3 Chinese navy ships visit Vietnam

3 Chinese navy ships visit Vietnam

(Source: Xinhua)   2013-01-08

　　HO CHI MINH CITY, Vitenam, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Three Chinese navy ships returning from counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden have docked at south Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, kicking off a five-day good-will visit on Monday.

　　The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ships belonging to the 12nd Escort Task Group were

Photos of the day: New Chinese light tank

Not much is known about this new AFV but it has been spotted en route to the Tibet area on a regular basis.   It is also sporting a 105mm tank gun.

Recent Chinese exports in helicopter and ships

In my review of 2012, I mentioned recent Chinese exports as one of the overlooked areas in recent Chinese news. More than anything, China has been having a lot of success exporting smaller ships and helicopters. I have captured a series of photos from various Chinese shipyards this year for export orders. They do not include all of the ships that they've launched or handed over this year, but we will go through that in the second part.

First, we have the missile boat that was built for the Pakistani Navy. One was built in Tianjin shipyard as shown below and the other was built in Pakistan.


Next, we currently have a littoral patrol craft built for Bangladesh Navy. Two Such LPCs are built for BN and they were launched about a month apart from the WuChang shipyard.


Most recently, we have seen Patrol Boat for Malta. They have received quit a lot of order for patrol boats and FACs from African countries in the recent years.


And this is a patrol ship that WuChang shipyard built for Namibia. This has already finished sea trials and been delivered already.


Next, we have 3 ships that were part of PLAN that is undergoing work to be transferred to Myanmar Navy. They are 2 Jianghu class frigates (554 & 557) and Type 037 class ship 772. I believe 771 is also getting transferred to PLAN. At this point, it's most likely that these ships are transferred rather than sold, but still good to have Myanmar Navy using Chinese equipments that will rely on Chinese supplies/part for weapon system.




Other than these ships, I have also recorded these additional exports of helicopters and naval ships from the past year or so.

• Late 2011, 4 patrol boats (FACs) for Ghana
• Late 2011, 6 H425 for Bolivia
• Jan 2012, 12 AC-312 (Z-9) for Cambodia
• March 2012, 2 (535, 536) retrofitted Jianghu for Bangladesh
• March 2012, Z-11 production in Argentina
• April 2012, 2 OPVs for Nigeria
• May 2012, 3 F-22A for Algeria
• Nov 2012, 4 more F-22Ps for Pakistan
• Nov 2012, Z-9 for Zambia

So There have been quite a few success stories. This is something that I will follow up and update on next year. Chinese shipyards are doing really well in this low end naval/security ship market. Chinese helicopter companies are also doing a good job of selling Z-9s and Z-11s to third world countries. I think they are probably taking market share away from Russians and some Europeans. This is a trend that I expect to continue in the coming years.

Burma, too close for comfort

Not sure using harsh language will be any good in stopping the bombing.  Anyhow, you can watch the bombing from this BBC vid (here)





China makes formal complaint to Myanmar over bombing raids

Foreign ministry asks Myanmar to confine its military action against Kachin rebels to its own territory after air strikes on the Chinese side
Saturday, 05 January, 2013, 12:00am

http://www.scmp.com/

Photos of the day: Z-9D 001

Back in July 2008, I posted a photo of Z-9D prototype 001 geared as a AShCM carrier equipped with a pair of TL-10 missiles.  Well, it now appears that the project is going no where with the prototype in storage.












Friday, August 01, 2008


Few days ago, I posted news about Z-9D




And today.....Date Posted: 01-Aug-2008Jane's Defence WeeklyChina rolls out naval variant of Z-9 helo armed

Communist propaganda of the day: Loud speakers backed by a 105mm tank gun

Psychological warfare variant of the ZTD05 Amphibious Assault Gun -- just in case OpFor missed the first message. Personally I prefer to see loud speakers mounted on a Bell UH1 Huey blasting out Wagner's grandoise Ride of the Valkyries instead

Chinese Area 52.

Well, according to this recent CCTV news report, the PLAAF "red flag" test range in northwest China is code named "area 52".   It might be just a might be a coincident but I have a feeling that they were inspired by what the USAF's Tonopah Test Range has to offer in training next generation of combat pilots.









































































Wednesday,