Video of the day: Z-9WE in action over Somalia

 As seen in this Kenyan Citizen News video (here)  two Z-9WE of the Kenyan Airforce is participating in operation Linda Nchi hunting the terror network Al-Shabaab

There are a total of four  Z-9WE light attack choppers currently in service with the Kenyan Airforce, first pair delivered in 2010, second pair in 2011.

Of course, with their "Most Honorable Son" in the White House, the Kenyan

Norinco's MBT3000 vs. VT2/MBT-2000gai

Two weeks ago, Norinco displayed its new MBT-3000 at the Eurosatory defence exhibition in Paris for the first time aiming for export orders. This glorified VT2/MBT-2000gai monster has a combat weight of 52 tons, powered by a Chinese turbocharged, water cooled diesel capable of reaching top speed of 67 km per hour. VT2/MBT-2000gai MBT, by comparison, weights only at 42.8 ton with a top speed

FFG 540 Huainan

The JIANGWEI I class (Type 053H2G) frigate 540 Huainan is completing a major refit at Shenjia Navy Yard (No. 4805) in Shanghai, the East Sea Fleet’s main repair yard. The 100 mm twin turret has been replaced by a “stealthy” new Type 99 twin turret. The missile canisters for the obsolete HHQ-61A air defence missiles have been removed, but will probably be reinstalled, as the launcher itself

LD 2000 Land Shield 30mm anti PGM in HongKong

In a June 22nd interview with HongKong’s WenWei Po Daily, Lt General Zhang Shibo revealed that the HongKong’s garrison Infantry brigade is scheduled to expand its motorized infantry battalion to include a SpOps battalion, an air-defense battalion, an armor battalion, and an engineering battalion to form a new battalion-battle group gearing for combined arms operations.

Sure and begorrah,

Bad day for hijackers -- photos taken at the airplane

According to the news in Chinese, there were 20 off-duty cops on that plane.

'Hijack attempt foiled' in China's XinjiangCrew and passengers foiled a hijack attempt by six people on a plane in the restive Xinjiang region, Chinese state media and an official say. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18641341The Tianjin Airlines plane had just taken off from Hotan and was bound for Urumqi

United Technologies aided China's military helicopter

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/28/usa-china-helicopters-idINL2E8HS8YN20120628


WASHINGTON, June 28 | Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:19pm IST

(Reuters) - United Technologies Corp and two of its subsidiaries sold China software enabling Chinese authorities to develop and produce their first modern military attack helicopter, U.S. authorities said on Thursday.

At a federal court hearing in Bridgeport

First thoughts on Deng Xiaoping

Recently, I've been reading Deng Xiaoping and the transformation of China by Ezra Vogel. I still have not finished reading this book, but have read enough to be riveted by its content and amazed by Deng and other important leaders of his time. Many of the people mentioned in the book like Deng, Mao, Zhou Enlai, Nixon, Kissinger and Brzezinski are larger than life characters to me. Not only are they truly impressive human beings with knowledge and leadership qualities, but they are also masters at diplomacy and maneuvering in foreign relations. Compared to leaders of that era, the current Chinese leaderships are a group of dull, gutless technocrats who continually get out-maneuvered in the international arena by their American counterpart. For those who want a thorough understanding of China, I think this book is a must read. Many of the competing forces in the communist leadership mentioned in the book are still there today in the current Chinese leadership.

The book spent a lot of time talking about the two leaders (Mao and Deng) who have most profoundly affected China since the communist party took over. I've always thought of Mao and Deng to both be incredibly ruthless people with strong leadership qualities. Those beliefs have been more or less confirmed reading this book. This book confirmed to me that Mao was extremely egotistical and used his power for self-promotion and the promotion of his own brand insane economic and political model. His ruthlessness brought poverty and backwardness to China as well as the deaths and punishment of everyone around him who dared questioning him. By contrast, Deng used his ruthlessness not for his own gains, but rather for improvements in the life of Chinese people and continued strength of the communist party. Deng believed strongly that only peace, unity and political stability behind the rule of communist party can lead to the prosperity and strengthening of China. He believed extremely strongly that China needed centralized powers to achieve its end goals. He was willing to use his powers to toss away/humiliate leaders like Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang and Hua Guofeng, crush student protest and take heavy casualties in war against Vietnam. He did all of this because he believed those things are needed to achieve the end goals of prosperous and strong China. He had been purged 3 times in life (humiliated many more times) and his son became crippled during one of those purge. Those events really hardened him to the point where he seemed to believe that individuals or minority group suffering is okay as long as the majority of country gains. These ideals that Deng instilled in his reign seem to still be prevalent in China now. I will talk about everything in detail later, but I want people to know that Deng is not a warm fuzzy leader with Western ideals of democracy and liberty nor is he a brutal dictator like Mao, Stalin or Qaddafi. He is a strongly convicted and committed reformer willing to do whatever is necessary to bring the changes that he thinks are needed to fix China. He was very effective in leading China out of poverty and irrelevance. Since his departure from leadership, the past 2 generations of leaders have only lived off the changes that he brought.

Black-haired stepchild

Since its conversion from an army unit, the 2nd PLAN Marine Brigade, has been looked down upon  as the black-haired step child of the China Navy with hand-me-downs of ZTS63A.    That is no more -- recent news releases from several outlets, including the PLA Daily, suggesting that the 2nd Marine is now aligned with the 1st in terms of equipments.   The 2nd now boast a fully TOE of ZTD05s, just

Photos of the day: Hang over of the Elephant to the Namibia Navy

 Namibia Navy received is largest vessel the Elephant (NaNS S 11) today in a brief hangover ceremony at the Wuhan Shipyard.

S11 weighting in 2580 tons with range up to 6000 nautical miles to serve as a fast troop transport. 

SAC's gamble?

Our friend cloneattacks' OpEd on the China Airforce's procurement program.


SAC's gamble? Ok, in my opinion, the future lightweight fighter
of the PLAAF/PLANAF, the most profitable military procurement in Chinese
history that will see a design replacing the J-7, Q-5 and J-8 and also
eventually substituting the J-10A in production, will rest on the J-10B
and SAC's new design. The J-20 could

SAC's 5th generation effort

I've been gone most of the past month because I was getting read to be married and then going on honeymoon and moving in to a new place afterward. I've finally been able to catch up on the PLA news a little bit in the past few days. One of the more interesting things popping up in the last few days is the mysterious plane under the covers from SAC. There are a lot of suspicions that this is SAC's 5th generation project. In fact, Huitong has posted one of these pictures on his website and Chinese military forums are again buzzing with talks on the so called F-60/J-21 project. I have always thought that SAC was working on a 5th generation project and believed that it will be unveiled around this time, so I'm not surprised at these news. However, I think we should also wait and see the covers off and more pictures coming out before judging how effective of a plane it will be or if this model that's been transported is even real. As usual, let's keep our figures crossed and wait for more info to come out.

Latest signing of the “mystery plane”

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

--unknown  author.

While the exact nature of this mystery plane in unknown and has since become a subject of intense debate on the internet.   Rest assured,  our

Ghana's Made-in-China on parade

Not sure their Chinese Humvee is denoted or not, but no one in their right mind would expect them to pay MSRP.

Sticker price -- only suckers pay it.

Can't sell? Donate

MINSK, 20 June (BelTA) – China has donated 22 lightly armored offroad
vehicles to the Belarusian Army, BelTA learnt from the Defense Ministry
of Belarus.On 19 June the two sides signed the relevant document
in the Defense Ministry of Belarus as part of the agreement between the
Armed Forces of Belarus and the People’s Liberation Army of China. The Belarusian Army is to receive 22 lightly

Photos of the day: Join Sino-India naval drill

http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2012/06/cooperation-not-competition.html



Cooperation not competition





There might be a strong choir calling for a new cold war to satisfy
certain fanboys/self proclaimed journalists. However, for those people
in charge and be responsible for lives under their command, cooperation
is preferred over silly competition. It is good to

8th sea trial, completed

Sunday, June 10, 2012



Out for the 8th time.





After completing its 7th sea sea trial last week, the Varyag sets sail today for its 8th sea trial, expect to last 13 days.



China's aircraft carrier completes 7th sea trialEnglish.news.cn   2012-06-04 10:38:05             http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-06/04/c_131629542.htmBEIJING,
June 4 (Xinhuanet) -- China’s first

This picture taken right out side of the SAC has the Chinese internet buzzing.

No, it is not what you think... it is just a lengthen L-15 jet trainer variant 

China Air Force's Golden Flight Helmet

Only 10 are awarded each year to Air Force’s top guns who can down bogies in mock dog fights.

After all those years the PLAAF has finally learned the right way to build spirit de corps with honors and realistic trainings. So, please no more empty slogans from now on  – they don’t work and they are super cheesy.


Is me or the color scheme seems  "more red than expert"? 

Photo of the day: ZBD08 ATGM carrier variant

Not sure what new ATGM it will carry but rumor has it, it will be the new the "Sino-Spike" we have seen previously.








 





Monday, February 06, 2012



Photo of the day: New tracked IFV with bolted armor





Since not having enough armor protection is one of the loudest complaint
against the ZDB04 tracked IFV, it was not popular with overseas
customers.   it appears that

Docks successfully

China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft successfully docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space laboratory on Monday, completing the next step in the country's ambitious space mission.

J-10B in operational evaluation

Showing here in a CCTV report is 30 Chinese Academy of Engineering Academicians invited to tour PLAAF
units and a GAD testing facility.  The footage also shows JH7 814 and a
Y8 GX, which had its rear ramp open but clearly partitioned off inside.

Since J-10B is now transferred to an operational eval unit, barring any unforeseen circumstances the commission date should not be too far off.   

Video of the day: Folding Tofu

Just like other armed forces, making a "tofu" bed is the first thing all PLA fresh-meat have to learn at bootcamp.

HQ-16A in Shanghai

This CCTV report shows a militia managed ammunition depot offloading HQ-16A launchers to the near by Shanghai Garrison.   This is to suggest that after the 38th and 39th Group Army, the Shanghai Garrison is also be protected by HQ-16A






























Sunday, March 11, 2012






HQ-16A spotted in service with the 1st Battalion, 4th Air Defense Brigade, 38th Group Army.



Replacing

Cooperation not competition

There might be a strong choir calling for a new cold war to satisfy certain fanboys/self proclaimed journalists. However, for those people in charge and be responsible for lives under their command, cooperation is preferred over silly competition. It is good to see there are sane voices out there.



Anti-piracy bid: South Korea joins India, Japan, China

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Photos of the day; Peace Mission 2012 day one

So far no heavy weapon spotted.













 Is that a pair of F-15 on the background?

Tajikistan is not known for its food

This is what they eat at home


 



 
This is what they serve at the Peace Mission 2012 dog-n-pony show.
















With food this bad, the China Army better think twice before fulfilling its "historical mission"
Seriously,  is there any good or decent Chinese restaurant in the entire Tajikistan Republic?

Photos of the day: AGI "Uranus" 853 returns home

Since its' commission in April 26th 2011, this China Navy's latest AGI "天王星" has been racking up miles "monitoring" the South China Sea situation.   It is now back home to Zhanjiang, HQ of the South Sea Fleet.

Notice the new 30mm CIWS mount and the Zhanjiang Gulf Bridge backdrop.


















 While I think all "Uranus" jokes should be off limits here in CDF, ball jokes are not.

Out for the 8th time.

After completing its 7th sea sea trial last week, the Varyag sets sail today for its 8th sea trial, expect to last 13 days.


China's aircraft carrier completes 7th sea trialEnglish.news.cn   2012-06-04 10:38:05             http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-06/04/c_131629542.htmBEIJING, June 4 (Xinhuanet) -- China’s first aircraft carrier, the "Varyag" has completed its seventh sea

Chinese troops participating in “Peace Mission 2012” exercise arrive in Tajikistan

(Source: PLA Daily)   2012-06-06　　All the Chinese officers and men who will participate in the “Peace Mission 2012” joint anti-terrorism military exercise to be held by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) safely arrived at the exercise area of the “Chorukh-Dayron” shooting range in Khujand city of Tajikistan on the afternoon of June 5, 2012.　　Five SCO member states including Russia, China

Egypt starts the production of ASN-209 UAVs

Thanks Imp for this news.


http://www.egyptdefence.com/egypt-starts-the-production-of-asn-209-uavs-92/


Hamdy Weheba, the Chairman of the Arab Organization for Industrialization claimed this week that Egypt has started the production of the ASN-209 Multi-purpose UAV System.He claimed that although the UAVs are being built in collaboration with a foreign defence manufacturer, more than 99% of

Oh my, is "Peace Mission" time already?

SCO Armed Forces to Stage "Peace Mission 2012" Drill

   2012-05-31 20:34:23   
Xinhua      Web Editor: yangyang66
Armed forces from Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
member states will hold the "Peace Mission 2012" drill in Tajikistan
from June 8 to 14, Ministry of Defense spokesman Yang Yujun announced
Thursday.



The drill is a

From MRAP, Norinco’s 8M Joint Tactical Light Vehicle.

This Cummins QSB 5.9 powered “mini MRAP” can seat 8, capable
of 7kg of mine protection under belly and 10kg mine protection from the wheel up.   Its target markets including certain regions
in western China
as well as export markets, anywhere people willing.





























Friday, December 16, 2011




Rebranded in China, Exported to Africa
The Made-in-China MRAP in Africa.  The

HuangPu’s Type 056 K596 Huizhou launched.

Together with her three sisters (597, 598 and 599) K596 (FFL596??)
Huizhou will likely to form a new patrol squadron under the Hong Kong Garrison Command