In conformance with dwifungsi, the TNI had significant administrative and political influence.  Indonesia’s external maritime environment, including the South China Sea, was simply a non-factor in Jakarta’s strategic thinking

Concerns about territorial disputes in the South China Sea would be managed by: (1) affirming that Indonesia was not a claimant in those disputes; (2) offering Indonesia’s services as a mediator and facilitator; and (3) championing ASEAN’s proposal for a binding “Code of Conduct” that would eschew coercion and conflict to be signed by all interested parties in the South China Sea

Instead of agreeing to a Code of Conduct, China asserted territorial ambitions that included “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea – backed up with rapidly growing naval and quasi-naval deployments and the seizure and construction of island features.  On several occasions over the last four years, Chinese maritime police reportedly used threats of force to protect Chinese fishermen operating in Indonesia’s EEZ

As Indonesia began towing the Chinese boat toward port, a Chinese Maritime Enforcement vessel intervened and forced the Indonesians to surrender the boat.  The fishermen, however, remain in Indonesian custody.  China has demanded their return claiming they were operating lawfully in “traditional Chinese fishing grounds.” The Indonesian response has revealed a degree of strategic disarray in Jakarta

The Minister for Maritime Affairs accused China of supporting illegal fishing in Indonesian waters and demanded the Chinese boat be handed over.  However, the Deputy Foreign Minister stressed “that Indonesia and China do not have a border problem.”

Economically, Indonesia already estimates that it loses up to $5 billion annually to foreign fishing fleets operating in Indonesian waters

Such a stance would include a formal statement from the President (to give Indonesian strategy one voice) that continued unauthorized fishing by foreign fleets, including Chinese, in Indonesia’s EEZ would be illegal under international and Indonesian law and, if supported by a foreign government, would be viewed as an unfriendly, even hostile, act

Steps to give such a policy credibility would include: (1) seeking a common understanding with Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines regarding mutual EEZ demarcations and rights; (2) invest as rapidly as possible in maritime military surface and air assets to monitor and patrol Indonesian waters; (3) initiate accelerated cooperation with the United States and Japan as sources for concessional procurement of military and reconnaissance platforms; (4) give priority to a program of joint naval exercises with the U.S. Navy; and (5) consider seeking a formal legal judgment from the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea concerning EEZ rights and access

It would require a radical reworking of the software and hardware of the TNI – a new TNI would see itself as externally focused with a primary maritime mission.  That would require a much modernized Navy (TNI-AL) with greatly expanded littoral capabilities. The Indonesian government would need to abandon treasured illusions, i.e. the honest broker and the ASEAN Code of Conduct

Runways are inconvenient, and helicopters are inefficient. Between these two statements is the quest for Vertical Takeoff and Landing, or VTOL, flying machines. Hampered for decades by the difficulty of building such an aircraft that can switch from hovering to forward thrust mid-flight without jeopardizing the humans inside, drones have rapidly adapted to the task. Like this one, the V-Bat from Martin UAV

Amazon, which originally planned delivery using a more helicopter-like quadcopter, recently switched to a sturdier VTOL design, shown off in a video ad earlier this year. But details surrounding that aircraft remain pretty tightly under wraps.

As for the V-Bat, Martin UAV, says it can fly for up to 8 hours at 50 mph. It can operate up to 35 miles away from the control station, and carries enough fuel for a 300 miles trip. Additionally, it boasts a maximum speed of 100 mph and, where legally permitted, it can fly as high as 15,000 feet. Martin bills it as a drone for wildlife monitoring, mapping, and, in a military role — surveillance and scouting.

This is the amazing moment a Syrian tank crew survived when they were hit by a guided missile which bounced off their vehicle without exploding.

The film was taken north of the city of Aleppo by a rebel group called the Sword of al-Sham Brigade, who are fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

The clip was posted online as propaganda by the group also known as the Syrian Patriots and shows the forces driving their tank before loading and firing its turret.

Syrian patriots get lucky when missile pings off their tank

China just revealed details of its CH-901 tube-launched loitering munition, a portable killer drone that a soldier can carry and then launch from the field to track down and attack opponents. The Chinese are not the first in this area—the U.S. unveiled the Switchblade in 2011 and has used it in Afghanistan. But this is a big move for the Chinese military.

Chinese forces fly a bewildering variety of drones, from small hand-launched systems to the giant Divine Eagle, a twin-fuselage aircraft designed to detect stealth aircraft at long range. Some are copies of Western models: After shooting down U.S. Firebee drones over their territory in the 1960's, the Chinese reverse-engineered them to create the Chang Hong 1 drone in 1972. In addition, China has a vast number of civil companies in the drone business. Most celebrated is DJI, which has about a 70 percent share of the consumer drone market.


But the CH-901, shown off at the Defence Services Asia expo, is China's first tactical attack drone. It has two configurations, carrying either an explosive warhead or additional cameras and a recovery parachute.  This is an approach apparently copied from Israeli drones like uVision's Hero-30.  The CH-901's takeoff weight is 20 lbs, compared to less than 6 lbs. for the U.S. Switchblade.

The reason for the size is the payload, which can be more than 6 lbs. While Switchblade's sub-one-pound warhead is useful against personnel and light vehicles, the CL-901 will be able to take out a wider variety of targets. In this respect it is similar to the Polish Warmate loitering munition, which can be armed with a fragmentation charge or a shaped charge warhead capable of penetrating four inches of armor and destroying tanks and light armoured vehicles. China's drone, is almost twice the size of Warmate, though. A six-pound warhead might not be able to go through the front armor of a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams, but it could breach the thin top armor in an attack from above. Lighter vehicles like the M2 Bradley would be easy game.

The standard CH-901 configuration is a group of three drones, one launch tube and a controller, with a total weight of a hundred pounds. China calls this "man portable" (presumably the load can be split between two or more soldiers), or it can be fitted to a light vehicle like an SUV. According to the makers, the drone cruises at 40 to 75 mph with an endurance of two hours in the reconnaissance configuration or one hour as an attack drone, with a range of about ten miles. The reconnaissance version has an estimated lifespan of 20 missions.

The US, Russia and the Syrian rebels started discussions this weekend over the composition of a list of Syrian generals who will be dishonorably discharged over war crimes they committed during the country’s civil war

The generals will not face trial at an international tribunal over their war crimes. They will be able to leave Syria along with their families and their possessions, just like President Bashar Assad and his clan

the list are the commanders of the Syrian air force who carried out the majority of the Assad regime’s attacks on the rebels over the past five years

The sources say that the Americans and the Russians intend to “decapitate” the command but leave the military’s structure in its current form while integrating rebel fighters and commanders into its units

The rebel commanders are to receive ranks equivalent to their current ones in the new Syrian army

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- BAE Systems has signed a teaming agreement with Emirates Defense Technology (EDT) to pursue opportunities for the towed M777 155mm Lightweight Howitzer in the UAE and further explore the development of a self-propelled 155mm artillery system.

"This agreement affirms our desire for an enduring industrial partnership in the UAE," said Stephen Luk, head of campaign management at BAE Systems. "The M777's credentials are unmatched by any other 155mm lightweight howitzer. It would provide the UAE Armed Forces with a high quality howitzer that is easy to use and reliable in combat."

This teaming agreement also offers a platform for BAE Systems and EDT to continue developing the novel 155mm self-propelled artillery concept, which integrates the M777 with EDT's indigenous Enigma 8x8 Armored Modular Fighting Vehicle.

In North Africa, activists have confronted entrenched military establishments with calls to open recruitment for women. The United Arab Emirates recently opened fighter pilot roles to women

The trend is partly due to practical reasons, with Saudi women now serving as border guards who must regularly interact with members of the civilian population. More pronounced is Syria, where the Syrian Arab Army is recruiting women to serve on the front lines — and sees women as making for particularly effective snipers

When the Tunisian military launched a major volunteer recruitment drive in mid-February 2016, the director of its recruitment branch hinted at a similar campaign directed specifically at women

In March 2016 controversy erupted after Egyptian soldiers were accused of regularly asking women in the Sinai to remove garments at a checkpoint in the flashpoint town of Shaykh Zuwaid. Having women available to conduct physical searches of other women has proven to be strategically smart in areas where gender mixing is restricted by traditional social practices. Saudi Arabia, for instance, has begun incorporating women into its security institutions for this very purpose. The Saudi Border Guard has used women in this capacity since 2013, and … Saudi Arabia’s Facilities’ Security Forces are seeking to follow suit

Syrian army fields an all-female battalion which has fought in the urban battlegrounds of eastern Damascus. Syria’s ruling secular Ba’ath Party has included women in military ranks for decades, although with limitations.

The unit is made up of 800 women particularly skilled as sharpshooters. Their impact on the battlefield may be inflated for propagandistic reasons, but this should not detract from the fact that women are playing a role in the Syrian army’s surprising resilience.

The research was commissioned and fully financed by the Czech Interior Ministry that is in charge of the secretive air marshals' program established in the Czech Republic in 2004 as a reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.

There are such ammunition development programs in other European countries. While the Czechs haven't invented anything new, researchers say they have improved existing hollow point bullets.

The interior of a plane is a specific environment that isn't suitable for common ammunition. After a target is hit from a short distance, conventional bullets can cause catastrophic damage to the aircraft, or kill an innocent passenger.

To prevent that, the Czech researchers focused on developing projectiles that get deformed once hitting a target, significantly reducing the chance of passing through.

The result of testing in an underground lab is 9mm ammunition with a brass bullet, weighing about 5 grams (0.18 ounces). It leaves the gun at a speed over 500 meters (1,640 feet) per second, higher than the 350-400 meters per second that is common for this caliber, providing a sufficient wounding capability.

On impact, the bullet expands its surface, imparts all its kinetic energy into the body and remains in it.

As the shock-and-awe of conventional warfare has given way to the unpredictable carnage of terrorism, much of the job of keeping America safe has fallen to the military's most elite soldiers. Delta Force. Green Berets. Navy SEALs. The special operators. But with new threats every day and the men stretched thin, can this new strategy last?

Officially, the United States government does not acknowledge that Delta Force even exists. And yet in 2015, special operators from across the U.S. military were deployed to 147 countries, the most ever

They went everywhere. In fact, the United States special-operations forces—a handful of elite, highly trained, often clandestine units that make up only a tiny percentage of the total number of troops in the armed forces—were approaching burnout

Before 9/11, there were roughly thirty-three thousand members of U.S. special-operations forces. Today, there are approximately seventy thousand. The budget for special operations has tripled since 9/11, to around $10 billion. Meanwhile, the military as a whole has been shrinking. In 2015, active Army personnel dropped below five hundred thousand for the first time in ten years and is projected to return to lower, pre-9/11 levels by 2019

In the early days of the Afghanistan conflict, Green Berets rode into Kabul alongside the horse-backed warriors of the Northern Alliance. Special-forces operators did the same in northern Iraq with the Kurdish army, known as the peshmerga. Then the wars bogged down in insurgency and nation building, and many of the tasks once reserved for top-level operators like Delta and Team Six—the assimilation, the mixing in with society, the searching for both allies and foes in plain sight—were handed off to the Army Rangers, and sometimes even to basic infantry. But Cleveland now worried—worried a lot—that direct action had come to dominate the strategy, and that unconventional warfare was becoming a lost art

"We had a hundred days of brilliance in Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by four thousand days of strategic muddle," he says. "We weren't seeing the conflict properly. We thought traditional air and land battles of attrition could win the day. In reality, those tools were becoming less and less useful. It required a new way of thinking."

in the fall of 2014, the Army quietly opened a new division at Fort Bragg known as 1st Special Forces Command, which would ally five active-duty and two National Guard special-ops groups—about sixteen thousand troops total. Within the division would be small three-man teams of Green Berets, specially trained in both the art of combat and the science of social movements and terrorism. Between missions, they would spend years in the classroom studying languages, political theory, and the history and culture of specific regions. And they would be called the Jedburghs

As the neatly defined wars of Iraq and Afghanistan wound down, this kind of shadowy conflict—hasty, dangerous, executed in the dark of night by small groups in parts of the world where the laws of war are murky—had become the rule rather than the exception. The experts even had a name for it: the gray zone.

They used to be called Jedburghs.

In early 2015, the Army put out a call for five thousand new special-ops candidates. And the demand is only expected to rise in the coming years, due to everything from the continued spread of ISIS to melting ice in the Arctic, which will create tensions over newly accessible territory. (The Army's Northern Warfare Training Center in Black Rapids, Alaska, trains special operators in skiing, snowshoeing, and other cold-weather skills.) But finding more special operators is neither quick nor easy. For instance, only 37 percent of applicants are accepted for the Army's Special Forces Qualification Course, which typically lasts more than a year

"The average age of a Delta Force member is around thirty-five," says Reese. "We're not recruiting high school quarterbacks. Delta is known as the Eagles, because eagles are not a flocking bird. They don't follow the pack."

"People can't stay productive," says Reese. "It's the old Apache theory: Run that horse till it drops, then eat it. You get guys who came in for a career in special ops, but after five or six years, they're worn ragged."

VP Kalla sees off first export of Indonesian warship

Minggu, 8 Mei 2016 16:25 WIB | 1.772 Views

Surabaya (ANTARA News) - Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla officially launched the first Indonesian warship export to the Philippines on Sunday.

The BRP TARLAC (LD-601) warship of the LD-601 Strategic Sealift Vessel type was the first of its kind ordered by the Philippine defense ministry.

Kalla saw off the ship at the commercial ship division pier of Tanjung Perak Port, East Java, on Sunday.

The vice president said he appreciated very much the state-owned ship-building company PT PAL for its ability to finish the construction of the fist on time.

PT PAL had to compete tightly to win the international tender for the building of the warship.

"This is something to be proud of that the Indonesian people could export a sophisticated and good ship. All this can be done with serious, focused and hard work," the vice president said.

He said that the export marked the success of PT PAL in mastering technology. PT PAL has been existing since a long time in Indonesia.

"I highly appreciate it because with the ability to build ships the countrys sea areas can be transformed into bridges to unite the nation. But for this, sea transportation means should be good and the maritime areas become the object of development," the vice president said.

He asked PT PAL to continue developing its technology by entering the world markets.

"I hope that PT PAL would be able to win the economy in the shipping world. This should be won because we cannot only beg it," the vice president said.

Earlier, PT PAL President Director Firmansyah Arifin said the first warship export attracted the attention of representatives of a number of countries, including the middle east countries.

"A number of representatives from European and Middle East countries are interested to place orders of the SSV type ship. We hope this would lift the image of Indonesia in the world," he said.

After sailing to Manila for several days, the ship is scheduled to be transferred to the Philippine ministry of defense on Friday, May 13, 2016.

The Philippines has ordered two strategic sealift vessels and it is one of them that was delivered Sunday.

The ships have developed a landing platform dock and the two are worth Rp1 trillion.

The ship, measuring 123 meters in length, 21.8 meters in width, with a speed of 16 knots, is capable of sailing for 30 days on the high seas. It was first launched by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli and defense minister Ryamizard Ryacudu in January this year.

After the final touches that include painting some parts of the ships body it will be officially handed over to the Philippines defense ministry on Sunday and be used by them.

The second ship is expected to be delivered in September this year.

"We will roll out the second SSV ordered by the Philippines in September 2016," President Director of PT PAL Indonesia, M Firmansyah Arifin said.

The SSV is a sophisticated ship of a Lloyd Register class made by the nation and will be the first warship exported by the country, he said.

The ship is capable of carrying two helicopters and a landing craft utility as well as a number of tanks and military trucks, he said.
(Uu.A014)