China's Defense/Military Breaking News Thread

It is not a warship. It is one of Nan(南, South)Jiu(救,rescue) series ship, NATO call this kind "Dalang class".
China did not use warship to counter unarmed American spyship. You are not armed, me neither, just make a fairplay.
Another detail of proof that how desperately MSM is attempting to make China as the inciter and provoker.

Can you share a picture of this class of ships?
 
Simple informative explanation of the military implications of what the USN and the PLAN are doing in instances like this USNS Bowditch incident with a glimpse of other issues surrounding the topic.

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Q&A: China just seized a research robot from a U.S. Navy ship. What was it doing?
By David Malakoff
Dec. 16, 2016 , 1:45 PM

For ocean scientists who have worked with the U.S. military, today’s news that Chinese forces seized an oceanographic glider launched by an unarmed U.S. Navy research ship working in the South China Sea has a familiar ring. It’s not the first time that Chinese ships have confronted the USNS Bowditch or one of its five sister oceanographic ships, a little-known U.S. Navy fleet operated mostly by civilians that conducts mapping and ocean data collection cruises around the world. In 2001 and 2002, for instance, Chinese Navy frigates dogged the Bowditch as it worked in the Yellow Sea, leading to an exchange of diplomatic complaints.

In general, the Chinese object to the U.S. Navy conducting research activities within China’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which stretches some 320 kilometers off its coastline. But U.S. officials have long held that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea specifically allows military ships to conduct research cruises within a nation’s EEZ (although civilian research cruises need to get permission from the host country).

To learn more about the work of the Bowditch and its sister ships, ScienceInsider chatted with now-retired Rear Admiral David Titley, who oversaw the U.S. Navy’s research fleet from 2007 to 2009 as commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. Titley is now director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Pennsylvania State University in State College. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: What do ships like the Bowditch do?

A: Well, these oceanographic survey ships are very rarely in the news, but they play a big part in what the Navy is doing, in a data-driven scientific way, to learn about our oceans. They do just what the name implies. The reason the Navy is interested in surveying the ocean worldwide is because it operates worldwide. So while the Navy has to play the away game, it needs and wants the home field advantage—it wants to know the terrain. And if you want to understand something you have to first measure it, and that’s what these ships are designed to do. They collect information about how deep the ocean is, the type of bottom, the currents, the temperature and salinity structure, and where the eddies are. All of that is essential to understanding the terrain and forecasting how it might change. They’ve been doing these missions in international waters for many, many decades.

Q: Are these regular Navy vessels?

A: These are Military Sealift Command vessels. In the Navy, we have what we call the gray hulls—your destroyers, aircraft carriers, and submarines—that have crews that are all active-duty military. Then there is the sealift command—the white hulls—that have civilian masters and mates, and the crews are often contractors. They also have a technical surveying crew that is usually mostly civilian oceanographers, hydrographers, and other technical personnel.

Q: What happens to the data these ships collect?

A: When the U.S. Navy works in another nation’s EEZ, you have to be careful about how you handle data, and what you do and do not release. Under the Law of the Sea, the position taken by the U.S. and many other nations is that the military can collect data within a country’s EEZ without the permission of that country, because it is a military survey. We can ask for permission, and we do at times, but we don’t have to. But those data then cannot be released to the general public, because that would make it a more civilian-type science expedition. And you don’t want another country to say: See, it’s not a military mission.

Q: China takes a different position on military research activities in the EEZ …

A: Yes, China does not like it. So, historically, what we have had occasionally is that when the Bowditch or [a similar ship] has been working in China’s EEZ, they have harassed our oceanographic survey ships. Now, I don’t know where the Bowditch exactly was working—the South China Sea is a huge area—or what its mission was. Clearly something has happened. But one of the first things you learn in the Navy is that the very first report is probably wrong. So I’m sure we’ll learn more.

Updated, 12/16/2016, 5:35p.m.: This story has been updated to remove a reference to the comparative sizes of the South China Sea and the contiguous United States.


Posted in: Asia/Pacific,
Oceanography,
Policy


DOI: 10.1126/science.aal0524
 
USNI info on the USNS Bowditch glider:
lbs_glider.png
 

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
New drone target to simulate 5G jet with high maneuverability nickname LARK is successfully tested
It is just amazing what is coming from the chinese lab seem finally all the years of hard work paid off. From Henri K
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According to
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a new drone target "high maneuverability" made its first flight December 21, 2016 in a basic flight testing in the Northwest of China.

The target drone, called the LARK-1 if one believes the image appeared in the text, is " the first (Chinese target drone) can simulate flying targets high maneuverability, such as fighter planes 4th generation "," it can perform high load factor of maneuvers, both in continuous or instantaneous ". The target drone used " to the tests of validation of new armaments and combat training of troops ".

Note that the 4th generation, in the Chinese classification, corresponds to the 5th generation in the United States and Russia.

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The LARK-1 target drone developed by NWPU University and several Chinese manufacturers

The development project for this LARK-1 target drone is led by the team of Professor YU Yun Feng (云峰 云峰), and in collaboration with several industrialists such as the 4th, 6th and 9th academies of the Chinese aerospace group CASC , And Institute 618 of the aviation group AVIC.

Although no technical details have been given in the text, we can already guess the technical choice, particularly in terms of propulsion, through the composition of this development team.

Indeed, the 4th Academy of the CCAC is specialized in propulsion with solid propellant, while the 6th academy is in propulsion with liquid propellant. The two entities of the 9th Academy of CASC as well as the Institute 618 of AVIC, meanwhile, are each of the equipment manufacturers in the field of guidance, navigation and control.

And we can see in the photo that the machine is separated into two parts - a booster that seems to be a powder rocket so that the whole can be accelerated quickly, and the target drone could be propelled by a liquid propellant engine , To regulate the thrust and better manage the energy throughout the flight.

Based on the size of the person's heads present in the photo, it can be deduced that the target drone measures approximately 4,15 meters long and 375 mm in diameter, and the 3.07-meter Long and 500 mm in diameter.

This first trial is also attended by experts from other Chinese entities in the armaments, including the AVIC Air-Air Missile Academy, CAAA, CALT and the NUDT Military University.

The test site is kept secret but it is finished on 21 December 2016 at 17:00 local time. With the aid of the messages to the air navigators (NOTAM) one can try to find the place and possibly the flight profile.

There are thus three NOTAMs which correspond to the date and the hour indicates:

A3220 / 16 NOTAMN
Q) ZLHW / QARLT / IV / NBO / E / 246/276 /
A) ZLHW B) 1612210320 C) 1612210420
E) THE SEGMENTS WI AN AREA CENTERED AT N4027.9E09724.1 WITH RADIUS
OF 60KM CLSD BTN 7500m (INCLUSIVE) AND 8400M (INCLUSIVE).
F) FL246 G) FL276

A3219 / 16 NOTAMN
Q) ZLHW / QARLT / IV / NBO / E / 246/341 /
A) ZLHW B) 1612210340 C) 1612210520
E) THE FLW SEGMENTS OF ATS RTE CLSD BTN 7500m (INCLUSIVE) AND
10400M (INCLUSIVE):
1 B215: JIAYUGUAN VOR 'CHW' -YABRAI VOR 'YBL'.
2. WI AN AREA CENTERED AT YABRAI VOR 'YBL' WITH RADIUS OF 100KM.
F) FL246 G) FL341

A3222 / 16 NOTAMN
Q) ZLHW / QARLT / IV / NBO / E / 000/341 /
A) ZLHW B) 1612210600 C) 1612210900
E) SEGMENTS OF THE FLW ATS RTE CLSD AT AND BELOW 10400M:
1.W66: GOBIN- Ejinaqi VOR 'JNQ'.
2.WI A CIRCLE CENTERED AT GOBIN WITH RADIUS OF 50KM.
F) FL000 G) FL341

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3 possible test areas for the first flight of the target drone LARK-1

Among the three possible test areas, that of A3222 / 16 seems to best correspond to the description. First, there is a small airfield near the EJINAQI point, sufficient to install the target drone's firing range on the ground.

Then the distance between EJINAQI and GOBIN is also shorter, 156 km, so more logical for a first flight, compared to 382 km between JIAYUGUAN and YABRAI of NOTAM A3219 / 16.

And finally, the A3222 prohibits any overflight at an altitude of 10 400 meters over a radius of 50 km around the GOBIN point, whereas the A3219 contains a more restrictive zone between 7 500 and 10 400 meters d 'Altitude over a radius of 100 km around YABRAI. For a first flight, it seems prudent to close any airspace from ground level to the maximum limit of the craft for safety, not just an air corridor.

Therefore, if the NOTAM A3222 / 16 actually represents the test of the target drone in question, it would have flown 156 km to reach the test area and the total duration of the test would not have exceeded 3 hours.

These first working hypotheses seem to be confirmed by the figures published by the CASC group, which I was able to retrieve after writing the text at the top.

According to the description panel at the last Zhuhai Show, the target drone LARK-1 exists in two versions - one for ground launch and the other under a fighter-bomber. The machine, with an SER signature of 0.3 m² (X-band), flies at a speed between Mach 0.8 and 1.6, with an instantaneous load factor ⩽ 9 g and 6 g continuously. The cruise altitude is 8,000 to 14,000 meters.

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The characteristics of the LARK-1 target drone (Source: situ)

It should be noted that the name of Professor YU Yun Feng, who is in charge of the project, is strangely familiar to me. After some research, it is, indeed, one who has worked in the field propelled hypersonic Scramjet, and co-authored a book entitled "
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".

In an old biography of YU published on the website of NWPU (retired now), it is mentioned that the Chinese teacher had worked on projects "to (achieve performance) X-43A US" during the 12th Five Year Plan (2010 -2015).

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Book co-authored by Professor YU Yun Feng

It is in 2012 that the first Sramjet Chinese coaxial configuration gear made its maiden flight successfully. The machine flew with a speed higher than Mach 5.0 at an altitude greater than 20 km, it allowed Chinese engineers to check a number of key technologies in the Sramjet propulsion.

NWPU University, historically close to Chinese weapons projects and directly attached to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), is actively involved in these Sramjet projects.

With
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, and the target drone development can simulate certain behaviors flying high maneuverability devices, it is certain that China passes A higher speed to seek not only to exploit the new vectors but also to defend them.

The use of target drone also significantly reduces the cost of training for pilots, and also the cost of testing for offensive and defensive weapons.

To be continued.

Henri K.
 

advill

Junior Member
The PLA (Army, Navy & Air Force) has arrived as a highly modern Military Force. BZ (Well Done). Let the weapons be used for defence & only offence against bullies. Happy New Year.
 

Franklin

Captain
According to this article China's military technology is nearing parity with that of the West. I guess it depends on which day of the week it is when it comes to assessing China's military and other capabilities. One day they say China is nearing collapse the next day they say its going to take over the world.

Chinese weapons reaching 'near-parity' with West: study

China is beginning to export its own weapon designs, including armed drones, worldwide and is reaching "near-parity" with the West in terms of military technology, according to a report on Tuesday.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies said that China's official defence budget of $145 billion (137 billion euros) last year was 1.8 times higher than those of South Korea and Japan combined.

It also accounted for more than a third of Asia's total military spending in 2016, the IISS annual Military Balance report said, adding that spending in Asia grew by five to six percentage points a year between 2012 and 2016.

Total global military spending instead fell by 0.4 percent in real terms in 2016 compared to 2015, largely due to reductions in the Middle East.

"China's military progress highlights that Western dominance in the field of advanced weapons systems can no longer be taken for granted," IISS director John Chipman said at a presentation in London.

"An emerging threat for deployed Western forces is that with China looking to sell more abroad, they may confront more advanced military systems, in more places, and operated by a broader range of adversaries," Chipman said.

The report found that in terms of air power "China appears to be reaching near-parity with the West".

It said one of China's air-to-air missiles had no Western equivalent and that China had introduced a type of short-range missile that "only a handful of leading aerospace nations are able to develop".

It said China was also developing "what could be the world's longest range air-to-air missile".

- Chinese exports to Africa -

The report noted that Chinese military exports to Africa last year "were moving from the sale of Soviet-era designs to the export of systems designed in China".

It said that Chinese-made armed drones had been seen in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

The report also noted that European states are "only gradually" increasing their defence spending.

"While Europe was one of the three regions in the world where defence spending rose in 2015-16, European defence spending remains modest as a proportion of the continent's GDP," the study said.

In 2016, IISS found that only two European NATO states -- Greece and Estonia -- met the aim of spending 2.0 percent of their GDP on defence.

This was down from four European states that met the target in 2015 -- Britain, Greece, Estonia and Poland.

Britain dipped to 1.98 percent of GDP, according to IISS calculations, although that figure was immediately disputed by Britain's defence ministry.

But the IISS said it was more important that countries focus on upgrading their military equipment.

"This is made more urgent because of the degree to which Western states have reduced their equipment and personnel numbers since the Cold War," it said.

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subotai1

Junior Member
Registered Member
It said one of China's air-to-air missiles had no Western equivalent and that China had introduced a type of short-range missile that "only a handful of leading aerospace nations are able to develop".

IISS is very reputable. I don't feel like paying for the report. Any idea which weapons systems they were referring to with these?
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
According to this article China's military technology is nearing parity with that of the West. I guess it depends on which day of the week it is when it comes to assessing China's military and other capabilities. One day they say China is nearing collapse the next day they say its going to take over the world.



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Report writers clearly have an agenda to get western nations to spend more on defence.

Utterly fails to mentioned Chinese defence spending is only 2% of GDP, but cities misleading figures designed to give the impression to readers Chinese defence spending is far higher than what NATO itself has set as a target.
 
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