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UPDATE: December 1, 2011; 10:00AM Amid the tensions in Iran and the destruction of a second nuclear facility (which is detailed in the original story below), we find it necessary to present our readers with an update made available via The Daily Crux and Zero Hedge, in which Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor from the Chinese National Defense University, said China “will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War.” Trillions of dollars in debt and regional energy resources are at play here. Perhaps this is the reason Iran is publicly downplaying the threat and the...

On August 14th, 1912, the United States launched its first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley. This 11,500 ton ship served during both World Wars until its luck ran out near Java in 1942 and had to be abandoned and sunk in order to avoid capture by the Japanese. Almost one hundred years later, China has just launched its first aircraft carrier and the U.S. State department is demanding to know why. "We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment," said Victoria Nuland, a State department spokeswoman. Let me give...

China has been demanding the U.S. halt all reconnaissance flights over international waters near its boarder. China’s Defense Ministry told the Global Times newspaper “We demand that the U.S. respect China’s sovereignty and security interests, and take concrete measures to boost a healthy and stable development of military relations.” The only problem is that the US surveillance flights have been operating outside of China’s sovereign territory. Tensions have increased after a pair of Chinese fighters attempted to intercept and American U-2 flying over the Taiwan Strait which is the waterway separating Taiwan from Mainland China. The U-2 was over international...

After more than a decade of renovation, China's first aircraft carrier – a remodeled 67,500-ton Admiral Kuznetsov-class Soviet carrier bought at auction in 1998 – is preparing to set to sail. The official Xinhua News Agency posted 20 high-resolution pictures with accompanying captions that suggest the carrier will undergo sea tests this year. One said: “Huge warship on the verge of setting out, fulfilling China’s 70-year aircraft carrier dreams.” Another said: “From the pictures we can see that this project is entering its final stage.” Yet, another noted that with the exception of its radar system, construction on the ship’s...

70-year dream of aircraft carrier close to reality Minnie Chan and Julian Ryall in Tokyo Apr 7, 2011 Twenty high-resolution pictures of China's first aircraft carrier, the 67,500-tonne Varyag, appeared on the Xinhua website yesterday, with captions saying the vessel was almost finished and expected to sail this year. It was the first time official state media reported on the nation's first aircraft carrier project as well as indicating its construction progress at a shipyard in Dalian , Liaoning . The Xinhua report came as Japan's National Institute for Defence Studies released its annual strategic review, which said the influence...

China's surging military space program is poised to challenge U.S. aircraft carrier operations in the Pacific, as Chinese military spacecraft already gather significant new radar, electrooptical imaging, and signal intelligence data globally. During 2010, China more than doubled its military satellite launch rate to 12. This compares with three to five military missions launched each year between 2006 and 2009. Since 2006, China has launched about 30 military related spacecraft. Its total of 15 launches in 2010 set a new record for China and for the first time equaled the U.S. flight rate for a given year. Most U.S. public...

Former U.S. Pacific Command Chief Adm. Tim Keating (ret.) reiterated what we’ve been hearing from U.S. defense officials for a while now regarding China: The question isn’t what type of military technology is the Asian giant developing, it’s what will it do with all that firepower? “We kinda have a pretty good feel for what they’re fielding” in terms of weapons, said Keating during a talk on missile defense at the Heritage Foundation here in Washington. For example, the U.S. has known about weapons like the J-20 stealth jet for a while now, according tot the former admiral. “It wasn’t...

U.S. military commanders are expressing confidence that they can hold their own in the face of faster-than-expected advances by China's military, but looming cost cuts are adding to doubts about the future of American power in the Pacific. Fueled by its booming economy, China's military growth over the past decade has exceeded most U.S. forecasts. Its plans to develop aircraft carriers, anti-satellite missiles and other advanced systems have alarmed neighbors and Washington. Critics, including within the U.S. Congress, note with apprehension that rising Chinese defense spending coincides with Washington's plans to scale back its budgets. They accuse the Pentagon of...

China recently conducted a long-range missile flight test that remains shrouded in secrecy. The Sept. 25 test highlights what China military specialists say is the growing threat posed by Beijing's development of long- and short-range ballistic and cruise missiles, and its new missile defense interceptors. A U.S. official confirmed that China's military fired a missile from the Taiyuan missile center, about 320 miles southwest of Beijing, to Korla, a city in western China some 1,800 miles away. Officials declined to provide details, saying the test data are classified. China watchers in Asia and the United States were alerted to the...

On August 9, China launched the remote sensing satellite Yaogan-10 (military designation: Jianbing) into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Situated in the northwest of Shanxi Province, the site is a space and defense launch facility reportedly used for testing the Chinese military’s intercontinental ballistic missiles and overland submarine-launched ballistic missiles (Globalsecurity.org). This event marks the sixth Chinese launch this year via the CZ-4C Chang Zheng-4C (Long March) launch vehicle and follows a surge in satellite launches that appear to reflect the Chinese determination to beef up its reconnaissance satellite network and end its dependence upon foreign satellite systems....

The United States Navy is going to steam into the Yellow Sea and blow up some Korean warships. But friendly, like, and for fun. Points will be scored, and trophies (of a sort) will be awarded. Younger people might think of it as an Xbox simulation with live ammunition. These kinds of war games in the Northern Pacific and vicinity have been going on ever since Japan lost the war and the States has taken over funding their self defense. China, upon whom some of these waters in which the games occur impinge, has grumbled about the contests before, but...

Security: The Pentagon report warning that Beijing is amassing high-tech missiles leaves out another alarming domestic security issue: massive Chinese spying. Forget about the Russian spy ring the FBI broke up that stole mostly headlines (as opposed to U.S. secrets) for their amateurish methods. This is no joke. These Chinese moles mean business. And they're stealing highly sensitive military secrets. At least 44 of them have been quietly prosecuted in the last two years alone — a figure that dwarfs the number of Russian spies expelled last month. And those are just the ones we've caught. The Chinese agents are...

China has issued regulations banning its 2.3 million soldiers from creating web sites or writing web blogs, adding to the nation's existing Internet curbs, state press said Saturday. "Soldiers cannot open blogs on the Internet no matter (whether) he or she does it in the capacity of a soldier or not," Xinhua news agency quoted Wan Long, a political commissar of the People's Liberation Army, as saying. "The Internet is complicated and we should guard against online traps," it said, citing concerns about military "confidentiality". The new rules are laid out in revised PLA Internal Administration Regulations and went into...

Recent discourse concerning the Chinese People’s Liberation Army's (PLA) modernization has principally focused on technological advances and less on the human dimension of PLA force transformation. In particular, a review of these discussions revealed the absence of a publicly available database of Chinese military leaders with the rank of full general (shangjiang). Against the backdrop of the PLA’s stated intention to reorient the armed forces as part of its modernization efforts, an analysis of promotion patterns of the 118 PLA generals (1981 - 2009) may yield important insights into the foci of PLA force transformation. PLA to Build Up Navy...

I thought that Russian military official’s slapdown of the Chinese knock off of their Su-33 carried based fighter (Chinese designation J-15) was really interesting. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, this could all just be posturing for the global arms market, a bit of tainting the competition if you will. Or, it could just be public griping over the Chinese stealing intellectual property from Russian aircraft builder Sukhoi. But then again, there is not much of a global market for carrier based fighters. Also, what the Russian official said about shortcomings in China’s aerospace industry resonates with what I’ve seen from...

China's J-15 carrier-based fighter will not be able to compete with Russia's Su-33 fighter on global markets because it is inferior to the Russian aircraft, a Russian military analyst said on Friday. China since 2001 has been developing the J-15 naval fighter, which is believed to be a clone of Russia's Su-33 Falcon-D. China bought an Su-33 prototype earlier from Ukraine, and used it to develop the new aircraft. The J-15 is expected to be stationed initially onboard the Chinese Varyag aircraft carrier currently being fitted in the port of Dalian. China bought the unfinished Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier...

Egypt's Defense Ministry has approved plans to expand the production of joint weapons and aerospace projects with Beijing. They said both countries were discussing a draft agreement in which they would also jointly market combat platforms and weapons to Arab and African militaries. "Over the next few months, we will witness an announcement of new Egyptian-Chinese combat production that stems from joint cooperation," said Hamdi Waheiba, chairman of Egypt's Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI). Waheiba said the cooperative effort would seek to meet the needs of the Egyptian Air Force as well as regional militaries. The two countries plan to...

A U.S. specialist on China's military testified recently that Beijing's development of aerospace capabilities is reaching world-class levels, and dismissed past notions of the Chinese military as a "junkyard army". “Since the beginning of the latest phase of China’s military modernization following the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, the Chinese Communist Party leadership has striven to build a world-class aerospace sector as a major element of increasing China’s comprehensive national power,” said Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center in testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “This goal has been pursued through enormous targeted investments in technology,...

New Chinese fighter jet expected by 2018: U.S. intelligence (Reuters) - China is building an advanced combat jet that may rival within eight years Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 Raptor, the premier U.S. fighter, a U.S. intelligence official said. The date cited for the expected deployment is years ahead of previous Pentagon public forecasts and may be a sign that China's rapid military buildup is topping many experts' expectations. "We're anticipating China to have a fifth-generation fighter ... operational right around 2018," Wayne Ulman of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center testified on Thursday to a congressionally mandated group that...

Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum. Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation. Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so...