Chinese touch screen LCD fighter cockpit display used in a simulator system.

CQB fail

US Navy delegation given tour of CV-16 Liaoning

President Obama officiates handover of 2 warships to Philippine Navy



US President Barack Obama, who is currently in Manila for the APEC conference is invited as the guest of honor at a visit to the Philippine Navy ceremony which he announces the handover of 2 ships from the US to the Philippine Navy.

Obama said the pair of ships — one U.S. Coast Guard cutter, one research vessel — were part of a broader American plan to scale up assistance to naval forces in Southeast Asia, where coastal nations feel threatened by China's aggressive moves to assert control over the South China Sea. Obama said the U.S. had an "ironclad commitment" to the Philippines — a U.S. treaty ally — and a mutual commitment to free and safe navigation at sea.

"More capable navies, in partnership with the United States, are critical to the security of this region," Obama said as he opened a six-day tour of the Philippines and Malaysia. He said the ships would help the Philippines navigate and patrol its territorial waters.

Probably giving them to pinoys are much cheaper than scrapping them.

Putin orders Russian Navy Cruiser to 'support' French Aircraft Carrier operations in Syria



Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered the Russian missile cruiser Moskva, currently in the Mediterranean, to start cooperating with the French military on operations in Syria.

Putin said a French aircraft carrier task force is to approach the Moskva soon and the cruiser is to "cooperate with them as with allies."

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also told a briefing conducted for Putin on Tuesday that Russian missile bombers hit Islamic State positions in Raqqa and Deir al-Zour.

Shoigu said the cruise missiles that hit the Aleppo and Idlib positions were fired from supersonic Tu-160 bombers and from Tu-95s, long-distance turboprop strategic bombers that started from Russian territory.

Russian Air Force hit IS with biggest heavy bomber raid in decades



The Russian air force just pulled off one of the biggest and most complex heavy bomber missions in modern history—sending no fewer than 25 Backfire, Bear, and Blackjack bombers on a coordinated, long-range air raid against alleged ISIS forces in Syria.

The Tuesday mission, which launched under the cover of darkness from a base in Ossetia in southern Russia, signaled a significant escalation of Moscow’s air war in Syria—and heralded the rebirth of Russian heavy bomber squadrons that once had withered from a lack of funding.

Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, announced the raid on Tuesday, calling it part of “a new plan [for] the air campaign.”

“During a massive airstrike today, 14 important ISIL targets were destroyed by 34 air-launched cruise missiles,” Gerasimov said, using an alternative acronym for the terror army. “The targets destroyed include command posts that were used to coordinate ISIL activities in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, munition and supply depots in the northwestern part of Syria.”

The Russian defense ministry released a video depicting three types of bombers arming, taking off, dropping munitions and then returning to base, escorted along their flight paths by Su-27 fighters.

The swing-wing, jet-propelled Tu-22M Backfires apparently carried unguided “dumb” bombs. The videos depicts airmen loading clusters of cruise missiles in the bomb bays of the propeller-driven Tu-95 Bears and the huge, swing-wing Tu-160 Blackjack jets, which at 177 feet long are the biggest combat planes ever built.

Charles de Gaulle lah

CDG pennant number R91 lah...

If you google image search on Charles De Gaulle carrier, this pic is literally the first pic on results page.

I wasn't born yesterday that I can't tell the difference between Moskva and CDG, you know...

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 18 2015, 11:09 AM

I heard that they were intending to keep the hostage for ransom all along, but an attack on their hideout by Philippine security forces forced them to kill the hostage so as to not slow them down during their escape.

Why they felt they had to kill him versus simply cutting their losses and leaving him there is beyond me.



This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 18 2015, 02:59 PM

I don't know why the Pinoys keep executing questionable COIN operations. First is the Mamapaso raid bungle and now this.

Who in hell launches an artillery strike after failed negotiations? Are they doing this out of frustration or spite? Because its obvious nothing good can come out of this. Best scenario is militants get angry and raise ransom price, worst case is militants gets extra angry and kill the hostage.

As long as the hostage is alive, there's always opportunity for further negotiations.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 18 2015, 03:16 PM

Screen grab of Russian defense ministry video of Tu-95 bomber launching a cruise missile towards IS positions in Idlib.

Unless China has perfected its supersoldier serum project, I'd say that's an empty missile case.

Really? No way something that size made from metal weighs less than 200kg. From the looks of it the canister itself weighs more than 50kg.

Russian SWAT team suspect extraction demonstration. The question is WTF is the guy in front of the car is doing?

Why 10th Para?

Haha funny. I thought he was headbutting the car bonnet for some reason.

KL and Manila to set up task force to find Bernard Then's killers



Kuala Lumpur and Manila will set up a Malaysian-Philippine joint taskforce to track down those responsible for the slaying of engineer Bernard Then Ted Fen.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar told the New Straits Times this morning that he would personally go over to Manila to engage his counterpart in bringing those responsible to book.

Khalid said the meeting would also be focused on wiping out future threats posed by the militant group, Abu Sayyaf, which had been responsible for the numerous kidnap-for-ransom cases, where they would storm locations in Sabah and snatch their victims.

In most cases, the victims would be immediately be brought back to their stronghold, in Jolo Island.

On Tuesday, Then, an engineer from Sarawak who was 39, became the first Malaysian kidnap victim to be slain by the terrorist group.

Any idea on the specs for the patrol vessels? For example size, tonnage or something like that?

Ukraine says pro-Russian rebels have the military strength of a 'mid-sized European state'



Ukraine's defence minister, Stepan Poltorak, has accused pro-Russian rebels backed up by Moscow's forces of assembling a 40,000-strong army sufficient for a "mid-sized European state" on Monday (Jun 8).

Stepan Poltorak's estimates fly in the face of Russia's denials that it either backs the separatist fighters or covertly sneaks troops across its south-western border into the Ukrainian warzone.

The Ukrainian defence minister said the insurgent army, in control of parts of the Russian-speaking Lugansk and Donetsk regions that are home to about four million people, could muster more than 550 tanks and an impressive arsenal of artillery and other heavy weapons.

"The combined size of the Russian armed forces and illegal armed formations... stands at more than 42,500," Poltorak told a group of visiting lawmakers from NATO countries. "This amount of weapons, as we all understand, would be sufficient for a mid-sized European state."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Kiev's own eastern force had grown to more than 50,000 after being limited to 5,000 soldiers at the onset of the war 14 months ago.

Ukraine's latest charges come against the backdrop of growing fears that the ceasefire that Germany and France helped forge in February is now falling apart.