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China To Hold Military Drills In Gulf Of Tonkin As Warning To Nearby US Carrier Group
China To Hold Military Drills In Gulf Of Tonkin As Warning To Nearby US Carrier Group
China has announced plans to hold military exercises in the South China Sea this week, a mere days after the Pentagon confirmed a US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt had entered the disputed waters in a “freedom of the seas” operation and after daily Chinese incursions of Taiwan’s airspace had been reported the prior week.
Beijing, indignant at the US muscle-flexing in its own backyard, will hold the drills in the Gulf of Tonkin also during a crucial week top Communist Party leaders of Vietnam are meeting for the once in five years National Congress to select a new leader for the country.
Reuters reports of the new Chinese military drills, “A notice issued by the country’s Maritime Safety Administration prohibited entry into a portion of waters in the Gulf of Tonkin to the west of the Leizhou peninsula in southwestern China from Jan. 27 to Jan. 30, but it did not offer details on when the drills would take place or at what scale.”
The new drill notification came after on Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian slammed the nearby US military movements:
“It does no good to regional peace and stability for the United States to frequently send military vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea to show off muscles,” Zhao said.
He further said, “We urge the US side to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, prudently and properly handle Taiwan-related issues, and refrain from sending any wrong signals to the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces so as to avoid damaging China-US relations and peace and refrain from sending any wrong signals to the “Taiwan independence” forces so as to avoid damaging China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
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Chinese Navy Begins Live-Fire Drills Off Korean Peninsula
Chinese Navy Begins Live-Fire Drills Off Korean Peninsula
Earlier this week, Seoul asked the US to delay joint military exercises with Japan until after the Winter Olympics, ostensibly to avoid provoking North Korea ahead of the 2018 Winter Games. The timing of the request is suspicious – having coincided with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s announcement that the US has offered to begin talks with the North “without preconditions.” While State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert walked back Tillerson’s statement the next day, insisting the North cease its weapons tests before talks can proceed, it is possible such a delay – if undertaken – could be construed as an opening gambit.
US drills in the region have stopped, though it’s unclear whether the US will abide by South Korea’s request. However, the brief lull in the area was interrupted Thursday when local media reported that China has decided to hold military drills of its own.
According to the South China Morning Post, China is now conducting a live-fire exercise off the North Korean peninsula, and is expected to last for four days. In addition to citing security concerns, Beijing also criticized the US for pushing the region toward nuclear war.
The drill in the Bohai Sea started on Thursday afternoon and will last until 4 pm local time next Monday, according to a notice issued by the Liaoning Maritime Safety Administration.
Beijing cordoned off an area of some 276 square kilometers near Lushun in Liaoning province, an important naval base for the People’s Liberation Army’s North Sea Fleet, which is responsible for defending the Bohai and Yellow Seas off the Korean peninsula.
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Russia Rebukes US For Sowing “Regional Instability” As Military Drills Begin
Russia Rebukes US For Sowing “Regional Instability” As Military Drills Begin
The latest round of military drills involving the US, Japan and South Korea began their latest set of tracking drills on Monday, DW reported, citing sources in the South Korean military.
The drills – which are meant for “practicing tracking an object and sharing information on it among the three countries” – were being held in waters off the coast of Japan, according to Japan’s Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera.
The US and its regional allies are stepping up their military drills in response to North Korea’s decision to test-launch the Hwasong-15, a new ICBM that US intelligence believes has the capacity to strike Washington, DC, as well as nearly any other part of the US – though the degree of accuracy remains questionable.
In response to drills held last week, North Korea warned that it is “ready for nuclear war” with the US. Though its threats have long rung hollow, US, South Korean and Japanese intelligence officials say that the North might soon attain the ability to load a nuclear warhead on its newest ICBM, which would enable it to launch a nuclear strike – or possibly an equally devastating EMP attack.
The exercises are the sixth since June 2016. Two US ships and one each from Japan and South Korea are involved. Meanwhile, the US’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) has been deployed in South Korea, infuriating Chinese leaders, who claim there’s little distinction between a missile-defense system and a missile launcher. According to DW, Beijing also worries that THAAD’s radar can peer deep into Chinese territory, compromising its own security.
Following the North’s November test, the US warned Pyongyang that its leadership would be “utterly destroyed” if war erupted. Since then, the Pentagon has staged several shows of force after North Korean military tests.
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North Korea: US Threats Have Made Outbreak Of War ‘An Established Fact’
North Korea: US Threats Have Made Outbreak Of War ‘An Established Fact’
North Korea is warning the United States that their “threats” in the form of joint military drills with South Korea are making the outbreak of war “an established fact.” Kim Jong-Un’s regime is now saying that war is unavoidable.
China continues to urge calm between the two heated nations, as two American B-1B heavy bombers joined large-scale combat drills over South Korea on Thursday. These drills are being regarded by North Korea as acts of aggression. According to Reuters, a spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry blamed the drills and “confrontational warmongering” by U.S. officials for making war inevitable.
The flights by the B-1B, one of America’s largest strike aircraft, were supposed to be playing a leading role in Washington’s attempts to increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its weapons program. So far, the flights are having the opposite effect on Kim’s tyrannical regime. In September, B-1Bs were among a formation of U.S. military aircraft that flew further north up North Korea’s coast than at any time in the past 17 years, according to the U.S. Pacific Command. That prompted North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, to warn that the North could shoot down the U.S. bombers even if they did not enter North Korean airspace.
“The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?” the spokesman said late on Wednesday in a statement carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency. “We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it.”
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Russia Warns Korean Peninsula “On Brink Of War”
Russia Warns Korean Peninsula “On Brink Of War”
Following the launch of the “largest ever” US-South Korean aerial military drills, and Pyongyang’s latest, most impressive, missile test, the Russian foreign ministry issued a warning that “the situation on the Korean Peninsula is on the brink of war,” adding that “Kim seeks to raise the stakes before any talks.”
The US and South Korea launched their largest aerial drills yet on Monday, less than a week after North Korea tested its new Hwasong-15 missile which military observers said has the capacity to strike Washington DC, or nearly any other location in the continental US. The launched shattered nearly two months of calm as many suspected the North’s benefactors in China were making good on their promises to rein in the restive state’s belligerent behavior.
As we reported Sunday, the annual US-South Korean drills, called Vigilant Ace, will run until Friday. Six F-22 Raptor stealth fighters will be deployed among the more than 230 aircraft taking part. The North has condemned the exercises as yet another provocation.
F-35 fighters will also participate in the drill, which will involve the largest number of 5th generation fighters, according to a South Korea-based US Air Force spokesman quoted by Reuters.
Around 12,000 US troops, including the Marines and Navy, will join South Korean troops. Aircraft participating in the drills will take off from eight different US and South Korean military installations.
And now Interfax reports that, amid concerns that war is inevitable, the Russian foreign ministry has offered to facilitate dialogue between North Korea and The US:
We have open channels of communication with DPRK, ready to use our influence on Pyongyang.
Washington needs to work out security assurances for DPRK to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
Russia assigns blame equally for the rising tensions to Korea’s nuclear missile tests and joint US-South Korea drills.
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German Army Prepares For “Break-Up Of European Union” Or Worse…
German Army Prepares For “Break-Up Of European Union” Or Worse…
The German military is preparing for a number of scenarios over the next two decades ranging from “the disintegration of the EU” to “multipolar competition” and the unraveling of Western order.
According to an internal report seen by Der Spiegel, the 102-page “Strategic Perspective 2040” report – adopted in late February and kept under wraps since then – outlines six scenarios for how social trends and international conflicts are likely to play out and influence German security.
In one of the six scenarios (“The EU in Disintegration and Germany in Reactive Mode”), the authors assume a “multiple confrontation”.
The future projection describes a world in which the international order erodes after “decades of instability”, the value systems worldwide diverge and globalization is stopped.
“The EU enlargement has been largely abandoned, other states have left the community Europe has lost its global competitiveness,” write the Bundeswehr strategists:
“The increasingly disorderly, sometimes chaotic and conflict-prone world has dramatically changed the security environment of Germany and Europe.”
In the fifth scenario (“West to the East”), some eastern EU countries are freezing the state of European integration while others have “joined the Eastern bloc”.
In the fourth scenario (“multipolar competition”), extremism is on the rise and there are EU partners who “even occasionally seem to seek a specific approach to Russia’s” state capitalist model “.
The document expressly makes no prognosis, but all scenarios are “plausible with the 2040 time horizon,” write the authors.
Israel Begins “Largest-Ever Aerial Military Drill”, As Saudis Consider Missile Strike “Act Of War”
Israel Begins “Largest-Ever Aerial Military Drill”, As Saudis Consider Missile Strike “Act Of War”
Today, Israel kicked off its largest international aerial training exercise ever – coined: Blue Flag 2017.
Air-forces from nine countries with about 50 planes are now starting to drill in the most southern region of the country utilizing Uvda Air Base in Israel. Teams from India, the United States, Greece, Poland, France, Italy and Germany with be flying over 300 sorties simulating ‘real war’.
According to Israel Defense,
Throughout the first week of the two-week-long exercise, the international aircrews will acclimate themselves to the base and get to know each other. Throughout the second week, the participants will rehearse complex scenarios and coalition flights.
During some of the sorties, the participants will fly against the “Flying Dragon” Squadron, the IAF’s aggressor squadron, which will simulate enemy forces via “enemy” aircraft, SAM (Surface-to-air missile) batteries and MANPADS (Man-portable air-defense systems).
Lt. Col. Nadav, Commander of the 133rd Squadron (“Knights of the Twin Tail”), which operates “Baz” (F-15) fighter jets and is heading up the drill says,
“…the Blue Flag exercise is a significant quantum leap in our ability to hold an exercise and provide our multi-national participants with a quality training experience as performed in Israel. This is a significant milestone in our relationship with the international air forces, some of which are arriving in Israel to train for the first time. This exercise will allow us to continue cooperating with these forces in the future as well.”
The Indian Air Force sent a C-130J transport plane, other countries sent fighter jets, transport planes and refueling aircraft. Israel Defense notes some other various types of aircraft participating in the war games,
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US Deploys Special Forces “Decapitation” Team To South Korea
US Deploys Special Forces “Decapitation” Team To South Korea
Today, the South Korean and U.S. navies kicked off massive combined drills off the coast of the Korean peninsula amid heightened tensions, a training exercise which North Korea has warned may prompt another ballistic missile launch potentially to coincide with the launch of the Chinese 19th Party Congress on October 18. The two allies plan to continue the Maritime Counter Special Operations Exercise (MCSOFEX) through Friday in the East Sea and the Yellow Sea.
As reported over the weekend, the drill involves the U.S. 7th Fleet’s aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers – the USS Stethem (DDG-63) and the USS Mustin (DDG-89). The carrier strike group will train with South Korean warships and other defense assets, such as the Sejong the Great Aegis ship and P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft in the East Sea.
And while details of the drill were well-known in advance, what was reported for the first time overnight from Yonhap is that a unit of U.S. special forces tasked with carrying out “decapitation” operations is also aboard a nuclear-powered submarine in the group, according to a defense source. So far, little else is known about why said decapitation team is on location, or whether it will be put into use, although it presence may explain Trump’s “calm before the storm” comment that beffudled the media two weeks ago.
Among other assets mobilized for the joint drill are F-15K, FA-18 and A-10 fighter jets, as well as AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, Lynx and AW-159 Wild Cat naval choppers. The U.S. has also deployed a Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) plane to closely monitor the North’s ground and naval forces.
Some more details about the drill from Yonhap:
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