Steeljaw Scribe

(BBC - 6 Oct 08)  China cancels US military contact:
China has cancelled military and diplomatic exchanges with the US in protest at a $6.5bn deal to supply Taiwan with arms, US officials say.
A number of senior level visits and military-to-military exchanges due before November would not go ahead, the US defence department said.
The sales include [...]

“The federal opposition has dismissed new doubts about the capacity of the multi-billion dollar Joint Strike Fighter to perform against jets used by Russia and China.  The JSF jets, for which Australia is likely to pay $16 billion, were comprehensively beaten in highly classified simulated dogfights against Russian-built Sukhoi fighter aircraft, it has been reported.
“WA [...]

So, here we were, half-watching the football game while sorting through the pile of magazines that had accumulated during the last few months while we were doing 18-hour days.  Now that the pressure was off at work, SWMBO had dictated either we take care of the pile or she would - and Draconian doesn’t begin [...]

(ed. Been a while since we’ve run this recurring item - some interesting items of note from this week for your perusal.  - SJS)
 
India: Agni-III IRBM Test Successful
 
India’s third test of the indigenously developed Agni-III IRBM on 7 May was evidently a complete success.  Launched from Wheeler Island on the east coast of India, the [...]

So your one neighbor, Pakistan, possesses nuclear weapons and is working assiduously on short- and medium-range missiles, no doubt with nuclear delivery in mind as part of a deterrent package against your own nuclear forces.  China, with whom you share a fairly long (and disputed) border has also been engaged in building a modern force of short- [...]

Catching our collective breath before heading out the door for a week of TDY, we pause to review some of the more noteworthy items making the rounds this past week beginning with one reaction to the 2008 DoD report to Congress on China’s Military Power…

Inside The Ring - China Missiles
(WASHINGTON TIMES 07 MAR 08) … [...]

Announced and made available this afternoon.  You can read/download it from the Virtual Library here  .  Some highlights:

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning shortduration,
high intensity conflicts along its periphery against high-tech adversaries [...]

"At a minimum, Washington should delay the planned 2010 retirement of the Space Shuttle until a new space plane can replace it, as a way to retain a deterring potential military capability. China’s unwillingness to comment on its military space plans, coupled with the Shenlong space plane, confirms its larger aversion to military transparency. The [...]

About this time last year (11 Jan), China conducted the now infamous direct-ascent ASAT (Anti-Satellite) hit-to-kill test.  We have written to some degree about it already - notably here  and here  .  Both articles describe the notorious aspect of the test - the addition of significant amounts of debris to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).  [...]

WASHINGTON (CNN) – China has refused nine U.S. Navy ships and one Air Force jet entry to Hong Kong in the past month, U.S. military officials said Friday.  Senior Navy officials said that Beijing denied permission for the USS Reuben James, a Navy frigate, to make a holiday port call for sailors at the end of [...]