Will Chinese View US President Obama As A Diminished Figure?

     

    The last time President Barack Obama went to China, five years ago, he was a political supernova from a nation with a depleted, debt-ridden economy. When he returns to Beijing on Monday, he will be a political casualty from a country with a resurgent economy. 

White House officials hope the later distinction will outweigh the earlier one when Obama meets with President Xi Jinping before traveling on to Myanmar and Australia. But they are likely to be disappointed: China, analysts say, is likely to dwell more on Obama's electoral reversals than on the comparatively robust American recovery. 

Eye On China, India And US Set To Ramp Up Joint Naval Drills

     India and the US are set to deepen and broaden their bilateral military exercises to include more warfare components involving nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. They would also invite more countries to join the Malabar exercises as the two nations share concerns about the growing Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean.

PLA's DF-31B ICBM 'poses threat to US national security'

     

     After China tested its DF-31B intercontinental ballistic missile on Sept. 2, the Washington-based Strategy Page said that this new missile with a range of 10,000 poses a serious challenge to the national security of the United States.

The report said that China is estimated to have 400 missiles with the capability to carry nuclear warheads. Only a few dozen of them including the DF-5, the DF-31A/B and the DF-41 can reach the United States, however. China is believed to have had about 24 DF-5 missiles in service over the past 20 years. Even though they are capable of reaching the United States, few of them were believed to be operational because of reliability and maintenance problems.

Can India Emerge As A Top Global Military Power?

     

      A recent study by Britain's ministry of defence has predicted that India is likely to be among the top three military powers in the world by 2045, along with the US and China, with a projected defence outlay of $654 billion. Though India's military-industrial acumen is unlikely to surpass technological sophistication of the US by 2045, it may, along with China, rival it in terms of size. 

It is also likely to surpass Japan, Australia and South Korea (which will be ahead of other regional military powers) by developing sizeable and technically advanced armed forces, including ocean-going navies, capable of delivering an enduring and capable maritime presence both regionally and further afield, according to the study titled 'Global Strategic Trends - Out to 2045'.

British Forces Hand Over Control of Last Base in Afghanistan

     British forces Sunday handed over formal control of their last base in Afghanistan to Afghan troops, ending combat operations in the country after 13 years which cost hundreds of lives.

The Union Jack was lowered at Camp Bastion in the southern province of Helmand, while the Stars and Stripes came down at the adjacent Camp Leatherneck — the last US Marine base in the country.

US Army Explores Its Armored Vehicle Options

Defense News 

M2A3 Bradley IFV

    Nearly a year after the US Army canceled the Ground Combat Vehicle, officials defended the program as on-budget and called the decision to scuttle it a pragmatic move to improve further-along armored vehicle programs with available money.

On Tuesday, Brig. Gen David Bassett, commander PEO Ground Combat Systems, noted that the Future Fighting Vehicle (FFV) program, a follow-on to the GCV, is largely a science-and-technology development effort, meant to help the Army explore its options while it pursues various engineering-change proposals for its existing armored vehicles.

US Military Girds for More 'Unconventional Warfare'

      

      The US military must prepare for murky, undeclared wars in which foreign entities use proxy insurgencies against established governments, typified by Russia and Iran, US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) writes in a new white paper.

The paper, “Counter Unconventional Warfare,” describes how US rivals are employing unconventional warfare (UW) — the external sponsorship of insurgent and separatist movements — and argues for a comprehensive joint, inter-agency, intergovernmental and multinational [JIIM] strategy that applies “political, economic, military and psychological pressure,” with a prominent role for US special operations forces.

US-Led Strikes Kill More Than 500 Militants in Syria

USN F/A-18 Hornet

US-led airstrikes in Syria were reported Thursday to have killed more than 500 jihadists in a month, as Kurdish fighters readied to reinforce the embattled border town of Kobane.

An AFP correspondent across the frontier in Turkey reported fierce clashes and fresh air raids in Kobane, with heavy gun and mortar fire rocking its western side in the evening.

The Islamic State (IS) group, which on June 29 declared a “caliphate” over territory it seized in Iraq and Syria, was on Thursday described as the world’s wealthiest “terror” group, earning $1 million a day from oil sales alone.

India picks Israel's Spike anti-tank missile over U.S. Javelin

Israeli Spike ATGM

US Javelin ATGM

India has opted to buy Israel's Spike anti-tank guided missile, a defence ministry source said on Saturday, rejecting a rival U.S. offer of Javelin missiles that Washington had lobbied hard to win.

India will buy at least 8,000 Spike missiles and more than 300 launchers in a deal worth 32 billion rupees ($525 million), the source said after a meeting of India's Defence Acquisition Council.

US, Japan to bolster space cooperation over Chinese threat

The US and Japan will boost military cooperation in space to counteract China’s growing capability to shoot down satellites, a leading Japanese daily reports. The plan follows recent moves to increase space-based intelligence sharing between the states.

The plan comes as part of the revised Guidelines for Japan-US Defense Cooperation, due to be published by the end of the year, Asahi Shimbun reported on Wednesday.

The plan will fundamentally alter Japan’s previous commitment to the peaceful utilization of space, and put an end to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) only monitoring Japanese space satellites.

China's arms industry makes global inroads

Chinese HQ-9 long range missiles From the moment Turkey announced plans two years ago to acquire a long-range missile defense system, the multi-billion-dollar contract from a key NATO member appeared to be an American company's to lose. For years, Turkey's military had relied on NATO supplied Patriot missiles, built by the American companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, to defend its skies, and the system was fully compatible with the air-defense platforms operated by other members of the alliance.

India, US to jointly develop, produce defence equipment

 Washington and New Delhi are firming up "practical projects" for joint development and production of defence equipment in India to take the defence relationship between the two countries to the "next level", US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns disclosed Friday.

        "We have made some concrete suggestions about areas in which we think co-production and co-development would make sense for both countries, and we just need to sort through the practicalities of that with our Indian counterparts," Burns, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday, said.

Read more at:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-us-to-jointly-develop-produce-defence-equipment/1114404/

F-35B performs first vertical take-off

Sources say that test pilots at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, performed the firstLockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter vertical take-off on 10 May.

The US Marine Corps' short take-off and vertical landing variant had a requirement to perform vertical take-offs right from the outset of the JSF programme. However, the capability is not emphasised because the F-35B would not be able to carry a tactically significant payload in that configuration.

Navy set to receive the first P 8I aircraft from Boeing

Indian Navy P 8I during its first flight

The Indian Navy is all set to acquire its first US-made long-range maritime patrol and ASW aircraft to counter the growing influence of China in Indian Ocean Region(IOR), .  The first of the aircraft, known as P8I Poseidon, is expected to land in India around May 15, said an Indian  Navy official. 

      The  aircraft will be based in INS Rajali, a naval base on the Tamil Nadu coast. With a range of about 8600 km and an endurance of 10 hours, P8I Poseidon can fly non-stop up to Australia – much beyond India’s neighbouring maritime zones – and augment Navy’s surveillance capability by leaps and bounds.