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ORIGINAL: Broncepulido

On 1 April 2016, "Citing multiple issues, the United Kingdom have announced their intention to scrap plans to purchase F-35" [;)] https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-canc ... -purchase/

In response to this, the Ministry of Defence are now considering purchasing a fleet F-4 Phantoms, painting go faster stripes on the carrier hulls and additional crayon provision.

China set to deploy longest-range nuclear missile

A new generation of Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles may come into service as early as this year and will herald a period of rapid nuclear build-up by China, according to experts.
With a 14,500km estimated range, the DF-41 is the first Chinese missile capable of carrying multiple warheads that can strike any part of the US from anywhere in China. Previous missiles have been more limited. The first version of the DF-5, which went into service in 1980, could only hit the northwestern corner of the US from the north-east of China.

“Given the number of real reported tests, it is reasonable to speculate the DF-41 will be deployed to PLA Strategic Rocket Force bases in 2016,” said Richard Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Washington.

The news comes as US President Barack Obama prepares to meet China’s President Xi Jinping at a nuclear security summit in Washington on Thursday.

The new missile is the latest in Chinese efforts to challenge US global primacy on a number of fronts. Beijing has been beefing up artificial islands in the South China Sea, while a new generation of weapons, including a stealth fighter, the DF-21D “carrier killer” missile and the 052D class destroyer, are underlining the transformation of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army from a peasant-based land army to a mobile modern fighting force capable of challenging the US in the western Pacific.

While it will be a long time before China achieves nuclear parity with the US and Russia, the world leaders in stockpiled warheads, China clearly sees this as a gap that must be addressed.

Until roughly 2008, according to Mr Fisher, the US believed China had a maximum of 20 nuclear missile warheads. Now, with the advent of a redesigned DF-5 and the new DF-41, both capable of carrying multiple warheads, Mr Fisher says current western estimates for total Chinese warheads are between 200 and 400, with the potential to increase very rapidly.
The US has a stockpile of 4,760 nuclear warheads, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

With the ongoing deployment of the DF-5B multiple warhead equipped ICBM, and the new DF-41, “we will see a period of rapid increases in the numbers of China’s nuclear warheads that can reach the United States”, said Mr Fisher.
Tong Zhao, a nuclear security expert at the Carnegie Tsinghua centre in Beijing, said the DF-41 did a number of things that old missiles could not. While the DF-5 is silo-based, the DF-41 has a mobile launcher. The longer range also means it can be deployed anywhere in China, whereas previously China’s nuclear deterrent had to be based in the north-east of the country.
News of the DF-41’s imminent deployment was first reported by Canada-based military journal Kanwa Asian Defence.

ORIGINAL: Excroat3

U.S. Army’s new launcher fired AIM-9X and Longbow Hellfire at UAV targets
http://alert5.com/2016/04/02/u-s-armys-new-launcher-fired-aim-9x-and-longbow-hellfire-at-uav-targets/

ORIGINAL: Hongjian

http://www.janes.com/article/59003/imag ... ody-island

Imagery suggests China has deployed YJ-62 anti-ship missiles to Woody Island

Key Points
-Recent imagery suggests China has deployed YJ-62 ASCMs to Woody Island in the Paracels
-The deployment potentially allows China to target any vessel within 400 km of Woody Island
-Recent imagery suggests China has significantly enhanced its military capabilities in the South China Sea by deploying the land-based version of the 400 km-range YJ-62 anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) to Woody Island in the Paracel Islands.

Posted on 20 March 2016 on the popular Weibo blog, the image of a launching YJ-62 ASCM is consistent with photos copied from one of the many monthly Chinese military magazines that appear on Chinese military issue web pages. The image of the launching ASCM also shows a radar dome that the Chinese blogger makes a strong case for being on Woody Island.

The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) YJ-62 was likely deployed at about the same time the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system was first detected on the island in February 2016.

A land-based version of the YJ-62 has been deployed by the Coastal Defence troops of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) since about 2008. Three YJ-62 ASCMs are carried on a CASIC-Sanjiang transporter-erector-launcher (TEL).

First seen in model form in 2006 under its export designation C-602, the YJ-62 also arms the Type 052C destroyer launched in 2003. Chinese brochures credit the C-602 with a range of 280 km, while the version in service with the PLAN is estimated to have at least a 400 km range.

The anti-ship version of the YJ-62 is cued by long-range radar or data from aircraft or satellites, then uses an internal nose-mounted radar for terminal guidance.

At the 2012 Zhuhai Airshow CASIC introduced the 290 km-range CM-602G land-attack variant, which has a 480 kg warhead as opposed to the 300 kg warhead carried by the C-602.

The part talking about the range difference between the export C-602 and PLAN-deployed YJ-62 is interesting and well within commom practice: Export cruise missiles are subject to the 300km range limitation as set by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), while domestic variants are not subject to it. The 400km number is well within the realms of possibility and even a bit too short-ranged compared to the rumors in the Chinese military watcher's forums (about 600km range - it is a big missile, after all).

The images in question:



And when all major island bases would have the same armaments (yellow for 200km HQ-9 and white for 400km YJ-62 AShM):

ORIGINAL: mikmyk

Do you know what the radar types on the island are?

Mike

ORIGINAL: Dysta

Based on this picture (Woody island):

1, EW Radar (Unknown)

ORIGINAL: Supreme 2.0

Is it possible that this radar site could be a YLC-4 radar?? Some months ago I did a little research for a SCS scenario and compared the radome on Woody Island to known YLC-4 radomes on the Chinese mainland. Diameters were always about the same size. Also the layout of the radar coverage of radars on Hainan Island with a YLC-4 on Woody Island lead me to this conclusion. Of course I could be horribly wrong...

Based on economic, industrial and military assessments, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence has concluded that the French company Direction des Constructions Navales Services (DCNS) and the German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) are the strongest candidates if Norway decides to procure new submarines. The Ministry of Defence has decided to focus our future efforts towards these two companies and their respective national authorities.

German Navy’s (Deutsche Marine) first F125 frigate has begun sea trials on 6 April. The “Baden-Württemberg” has sailed from the shipyard in Hamburg to Cuxhaven. With a crew of 60 men and women, the vessel will assume a series of tests for the systems, subsystems and weapons of the platform.

It was announced last month that Gulfstream Aerospace had won a $91million U.S. Navy contract to supply one Gulfstream G-550 Green aircraft with Airborne Early Warning air vehicle modifications. Navy Recognition contacted the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to learn more about this procurement and the platform.

Work to create the latest 3K-22 multi-service missile complex armed with Zircon (sometimes spelled Tsirkon) 3M-22 missiles and designed by NPO Mashinostroeniya Military-Industrial Corporation in the town of Reutov in Moscow region has been ongoing since 2011. The Military-Industrial Courier newspaper said the 3M-22 complex is armed with an anti-ship missile which is a continuation of heavy missiles Bazalt, Granit, and Onyx to destroy surface-going naval and ground targets at a distance of 300-400 kilometers.

The Project 11356 frigate Admiral Makarov built at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad in west Russia started undergoing dock trials on March 31, shipyard spokesman Sergei Mikhailov told TASS on Friday. The Project 11356 frigate Admiral Makarov is the third vessel in the series being built for the Russian Navy by the Yantar Shipyard, the spokesman added.

The work to integrate modernized anti-ship X-35U (Kh-35U) missile into the mobile coastal defense complex 3K60 Bal is ongoing, Director General and Designer General of Morinformsistema-Agat Company Georgy Antsev told TASS. He also said that a drone designed by Radar-mms research and production enterprise is planned to be used for targeting of the mobile coastal defense complex 3K60 Bal.

The Morinformsystem-Agat Joint Stock Company is designing a new combat control information system for warships which is a new-generation combat information software, Director General and Designer General of the company Georgy Antsev told TASS.

At least two shipyards in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia have the potential to build a promising aircraft carrier for the Russian Navy, United Ship-Building Corporation President Alexei Rakhmanov said in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station on Tuesday.

Russian Navy`s Naval Aviation has deployed 191 combat aircraft by March 2016, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies` (IISS) report.

The fifth-generation Husky-class nuclear-powered submarine will be maximally standardized to combine the qualities of multipurpose and strategic submarines, United Ship-Building Corporation President Alexei Rakhmanov said in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station on Tuesday.