De Chinese expansie(drift)

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Japan invests in early warning aircraft to offset threat from China

Contributor:  Andrew Elwell / Posted:  01/08/2013

Just a month after winning the election in Japan, prime minister Shinzo Abe, known to be a right-wing hawk, looks set to increase the nation's military spend as the border threat from China continues to rage.

Japanese officials have indicated that an extra 100 billion yen ($1.15 billion) will be made available for military technologies and R&D, particularly in the radar and airborne early warning space.

"We have decided that the additional budget will be used for research into a new radar system as well as fuel and other maintenance costs for early-warning aircraft," an anonymous official told Defense News.

The move comes as the dispute over the Senkaku – or Diaoyus – islands shows little sign of subsiding in 2013 after the Chinese ambassador was summoned to Tokyo over claims that Chinese government ships are persistently sailing into the waters surrounding the islands.

Japan's defence budget for the year ending in March 2012 was 4.65 trillion yen ($53 billion). Coming in at around 0.9% of GDP, it isn't a significant military outlay by the standards of other global powers such as the U.S. and even Britain. The budget has been steadily declining for a decade as Japan battles its crippling public debt and continues to struggle free from the grip of the global recession. While tensions in the Asia Pacific region heighten, which were further exacerbated by North Korea's recent missile launch, it's not surprising the newly elected Abe wants to increase the defence spend and bolster national security.

China has stated that it will seize the islands by force if necessary and as a consequence "Japan has no choice but to possess deterrence by boosting its defence budget," said Kazuhiko Togo, director at the Institute for World Affairs of Kyoto Sangyo University.

Japan isn't the only country in the region that is enhancing its airborne early warning and surveillance capabilities with India seeking to procure two Israeli-made Phalcon AWACS at a cost of over £500 million. The contract – which is augmenting the £678 million deal between India, Russia and Israel completed in 2011 and saw three Phalcons enter IAF service – was finally ratified by the Indian defence ministry last month. India has seen delays to its efforts to develop indigenous mini-AWACS since 2004, when it spent £132 million on Brazilian Embraer-145s to carry its AEW&C technology. Furthermore, the South Korean military is currently spending 37 billion win to upgrade the AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder Radars which were introduced in the early 1990s.

The new prime minister has asserted his desire to improve relations with its like-minded neighbours in the region such as Australia and India to offset China's aggressive posturing.

http://www.defenceiq.com/air-forces-and-military-aircraft/articles/china-threat-forces-japan-to-increase-defence-budg/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DefenceIQ-Articles+%28Defence+IQ+-+Articles%29

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Limited Liftoff Looming: Y-20 Transport Prepares for 1st Test Flight

East AsiaRegionSecurityTopicChina
January 08, 2013

While China's stealth aircraft prototypes may get all the buzz, the Y-20 offers new military operational possibilities.

In 2011 and 2012, China flight-tested stealth fighter prototypes developed by Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (J-20) and Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (J-31). In 2013, Xi'an Aircraft Corporation (XAC) will look to get into the new aircraft game by flight-testing a prototype of the Y-20, an indigenously-developed large transport aircraft similar in size to the Russian IL-76 and somewhat smaller than the U.S. C-17. The Y-20 program is part of an effort to develop an indigenous long-range jet-powered heavy transport aircraft, a top priority in China's "Medium- and Long-Term National Science and Technology Development Program (2006–20)" (MLP).

Voor de rest van het verhaal, zie link:

http://thediplomat.com/2013/01/08/limited-liftoff-looming-y-20-transport-prepares-for-1st-test-flight/

[Ace1]

China's new military transport plane exposed. And it looks like a C-17, An-70, A400M hybrid.

December 24, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti



The large military transport aircraft is allegedly designed Y-20 and, nose aside, its shape is almost identical to that shown in a series of artist's impressions that have appeared on Chinese media outlets.

Indeed, the aircraft depicted in the detailed renderings you can find in this post seems to be a turbojet clone of the Airbus A400M Atlas four-engine turboprop, whereas the one depicted on the ground in the new pictures features a nose section inspired by the Antonov An-70.

[imghttp://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Y-20-render-460x345.jpg]http://[/img]

Actually, inputs from several other aircraft types, including the Boeing C-17, can be found in the Y-20. In July 2009, a former Boeing employee was convicted of selling secret C-17 technical details to China.





It looks like an AWACS version of the Y-20 is also being envisaged.



http://theaviationist.com/2012/12/24/y-20/

[Ace1]

China's Giant New Warplane Will Look Awfully Familiar to the U.S. Air Force

BY DAVID AXE12.27.12



In what has become an almost annual Christmas tradition, the Chinese military has released the first blurry photos of a brand-new warplane prototype — in this case, Beijing's first home-built heavy transport. It closely resembles other aircraft in its class including, most notably, the U.S. Air Force's workhorse C-17.

In theory, the new plane could give China the same global military reach the U.S. enjoys thanks it its own huge transport force. But as usual with new Chinese planes, at this early stage there are more questions than answers. Especially since prototypes can appear impressive without being actually useful.

The jet-powered, four-engine cargo plane, reportedly designated Y-20, can be seen on the ground in a series of photos apparently snapped at long range at the Xian Aircraft Corporation's Yanliang airfield in east-central China and posted to popular Internet forums. Although portrayed as the work of enthusiasts, postings on these forums are often scripted by the Chinese government as a way of building excitement about new weapons developments. And sure enough, the Chinese Defense Ministry confirmed that it was developing the plane on Thursday: "To meet the needs of the national economy and social development, and in the service of military modernization, betterdisaster relief, humanitarian relief and other emergency tasks, our country is developing a large transport aircraft."



Chinese and U.S. sources have estimated the Y-20′s weight at around 200 tons, making it slightly smaller than the Boeing-made C-17 and somewhat larger than the European A400M. It appears to be powered by Russian D-30 engines, which not coincidentally also propel China's small fleet of Russian-built Il-76 aerial freighters. It also appears to have a nose similar to the one on the Russian Antonov An-70. China habitually fits older Russian engines to its new prototype aircraft until it can make new, purpose-built motors.

For years, analysts and trade journalists have been alluding to a new Chinese transport plane. The aircraft apparently began development around 2005. Just three years later a massive earthquake devastated Sichuan province, killing tens of thousands — and possibly accelerating the Y-20′s design and construction.

In the quake's aftermath the People's Liberation Army Air Force was unable to deploy more than a handful of transport planes to haul relief supplies. "Poor air relief efforts have exposed a significant crack in the PLAAF ability to respond to major challenges," Nirav Patel wrote in Joint Forces Quarterly.

The Americans, however, managed to send a couple C-17s full of supplies — an obvious embarrassment for the Chinese. "The Chinese respond to embarrassments in very focused ways," Navy undersecretary Robert Work, then a Washington, D.C. defense analyst, told Danger Room at the time.

In the years following the earthquake, Beijing made disaster relief capabilities "a new priority" (.pdf) for the PLA, RAND analyst Roger Cliff told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. As the Y-20′s development made progress, in 2009 a model of the new plane appeared at a Chinese trade show. Around the same time, China also began pouring billions of dollars into developing a homemade turbofan engine specifically for large transports.

Just two years later the first Y-20 prototype was ready for its first photo shoot, although it's not clear when the giant plane might fly for the first time.

Nor is it clear to what extent Beijing based the new aircraft on stolen American blueprints. Whenever a new Chinese warplane appears, foreign observers claim it's a ripoff of a U.S., Russian, European or Israeli design. They're not always wrong. The PLA possesses unlicensed copies of Russia's Su-27 and Su-30 fighters.

In 2010 a U.S. district judge sentenced Chinese-born Dongfan Chung, a Boeing engineer, to 15 years for giving Beijing classified data on U.S. rocket technology. Chung was also accused of passing along information on the C-17, although the feds ultimately dropped that charge.

The Y-20 does bear a strong resemblance to the C-17, although to be fair many transports are outwardly similar.

In any case, the mere appearance of prototype plane says little about its actual military potential — especially where cargo aircraft are concerned. Unlike, say, stealth fighters, transports are meant to fly frequent, lengthy, unglamorous missions where efficiency is more important than raw kinetic performance.

To a great extent, an airplane's efficiency is a function of its engines. That makes transport-optimized turbofans "arguably more technologically challenging overall" compared to fighter engines, according to analysts Gabe Collins and Andrew Erickson. And yet China has struggled for years to produce even the latter. It could be years before the Y-20 has its own custom motors and, as a consequence, is able to perform at its best.

The Pentagon, on the other hand, already has decades of experience developing and flying many thousands of large cargo planes, steadily building a huge body of knowledge. This year, for example, the Air Force devised a new flying formation for C-17s modeled on the behavior of birds, resulting in a 10 percent fuel savings.

China possesses little equivalent knowledge. And that's likely to show when the new Y-20 eventually takes flight.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/china-debuts-giant-transport/?utm_source=Contextly&utm_medium=RelatedLinks&utm_campaign=Previous

[Ace1]

Satellites Spot China's Mysterious New Warplane

BY DAVID AXE01.04.13


A week after the publication of blurry photographs depicting what appears to be China's first long-range jet transport, Danger Room has obtained satellite imagery of the new plane at an airfield in central China.

The images, acquired by the GeoEye 1 and IKONOS spacecraft — both belonging to commercial satellite operator GeoEye headquartered in Washington, D.C. — corroborate the general layout of the Xian Aircraft Corporation Y-20, the existence of which has been confirmed by Beijing. They also underscore the emerging consensus among Western experts that the Y-20, while outwardly impressive, could lack the performance of even much older American, Russian and European transports.

The IKONOS image (below) is dated Dec. 25. It shows the Y-20 outside a large hangar at Yanliang airfield, home of the People's Liberation Army Air Force's test establishment. The base is crowded with examples of the PLAAF's other main transports, including Y-8 medium airlifters and, apparently, tanker versions of the aged H-6 bomber — both types of which could in theory be replaced by the Y-20, ostensibly giving China the same global military reach the U.S. and other advanced nations have enjoyed for half a century.

The GeoEye 1 photo from Jan. 1 (above) depicts the new transport, which isn't known to have flown yet, on one of Yanliang's runways, surrounded by people and vehicles. News reports have claimed the Y-20 is currently undergoing runway taxi tests in preparation for its eventual first flight.



But even after that happens, the Y-20 will probably need lots of work. Indeed, when it comes to jet-transport technology Beijing is "falling behind, not catching up," John Pike, an analyst with the Virginia-based Globalstrategy.org, writes in an e-mail to Danger Room.

Specifically, the Y-20 needs new engines — and there's little evidence that Beijing is making much progress on that front. The prototype is reportedly fitted with old, Russian-made D-30 engines that probably aren't adequate for the Y-20′s design.

The new imagery is sharper, more detailed and shot from a higher angle than the grainy first photos of the Y-20 that appeared on Chinese internet forums in late December, providing a much more reliable basis for assessing the transport's layout. Apparently slightly smaller than the U.S. Air Force's workhorse C-17, the Y-20 sports the same wide swept wing and T-shaped tail as the Boeing-made C-17, blueprints of which China obtained several years ago through a spy working for the Chicago-based plane manufacturer.

"In order to get the kind of range/payload capabilities you need to use this type of plane, it all comes down to the engines," Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with Virginia market forecaster The Teal Group, emails Danger Room. "Designing a large, high-bypass turbofan is even harder than designing a combat engine [for jet fighters]," Aboulafia adds. "China shows no signs of being able to do that."

There are only four companies in the world capable of building the kind of engines the Y-20 needs, Aboulafia says: three — GE/CFM, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney — are Western companies and one is Russian. Arms controls in the West make it unlikely that Beijing will be able to source the Y-20′s motors from the former firms.

"In short, there are three possible explanations," Aboulafia continues. "One, this is just a prototype, or series of prototypes. Two, it will be built in series production, using a domestically-built knockoff engine that will result in a very short-range plane with a light payload. Three, they'll do a deal with the Russians to start importing engines that can turn this into a Chinese copy of a former Soviet transport design."

But even a copy of an older Soviet transport would likely feature only modest performance compared to more modern, unique designs. Moreover, Russia has been reluctant lately to sell engines to China, justifiably fearing that Beijing's engineers will illegally reverse-engineer the motors.

All of which means the Y-20, so far, is more show than substance — an intriguing subject for internet forums and passing satellites, but not yet a threat to the transportation dominance of the U.S., Russia and Europe.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/01/chinas-new-transport/

[Ace1]

Ik zou zeggen Den Haag wordt wakker en behoed u voor het gele gevaar.

[KapiteinRob]

Giant War Plane lijkt me enigzins overdreven.... 

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Did Satellites Capture China's Mysterious Giant War Plane?

Casey Chan Today

The GeoEye 1 and IKONOS spacecraft have captured satellite images of the mysterious Xian Aircraft Corporation Y-20, China's first long range jet transport. It shows the clearest image of the giant transport plane yet and reveals that China's plane looks a lot like the U.S. Air Force's C-17. That's not an accident.

The satellite images, which were obtained by Wired's Danger Room, show China's Y-20 as having the same "wide swept wing and T-shaped tail" as the Boeing made C-17. The blueprints of the C-17 were stolen by spies working for Boeing and given to China. This plane's design is a rip off.

What China can't rip off though is the engines that are necessary to power the plane. Apparently, there are only four companies capable of building the kind of engines that the Y-20 needs. Three are Western companies (GE/CFM, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney) and one is Russian. It's assumed that China will have to use Russian engines to lift its 200 ton body (however, Russia is reluctant to sell engines to China because China might rip them off) and those engines may lack the performance in modern transport planes. So though the Y-20 may look like an American giant transport plane, it may actually be all show and no go. [Wired, Image Credit: GeoEye GeoEye 1]

Zie link voor de foto: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/01/did-satellites-capture-chinas-mysterious-giant-war-plane/

[Elzenga]

Nou, en dan China, dat ook de Chinese burgeroorlog en de bezetting van Tibet zijn daar niet "afgesloten". In ieder geval is mij een ding duidelijk, die regio heeft een hoop 'politieke breuklijnen'.

Zeker...en daar moeten wij (EU en NL) wat dichter op gaan zitten vind ik....om ze goed te zien en in de gaten te houden...en door onze aanwezigheid te ernstige verstoringen af te schrikken...ook in ons strategisch belang.

[dudge]

Goed in de gaten blijven houden, deze ontwikkelingen. De dreiging van China kan aanleiding zijn voor Japan om zich verder te bewapenen en meer offensieve middelen aan te schaffen en strategie te kiezen. En sorry, maar ik heb nog steeds geen goed gevoel over hoe Japan WO2 heeft "afgesloten". Waarbij ze zich vaak nog eerder slachtoffer zien dan dader. WO2 dat sterkt meespeelt in de huidige ontwikkelingen, want ook de Chinezen wijzen steeds opnieuw naar de Japanse agressie in China tijdens en voor WO2.

Helaas nog steeds erg stil vanuit de EU en Nederland. Wordt denk ik tijd voor een steviger diplomatieke inzet als ook meer zichtbare EUropese militaire middelen in de regio. En het versterken van de bases daar. 

Nou, en dan China, dat ook de Chinese burgeroorlog en de bezetting van Tibet zijn daar niet "afgesloten". In ieder geval is mij een ding duidelijk, die regio heeft een hoop 'politieke breuklijnen'.

[Elzenga]

Goed in de gaten blijven houden, deze ontwikkelingen. De dreiging van China kan aanleiding zijn voor Japan om zich verder te bewapenen en meer offensieve middelen aan te schaffen en strategie te kiezen. En sorry, maar ik heb nog steeds geen goed gevoel over hoe Japan WO2 heeft "afgesloten". Waarbij ze zich vaak nog eerder slachtoffer zien dan dader. WO2 dat sterkt meespeelt in de huidige ontwikkelingen, want ook de Chinezen wijzen steeds opnieuw naar de Japanse agressie in China tijdens en voor WO2.

Helaas nog steeds erg stil vanuit de EU en Nederland. Wordt denk ik tijd voor een steviger diplomatieke inzet als ook meer zichtbare EUropese militaire middelen in de regio. En het versterken van de bases daar. 

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Japan to increase military spending over isles row with China – reports

5/1/13

Tokyo is expected to increase military spending levels for the first time in 11 years, Japanese media reported. The Cabinet of newly elected PM Shinzo Abe has pledged to respond decisively to a South China Sea territorial dispute with Beijing. The government intends to increase military expenditures by about 2 percent, to more than 4.7 trillion yen ($53.4 billion) in the fiscal year starting in April, Mainichi newspaper reported.

http://rt.com/news/line/2013-01-05/#id42804

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Japan scrambles jets to head off China plane

Agence France-Presse
Saturday, January 5th, 2013

TOKYO—Japan scrambled fighter jets Saturday to head off a Chinese state-owned plane that flew near islands at the center of a dispute between Tokyo and Beijing, a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said.

The Japanese jets were mobilized after a Chinese maritime aircraft ventured some 120 kilometers (74 miles) north of the Senkaku islands, which China calls the Diaoyus, at around 12 p.m. (0300 GMT), the spokesman said.

The Chinese Y-12 twin-turboprop later left the zone without entering Japanese airspace over the islands, he added.

It was the first time Japanese fighter jets had been scrambled this year to counter Chinese aircraft approaching the islands, the spokesman said.

Japan dispatched fighter jets last month after a Chinese state-owned plane breached airspace over the islands, while Chinese government ships have moved in and out of waters there for the past few months.

The confrontations have become commonplace since Japan nationalized the East China Sea islands in September, a move it insisted amounted to nothing more than a change of ownership of what was already Japanese territory.

But Beijing reacted with fury, with observers saying riots that erupted across China in the weeks following had at least tacit government backing.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/335561/japan-scrambles-jets-to-head-off-china-plane

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Chinese Navy future MPA Y-8FQ Cub/GX-6 has started its flight test campaign

The ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) variant of Y-8, the Y-8FQ Cub (also known as GX-6 for High New 6) first surfaced on the Chinese internet in November 2011 as we reported at the time. A new picture just surfaced showing the PLAN future Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) in flight, indicating that flight tests for the time have already started.

The Y-8FQ is based on the Y-8 Transport aircraft by Shaanxi Aircraft Company, equipped with four WJ-6C turbofan engines with 6-bladed propellers. The tail of the plane has been modified to improve handling at low speed and low altitude as request by Maritime Patrol Aircrafts mission profiles, when on ASW missions. On such mission the MPA would use its MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector) boom to detect submarines. This boom is clearly noticeable at the tail of the Y-8FQ.

From the picture above, we can note that the Y-8FQ is fitted with a chin radome probably housing some kind of maritime surveillance radar. It is also fitted with an Optronics turret and several antennas both at the top and at the bottom of the fuselage. Finally, note the weapon bay doors just in front of the main landing gear, as well as the large bulbous window at the rear for visual observation.

All in all this new Y-8FQ Cub/High New 6 Maritime Patrol Aircraft has all the attributes of a capable MPA like the P-3 Orion, Atlantique II or IL-38. The first Y-8FQ MPA will likely be operated by 2nd Naval Aviation Division 6th Regiment Dalian-Tuchengzi.

Zie voor de foto:

http://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=815

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

China warns Vietnam over South China Sea islands

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Beijing: Deploying its maritime vessels for patrolling in the disputed South China Sea, China has asked Vietnam not to implement its new maritime law, affirming sovereignty over the contested islands and cautioned Hanoi that the move would escalate bilateral tensions.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunyang in a statement here urged Vietnam to refrain from taking any actions that complicate and escalate issues between the two countries, as the Vietnamese maritime law came into effective from yesterday.

Hua stressed China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands called by China Xisha and Nansha Islands and Paracel islands by Vietnam.

"Any claim raised by any other country and any action taken by any other nation to territorial sovereignty over the islands and waters are illegal and invalid," Hua said, adding China is deeply concerned about the negative impact of the implementation of the law.

In June, the Vietnam National Assembly passed the "Vietnamese Law of the Sea," describing the Islands as being within Vietnam's sovereignty and jurisdiction.

Consequently Vietnam had set up a fishery bureau with powers to maritime patrol, check the ships of other countries and investigate any violations.

To counter Hanoi's move China's Hainan Province passed a regulation related to ocean security, affirming China's stand to protect its maritime security.

Under this, several measures can be taken against foreign ships that illegally enter China's territory.

In November last year, the local legislature of China's Hainan authorised provincial border police to board or seize foreign ships that illegally enter the province's waters and order them to change course or stop sailing from January 1.

Yesterday, Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported China's marine surveillance ships began patrolling the South China Sea implementing the order authorising its border Police to board and search ships entering the area considered as its territorial waters.

China's State Oceanic Administration said its vessels Haijian 75 and Haijian 84, aided by the surveillance aircraft B-3843 patrolled waters near the Beibu Gulf of the South China Sea, where Vietnam recently complained of harassment of Chinese vessels obstructing its survey ship. China virtually claims ownership to the entire South China Sea.

Besides Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have disputes with China over the disputed islands in the South China Sea as well as the extent of territorial waters. The Philippines and Vietnam have raised objections over the maps printed in China's e-passports claiming the sovereignty over the disputed areas.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/china-warns-vietnam-over-south-china-sea-islands_820271.html