Category: Australia

South China Sea: Philippines’ anti-ship missile base puts Scarborough Shoal in cross hairs (more information)

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

What the article left out is; to shoot far, the Philippine military needs to see far. However, the Philippines don’t have any over-the-horizon (OTH) radar, military satellites, AWACS planes or other long-range ISR capabilities, to make use of the full range of the BrahMos missile. Without it the missile is limited to the range of its available ISR assets, which are measured in just dozens of kilometers.

However, if a BrahMos missile is ever launched against a long-range Chinese target, it will be easy to guess who would have supplied the essential Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) information and target identification to the Philippine military.

StarBoySAR

South China Sea: Philippines’ anti-ship missile base puts Scarborough Shoal in cross hairs

Even if the Philippines lacks the advanced communications, intelligence, and targeting systems needed to maximise the BrahMos’ capabilities, it could still leverage US support in these areas, Koh said, citing the sinking of Russia’s Moskva warship by Ukraine in 2022, which he said was achieved thanks to “targeting support provided by Kyiv’s allies, chiefly the Americans”.

The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva became the largest warship lost in combat since the second world war when it was hit by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles in April 2022. US officials later told the media that the Pentagon had provided intelligence that led to the ship’s sinking.

For the Philippines, the BrahMos missiles are “significant game changers” [🙄], according to security strategist Chester Cabalza, president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank in Manila.

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However, Don McLain Gill, an international-studies lecturer at De La Salle University in the Philippines, questioned whether the BrahMos purchase alone would deliver robust deterrence against China.

“It will be crucial for the BrahMos to be supplemented by efficient intelligence, surveillance, target-acquisition and reconnaissance, which is critical to track targets and ensure they can be used by command,” he said, warning Manila must invest further to maximise the missiles’ deterrent value.

Previously:

Philippines Builds First BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile Base Facing South China Sea

The InfoOp Continues in the Pacific Islands

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Full video: Why Should We Care About the Pacific Islands?

John Hennessey-Niland currently works with ASPI on ‘soft power’ in the Pacific Islands.

Maintaining U.S. Credibility in the Pacific Islands (PDF)

Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI):

ASPI funding (Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, New Zealand, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Thales Australia, American Chamber of Commerce, Center for Strategic and International Studies, German Marshall Fund, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Australian think tank ASPI found linked to prison labor, human trafficking

Front Organizations

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[2019] Is Russia imperialist?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Source

Russia is said to be an imperialist world power, one in conflict with the imperialist superpower, the U.S. Russia has been characterized in this manner both during the period of the Soviet Union, and after the Soviet Union collapsed and separate states were formed. Russia has said to be imperialist both when it was a socialist state and now as a capitalist state.

Is Russia imperialist?

Related:

Georgia started war with Russia: EU-backed report (archived)

Russia and China Are Not Imperialist

U.S. Funds Ukraine Groups Censoring Critics, Smearing Pro-Peace Voices + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

American taxpayers are footing the bill for Ukrainian NGOs focused on smearing proponents of a diplomatic solution as “Russian disinformation” agents.

U.S. Funds Ukraine Groups Censoring Critics, Smearing Pro-Peace Voices

Related:

U.S. Helps Pro-Ukraine Media Run a Fog Machine of War + Supporting Front Orgs

Pro-Russian “disinformation” network

Ukraine’s ‘Press Freedom’ Score Increases Despite Martial Law, Banned Media

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Washington’s Proxy War in Myanmar Continues Along China’s Borders

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Source

Overshadowed by ongoing fighting in Eastern Europe and the Middle East as well as growing tensions between the US and China, the ongoing conflict in Myanmar nonetheless constitutes a critical component of what is a larger global conflict.

Depicted by Western governments and Western media as an isolated, internal conflict between a “military dictatorship” and the forces of “democracy,” in actuality the conflict represents decades of Anglo-American attempts to reassert Western control over the former British colony.

Washington’s Proxy War in Myanmar Continues Along China’s Borders

CRUSH THE PHILIPPINES

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

CRUSH THE PHILIPPINES

April 28, 2024 by Mauro Gia Samonte

BRIGHT as the sun shines, this is what will happen in our country when the war that the United States has planned to detonate in the Philippines since 2014 breaks out. In the said year, America planned the war in Ukraine. It came true. In the same year, America planned Israel’s war against Hamas. It came true. The parallel plan made in the Philippines by America is what is contained in the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) obtained by the United States (US) in the administration of Benigno Aquino III in 2014. Under the agreement, the US was granted five military base of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to deploy American troops and military equipment that is unlimited in number and cannot be inspected by the Philippine authorities. Entering 2023, the five EDCA bases were increased by Bongbong by four more, which really boiled the tension in the South China Sea. China could not hide its simmering anger.

“Don’t be an idol in America,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry warned the Philippines.

Although the agreement states that nuclear weapons cannot be deployed at EDCA bases, the Philippine authorities have no way to ensure that this will be followed because of the EDCA provision that such American deployments cannot be inspected by the Filipino authority. Based on the double (treasonous) American face in world politics, it can be expected that at the EDCA bases nuclear weapons are already present and deployed, ready to be launched at any time needed.

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China gathers naval leaders worldwide to discuss maritime security while US conducts drills to ‘destabilize S. China Sea’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US and Philippines launch Balikatan joint military drills in South China Sea

This year’s staging of Balikatan, the allies’ largest annual military drill, will include a joint sail in the disputed South China Sea outside the Philippines’ territorial waters. The French navy, a first-time Balikatan participant, and the Australian navy will also join the manoeuvres.

While the US and the Philippines resumed joint naval patrols in the area last year, and the US has in the past sailed there with other allies and partners, it will be the first time that the Balikatan drills have extended beyond 12 nautical miles off the Philippine coast and into waters claimed by China.

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Six Philippine coast guard vessels will also participate in the drill, the first time the service — which has been at the forefront of frequent clashes with China over the past year — has been included in a military exercise.

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Another closely watched component of the drills will be the Strategic Mid-Range Fires missile system, known as Typhon, which has a range of up to 2,500km. The US Army airlifted the system to the Philippines this month, the first such deployment in the Indo-Pacific. Intermediate-range ground-launched missiles had been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, but the pact collapsed in 2019 after both the US and Russia left it.

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Troops will also practise tracking and targeting air and missile threats, retaking enemy-occupied islands in the Philippines’ far north, just south of Taiwan, and sinking a ship off the coast facing the South China Sea, expanding on drills last year.

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The exercise coincides with an annual conference by China’s Navy, which will be attended by senior military officers including from the US. It also comes as US secretary of state Antony Blinken is heading to China on Wednesday in the two countries’ latest effort to manage tense relations.

Related:

China gathers naval leaders worldwide to discuss maritime security while US conducts drills to ‘destabilize S. China Sea

Read More »