee had made a number of observations regarding intelligence gathering, analysis sharing and taking of follow-up actions in this regard. But, nothing has happened on those recommendations."

 

India does not have a separate defense intelligence agency with adequate resources and equipment to play a substantive role in intelligence collection. The Research and Analysis Wing, the foreign spy agency of the country, plays a substantive role in intelligence gathering. Indian threat assessment has largely single-track process dominated by RAW.

 

 

 

Fueled by billions in oil wealth, it looks to reclaim the USSR's status as a global military power.

By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

 

Moscow

As a newly self-confident, oil-rich Russia teams up with China in joint military exercises Friday, it is moving to reclaim the former Soviet Union's status as a global military power.

 

A seven-year, $200-billion rearmament plan signed by President Vladimir Putin earlier this year will purchase new generations of missiles, planes, and perhaps aircraft carriers to rebuild Russia's arsenal. Already, the new military posture is on display: This summer, Russian bombers have extended their patrol ranges far into the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, forcing US and NATO interceptors to scramble for the first time since the cold war's end.

 

"Diplomacy between Russia and the West is increasingly being overshadowed by military gestures," says Sergei Strokan, a foreign-policy expert with the independent daily Kommersant. "It's clear that the Kremlin is listening more and more to the generals and giving them more of what they want."

 

Economic bloc ups military teamwork

 

On Friday, Mr. Putin will join leaders of China and other members of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Russia's Chelyabinsk region to view the final stage of the group's most ambitious joint military maneuvers yet, to include 6,500 troops and over 100 aircraft. Also on hand will be leaders of SCO observer states and prospective members, among them India, Pakistan, Iran, and Mongolia.

 

At an SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan Thursday, Putin stressed that while Russia is not seeking to build a cold war-style "military bloc," he does see the SCO expanding from its original purpose as an economic association to take on a greater military role.

 

"Year by year, the SCO is becoming a more substantial factor in ensuring security in the region," he said. "Russia, like other SCO states, favors strengthening the multipolar international system providing equal security and development potential for all countries. Any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally have no future," he added.

 

The SCO, founded in 2001, is often referred to as a "club of dictators" due to less-than-democratic ex-Soviet members such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. The group has been holding joint war games since 2005, when it also demanded that the US vacate military bases it had acquired after 9/11 in former Soviet Central Asia, whose oil and gas reserves are garnering increased attention from the West.

 

"The SCO clearly wants the US to leave Central Asia; that's a basic political demand," says Ivan Safranchuk, Moscow director of the independent World Security Institute. "That's one reason why the SCO is holding military exercises, to demonstrate its capability to take responsibility for stability in Central Asia after the US leaves."

 

New naval base, long-range missiles

 

Moscow's growing military footprint – and the apprehensions of others about it – is evident in a spate of recent news events.

 

• Last week the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia accused Russian warplanes of invading its airspace and firing a missile, which failed to explode, at a radio station. Russian officials denied the allegation and suggested that Georgian leaders fabricated the incident. Tensions have been high between Russia and Georgia over Moscow's support for two breakaway Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are protected by Russian "peacekeeping" troops.

 

• Russian naval chief Admiral Vladimir Masorin announced this month that Russia may reclaim a naval base at Tartus, in Syria, from which Soviet warships used to keep tabs on US ships. "The Mediterranean is an important theater of operations for the Russian Black Sea Fleet," he said. "We must restore a permanent presence of the Russian Navy in this region."

 

• In July, amid worsening relations between Russia and Britain over the still unsolved poisoning death of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, two Russian Tu-95 bombers flew deep into NATO territory for the first time since the cold war's end and, according to Britain's defense ministry, briefly entered British airspace before being escorted away by British fighter planes.

 

Last week, in another post-Soviet first, Russian bombers "revived the tradition of our long-range aviation to fly far into the ocean, to meet US aircraft carriers and greet US pilots visually," ending up near the American Pacific base of Guam, Russian Air Force Maj. Gen. Pavel Androsov told Russian media. He added that the pilots on both sides "exchanged grins."

 

• Russia has recently conducted tests of new land- and sea-based intercontinental missiles, which are expected to soon replace the country's aging Soviet-era nuclear deterrent. As a partial response to US missile defense plans, Russia will develop a missile defense "project that will include not only air defense systems but also antiballistic missile and space defense systems" to protect Moscow and other Russian centers, Russian Air Force chief Col. Gen. Alexandr Zelin told Russian media last week.

 

Critics are skeptical that, despite major Putin-era infusions of cash, Russia's weak industrial base can deliver on the Kremlin's ambitions to restore a global military presence.

 

"Now our military leaders have enough money to create a kind of caricature of the Soviet armed forces, and they want to do a lot of the same old things," says Alexander Goltz, military expert with the independent online magazine Yezhednevny Zhurnal. "But their plans are a confused mixture of realistic goals and unworkable Soviet-style symbolism," says Mr. Goltz.

 

 

Defence Tech
US Sees Looming China Threat to Satellites

China may be just three years away from being able to disrupt U.S. military satellites in a regional conflict, a senior U.S. military leader said Aug. 14, citing a recent antisatellite test and other advances.

The warning came amid calls at a conference in Alabama for intensified efforts to ensure U.S. “space superiority� in the wake of China’s shootdown Jan. 11 of one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile.

“It is not inconceivable that within about three years we can be challenged at a near peer level in a region,� said Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell, head of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command.

“That means taking out a number of communications capabilities over a theater of war,� he added in a speech to an audience of defense contractors in Huntsville, Ala.

Campbell later told reporters that while a number of countries have some capabilities to interfere with satellite communications, China is the country he is most worried about.

Its antisatellite test in January was a clear demonstration of its ability to destroy an orbiting satellite, he said.

But its development of jamming capabilities and advances in computer network attack point to a comprehensive approach to denying the U.S. military access to space in a conflict, he said.

“It starts to add up that they’ll have multidimensional capabilities to attack various systems that are in orbit today,� he said.

“A lot of countries have pieces of what I’ve described, but I would say I’m more concerned about China than any of them,� he said.

Satellites are vital to U.S. military operations, enabling the flow of torrents of communications, imagery and navigational data for the kind of high-tech precision warfare the U.S. excels at.

But U.S. reliance on satellites also has created vulnerabilities that, though long understood, had not taken concrete form until the Chinese test.

Campbell said it has spurred the military to think about how to counter the threat, including ways to track and surveil objects in space to know what they are up to.

He said his command has devised a “space alert� system patterned on “air alerts� that would key the military’s responses to a threat to a friendly satellite.

The military also is thinking about offensive countermeasures, he said.

“I’m not free to talk about specifics, but the bottom line is we’re thinking about and taking steps to ensure we have a capability... that shows we have freedom of action in space,� he said.

 

Keating: China could join 1,000-ship navy

 

By Zachary M. Peterson - Staff writer

Posted : Thursday Jul 26, 2007 11:15:37 EDT

  

The Chinese navy could eventually become part of what Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen envisions as the “1,000-ship navy,” Pacific Command head Adm. Timothy Keating said Tuesday.

 

At a question-and-answer session at a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a public policy research group, Keating said that maritime cooperation with China is important, saying he recently met with Chinese defense officials.

 

He acknowledged that China could eventually become part of the “1,000-ship navy,” but he said challenges remain.

 

The U.S. currently is working with China to facilitate better coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief missions in the Pacific, he said.

 

In time, Keating said, “I think China could be part of the 1000-ship navy.” However, he said that this will not happen quickly, but he remains “cautiously optimistic” that the U.S. Navy could work more closely with China’s navy in the future.

 

He said that Pacific Command is watching the development of China’s military capabilities with “more than a passing interest.” Keating stressed the need to continue to work to “reduce areas of misunderstanding,” citing the example of the Chinese submarine that surfaced near the Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group last year. He noted that both the U.S. and China had the right to operate in the Pacific, but they both need to improve transparency and communication.

 

In response to a question about a potential naval arms buildup in the region, Keating said he was not concerned, nor was he aware of, a maritime arms race. He said the U.S. maintains a “technological advantage” over potential adversaries in the region, and that the United States “doesn’t intend to yield” this advantage. His advice to any potential future military competitor interested in trying to challenge U.S. capabilities: “Don’t do it.”

 

Keating also stressed the importance of building more multilateral relationships with countries in the region. Historically, most military relationships in the region have been built bilaterally, something Keating said he would like to see changed. One example of the multinational cooperation Keating supports is the Malabar-07 naval exercise, scheduled for September, that will involve the Indian, Japanese, Singaporean, Australian and U.S. navies.

 

Referencing his time as flag aide to former PacCom head Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., Keating said he’s seen great progress in relationships in Asia, noting, “It’s much different today than it was in 1985.”

 

Military Aviation

Jul 24, 2007

Taipei: A top Taiwan army official is visiting the United States to seek to buy advanced fighter jets to help counter a mounting military threat from China, a report said Friday. Chief of General Staff Ho Shou-yeh led a delegation to Washington this week for talks with US defense officials, the China Times here said, quoting unnamed sources. Ho also hoped to meet "by chance" with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the newspaper said.

 

Ho was seeking to reaffirm a deal to buy 66 F-16C/D fighter jets after concerns the United States appeared to be dragging its feet on finalising arrangements, the newspaper said.

 

The US reportedly agreed last year to sell the jets to Taiwan on condition the island passed a budget worth 10 billion US dollars for US arms procurement.

 

Taiwan's parliament last month passed part of the 10-billion-dollar bill worth 9.8 billion Taiwan dollars (300 million US).

 

But it froze the proposed package worth 16 billion Taiwan dollars for the fighter deal pending a formal offer and quotes from the US.

 

The total arms package called in part for the purchase of six PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile systems, eight conventional submarines and 12 P-3C aircraft.

 

It was first offered by US President George W. Bush in 2001 as a way to bolster Taiwan's defence against China.

 

The US is the leading arms supplier to Taiwan despite its switch of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

 

Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still claims sovereignty over Taiwan and opposes Washington to sell any advanced weaponry to the island.

 

As U.S. efforts falter, China works to expand its global influence, appeal

While the White House has been focusing its foreign policy attention on Iraq, the rest of the world hasn't been standing still.

 China has been using a new approach to expand its influence and global appeal. This approach is one at which the United States once excelled but now does badly. Call it "soft power," a term coined more than a decade ago by Harvard's Joseph Nye to describe a country's ability to lead by example and get others to follow because they admire what you are.

 A new book called Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World looks at Beijing's increasing skill at using diplomacy, trade incentives, cultural and educational exchanges, and other techniques to build an image of a benign global leader. The author, Asia specialist Joshua Kurlantzick, describes a Chinese strategy that has received little U.S. attention. Beijing is wooing Asians, Latin Americans and Africans with a subtle approach aimed at countering fears of China's rising military and economic strength.

 Speaking last week at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Mr. Kurlantzick described the practical reasons China is relying more on soft than hard power. In the 1990s, many Asians were unnerved by fears of Chinese military adventurism. Chinese leaders understood this image was harmful. Given their growth, they needed more access to energy resources and wanted to play a bigger role in Asia. "China saw that if it reduced [other countries'] fears, it could gain," the author says.

So the Chinese have expanded people-to-people diplomacy, set up their own Peace Corps, and trained diplomats to speak local languages and appear on local TV shows. Tens of thousands of foreign students attend Chinese universities. Chinese language and cultural studies are soaring in popularity.

China is pouring aid into Third World countries, including many whose relations with the U.S. have faltered, which could prove useful for resources - such as Venezuela, Sudan and Iran. It asks no questions about human rights violations.

 President Bush touts the need for public diplomacy. But his appointment of Karen Hughes as public diplomacy czar has been a failure, as evidenced by poll after depressing poll. One example: In a 2005 BBC poll of 22 nations, 48 percent believed China's role in the world was mainly positive, but only 38 percent thought the same of the United States.

 What's so disturbing about Charm Offensive is the larger problem it illuminates. America is no longer taking advantage of its greatest strengths: leading the community of democracies by example. Our diplomacy, as Mr. Kurlantzick notes, is preoccupied with Iraq and the "war against terrorism" to the exclusion of other countries' concerns.

 While China promotes a model of authoritarian politics plus growth, we undercut the image of our democratic model by violating our own precepts on domestic surveillance and torture. This doesn't have to be the case.

 When it comes to exercising soft power, America should take a page from China's book. Train more diplomats to speak local languages, and let them do more tours in the countries whose languages they speak. Reopen U.S. cultural centers abroad. Unlike China, focus U.S. radio broadcasts abroad on real news, like the BBC does, not on pop music and propaganda. Retake our former leadership in multinational organizations - and take the lead in environmental causes such as global warming.

 "If soft power is not exercised, it goes away or somewhere else, doesn't it?" asks Harvey Sicherman, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The answer, as Mr. Kurlantzick's book makes clear, is a definitive "yes."

Trudy Rubin is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her column appears Tuesdays in The Sun. Her e-mail is trubin@phillynews.com.

 

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