6th annual Warrior Competition at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC)

http://www.recoilweb.com/recoil-is-on-the-...l#ixzz30o7G5VFy

Time for ESSCOM to deploy snipers on helicopters.



This post has been edited by xtemujin: May 6 2014, 07:11 PM

2014 6th annual Warrior Competition at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC)

http://www.recoilweb.com/recoil-is-on-the-...l#ixzz30o7G5VFy

This post has been edited by xtemujin: May 6 2014, 07:14 PM

2014 6th Annual Warrior Competition

The 6th annual Warrior Competition have concluded, this event had 33 teams representing 19 nations from around the globe.

First place: China represented by the Snow Leopard Unit.
Second Place: China Special Operations Unit, Sichuan Corps.
Third Place: Jordan, Royal Guard.

http://warriorcompetition.com/warriorcompe...mid=123&lang=en

Another option is to use a helicopter with a 0.5 Barrett like the US Coast Guard for the ESSCOM Homeland defence and security, Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) US Coast Guard.

MMEA dolphin helicopter with GGK sniper armed with the 0.5 Barrett.



This post has been edited by xtemujin: May 9 2014, 08:00 PM

PLA Infantry Weapons: Small Arms of the World’s Largest Army

http://sadefensejournal.com/wp/?p=2649

Thailand's Army Chief Announces Military Coup
BANGKOK May 22, 2014 (AP)
By THANYARAT DOKSONE and JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press

Thailand's army chief has announced that the military has seized power in a coup to restore stability and order after six months of political deadlock and turmoil.

Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha made the announcement Thursday in a statement broadcast on national television.

He said the commission that imposed martial law Tuesday would now take control of the country's administration.

The development followed two days of meetings between the country's rival political leaders that failed to break the impasse.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireSt...y-coup-23821097

This post has been edited by xtemujin: May 22 2014, 06:25 PM

Exercise Bersama Shield 2014 – a long-standing partnership builds regional stability
22 May 2014 Thursday | Media Release

Military strength and diplomatic might will come together in Malaysia in the coming weeks during one of South East Asia’s most significant regional exercises involving Australia and its regional security partners.

Exercise Bersama Shield 2014 will see the Australian Defence Force join with the defence forces of New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom in a critical test of interoperability.

Leading Australia’s 500-strong contingent, Commander Michael Jacobson said Bersama Shield aimed to strengthen professional relationships and interoperability through a range of conventional and non-conventional challenges.

“The exercise will focus on building our capability to work together,” Commander Jacobson said.

“Our people will face a wide variety of threats and they will need to work together in addressing them.”

Bersama Shield is also designed to further enhance friendships and relationships under the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), which have been building since its inception in 1971.

Royal Australian Navy vessels HMAS Sheean and HMAS Sydney, as well as two Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orions and a E-7A Wedgetail will participate in the exercise.

The 9th FPDA Defence Ministers’ Meeting, to be held in Johore Baru Malaysia on 1 June, will include a visit to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Base Butterworth, Malaysia. Ministers will receive briefings on the progress of the exercise.

The FPDA is the longest standing multilateral arrangement in South East Asia and has maintained relevance in the contemporary security environment.

The exercise begins at RMAF Base Butterworth today and will conclude on 4 June 2014.

http://news.defence.gov.au/2014/05/22/exer...onal-stability/

Few Barriers to China’s Push in South China Sea
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | 22 May 2014 Thursday

BEIJING — China’s planting of an oil platform in contested waters off Vietnam drew robust complaints from Hanoi, a messy standoff between ships and violent protests among Vietnamese—but nothing to dislodge the rig and no broader pushback in the region.

Southeast Asian countries, with diverging interests and wariness of angering Beijing, have so far shunned any collective action that might halt China as it relentlessly nudges forward its sovereignty claims in disputed seas seen as a possible flashpoint for the world’s next major conflict.

Despite its accusations of Chinese bullying, Vietnam can expect little in the way of concrete outside help as its patrol boats continue to spar with Chinese vessels guarding the rig in the South China Sea.

“The divisions already existed [among Southeast Asian countries], but China is very adept at exploiting them,” said Ian Storey, an expert on regional politics at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

“At the end of the day, Vietnam is on its own,” Storey said.

In a rare show of mutual support, the leaders of Vietnam and fellow China antagonist the Philippines met Wednesday to declare they would oppose “illegal” Chinese actions in the South China Sea.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, standing beside President Benigno Aquino III after they held talks in Manila, called on the world to condemn China for causing what he called an “extremely dangerous” situation in the South China Sea by deploying the oil rig.

But the overall lack of unity and decisive action among Southeast Asian nations has encouraged China as it looks to cement its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, its island groups and its maritime wealth—including potentially significant deposits of petroleum needed to keep the Chinese economy booming.

China calibrates the pitch of its assertiveness depending on surrounding events and the amount of push-back it receives. So far, its actions have mainly targeted the Philippines and Vietnam, while other countries that also claim parts of the South China Sea such as Malaysia and Brunei are left alone. To avoid escalating matters too quickly, China generally relies on its coast guard rather than the navy when confronting ships of other nations.

It isn’t clear why China chose May 1 to move the rig from the state-run China National Offshore Oil Corporation into position about 32 kilometers (20 miles) from the China-controlled Paracel Islands and 278 kilometers (173 miles) from the coast of Vietnam.

While China says that’s simply part of its ongoing search for resources, some have speculated it was a deliberate test of Vietnamese resolve and a warning to Hanoi against closer security ties with the Beijing’s main rival, the United States.

“It seems to be a put-up-or-shut-up move,” said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam and regional security expert at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

China’s action was met with immediate, though apparently fruitless, opposition by Vietnam, which also claims the Paracels and says the rig is inside its exclusive economic zone.

Hanoi sent ships to harry Chinese craft protecting the rig.

Anti-Chinese anger, ever-present in Vietnam, bubbled to the surface last week in violent attacks that left at least two Chinese workers dead and 140 injured. Thousands of Chinese have since been evacuated by sea and air.

The latest confrontation is among several Chinese moves bolstering its hold on the South China Sea since around 2008. China has expelled Philippine fishing boats from reefs and atolls, built scattered military outposts, demanded that foreign countries apply for permission to fish in the area, and dispatched a naval flotilla to reassert Chinese sovereignty over James Shoal off the coast of Borneo—a full 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) south of China’s island province of Hainan.

Despite scattered protests and steps by its neighbors to shore up their own presence in the area, nothing has effectively impeded China’s progress.

Storey said both the Philippines and Vietnam dearly desire the backing of their fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in their disputes with China. The grouping had shown some degree of unity in the 1990s, closing ranks behind the Philippines in an earlier territorial dispute with China, he said.

However China’s growing clout, politically and economically, has sapped the group’s resolve. So has the entry into Asean of Laos, Cambodia and Burma, all of which have strong ties to Beijing and no direct stake in the South China Sea dispute, Storey said.

This month’s Asean summit, about a week after China installed its rig off Vietnam’s coast, expressed concern about maritime disputes but did not even mention China by name.

Some Southeast Asian countries also may want to stay out of what they suspect are moves that are actually directed at the United States, which has been increasingly critical of what it describes as Chinese provocations, said Tan See Seng, of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

China chafes at US dominance, including its security alliances with the Philippines and others, and has long sought to curtail US intelligence gathering and military operations in the South China Sea.

Washington’s moves to beef up its presence in Asia after a decade of war in the Middle East have particularly riled Beijing, which says that is emboldening its neighbors and raising tensions.

“Why draw unwanted attention to oneself if a backlash only strengthens Chinese suspicions that one is indeed in cahoots with the Americans,” Tan said.

So far, the United States has offered mere rhetorical support for Beijing’s rivals, saying issues must be resolved peacefully and without hindering navigation.

“We just need to cool off, move in a deliberate manner and hopefully solve this diplomatically,” US Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said Monday when asked about the China-Vietnam dispute.

Such statements pale in comparison to strong US assertions of support for treaty partner Japan, with whom China is engaged in a dangerous feud over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by both.

China may be hurting its reputation by being seen as bullying smaller countries in a region where it wants to be seen as a benign regional overlord that will one day replace the United States.

Yet Beijing apparently has calculated that strong trade and investment ties with the region will head off any major rift, Tan said.

“China seems prepared to absorb any short-term costs its actions might incur for what it perceives is the fundamental strategic gain of ensuring its rise is not unduly, and—in its view—unfairly constrained by the US and its partners,” Tan said.

Although China says its oil rig will cease drilling at the start of typhoon season in August, Beijing seems likely to keep raising the stakes in the South China Sea.

One way would be by declaring an air defense zone over all or part of the area, similar to what it did last year over a wide swath of the East China Sea. Storey called the move “only a matter of time.”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireSt...na-sea-23806146

Veterans mark 50 years since Australian troops departed for Indonesia Confrontation in Malaya
By Claire Aird | 24 May 2014 Saturday | 6:44pm AEST

A service was held in Sydney today to commemorate 50 years since Australian troops departed for the Indonesia Confrontation in Malaya.

Between 1962 and 1966, Indonesia fought a small, undeclared war with Malaysia in an effort to destabilise the new federation.

The conflict resulted from a belief by Indonesia's then-president Sukarno that the Malaysian federation was an attempt by the British to maintain rule while appearing to be granting independence to the former colony.

The term Konfrontasi – meaning confrontation – was coined in 1963 by Indonesia's foreign minister at the time, Subandrio, and came to refer to Indonesia's attempt to destabilise and break up the new federation.

The war, which began when Indonesia launched a series of cross-border raids into Malaysian territory in early 1963, came to involve Australian troops under British command.

At the time, cross-border operations were top secret, and the conflict received very little coverage in the Australian press.

About 300 Malaya and Borneo veterans today commemorated 50 years since HMAS Sydney left Garden Island bound for the conflict.

Veteran Adam Henderson said their service had largely been overlooked.

"There were certain things that were done there that, for diplomatic reasons – that's what was explained to us – would embarrass the Australian government," he said.

"A lot of the actions or incidents that occurred were handed back to the credit of the local Malay constabulary or the military."

Another veteran, Norman Park, said the secret nature of the operation left Australian troops feeling "shut out".

"As far as I'm concerned, it was much like the Korean war," he said.

"We couldn't say much about it. We were tied."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-24/konf...-sydney/5475538

China turns motorway into military airstrip: Reports
By AFP | 26 May 2014 Monday | 1020 hrs IST



A fighter jet takes off from a highway in Central China's Henan Province on Sunday, the first time that China's air force test-flew warplanes using highways for take-offs and landings. Ji'nan Military Area Command, which conducted the test, said it enhanced the air force's capabilities of emergency landing and coordination between military and civilian forces. Photo: CFP



BEIJING: China has flown warplanes on to and from a civilian road for the first time, state media said Monday, a technique which could be used for "emergency landings during wartime".

An image of a fighter jet taking off from a motorway in the central province of Henan -- with a petrol station in the background - appeared in the state-run Global Times newspaper.

China's airforce "test-flew warplanes using highways for take-offs and landings" to enhance "the air force's capabilities of emergency landing and coordination between military and civilian forces", the report said.

Following the manoeuvre on Sunday, news agency Xinhua said that the road can be used by cargo planes and as an "alternative airport" for civilian aircraft.

It indirectly quoted a senior military officer as saying it "can also be used in exercises and training for military air planes as well as emergency landings during wartime".

China - the world's second largest military spender -- in March announced the latest of many double-digit rises in its official defence budget.

Beijing is embroiled in a series of territorial disputes with its neighbours and deploys troops to its restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang

I believe that all the foreign vendors already know the tactics of the news that the Fulcrum will be retired soon nearing LIMA so that the vendors will come down to LIMA.

After LIMA the Fulcrum will magically be in service again until the next LIMA.

PLAAF aircraft landing on highway

A road runway exercise carried out by the People's Liberation Army Air Force on May 25 in Kaifen, Henan

Airforce term Quick Reaction Alert, whereby aircrafts are on standby ready for action.

Army equivalent is Quick Reaction Force QRF.

This post has been edited by xtemujin: May 27 2014, 04:05 PM