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Troika

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HONG KONG, China, China, Taiwan and Singapore all share the Chinese language and culture. Yet due to their different positions in the international sphere and the capabilities of their respective military industries, the three have chosen very different military strategies and weapons systems. It is interesting to compare the three approaches.
First, in terms of military strategy, China is now gradually transforming itself from the passive defense of the Cold War years to today's active defense, with balanced offensive and defensive capabilities. China's navy is also turning from coastal defense to offshore defense.

The two sides of the Taiwan Strait are now under abnormal adversarial conditions. Taiwan's strategic goal has changed from staging large-scale counterattacks on mainland China to engaging in a decisive battle away from Taiwan Island and establishing balanced offensive and defensive capabilities.

Singapore's approach is proactive defense, typical of a small country. Since Singapore is much better off than other countries in the region, and it has a sensitive historical relationship with Malaysia, Singapore's national defense policy has followed the dual-track principle of diplomacy and deterrence.

While building up formidable military strengths to dissuade potential enemies from reckless action, Singapore also tries to reinforce its national defense through diplomatic ties, hoping it will receive support from the outside world should the regional situation deteriorate. Singapore learned from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that wealth does not equal peace.

The military strategies and doctrines of Singapore and Taiwan are becoming increasingly close. Both are attempting to establish effective deterrence against potential adversaries through building up their military machines. Both also rely on the diplomatic or even military involvement of world powers should they face a protracted conflict.

By procuring large batches of arms and establishing special military ties with the United States, both Singapore and Taiwan hope to guarantee their own security, expecting that the United States would come to their rescue should a major conflict arise.

Singapore's practice of purchasing AIM-120C air-to-air missiles and storing these weapon systems in the United States is clearly an attempt to establish a tangible military alliance with the United States and to integrate diplomatic deterrence with military deterrence. If a conflict broke out, Singapore would inevitably ask the United States to deliver the weapon systems stored on U.S. territory, which would make it impossible for the United States to remain neutral.

Taiwan's approach in recent years has been more or less similar. For the same purpose, Singapore may also deposit the 66 Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks it procured from Germany in Australia, as a tactic to contain the latest move of the Malaysian army to import PT91M main battle tanks from Poland.

Secondly, Singapore hopes to win additional layers of protection through its "diplomatic deterrence" strategy. Through reinforcing its ties with Australia, Canada and the joint defense cooperation among the five ASEAN countries, Singapore intends to implement the strategy of multi-layered diplomatic deterrence; that is, using different diplomatic deterrence strategies to deal with different adversaries.

In recent years, Taiwan has also sought to weaken the dominance of the United States in the dynamics of the Taiwan Strait and actively expand its military exchanges with Japan, Australia and India, with the same strategic objectives as Singapore.

Although China, Taiwan and Singapore all seek to balance their offensive and defensive capabilities, Singapore's navy and air force have the most advanced Western military technologies and the most formidable attack power in comparison with Taiwan and China. In other words, in implementing the strategy of balanced offensive and defensive deterrence, the Singaporean military forces place much greater emphasis on offensive operations than the Taiwanese and Chinese forces.

Singapore's "active defense" strategy is probably influenced by traditional British military ideology. Similar traces can be found in the military strategies of fellow former British colonies India and Pakistan. With the import of 12 plus 8 F-15ST fighters from the United States, Singapore has become the first of the three militaries to acquire joint direct attack munition bombs.

In addition, Singapore has acquired APG-63V3 active electronically scanned array radar systems ahead of Japan and Korea. The Singaporean air force is also equipped with 20 of the most powerful AN-64D attack helicopters in the region.

Due to the differences in the combat capabilities of their prospective adversaries, Taiwan and Singapore also have different deterrence strengths. The powerful offensive weapon systems mentioned above are already sufficient to give Singapore the capability to paralyze the enemy through preemptive standoff operations, which could be followed by diplomatic measures to resolve the conflict.

Singapore's latest replacements of military equipment, particularly in the navy and air force, show that the deterrence capability it aspires to is not directed solely at Malaysia. Thanks to the procurement of F-16 Block52 fighters and the KC-135R tanker, plus the fact that four E-2C aerial early warning aircraft are already in service, the Singaporean air force can now project its power over almost all of Southeast Asia.

Singapore is already armed with 70 F-16 fighters, among which 62 are F-16 Block52s. These fighters are equipped with the Israeli Python-4 and AIM120C AAM. The Taiwanese air force also dreams of acquiring the F-16 Block52. Both the Singaporean and the Taiwanese air forces are equipped with AGM-65G infrared-guided anti-ship missiles.

Singapore is favored by the West and Russia and has experienced no restrictions in the import of arms. Unlike Taiwan, Singapore has access to diversified weapons sources. The Singaporean army is equipped with Russian Igla (SA-18) ground-to-air missiles, for example.

As for military cooperation between Singapore and Taiwan, there has been constant speculation and many unconfirmed reports about this. Sources say that Singapore's batch of SA-18 missiles was actually ordered by Taiwan. Both Taiwan and Singapore are now employing the French-made La Fayette guided missile frigates (FFGs). The Singaporean variant of the La Fayette and the same model of FFG assembled indigenously are called the Delta Project, which has undergone major upgrading, but the price is said to be less than two-thirds the price Taiwan paid for its La Fayettes. Obviously the two received far different treatment in their purchase deals.

As a matter of fact, Israel has close ties with all three of the militaries under discussion. Singapore's ground forces, air force and navy use a lot of Israel-made equipment. The Singaporean navy's "Victory" class missile patrol boats are equipped with the Barak I vertical launch surface-to-air systems made by Israel Aerospace Industries/Rafael, while the F-16 Block52 fighters of the Singaporean air force are equipped with Israeli-designed electronic warfare systems.

As is widely known, both Taiwan and Singapore have acquired Gabriel I surface-to-surface missiles from Israel's IAI. In addition, Singapore has also purchased submarines from Sweden. In 1990, Singapore received the first batch of two A17 submarines, and four Sjoormen-class submarines were delivered to Singapore in 2004. The Sjoormen submarine has a standard displacement of 1,130 tons. As a result, Singapore has become the first country in Southeast Asia with genuine underwater combat capability.

Since international attitudes toward Singapore have been the most open and favorable, it has had the broadest training opportunities for its military personnel. The pilots of the Singaporean air force not only receive training in the United States, they also actively participate in joint military exercises with India, Australia and other countries, including joint naval and air force operations. The Singaporean air force has even carried out confrontational exercises in which the Su-30MKI fighter planes faced Singapore's F-16 Block52s.

--

(Andrei Chang is editor-in-chief of Kanwa Defense Review Monthly, registered in Toronto Canada.)

Personally, I have a question: What sort of a name is Pinkov, why is he also listed as Andrei Chang? Is he half-Russian? Personally, I've never even HEARD of Pinkov as a surname... and if it is a real one, it sounds silly.

Anyway, link taken from comrade TPHuang's site. I must say that I agree with him in that I am by now seriously doubting Mr. Chang's grasp of reality, which never seems that strong to begin with. I read an article on Kanwa (well, a translation of said article), which compared current People's Republic to 1949 KMT, and in another, he kept on insinuating that People's Republic does not care about human life and has low 'national quality' (whatever that means, he also has a photo of Chinese people littering, so...) so can sustain massive casualties without a blink. Of course, according to that logic, KMT armies should be never surrendering easily and running away in Civil war... given how CCP armies treat soldiers much better. That's the very example he cited in the before-article. In short, I find his idea to hold completely contradictory ideas in his head breath-taking.
 
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kickars

Junior Member
Personally, I have a question: What sort of a name is Pinkov, why is he also listed as Andrei Chang? Is he half-Russian? Personally, I've never even HEARD of Pinkov as a surname... and if it is a real one, it sounds silly.

Anyway, link taken from comrade TPHuang's site. I must say that I agree with him in that I am by now seriously doubting Mr. Chang's grasp of reality, which never seems that strong to begin with. I read an article on Kanwa (well, a translation of said article), which compared current People's Republic to 1949 KMT, and in another, he kept on insinuating that People's Republic does not care about human life and has low 'national quality' (whatever that means, he also has a photo of Chinese people littering, so...) so can sustain massive casualties without a blink. Of course, according to that logic, KMT armies should be never surrendering easily and running away in Civil war... given how CCP armies treat soldiers much better. That's the very example he cited in the before-article. In short, I find his idea to hold completely contradictory ideas in his head breath-taking.

Well he is 100% Chinese(was born and educated in mainland China), but holds a Canadian passport. So he would like people to think him NOT as a Chinese. As for his latest 'foreign' name, well it's just a silly name he gave himself, which has nothing to do with his real name on the passport.:rofl:
 

tphuang

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He's good for getting stuff on Russian arms purchase, but that's about the extent of the validity of his articles.
if we want to be more general, he is good when he gets his information from an interview or from an air show or soemthing like that. Anytime that he is speculating and doing his own analysis, we get real big problems, lol
 

adeptitus

Captain
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Regarding Taiwan/ROC-Singapore military ties, Singapore sends its military personnel to Taiwan for military training as part of a cooperative agreement.

This unfortunately resulted in several Singapore military personnel killed or injured in the Hukou F-5 crash last year:
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Violet Oboe

Junior Member
Singapore is engaging in an ever deepening relationship with China and there were recently some rumours that Singapore would establish training bases in Thailand and China as a substitute for facilities on Taiwan. Singapore is slowly shifting her position also in security matters in favor of China but the tables will probably only be turned after the passing away of Singapore's deeply anti chinese/communist (anti whatsoever he saw when looking too long in a mirror...:D) ´founding father´ Lee Kuan Yew. :coffee:

(...though after that happens things could move quite fast.)
 

flyzies

Junior Member
This is his latest one on UPI.

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Its actually getting to a point where its almost complete BS...examples:
The United States and Japan are behind a plan to strategically isolate China, which has been very successful so far.
Why is NATO planning to locate ballistic missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic? The United States managed to convince NATO that China's intercontinental ballistic missiles may pose a threat to NATO members' territory....On several occasions, the United States has replaced China with North Korea as the potential target of missiles from Eastern European bases.
Several reports published in the United States have claimed that 90 percent of the weapons used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan are from China.
Its very convenient he doesnt show his references isnt it?? :roll:
 

maozedong

Banned Idiot
Global Times Global Network news: According to UPI Asia Online website Pinkov have recently published the article, entitled "China's missile capabilities," according to Google Earth satellite images, the article in the PLA's Second Artillery Corps of the two missiles near Taiwan Strait base a lot of speculation, which involves the location of the missile, the range of types of warheads and guidance methods. Following is part of the contents.
Pinkov said that in the Dongfeng-15 missile deployment in Fujian Province shows that the Second Artillery Corps tactical intent, that is, once the outbreak of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, "the forced isolation" the United States may be close to the Taiwan Strait regional aircraft carrier battle groups. Fujian's new missile bases built in the mountains, and to build the launch platform.
 

tphuang

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pinkov strikes again, I'm probably going to post a counter to this on my blog, but here it is.

China imitates Russian Su-27SK fighter

ANDREI CHANGPublished:

February 25, 2008

HONG KONG, China, Based on the design of the Russian Sukhoi Su-27SK fighter, China has come up with its own domestic version, the J-11B multi-function fighter. Three J-11B prototypes have been manufactured since 2006. After their factory flight tests, they have been evaluated by the People's Liberation Army Air Force 1st Fighter Division, based in Anshan in China's northeast Liaoning province.
A Chinese military industry source has confirmed that pre-production of the fighters will begin this year. "We will not need to assemble more Su-27SKs, because it is old technology given from Russia," the source said.

The J-11B has undergone drastic changes from the original Russian design. A source from the Chinese aerospace industry says that except for the Russian-made engines, 90 percent of the major subsystems fitted on the J-11B, including the radar and optical electronic systems, are made by China. The Chinese aviation company AVIC 1 has already completed testing the 1474 serial radar system to be deployed in the J-11B. The fighter's weapons will also integrate indigenous systems.

A Chinese pilot with more than 20 years of flight experience expressed his high opinion of the Su-27 fighter, describing it as "very easy to fly."

However, as the source from the Chinese military industry points out, some of the parts used on the Su-27SK have a very short lifespan, which has led to a high rate of technical accidents. For instance, frequent problems with the fighter's infrared search and track system have restricted its use in the regular training of combat forces.

To investigate this issue, the author paid a special visit to the Ural Optical and Mechanical Complex in Ekaterinburg, Russia. A Russian source revealed that the company had signed two contracts with a Chinese company to supply parts for an updated IRST system, the OLS-31E. Execution of the contract, valued at US$1 million, began in 2007.

Research and development of the China-made IRST system to be fitted on the J-11B fighters is already completed. The physical appearance of this new IRST is very close to the original Russian OLS-31E, making it appear to be an imitation edition of the Russian system with some upgrades. In fact, the overall performance of the J-11B is now on a par with the Russian-edition Su-27SMK.

The J-11B's fire control radar system uses mechanical scanning, integrates more functions and features a modular design. The fighter also features substantial changes in the fire control system and the cockpit so the J-11B will be able to fire China's indigenous PL-12 air-to-air missiles and a whole series of other precision-guided weapons. The cockpit has three large color multifunctional displays and two small color multifunctional displays.

In recent years, China's pace of development in airborne equipment has been very fast. The design of its J-10B cockpit has been quite precocious; the rear cockpit seems to have four multifunctional color displays and two small multifunctional displays.

In addition, the J-11B will be fitted with China's indigenous strapdown inertial navigation system, 3-axix data system, power supply system, emergency power unit, brake system, hydraulic system, fuel system, environment control system and molecular sieve oxygen generation systems.

The fact that China is producing a large proportion of the J-11B parts domestically indicates that its demand for parts imported from Russia will decline dramatically during the second phase of the fighter's production. Also, some of the subsystems and equipment are compatible with those used in the J-10A and J-10B fighters.

It is expected that the J-11B's flight control system will also be manufactured in China. This was the leading reason why Russia could not determine whether China would continue to produce Su-27SK fighters in the next phase. In reality, the joint contract between Russia and China for the Su-27SK/J-11 development has now been virtually abandoned by the Chinese side without any consultation with Russia.
 
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