China's devious move under cover of virus

A Vietnamese fishing boat has been rammed and sunk. Military aircraft have landed at its artificial-island fortresses. And large-scale naval exercises has let everyone know China's navy is still pushing the boundaries, hard.

As outbreaks debilitate the US Navy, there are fears China may be using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for asserting control over the South China Sea, as China's People's Liberation Army knows this presents an opportunity: "The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly lowered the US Navy's warship deployment capability in the Asia-Pacific region," an article on its official website declares.

Meanwhile, the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has retreated from the contested waterway in an unscheduled return to Guam - with hundreds of cases of COVID-19 on board. That has international affairs analysts worried that even a short-term withdrawal of US and international from the East and South China Seas could give Beijing the opportunity it has been waiting for: "I think China is exploiting the US Navy's coronavirus challenges to improve its position in the South China Sea by giving the appearance it can and will operate there at will while the US is hamstrung," former Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Centre director Carl Schuster told CNN.

(Read more...)

¿Is India ready to defend itself against the Chinese threat?

After decades of pursuing Pakistan-centric war planning, the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force are recalibrating their sights towards the hitherto neglected northern frontiers with China, giving a hard push to improving its war-fighting capabilities against its more powerful neighbor.

But the Chinese need not worry, as it will take almost a decade for India to come anywhere near the infrastructure that the Chinese have built just in TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region): Since the 1990s, China has built a network of roads, airports and railway in the sparsely populated TAR which gives the People's Liberation Army (PLA) a distinct advantage when it comes to mobilizing its forces if needed in double quick time.

USS Lake Erie ships out to Asia

More than 350 military personnel left Pearl Harbor on Tuesday aboard the guided-missile cruiser. It will replace the John Paul Jones as a rotational Ballistic Missile Defense destroyer.

Read more: http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/uss-lake-erie-ships-out-to-asia/24551192#ixzz2tkOYAZK3

China: HQ-9 missile spotted

A series of satellite photos have captured a glimpse of China's HQ-9 surface-to-air missile system at a missile range in Xianyang in northwest China's Shaanxi province, according to the Janes Defense Weekly.

The photos of the Chinese air defense missile with its launcher and radar system were taken on Aug. 29 when a satellite flew over Sanyuan county in Xianyang. The HQ-9 missile is designed based on the Russian-built SA-10, and currently serves the ground and naval forces of the People's Liberation Army.

According to Janes Defense Weekly, the HQ-9's radar system differs from a Russian S-300 air defense missile in the tractor that is uses. The tractor of HQ-9's radar system is one meter shorter than the tractor of the Russian 64N6E radar. Meanwhile, Turkey announced that it would purchase the FD-2000, the export version of HQ-9 from China to serve as its air force's medium-range air defense missile. However, both the US and NATO have applied enormous pressure on Turkey over the missile deal, saying that the system would not be compatible with those of Turkey's other NATO allies.

Chinese military helicopter launches air-to-air missile

China's first self-developed modern military attack helicopter WZ-10 has launched its first air-to-air missile and successfully intercepted low-altitude targets.

The WZ-10, meaning "armed helicopter", carried out the launch during a live-fire drill involving army aviation troops of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the eastern waters off south China's Guangdong Province last week.

The WZ-10 is designed primarily for anti-tank missions and was first seen in public at the 9th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in the southern city of Zhuhai in Guangdong in 2012.