ministry was deceptively benign. On Wednesday it announced that Chinese vessels had left the area around Jackson Atoll after freeing a grounded foreign boat.

In fact, Chinese vessels, both coast guard and navy, had swarmed around the uninhabited outcropping for weeks, preventing Philippine fishermen from reaching their traditional fishing grounds nearby.

China, like Russia, is trying to redraw borders by force, taking down the world’s rules-based order in the process. As Antony Blinken, deputy secretary of State, said in a speech last year, well before this incident, “In both eastern Ukraine and the South China Sea, we’re witnessing efforts to unilaterally and coercively change the status quo—transgressions that the United States and our allies stand united against.”

But Beijing believes China should be larger than it is at the moment. Its official maps draw a provocative dashed line around about 85 percent of the South China Sea. Beijing claims as Chinese all the islands, atolls, shoals, rocks, and other features inside that supposed boundary.

To inhabitants of the surrounding area, Beijing’s plan looks threatening. “The Chinese are trying to choke us by putting an imaginary checkpoint there,” Mayor Bito-onon said. “It is a clear violation of our right to travel, impeding freedom of navigation.”

China has used rough tactics against the Philippines before.

After the attempt to take Jackson Atoll, it’s clear Beijing will continue employing rough tactics, using the slightest excuse to bring its overwhelming power to bear. Chinese leaders obviously intend to annex the South China Sea one reef, shoal, or rock at a time, by force or guile, whatever it takes.

“Alcoa’s lightweight solutions have improved troop protection while reducing vehicle weight and assembly time,” Alcoa Defense President Eric Roegner stated in the release. “We look forward to building on our successful track record to help develop the next generation combat vehicle.”

The contract also includes research on aluminum forming technology, armor development, material fabrication, energy conservation and anti-corrosion technology, according to the release.

It might be mistaken for footage from a new video game.

But recent footage of a tank in fact comes from a real armed tank combating ISIS in the town of Ramadi in Iraq.

GoPro footage attached to the gun turret films the tank firing at stone buildings with explosive shells and a machine gun.

"The owner of the boat failed to tow it away after several attempts and abandoned it, dismantling some major equipment on board."

He said the boat had hampered navigation safety and the maritime environment, so the Ministry of Transport had cleared it from the reef and dealt with it "properly".

Observers said Beijing had "foiled a trap" set by Manila to use stranded boats to infringe upon Chinese territory, a tactic that had been used on China's Ren'ai Reef in the late 1990s.

"The Wufang Reef incident reminds me of the Ren'ai Reef case. They are almost the same," said Chen Qinghong, a researcher of South China Sea issues at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Beijing says Manila deliberately grounded a warship near China's Ren'ai Reef in 1999. The Philippines refused to remove the vessel — despite repeated demands by China — and reinforced the rusting ship's hull and deck. It also sent troops to guard the reef and to occupy it illegally.

"Such actions violated the spirit and provisions of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea by changing the status quo unilaterally," Chen said, adding that the incidents also infringed upon China's sovereignty.

One of the possible issues with operating these very,very expensive assets is what will happen if one of them actually goes down and gets destroyed for whatever reason.

Some theorists have suggested even the loss of one or two aircraft carriers in an actual combat scenario can spell catastrophe with the US Navy.

Airbus offers C-295 variant as PH’s long-range patrol aircraft

March 3, 2016 Joel Dizon

Airbus Defence and Space has confirmed that will be offering a variant of its C-295 aircraft for Department of National Defense (DND)’s long range patrol aircraft project. The bid opening for the said project is scheduled on March 14, 10:00 a.m. at the DND Bids and Awards Committee Right Wing Basement, DND Building, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

This project has an approved budget for the acquisition of two long range patrol aircraft for Philippine Air Force. These aircraft will provide the Air Force with capability to monitor and patrol Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The reopening of this acquisition project is after a failed bidding mid-2015. Seven firms reportedly participated in the said failed bidding: Saab Asia Pacific, L3 Mission Integratio, IAI Elta Systems, Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Indonesian Aerospace), CASA-Airbus Defense and Space.

Airbus Defence and Space Press Manager for Military Aircraft Kieran Daly confirmed today in an email to Update.PH that they will be offering the C-295 for this project.

The said aircraft has a variant equipped with integrated surveillance systems, including the Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS) to effectively act as maritime patrol aircraft.

The Philippine Air Force is currently operating three C-295M aircraft as medium lift aircraft.

Best Choice: Indonesia to Ink Contract for 10 Russian Su-35 Jets in April

10:34 04.03.2016 (updated 10:42 04.03.2016)

A squadron of Russian 4++ generation supermaneuverable multirole jets will reinforce Indonesia's air force.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Moscow and Jakarta will sign a contract in April for the deliveries of 10 Russian Su-35 Flanker multirole fighter jets to replace Indonesia’s fleet of F-5 Tigers, the Jakarta Globe reported Friday.

“We need a squadron of the jets, but for the first phase it will be 10 jets,” Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu was quoted by the Jakarta Globe as saying.

Indonesia currently has 16 F-5 fighter jets that entered service in 1980.

Four Su-35s have been deployed to Syria amid Moscow's counterterrorism campaign.

The 4++ generation Su-35 is characterized by supermaneuverability and has features of a 5-generation aircraft. The fighter has new avionics, a modern radar and advanced engines. It can accomplish incredible tricks without deceleration and can fly at a speed of 2400 kmph, outpacing all rivals in its class. The warplane is armed with 30mm guns, a huge number of missiles and rockets.

it will be bad but not enough to cripple the whole armed forces of even power projection permanently... one or 2 out of? of course it depends on the circumstances it got destroyed, if those threats linger then it might be more problematic... aka anti carrier ballistic missiles etc..

pearl harbour got hit badly... but the their industrial might was under estimated

Sure looks like it, with that fibreglass-looking launcher.

Anyway I was hoping the Ratnik system would have some kind of light reloadable rocket launcher like the RPG-7 or a recoilless launcher tough. For organic infantry support, light anti-armor, those sort of roles. I find disposable rocket launchers rather cumbersome. Each infantryman can only bring one each and they are individually quite bulky.

Whereas reloadable launchers with one gunner and two assistants can carry a good amount of ammunition (an RPG-7 gunner carries the launcher tube, while each rifle-armed assistant carries 3-4 rockets each). That's a significant amount of firepower.

The new Quantum Space Satellite (QUESS) program is no mere science experiment. China is already becoming a world leader in quantum communications technology; a satellite that delivers quantum communications will be a cornerstone for translating cutting-edge research into a strategic asset for Chinese power worldwide.

Cryptography operates through the use of an encryption key (such as a numbers pad), which, when applied to an encryption algorithm, can be used to decrypt or encrypt a message. Quantum entanglement is the act of fusing two or more particles into complementary “quantum states.” In such states, no particle can be independently described, instead the particles exist in a hazy shared quantum state that “collapses” when observed.

Quantum encryption thus takes advantage of this feature, using it to detect would-be eavesdroppers, whose presence causes quantum states to collapse and reveal their spying to legitimate parties. Additionally, the complexity of quantum mechanics makes it virtually impossible to reverse engineer the quantum key generated through quantum entanglement.

Quantum keys are thus theoretically impossible to crack by even quantum computing -- a theoretical form of supercomputing that promises to defeat traditional forms of encryption. (It is important to note, however, that all is not perfectly secure. Quantum secured communications, like other forms of encryption, are vulnerable to denial of service, physically tampering of the quantum communications device, human failures in operational security and impersonation of sender).

QUESS's function is to test the phenomena of quantum entanglement. Operated by the China Academy of Sciences, this 500kg satellite contains a quantum key communicator, quantum entanglement emitter, entanglement source, processing unit, and a laser communicator. QUESS will relay transmissions between two ground stations (one in China, and the other in Europe) transmitting quantum keys. Pan remarked that the distances involved (the QUESS orbits at an altitude of 1,000km) is ideal for testing quantum teleportation of photons. Additionally, the Austrian Academy of Sciences will provide the optical receivers for the European ground stations.

QUESS fits into a broader series of experimental quantum encryption programs which may be intended to address concerns over China's information security, particularly in the post Snowden era. Government, military, and financial networks are juicy targets for espionage, and quantum encryption promises to provide a level of potentially unbreakable encryption for these systems, as well as a sure-fire method to detect any attempts at intrusion.

That device is the SkyWall, and it looks a whole lot like a shoulder mounted rocket launcher. Which is to say, it looks terrifying and deadly, and at close range, it probably is. But the point isn't destruction. It's to get the projectile up in the air, where it can trap a rogue drone in its net and bring it down, all without a pesky gun.

It has a range of about 328 feet, high enough to get most UAVs (which technically have a flight ceiling of 400 feet).  It uses compressed air to launch, and can reload in about eight seconds. Despite its huge size, it can be used by a single operator, and has a smart scope to help hit the drone just right. Once the net grabs the UAV, a parachute deploys to bring to the ground.

The plan seeks to transform the 2.3-million-member People’s Liberation Army, which features 21st-century hardware but an outdated, Soviet-inspired command structure, into a fighting force capable of winning a modern war.

The first piece of the overhaul — announced by Xi during a grand military parade through Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 — calls for eliminating 300,000 PLA personnel by 2017.

Out are military cooks, hospital workers, journalists and some 10,000 members of the PLA’s famed troops of singers and dancers. Even so, China’s military will remain by far the world’s largest, with more than 600,000 more active service members than the U.S.

Advanced military actions such as intercepting rival aircraft, carrying out drone strikes and using special forces to extract hostages, demand the sort of close collaboration China’s army-centric military has lacked. Xi intends to fix that by reorganizing the armed forces into five branches under a joint-command structure modeled after that of the U.S.

PLA Air Force and PLA Navy, a new Rocket Force will be responsible for China’s nuclear arsenal and conventional missiles while a Strategic Support Force will oversee cyberwarfare and protect China’s financial system from attack

As part of the move toward a unified command, China consolidated its seven military regions into five “Theater Commands” or “Battle Zones,” with each service reporting to a single commander

Many will be watching to see how far beyond China’s borders the new zones reach and how the revamped military map will shape PLA activities in regional hotspots such as the South China Sea.

Four existing general departments will be divided into 15 smaller units responsible for everything from training and logistics to punishing corrupt officers and ensuring soldiers get sufficient education in Marxist ideology

One thing Xi has made clear: he has no plans to transfer control over the PLA to the government from the party, something foreign military experts say is needed to professionalize the services.

According to Air Vice Marshal M. Syaugi, the director general of defense planning at Indonesia’s defense ministry, the country is currently evaluating the purchase of the Chinese-made AF902 Radar/Twin 35 mm AA Gun/PL-9C Missile Integrated Air Defense System (AF902 FCS/35) to bolster its aerial defense capabilities.

Syaugi also said that the system was “as good as the Oerlikon,” referring to the Swiss-made Oerlikon SkyShield MK2 air defense system which is currently being used by the Air Force Special Forces (Paskhas) in the air force base in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

While Syaugi’s comments were quite positive, it is unclear whether Indonesia will eventually decide to go with the air defense system and, if so, when a deal might be struck and finalized. Sino-Indonesian defense relations have tended to move quite slowly with respect to new firsts for a variety of reasons. For example, talks for Indonesia to purchase Chinese-made C-705 surface to surface missiles went on for a while before the confirmation that Jakarta would actually begin deploying the missiles on vessels.

Dr. Keith Joiner, who spoke exclusively to Background Briefing about his concerns, says the JSF is a completely software-driven aircraft, but is yet to be properly tested.

“[The aircraft] hasn’t done any cybersecurity testing yet,” he says. “The only system that has done cybersecurity vulnerability and penetration testing is the logistics software, so ordering spares.

“And it didn’t go very well. The most software-driven aircraft ever built hasn’t yet been tested against cyber security and the modern cyber warfare threats.”

US has about 20 operational CVs? provided mixed classes, not fully CV

i think losing one also they get farked up real bad