Briefings : More SDR stuff, Drug Busts, Meeting In Space

• The Strategic Defence Review tittle-tattle continues. The Gurkhas are the latest in the firing line (so to speak) with suggestions they could be cut completely. One reason being they are no longer as cheap because of recent pension rights reforms.
• HMS Gloucester has intercepted a yacht in the mid-Atlantic carrying an estimated £4 million in cocaine. The destroyer was en route to the Falklands when it was called upon to assist authorities off the Cape Verde islands.
• Could the Royal Navy and Marine Nationale end up sharing a pool of 3 carriers? Neither side will confirm the report. If it did happen though it would mean the Queen Elizabeths going CTOL surely, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Nelson spinning in his grave et cetera.
• Taiwan's F-CK-1C/D fleet will receive radar upgrades following the US releasing a block on the export.
• Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) development is set to explode as these vehicles begin to play a major role in naval warfare. 
• Was the meeting of 2 Chinese satellites in orbit a sign of a sophistocated space warfare programme? SJ-12 and SJ-06F are thought to have performed "non-cooperative robotic rendezvous" which could allow for an array of military applications such as inspection or sabotage of foreign satellites.

Briefings : Army cuts, Arms sales, Co-op

• The UK could cut it's troop numbers by 30,000 and place the Royal Marines under Army control under one option being drawn up in the strategic defence review. However an army source said that would be unlikely to happen while fighting was continuing in Afghanistan.
• India is to sign a £500 million deal with BAE Systems for Hawk trainer jets it is reported during the Prime Ministers' trip to India this week.
• Kuwait has shown an interest in the F-15SE Silent Eagle to augment its current fleet of Hornets. Saudi Arabia plans to buy 84 F-15s along with 72 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.
• France and Germany have set up a co-operation working group to look at ways to save costs by pooling resources. 
• Myanmar is said to be working on nuclear weapons.

Briefings : Drug haul, Mantis, B-1B

• T42 destroyer HMS Manchester has helped capture drugs in the Caribbean worth £1.5 million in the UK. A Lynx helicopter from the destroyer detected a drug runner's speed boat off the island of Montserrat and directed a police boat to intercept. Twelve 25KG bales of cannabis were later found.

• BAE Systems has completed a successful flight test programme with it's Mantis MALE UAV demonstrator in Australia and has now been returned to the UK. It will be rebuilt ready for some further ground based testing. Its not known if it will fly again. BAE will roll out it's Taranis UCAV demonstrator later this month.

• Britain and Spain are meanwhile engaged in a spat over the use of airspace by British military airspace for exercises off Gibraltar. 
• South Korea wants a big increase in it's defence spending to boost it's armed forces in the face of a greater threat from the North. 
• The B-1B fleet is being considered as the sacrificial lamb as the USAF looks at cuts but the bomber has received some support from the new commander of forces in Afghanistan General Petraeus.

Briefings : UK defence policy, Nimrod, Choenan

The UK coalition government has published it's joint policy for the next parliamentary term. Defence policy holds no surprises from what has already been stated. The Tories are committed to Trident, the Lib Dems will agree to disagree, but both agree on better pay and conditions for troops on active service whilst cutting the running costs of the MOD. As for Trident the RUSI has said that cutting the number of patrols could extend the life of the existing Vanguard submarines and save billions of pounds. A risky idea to my mind considering how fast events can unfold these days.

The last Nimrod R1s are preparing for their final deployment ahead of it's retirement next year. The last 2 aircraft are to deploy to Afghanistan following a number of upgrades and are likely to remain there until retirement next March.

North Korea has been officially blamed for the destruction of the South's corvette. The Choenan was sunk by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine according to an international team who have investigated the incident. Staying in that area RAND have been looking at the Chinese Air Force and have some interesting things to say.

 

• Chinese Aircraft: China's Aviation Industry Since 1951 (Recommended, Amazon link)

Briefings : Cheonan torpedo, USN order, KC-X

According to the Korea Times parts of the screw of a torpedo have been found at the site of the Cheonan corvette which indicates it's destruction was due to a North Korean torpedo attack. The torpedo was either Chinese or Russian made. Tensions are rising in the area, a few days ago South Korean fired warning shots at 2 North Korean patrol boats when they strayed into South Korean waters.

The USN is to buy 124 Super Hornets and Growlers over the next 4 years in a fixed price contract which will cost the Navy less per plane. Despite this order the USN is still likely to be short by over 150 fighters later in the decade.

In the latest twist to the KC-X saga Boeing now say they may not bid on the massive tanker deal as they may not be able to make any money out of it. EADS have been stressing how American their offering will be and it's European equivalent the A330 MRTT is continuing it's development demonstrating buddy tankering when one A330 refuelled another.

Briefings : Volcano, Choenan, Portland

HMS Ark Royal, Albion and Ocean have been deployed to help bring British people trapped abroard home. They are heading to Spain and other ports in the English Channel.

The Finnish air force have released pictures of potential damage caused to the engines of one of it's F-18s by flying through an ash cloud from the erupting Icelandic volcano that has largely closed European airspace.

South Korea is investigating the possibility of the corvette Choenan being sunk by a North Korean Shark class mini-submarine. Two of the Sharks at a DPRK naval base are unaccounted for at the time of the sinking.

Type 23 frigate HMS Portland set sail for the South Atlantic last week to replace the destroyer HMS York. As it's remit includes the Falklands then Portland has a potentially interesting deployment.

Briefings : Carrier contracts, NPR, Choenan

A final set of contracts for the CVF aircraft carriers worth £20 million have been signed before the general election and the MOD has a snooze. The contracts include tactical communication systems and internal equipment and machinery. The British Army meanwhile has a new "cultural unit" to help train troops in better understanding Afghani and expecially Helmandi culture and society.

The US has published a new Nuclear Posture Review which states how and when the US will use it's nuclear weapons. It says it will no longer use nukes against a state that does not have nuclear weapons even if that state causes mass US casualties (of course this is rather moot, if 10s of 1000s of Americans are killed by chemical weapons for example the NPR may become just yet another piece of paper). The US will also not deploy any new nuclear warheads but will refurbish and re-use existing warheads. The Triad, despite speculation the bomber arm could be disbanded, will be kept.

No clear link between North Korea and the sinking of the South Korean corvette Choenan has been found. Instead the sinking may have been due to metal fatigue though naval divers have apparently found that the ship was hit from below perhaps by a torpedo. Basically no one knows yet.

South Korean warship sunk (updated)

A South Korean naval patrol vessel has sunk near to the border with North Korea. An unexplained explosion is said to have ripped through the hull of the Cheonan, a Pohang class corvette which carried 100 crew 58 of whom have been reported to have been rescued.

At the moment the cause of the explosion is unknown, a torpedo attack from a DPRK vessel is one possibility though at the moment the south is playing this down but an emergency meeting of the south's security council has been called.

Update : South Korea has ruled out any involvement by North Korea in the loss of the corvette though as yet do not know what caused the explosion. 46 crew men are still missing.

Briefings : Labour green paper, QDR, AEW

Labour will commit to major defence projects like CVF according to a Defence Green Paper and will rule out defence cuts until next year, even though they are already happening.  Meanwhile at the Iraq enquiry the head of the armed forces has said that the rush to the (Iraq) war meant that not enough body armour could be sourced for British troops.

The US have revealed their latest QDR (Quadrennial Defence Review - which is an excellent idea by the way the UK should adopt). It calls for the US armed forces to be highly flexible and able to handle a wide range of situations from major wars to homeland defence. One loser will be CGX though.

The chief of the troubled F-35 project has been fired by the US Defence secretary. Lockheed Martin have also had money with held. Is the JSF a project that is too big to fail? US Patriot missiles are being deployed to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait to protect against Iranian missile attack.

At the Singapore Air Show the Singapore Air Force has shown off it's new G550 AEW platform for the first time.

Briefings : Taiwan arms sale, Singapore air show

The US is to sell Taiwan $6.4 billion worth of arms including Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and 2 minesweepers. The mainland is angry about the deal of course. They say they will stop military exchanges with the US.

If France sell a Mistral amphibious warfare ship to Russia could the removal of a Georgian TV channel from Eutelsat be a condition of the sale? 

Asia's largest airshow the Singapore Air Show has begun. Australian F-111s made what could be their last appearance outside of Australia prior to their withdrawal.

More photography has come out from the PAK-FA maiden flight, including this excellent underneath view which shows the wing and LERX very well.