Tag: USINDOPACOM

China’s stealth destroyer lurks 124 miles off Sydney’s coast

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

A Chinese naval task force, consisting of the Type 055 guided-missile destroyer Type 055, a Type 054A frigate, and a Type 903A replenishment ship, has been spotted operating approximately 124 miles [200 kilometers] east of Sydney, Australia.

China’s stealth destroyer lurks 124 miles off Sydney’s coast

Previously:

Chinese Navy Helicopter Intercepts Philippine Cessna Over Scarborough Shoal + Embedded Journalism

The aerial incident follows a week of multilateral activities between the Philippines and its allies in the South China Sea. These drills included back-to-back joint patrols with American, Japanese, Australian and Canadian forces. A U.S. Air Force bomber task force mission composed of two B-1Bs and Philippine Air Force fighter jets drilled off Luzon earlier this month. The Royal Australian Air Force also reported an unsafe interception incident with a People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-16 fighter over the contested waters last week.

Chinese Navy Helicopter Intercepts Philippine Cessna Over Scarborough Shoal + Embedded Journalism

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Chinese Navy Helicopter Intercepts Philippine Cessna Over Scarborough Shoal by Aaron-Matthew Lariosa

The People’s Liberation Army Navy Z-9 utility helicopter that intercepted the Philippine Cessna. Photo Courtesy of Camille Elemia.

…

A People’s Liberation Army Navy Z-9 utility helicopter intercepted the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Cessna 208B Grand Caravan during a routine patrol mission over Scarborough Shoal today at 8:39 a.m. local time, according to Philippine officials. A number of Philippine journalists [embedded journalists] were on board the Cessna during the encounter, which saw the Chinese helicopter fly as close as three meters from the turboprop aircraft. Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela described China’s actions as “dangerous flight maneuvers” and blasted the conduct as a disregard to international aviation regulations.

Read More »

Transforming naval combat: Boeing’s Orca XLUUV in unmanned operations

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Transforming naval combat: Boeing’s Orca XLUUV in unmanned operations

Report to Congress on Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles

The Navy wants to use XLUUVs to, among other things, covertly deploy the Hammerhead mine, a planned mine that would be tethered to the seabed and armed with an antisubmarine torpedo, broadly similar to the Navy’s Cold War-era CAPTOR (encapsulated torpedo) mine.

Hammerhead, Orca, SSGN

Read More »

More notes on the marriage of RAND and SeaLight

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Understanding and Countering China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations | RAND

As noted, there appear to be real challenges working through the necessary technologies to support command messaging efforts from being able to acquire simple programs, such as Adobe [1], that can help improve image quality of released content to access to social media. It would seem prudent that an assessment of such issues should be conducted by the command with necessary remediation actions undertaken when the new commander comes into USINDOPACOM.

…

The Global Engagement Center (GEC) at the U.S. Department of State [2], for example, partially funds the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative [Center for Strategic and International Studies]. The GEC, the State Department, or DoD should seek to identify other voices that can support and that can more credibly communicate key messages.

Read More »

Marcos Says Philippines Won’t Send Warships After China Clashes

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his nation won’t deploy Navy warships to the South China Sea in response to recent clashes with Beijing in disputed waters.

Marcos Says Philippines Won’t Send Warships After China Clashes

Previously:

Philippines to match China’s gray zone tactics in South China Sea

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

(Primer) A Decade of EDCA: US military bases and its expanding war games in the Philippines

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

EDCA-Primer.pdfDownload

The outright re-establishment of US military bases in the country and its relentless and escalating war games on land, sea, and air are flagrant manifestations of US imperialist domination of the Philippines. This further tightens the grip of US imperialism on the Philippine neocolonial state, especially on the puppet Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

(Primer) A Decade of EDCA: US military bases and its expanding war games in the Philippines

US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, China Responds (+the U.S. is not obligated to defend Taiwan)

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, China Responds

The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday.

…

Around once a month, U.S. military ships or aircraft pass through or above the waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China – missions that always anger Beijing. China claims sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the strait is an international waterway.

Read More »

South China Sea: US troop aid may reassure Philippines but will prod China, analysts say

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Has anyone realized that by disclosing the existence of “US Task Force Ayungin,” Biden admin implicitly recognized Philippines’ sovereignty over a disputed SCS feature?

Washington has never taken a position on SCS territories(but it has in ECS). This is a clear signal to China.*

Derek J. Grossman, RAND

South China Sea: US troop aid may reassure Philippines but will prod China, analysts say (archived)

The Philippines has said the US task force only offered support – in the form of intelligence and surveillance – and did not directly take part in its resupply missions to BRP Sierra Madre, the retired warship, but analysts suggested that China’s leadership could see it in a different light.

…

Zheng said the revelation about the American task force meant the US was likely to be more engaged in the drawn-out maritime conflicts in the region, even suggesting that Washington would “be the first to take part in the command and planning of Philippine maritime activities”.

…

Ding Duo, deputy director of the Centre for Oceans Law and Policy at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in Hainan, said the presence of a special task force showed that Washington and Manila had long cooperated on resupply operations to Second Thomas Shoal.

…

“Such support emboldens the Philippines and is not conducive to China and the Philippines managing their differences,” Ding said. “The US involvement has also squeezed the political space for internal coordination and decision-making within the Philippines.”

…

He said it was also possible that American troops could be on Philippine ships and involved in front-line action “using a covert or concealed identity to participate in Philippine maritime operations” in future.

He said the US could “only intervene [in South China Sea disputes] in a covert manner and so it took the form of a task force”.

Related:

Read More »