Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

PLAN Type-54A Frigate Yueyang(575) ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Shannon Tiezzi On May 26, China’s Defense Ministry unveiled a new white paper in a press conference. The paper, entitled “China’s Military Strategy,” is the ninth such white paper focused on China’s military to be released since 1998, but it’s also unique. Defense Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun noted a stronger strategic and forward-looking focus in this year’s white paper compared to its predecessors. The Diplomat has already looked at the new white paper, with Franz-Stefan Gady providing an overview and Ankit Panda noting the continued focus on Taiwan. But there’s another aspect on the broad strategic and forward-looking level noted by Yang deserving of attention: China’s vision for a more global role for its military. The white paper started with an emphasis on the positive: “world war is unlikely and the international situation is e

BPC Dixmude ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Simon Ghesquiere, Marine Nationale) Source- The Diplomat Author- Ankit Panda In 2014, France determined that it would avert plans to sell two of its Mistral-class amphibious assault ships that were originally bound for sale to Russia. The decision was spurred, in part, by pressure from French allies, including the United States, who saw a sale of a complex naval asset to Russia in the wake of its support of anti-government Ukrainian rebels as inappropriate. The deal between France and Russia had originally been concluded in 2011, and was canceled last year, leaving the French with two Mistrals in hand, miffed at the lack of an eager customer. The Franco-Russian agreement for the Mistral sale reached a final price of $1.37 billion euros for the two ships. Two weeks ago, reports emerged in the Taiwan-based China Times, citing Duowei News, that China may be the latest customer for the French Mistral vessels. The re

PLAN Type-54A Frigate Jiangkai II ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- United States Naval Institute) Source- The Diplomat Author- Ankit Panda Marking a new milestone for China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), two guided missile frigates, reportedly the Linyi and the Weifang, entered the Black Sea on Monday. USNI News broke the story, accompanying it with photographs of the Linyi passing through the Bosphorous on May 4. The pair of frigates are en route to Russia’s naval base at Novorossiysk where they will arrive on May 9 and remain until Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Moscow to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. The two frigates are in the Black Sea after participating with Russia in the first joint Russia-China naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea. (The Linyi, as some Diplomat readers may recall, drew headlines last month after being used to evacuate Chinese and non-Chinese citizens ali

PLAN Ships ( Image source- Wikimapia) Source- The Diplomat Author- Jack Detsch China’s pursuit of construction projects to assert its claims to disputed territory in the South China Sea is intensifying. As Victor Robert Lee reported in The Diplomat last week, land reclamation and buildups have expanded from the Spratly Islands, where China is pursuing military installations, including radar towers, gun emplacements, port facilities, and airstrips, to the Paracel Islands, just 400 kilometers off of the Vietnamese coast. According to satellite imagery, Beijing is looking into major expansions of runway and airport facilities there. Now, per a report from Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer in Popular Science released Monday, China will have a new tool to pursue their ambitions further into the oil-rich sea: 1,000,000 ton floating islands, mobile battle stations that can be converted for civilian and military use, allowing for resupplying forces in the region, aircraft landing,

Credits- Internet Image Source- The Diplomat Author- Andrew S.Erickson To its first unclassified report on China’s navy in six years, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has just added sophisticated posters detailing Chinese ships and aircraft, equipment, and leadership structure. ONI’s main document, “The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century,” already offers a cornucopia of new insights and highly vetted data points. But it is with the supplementary reference materials that the Suitland, MD-based agency is going where no publicly released U.S. government report has ever gone before. This article reviews key findings from ONI’s latest set of publications and assesses their significance. Unprecedented Offerings Perhaps most exciting, for the first time ever, ONI is making available publicly 148 carefully labeled silhouettes and 89 photos of China’s myriad People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and maritime law enforcement ships and air

Chinese Type-92 Nuclear Submarine (Image credits- USNI) Source- The Diplomat Author- P.K Ghosh The deployment of a Chinese nuclear submarine – presumably a Type 093 Shang-class – as part of the anti-piracy patrol of two ships and a supply vessel operating off the Gulf of Aden has set alarm bells ringing loudly in the Indian Navy. The implications of such a strategically significant move are simply enormous, as analysts try to decipher the real reason behind deploying such a platform in the region. Submarines are not appropriate platforms for dealing with pirates or with piracy. The Somali pirates are known to use small craft known as skiffs individually or as part of swarm tactics to attack ships, returning to larger mother ships nearby. This gives them large operating ranges. Such highly manoeuvrable crafts can hardly be chased by relatively slow moving submarines or torpedoed from underwater, making submarines quite superfluous to anti-piracy operations. Apart from

PLAN Type 52D Destroyer (Image credits- Sina Defence Review) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady This week, the Pentagon’s Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) released an unclassified assessment of the Chinese navy’s new capabilities and missions in the years ahead. Compared to ONI’s last  unclassified analysis on the PLAN six years ago, the more than 300-ship strong Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has “made significant strides in operationalizing as well as modernizing its force,” notes the new 2015 report. Notably different from 2009 is Beijing’s current shipbuilding program, which is now focusing more on the construction of multi-mission vessels rather than anti-surface warfare combatants. The most striking revelation of the 2015 ONI report is that the PLAN has apparently already equipped a class of guided missile destroyers with China’s most advanced supersonic anti-ship missile. “[T]he newest class, the LUYANG III destroyer is fitted wi

Type- 093G SSN ( Image credits- Want China Times) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan- Gady The Chinese Navy in in the process of commissioning three new nuclear-powered attack submarines, according to China Daily. The report, quoted on the website Defense Tech, furthermore notes that the new vessels will be equipped with a new vertical launching system capable of firing supersonic anti-ship missiles. The “new” SSNs are in fact, upgraded versions of the Type-093 Shang-class second-generation nuclear-powered attack submarines, two of which are currently in service in the People’s Liberation Army Navy. The upgrades are designated Type-093G. “The Type-093G is reported to be an upgraded version of Type-093… With a teardrop hull, the submarine is longer than its predecessor and has a vertical launching system,” China Daily said. However, the Chinese PLAN could also choose to re-designate the ships as Type-095 SSGNs, should all public reports on the vessel pr

Chinese Air Craft Carrier Liaoning-CV16 ( Image credits- Internet Pic) Source- Want China Times In response to a New York Times pieces by Gregg Easterbrook on March 9, China's nationalist tabloid the Global Times, wrote a commentary of its own, saying that China is capable of defeating the US Navy in the Western Pacific with anti-ship missiles built at low prices. In Easterbrook's article, he said that China currently possesses only one outdated, conventionally-powered aircraft carrier and is rumored to be constructing two others. However, neither of those two vessels are likely to be nuclear supercarriers according to the author. Also, Easterbrook questions whether those two domestic carriers have "blue water" or open ocean-going capabilities. He said that the US Navy is more powerful than all other navies in the world combined in terms of aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, naval aviation, surface firepower, assault ships, missiles and logistics

Liaoning CV-16 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is building its second aircraft carrier, several senior Chinese military officials have confirmed, a Hong Kong daily is reporting. On Monday, Taiwan Focus News Channel cited the Chinese-language The Hong Kong Commercial Daily in reporting that China has begun work on its second aircraft carrier, which will have a more advanced launch system the one currently used on China’s only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. According to Taiwan Focus News Channel, the initial report cited Liu Xiaojiang, the former political commissioner of the PLA Navy, as saying that the “government's industrial and manufacturing agencies are now in charge of the ship's construction.” The report also cited Ding Haichun, who was promoted to the position of deputy political commissioner of the PLA Navy back in January, as confirming that China’s second a