Any news of MRCA and the dsme corvettes?

In the same Janes interview the RMN chief seemed to indicate that the proposal is dead.

over 12,000 or even close to 15,000 tons
hit 25 knots and will be outfitted with 76mm naval cannons, two secondary gun turrets, two anti-aircraft CIWS mounts as well as being able to carry at least a pair of large Z-8 multi-role helicopters. These helicopters, somewhat akin to a CH-53 Stallion, could move a lot of personnel and material very quickly without a port available.

outsize America's Ticonderoga Class Guided Missile Cruisers by as much as 50%.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/why-china...uard-1677699141

About 100 China-registered vessels encroach M’sian waters



Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and Royal Malaysian Navy assets have been deployed to monitor the situation, says Minister Shahidan Kassim.

That ship in your original quote is more or less a frigate... just need bolt on CIWS and SSMs. I wouldn't be surprised if they are "fitted for, but not with"... aka what the Littoral Combat Ship was supposed to be like

someone is going full retard...    why dont dare shoot at prc coast guard ship for ramming them earlier...

We shot at Taiwan fishing vessels: Indonesia



Indonesia has acknowledged that one of its patrol boats fired at two Taiwanese fishing vessels earlier this week as the Taiwanese craft docked at Singapore's Jurong Fishery Port early yesterday morning.

The tuna longliners, Sheng Te Tsai and Lien I Hsing No. 116, were passing through the Strait of Malacca en route to Singapore early on Monday when they were fired at.

All 25 men on board the two vessels - two Taiwanese captains and 23 Indonesian crew members - escaped unharmed, though one of the vessels had multiple bullet holes.

Yesterday, Satgas 115, an Indonesian government taskforce against illegal fishing, said in a statement that its patrol boat had fired at the Taiwanese vessels but said this was "in self-defence" when the Taiwanese vessels tried to ram it.  then why earlier deny?

The vessels were caught poaching in Indonesian waters off Lhokseumawe in Aceh, said Mr Fred Lonan, a Satgas 115 official, adding that this area is within Indonesia's exclusive economic zone.

"All actions by the (Hiu 04 patrol boat) were in accordance with protocol and in line with existing procedures of law enforcement within Indonesia's fisheries area," he said.

Taipei had earlier condemned the violence on the high seas.

Mr Lee Chang-hsi, owner of the Sheng Te Tsai, yesterday demanded that Indonesia apologise, compensate for the damage and punish whoever fired the shots.

Mr Lin Nan-yang, 34, captain of the Sheng Te Tsai, told The Straits Times: "At first, we thought we were being attacked by pirates. There was no warning at all and they started shooting. Everyone was scared and just hiding, hoping to stay alive."

The vessel had 12 bullet holes, said Mr Lin, who added: "It was so chaotic. Even when I tried to establish communications with the other side, I didn't understand what they were saying."

He said he will unload his catch and replenish supplies before leaving for the Indian Ocean next Thursday to fish.

Lien I Hsing No. 116 was fired at four or five times but did not appear to have been hit. Its captain, Mr Chen Fu-li, declined to comment.

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/w...ssels-indonesia

The ship you are referring to is actually a downgraded Type 053H2G 'Jiangwei I'-class frigate. The PLAN retired the class, stripped most of their military weapons (although they retained the twin turreted 37mm guns) and gave 3 of those ships to the coast guard.

What full retard? Do you want to wage a war against stronger country? Of course not man..

so it is ok to wage war with a smaller country? policies have to be consistent and from the actions of the current indo regime... they have been anything but diplomatic... sby did a better job

This week, Japan opened talks with US defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing to discuss a sixth-generation fighter aircraft. The move comes as Tokyo seeks to repel the expansion of China’s influence as Beijing takes a more aggressive regional posture.

Defense analysts speculate that the new aircraft would be based, in part, on Mitsubishi’s X-2 ATD-X stealth fighter prototype. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force is set for the first flight of the X-2 prototype within days.

In recent years, Japan has lost air superiority as its US-built F-15J Eagle fighters have become partially obsolete following Beijing’s unveiling of its J-20 jet. Initially, reports were that Japan sought to replace the F-15Js with US F-22 Raptors, but US law prohibited the export. One Japanese official disclosed that the need to replace the F-15J "is a source of concern and frustration in Tokyo."

Japan is thought to be developing the F-3, an operational variant of the X-2, to display air superiority, as neighboring China expands its regional and global presence.

Japanese air superiority will not come soon, however, as the country looks to field the proposed F-3 in the 2030s, around the same time that the US Air Force and US Navy aim to field their F-x and F/A-XX jets.

Sometime we need to be clever and know when to back down or when to shows up. Indon did the right thing.

From this perspective, shaking the flywheel of tension of a hybrid type Third World War began on December 3, 2013 when the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych visited Beijing and signed an agreement with China for the creation in Crimea of a “Crimean Economic Development Zone of the new silk road “with a multi-functional logistics hub for turnover of 140 million tons a year and lending China three million hectares of arable land to supply the Chinese with 10 million tons of grain annually.

Thus Crimea should become an important transport and transshipment point of the Maritime Silk Road of XXI century. Earlier, in November 2013, Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement on association and free trade with the EU. This policy of Kiev toward China and Russia, the US and NATO could not be tolerated and so they staged a brazen coup, in result of which in Ukraine came to power pro-American and pro-Zionist forces, and in Donbas a civil war began.

Thus the driving force of another upsurge of Eurasia is what in political science received the name “tectonic processes of global transformation,” one of which in the foreseeable future will change the global leader that should happen by 2025, when China will overtake the US in the aggregate strength of the economy, military power, culture, diplomacy, reconnaissance, etc.

Characteristically, the new Silk Road is not only a transport corridor connecting China with Europe, but a path that finds itself under the patronage of the Chinese Economic Development Zone with a guaranteed profit on investment in … US dollars.

Thus China wants to be free and to repair the colossal mistake of the past 20 years when it was producing large volumes of various goods against which it received green papers that are not backed by anything, and to reinvest them in their own country in regional projects of around 8 trillion dollars. For this purpose it created the Asian Bank for Infrastructure Investment (AIIB) in 2015, as it will gradually get rid of the dollar, will gain position toward the countries benefiting from loans and will transfer them into yuans.

It is clear that within the crisis of the global credit and financial system based on the US petrodollar, the Chinese project of the Economic Belt of the New Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road of XXI century (“one belt – one path”) is a way of geopolitical demarcation of globalization on land – led by China, and the globalization of the sea – led by the US, with a gradual transition of leadership from the US cycle of emission and credit accumulation of capital, towards the Chinese cycle of production and trade cycle, but without collapse of the dollar, from which the losses of China will also be colossal.

The Economic Belt of the New Silk Road includes 16 countries, 12 of which belong to the “world of Islam”. It is principally important to note, that the economic zone and the sea route pass through the zone of interests of Turkey. Historically, Turkey has always been a “plug” of the Silk Road since the country has never been in the family of nations of the Unified State of Genghis Khan, nor later in the controlled by Timur, silk road . Turkey today also claims for a special role in the Economic Belt and an important role in the security of the belt.

“The belt and the road” will be a major trend in the development of China in 2016. Decided will be other important issues. The first of them will be the division of the so-called “Shanghai property”, ie changing the paradigm for common growth, dominant in China over the past 20 years, with the paradigm of development in the new more complex conditions:

– the role of the Communist Party as a synonym for stable development of the country;
– the redistribution of state property;
– Operation “heir to Xi Jinping”, which will start at the 19th Congress at the end of 2017;
– the situation in Taiwan
– new power balance in corporate, environmental, veterans, etc;
– problems in macroeconomics;
– external threats;
– Sino-Russian relations;
– anti-China alliance in the South China Sea and Japan, and others.

These problems will be resolved in 2016, which will be crucial for the development of the PRC until the end of the twenty-first century.

South China Sea: Indonesia Emerges as Power Player with Attack on Taiwanese Ships

by FRANCES MARTEL
24 Mar 2016

Following the arrest of the crew of a Chinese ship allegedly fishing illegally in its waters, the government of Indonesia is facing regional criticism for shooting at two Taiwanese ships that it also alleges had trespassed into Indonesian territory. The recent incidents are helping to raise Indonesia’s profile as a formidable player in growing tensions in the South China Sea.

Indonesian Coast Guard patrol ships fired at two Taiwanese vessels traveling to Singapore this week, both of which had allegedly illegally entered Indonesian waters in the Strait of Malacca. Indonesian authorities let the ships go, but not before firing about 20 shots at them. The Lien I Hsing No. 116 was reportedly fired at about “four or five times;” the Sheng Te Tsai had 12 bullet holes in its hull. Indonesian authorities insist they made multiple attempts to communicate with the ships and did not receive a response, and that their officers followed all legal protocol regarding such trespasses.

Both ships have arrived in Singapore, where their crew spoke to media about the incident.

Captain Lin Nan-yang of the Sheng Te Tsai told Singapore’s The Straits Times his crew was unable to hear any of the messages from Indonesian officials. “At first, we thought we were being attacked by pirates. There was no warning at all and they started shooting. … Everyone was just hiding under the consoles or in their bunks, hoping to stay alive,” he said, adding that, while he tried to contact one of the Indonesian vessels, he “didn’t understand what the other side was saying.”

Taiwan is demanding answers. “We require that the Indonesian government respond speedily to our statement as to why our fishing boats fired on the cockpits of our fishing boats,” the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, summoning an Indonesian diplomat in Taipei to explain the circumstances behind the attack. Indonesia has yet to issue a formal response, other than denying any wrongdoing on the part of their law enforcement officers at sea.

The incident occurred shortly after the government of Indonesia arrested the crew of a Chinese ship illegally fishing in the waters near Natuna Island, one of the few territories in the South China Sea that Beijing acknowledges does not belong to it. Nonetheless, the Chinese government claimed the ship fishing near Natuna had not broken the law because it was operating in “traditional Chinese fishing grounds.”

The Indonesian government disagreed and captured the ship and its crew. The Chinese Coast Guard responded to the event by ramming the captured ship, forcing Indonesian authorities to let it go. Indonesia still has custody of the ship’s crew and has refused to return them to China, asserting they will be prosecuted for their trespass. Indonesian head of maritime security responded to China’s claim that the waters near Natuna are Chinese by describing bilateral relations as “a new ball game” following the remark.

While the report did not offer an estimate of the exact number of vessels, The Diplomat understands from an informed, anonymous source that the number is close to 140.

Chinese coast guard ship was reported as being defiantly anchored at the Luconia Shoals just 84 nautical miles from the coast of Sarawak, well inside Malaysia’s EEZ

Our vessels are expected to arrive there tonight,” he said.

Shahidan added that appropriate law enforcement action would be taken if the aforementioned vessels were found to have entered Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The Government Accountability Office is voicing opposition to the Pentagon’s plan to manage the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s Block 4 upgrade as a continuation of the existing program. The planned upgrade — which is expected to cost more than $3 billion — is large enough to qualify a major defense acquisition program by itself.

The F-35’s projected Block 4 is critical for the new stealth aircraft to meet the U.S. Air Force’s full warfighting capability — Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the service’s F-35 integration director told Congress on Oct. 21, 2015. The package includes a medley of new capabilities including upgraded electro-optical sensors, improve electronic warfare and radar modifications.

“We will improve electronic attack [e.g. jamming]. We will improve electronic warfare. We will improve the radar,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, F-35 program executive officer told reporters that same day. “We will add many weapons in Block 4, many unique weapons that the [foreign] partners need and use.”

Bogdan opposes managing Block 4 — which will be awarded in 2018 as a distinct new contract to Lockheed — as a separate program, however. According to the general, managing Block 4 as a new program could add six months to a year of delays to the program.