TNI blocks Malaysian optical cable project in Anambas

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/04...in-anambas.html

Sea-Air-Space 2017 Day 3 / Part 2 - Latest US Naval Defense Technology

F-18 E/F Block 3

ST Kinetics unveils Ultimax 100 Mark 8 light machine gun at LAAD 2017



ST Kinetics (Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd) has unveiled a new version of its Ultimax 100 Mark 8 light machine gun in Rio de Janeiro, during Defense and Security fair in Latin America (LAAD Defense & Security 2017).

That was reported by planobrazil.com.

The Ultimax 100 is one of the lightest recoil 5.56mm calibre machine guns in the world. Designed for one-man operation, the Ultimax 100 combines its patented constant recoil feature with other attributes for a dramatic increase in accuracy and firepower. Sold to more than 25 countries in the world, the Ultimax 100 has the system capability to meet the adverse mission requirements expected of a truly portable Squad Automatic System and is unequalled in field performance.

The Ultimax 100 Mk8 is an upgraded model from the Ultimax 100 Mk5. New features from the previous Marks include a semi-automatic fire mode, as well as a quick-change barrel.

The key technical features of the Ultimax 100 Mk8 are:

Low weight of 5kg for the basic system
Constant recoil system with low felt recoil for accurate automatic fire
Improved aesthetics and ergonomics\
Removable Lower Receiver with single shot and full automatic modes of fire
Open Bolt system with no cook-off constraint
Unique trigger safety mechanism that allows charging in safe mode
Retractable Stock with height adjustments and can be removed for firing
Uses M16 type box magazine, 100 rounds C-MAG and ULTIMAX 100 drum magazines
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Calibre (mm) 5.56×45
Length (mm) 935/1025
Weight (kg) 5
Effective Range (m) 800 (SS109) / 460 (M193)
Operation Gas Operation, Open Bolt, Short Stroke Piston & Gas Adjustments
Mode Safe, Semi and Full Auto
Barrel Length (mm) 508 / 457 / 330



http://defence-blog.com/army/st-kinetics-u...-laad-2017.html

Nice capability upgrade for Indo military industry.

http://americanmilitarynews.com/2017/04/br...d-syrian-attack

guy on the right got navy seal trident guy on the left got special forces tab?

nice toy... hope saf have it soon

This post has been edited by Fat & Fluffy: Apr 8 2017, 01:12 AM

6 MiG-23 aircraft destroyed in US strike on Syrian airfield, runway undamaged





[sos]

Indonesian Army Leopard 2RI MBT. Photo credit to Pen Kostrad.

JS Uraga (MST-463 / MST-464)



5,700 ton Uraga class MST is the world's largest mine warfare vessel.

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

work of CIA to pave way for US intervention? isn't US violating international laws for attacks on a sovereign state?

Syria airstrike puts US on collision course with Russia

WASHINGTON • The missile strike on a Syrian airbase yesterday, the biggest foreign policy decision of Mr Donald Trump's presidency so far, catapulted the United States into a confrontation with Russia.

Russia has been a strong supporter of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strike had seriously damaged ties between Washington and Moscow.

Mr Putin regarded the US action as "aggression against a sovereign nation" on a "made-up pretext", spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russia demanded an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The council was due to meet late yesterday.


Mr Assad's office described the attack in the early hours yesterday local time as "foolish and irresponsible". State news agency Sana said at least nine civilians, including four children, were killed.



For Russia, the attack involving 59 Tomahawk missiles finally put to rest expectations from the 2016 US election campaign that Mr Trump will pursue closer ties with Mr Putin.

For North Korea, it was a warning that the US is willing to act unilaterally if necessary to curtail the North's growing nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

And for China, whose leader Xi Jinping was dining with Mr Trump right before the missiles took flight, the attack was a potent sign of the new president's unpredictability.

Mr Trump said he launched the assault to punish Mr Assad's military for the chemical weapons attack earlier this week that killed at least 70 Syrians, including children.

"Years of previous attempts at changing Assad's behaviour have all failed and failed very dramatically," Mr Trump said, as he announced the attack from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, where he was meeting Mr Xi. "Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack," he added of Tuesday's chemical weapons attack.

The Syrian government has denied it was behind the gassing.

The launching of the missiles from two US destroyers in the Mediterranean marked a rapid change in the US stance towards Syria.

The attack is the first direct US assault on the Assad government in six years of civil war. Mr Trump had criticised former US president Barack Obama for setting a "red line" threatening force against Mr Assad if he used chemical weapons, only to pull back from ordering air strikes in 2013 when Mr Assad agreed to give up his chemical arsenal.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the strike did not mean the wider US policy on Syria had changed. The attack was a "one-off", a US defence official told Reuters, meaning it was expected to be a single strike with no current plans for escalation.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said Moscow was suspending a Syrian air safety agreement with the US originally drawn up to ensure that the two countries' planes do not collide. US officials said they had informed Russian forces ahead of the strikeand had avoided hitting Russian personnel.

Satellite imagery suggested the Shayrat airbase that was struck in western Syria is home to Russian special forces and military helicopters.

Iran, which supports Mr Assad's government, said the raid was based on "bogus" chemical weapons allegations.

But Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia voiced support for the air strike, as did Western allies Germany, France and Britain.

China called for restraint to ensure a political solution to the Syria crisis.

REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, XINHUA

SEE TOP OF THE NEWS

Shocked Stockholm eerily silent after terrorist truck attack


STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Stockholm's usually vibrant city centre was eerily silent on Friday evening with restaurants, bars and cinemas shuttered and streets emptied hours after a truck ploughed into a crowd outside a department store, killing four people and injuring 15.

Stockholmers appeared to be following police advice to stay indoors and avoid crowded areas, with a number of normally-bustling city streets deserted.

The attack occurred just before 3pm (1300 GMT) when a beer truck slammed into the corner of the bustling Ahlens store and the popular pedestrian street Drottninggatan, above ground from Stockholm's central subway station.



The initial scene was chaotic.

After emergency responders rushed to the scene, several bodies could be seen lying on the ground covered with orange blankets. Shattered glass was scattered on the ground near a large blood stain on the asphalt.

Shaken passersby described their horror at witnessing what police and Prime Minister Stefan Lofven described as a "terror attack".

"A massive truck starts driving ... and mangles everything and just drives over exactly everything," eyewitness Rikard Gauffin told AFP.

"It was so terrible and there were bodies lying everywhere... it was really terrifying," he added.

Police cars and ambulances rapidly flooded the scene, as central streets and squares were blocked off amid fears that another attack could be imminent.

Helicopters hovered overhead across the city, sirens wailed, and police vans criss-crossed the streets using loudspeakers to urge people to head straight home and avoid crowded places.



But with the metro system and commuter trains shut down for several hours after the attack, other streets heading out of the city were packed with thousands of pedestrians trying to find a way home.

Central Stockholm would on any other Friday be abuzz with locals queueing up outside glitzy bars and restaurants and upscale nightclubs.

Haval, a 30-year-old sales clerk who didn't want to reveal his last name, was in the metro at the time of the attack.

His train stopped immediately and he had to get out, along with all the other passengers.

They walked along the street before being ushered inside a nearby hotel for safety.

"We were suddenly trapped inside a hotel and there was the worst kind of horror in there," he told AFP.

"We were scared, we were scared something else would happen, he added.



The attack was the latest in a string of similar assaults with vehicles in Europe that include the southern French city of Nice, Berlin and London.

"I never thought that something would happen in Sweden, but then suddenly it happens," Haval said.

One witness identified only as Dimitris told the Aftonbladet daily the truck came "out of nowhere." "I couldn't see if anyone was driving but it was out of control. I saw at least two people get run down. I ran as fast as I could away from there," he said.

Marko was in coffee shop near the scene with his girlfriend when he saw the truck ram into the store.

"He hit a woman first, then he drove over a bunch of other people ... We took care of everyone lying on the ground," he told Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet.

Hasan Sidi, another passerby, told Aftonbladet he saw two elderly women lying on the ground.

He said people at the scene urged him to help one of the women who was "bleeding to death".

"One of them died...I don't know if the other one made it," Sidi said.



"The police were shocked. Everyone was shocked." Despite that shock, Sweden was determined to not let the attackers create fear.

"Terrorists want us to be afraid, want us to change our behaviour, want us to not live our lives normally, but that is what we're going to do. So terrorists can never defeat Sweden, never," Prime Minister Lofven said.

Shortly afterwards, he placed a bouquet of flowers near the scene, visibly shaken and wiping away a tear.

In an editorial, Sweden's biggest broadsheet Dagens Nyheter wrote: "What we feared for a long time finally happened.

"The fear and panic right after the incident was inevitable. The images from the attack were terrible," the paper said.

But Stockholm managed to stay "cool-headed" even though the attacker struck "Sweden and Stockholm's heart", it added.

"Stockholm stands strong. You won't break Stockholm."

Arson, bomb attacks rock southern Thailand



Thailand's restive southern provinces were rocked by a wave of coordinated bomb blasts and arson yesterday, a day after the country enacted a new Constitution.

The 23 incidents, including arson and five small bomb attacks, caused widespread blackouts in four southern provinces but no casualties were reported.

Analysts said the attacks were likely meant to undermine the military. But they were divided on whether these were directly connected with the signing of a new charter that was overwhelmingly rejected by the three border provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat The fighting has claimed more than 6,500 lives since it escalated in 2004, according to independent monitoring group Deep South Watch.

There is a possibility of more violence erupting with rebels asserting their independence against Bangkok, said Mr Kan Yuenyong, executive director of the Siam Intelligence Unit.



But such moves will likely be contained by the military, which has become more powerful under the new Constitution signed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Thursday.

"This may be related to the idea of Bangkok centralisation and governance. Overall, it's seen as trying to create resistance to Bangkok and test reactions on the ground. It's about ideology, psyche," Mr Kan said. He likened the situation in the south to simmering water that may spill over as the government has so far failed to make headway in negotiating with the rebels.

The government struck a deal in February with Mara Patani, an umbrella group that claims to speak for the insurgents. But the deal was rejected by other separatists.

Thailand's ethnic and religious separatist insurgency originated in 1948 in the Malay Pattani region that borders northern Malaysia.



The separatist movement became increasingly violent from 2001 as local leaders demanded a level of autonomy from Thailand for the Pattani region. The Barisan Revolusi Nasional, a leading group in the insurgency, has been involved in suspected killings, arson and bomb attacks.

Said Mr Kan: "We are all aware of the junta's propaganda to the public that their governance has been able to maintain peace and security. But if you look at the reality, that's not true at all."during the ratification last August. Several attacks also occurred in the southern province of Songkhla.

The new Constitution will curb the power of lawmakers but boost the army's role in government, even after the junta led by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha steps down after expected polls late next year.

"The whole idea is to humiliate the Thai security apparatus. Right now, their aim is to make the area ungovernable as much as possible," Mr Don Pathan, an analyst who writes on southern Thailand issues, told The Straits Times.



This year alone has seen six violent incidents in the south killing 13 people, all happening last month.

"The incidents are to create disturbances. They want to destroy the government's credibility and create fear among people," said Mr Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for local security forces.

The southern provinces have been rocked by violence for more than a decade as Malay Muslim rebels battle Thai troops for more autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state.

any condemnation for this one? or hypocrisy at its best?

Seoul test-fires missile that can hit any part of North

SEOUL • South Korea has successfully test-fired a home-developed ballistic missile with a range long enough to hit any part of North Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported yesterday.

The news of the test-firing came a day after the North fired its own ballistic missile into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.



Yonhap reported that South Korean and American military officials were apparently struggling to determine the exact type of ballistic missile that North Korea fired earlier on Wednesday.

US officials said the missile appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud missile that travelled only a fraction of its range before spinning out of control and crashing into the sea.

But earlier, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was "a type of KN-15 intermediate-range ballistic missile".

South Korea is protected under an American security umbrella and is home to thousands of US troops.

In 2012, it reached an agreement with the US to almost triple the range of its ballistic missile systems to guard against the North's nuclear threats, and has since been developing missiles with longer ranges.

Citing a high-ranking government official, Yonhap said the South's missile with a range of 800km could serve as a strong deterrent to Pyongyang.

"The test-firing was successful," the official was quoted as saying.

A Defence Ministry spokesman declined to comment.

The South plans to deploy the new missile this year following further tests to determine its reliability, Yonhap said. The new missile could cover all of North Korea, even when fired from the southern part of the country, it said.

In June last year, the South successfully test-fired two home- developed missiles capable of carrying a one-tonne payload up to 500km.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

1 frigate vs 2 destroyers
Riiiiight

I didn't know until now that Burke DDGs carried that many Tomahawks
96 VLS tubes + the ability to quadpack ESSMs = a hell of a missile load!

Duterte to 'plant flag' in South China Sea



President Rodrigo Duterte is planning to raise the Philippine flag on the second largest island in the disputed waters of the South China Sea which his country occupies, a plan unlikely to sit well with Beijing.

He has also ordered his military to fortify the nine islands and reefs the Philippines has claimed in the Spratlys chain in the southern half of the South China Sea.

"It looks like everyone's trying to grab islands. Let's claim what's ours now and make a strong point there that these are ours," Mr Duterte told reporters yesterday at a military base on Palawan Island.

"There are so many islands, I think nine or 10. Let us put structures and the Philippine flag there," he said, referring to his country's claims.

Mr Duterte said he might fly to Thitu Island on June 12 and personally raise the Philippine flag there to mark 119 years of independence.



No bigger than 37ha, Thitu lies 480km west of Palawan and just 24km from Subi Reef, which China has transformed into an island large enough to accomodate a 3km airstrip, radars and anti-air weapons systems.

There are about 100 settlers and a contingent of marines on Thitu. Mr Duterte wants more barracks to be constructed on top of plans announced earlier to build a new port, repave an airstrip and repair existing structures there.

The Philippines has eight other outposts in the Spratlys, but these consist of scrappy groups of a few men and some wood and iron meant to discourage interlopers.

One is a derelict transport ship the Philippine Navy ran aground in 1999 on Second Thomas Shoal to prevent China from moving on it. The shoal lies 34km from another Chinese man-made island, Mischief Reef.

In a statement, the Philippine Defence Department said Mr Duterte now wants to build barracks, water treatment and sewage systems, lighthouses and shelters for fishermen in these outposts.

Mr Duterte appears to be altering his tone with regard to the claims in the disputed waters. Since he took office last year, he has gone to great lengths to rebuild ties with Beijing, strained by a case Manila filed challenging China's claims to nearly all of the South China Sea.



The Philippines won that case, but Mr Duterte instead chose to set aside the victory as he sought billions in investments and grants from China.

In a separate development yesterday, Chinese coastguard vessels were reported to be maintaining a near-constant presence around reefs claimed by Malaysia.

Citing ship-tracking data provided by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, The Guardian newspaper said that three Chinese ships patrolled the Luconia Shoals, an area of islets and reefs that are more than 1,600km from mainland China and about only 145km north of Borneo, in January and February.

The United States-based group said the two-month deployment was not unusual and was consistent with regular rotations of up to 11 Chinese patrol ships it had traced in the area since late 2015.

Control over the South China Sea, a route for half of the world's commercial shipping, has become a major international conflict point, with Beijing asserting sovereignty over maritime areas also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

Four RBS15 Mk3 armed Gripen fighter. Photo by SAAB.



http://www.aviationanalysis.net/2017/04/sa...i-ship.html?m=1

Our army can buy too, also VT5 from China

Serbian military jet crashes in Slatina, 2 pilots killed





[sos]

US Navy strike group to move toward Korean peninsula: US official



WASHINGTON: A U.S. Navy strike group will be moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula, a U.S. official told Reuters on Saturday, as concerns grow about North Korea's advancing weapons program.

Earlier this month North Korea tested a liquid-fueled Scud missile which only traveled a fraction of its range.

The strike group, called Carl Vinson, includes an aircraft carrier and will make its way toward the Korean peninsula from Singapore, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity.



The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group departed Singapore after it arrived on Apr 4 during a port visit.

"We feel the increased presence is necessary," the official said, citing North Korea's worrisome behavior.

This year North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, have repeatedly indicated an intercontinental ballistic missile test or something similar could be coming, possibly as soon as April 15, the 105th birthday of North Korea's founding president and celebrated annually as "the Day of the Sun."

Earlier this week U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Florida, where Trump pressed his counterpart to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear program.

Trump's national security aides have completed a review of U.S. options to try to curb North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. These include economic and military measures but lean more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbor.



Although the option of pre-emptive military strikes on North Korea is not off the table, the review prioritizes less-risky steps and de-emphasizes direct military action.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Richard Chang)

- Reuters

Another view of the FNSS-Pindad Modern Medium Weight Tank (MMWT) scale model. The first prototype is set to be display in May at IDEF 2017 in Turkey. Estimated price reported around USD 3.38 - USD 3.76 million per unit. Photo credit to Ijal Lubis.





https://lancercell.com/2016/11/06/eksklusif...fnss-pt-pindad/

This post has been edited by azriel: Apr 9 2017, 03:03 PM