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Sea State<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s been an alarming update on 30 January\u2019s Saudi frigate attack<\/a> by Houthi rebels. Initially believed to be a suicide boat attack, the US Navy declared on 18 February that it was in fact carried out by \u2018an unmanned, remote-controlled boat of some kind\u2019<\/a>\u2014what DefenseNews <\/em>is calling a \u2018drone boat\u2019. This raises serious concerns about the source of the Houthi\u2019s foreign assistance\u2014the US is pointing the finger at Iran\u2014and is further indication that Yemen\u2019s conflict is spreading offshore<\/a>, something that hasn\u2019t previously occurred in 15 years of fighting in the Middle East<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports suggest<\/a> that Japan is intending to speed up its warship construction, from one 5,000-ton class destroyer to two 3,000-ton class ships per year. Commentators are attributing this upscale to Japan\u2019s need to patrol the East China Sea around the disputed Senkaku\/Diaoyu islands in order to curb China\u2019s aggression in what Japan perceives to be its sovereign territory\u2014and put an end, for instance, to incident<\/a>s like this. An 8-strong fleet of the new ships at a lower cost will allow Japan to increase<\/a> its naval reach; it\u2019s also expected to boost the JMSDF\u2019s mine-sweeping and anti-submarine capabilities.<\/p>\n Finally, read about the incredible science behind launching an underwater missile<\/a> and why submarines sometimes use the stars to navigate (bonus: sweet video of a pin-wheeling missile).<\/p>\n Flight Path<\/strong><\/p>\n A new piece<\/a> in The National Interest<\/em> shows how Iran\u2019s political and economic isolation has hampered its defence industry\u2019s efforts to domestically build fighter jets. The best attempt thus far has been the HESA-Saeqeh<\/em>\u2014a reverse-engineered version of the F-5 Freedom Fighter aircraft,<\/a> which was a common acquisition for less wealthy US allies. Iran received around 300 of these from 1965\u20131976, but the revolution rendered a shortage of spare parts to maintain that fleet. In 1997, another fighter, The Azarakhsh<\/em>\u2014a reverse-engineered F-5E<\/a>\u2014was announced, but never appeared to reach operational stages and was terminated in 2010.<\/p>\n The folks at Defense One<\/em> have supplied us with some useful resources this week. They\u2019ve used Pentagon data to create graphs charting the price reductions<\/a> of each F-35 variant since 2007. (Check out ASPI’s versions of those charts here<\/a> and here<\/a>.) And in light of Defense Secretary Mattis\u2019 review of the Joint Strike Fighter program<\/a>, they\u2019ve provided an analysis<\/a> of whether the F\/A-18E\/F Super Hornet is a \u2018comparable\u2019<\/a> replacement for the F-35.<\/p>\n A Russian Mi-8 military helicopter made a surprise landing on a snowy highway in rural Kazakhstan earlier this month, while carrying out training exercises practising landing in rough weather conditions. The pilot seemed to be lost, having to clarify his location with an onlooking truck driver, who filmed the entire incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rapid Fire <\/strong><\/p>\n In his report on Iran\u2019s new military strategy in Syria, Paul Bucala argues that Iran is altering the balance of power in the Middle East by\u00a0transforming its military to be able to \u2018conduct quasi-conventional warfare<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n Over 15 months of operations, the Iranian military deployed thousands of troops across its various military branches as part of a campaign to help recapture Aleppo in December 2016. Could these developments signal a larger shift on behalf of Iran towards a more assertive posture in the region? Their success in the Aleppo campaign certainly reflects the benefits of this new approach. Increased ground troops apparently enabled Iran to \u2018boost the capabilities of Iranian-backed proxies and enabled pro-regime forces to seize and hold key terrain from opposition forces\u2019.<\/p>\n Speaking of the Syria regime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Syrian government of using chlorine gas attacks<\/a> as part of a military strategy to retake Aleppo. HRW says Syrian regime forces timed the gas attacks to coincide with military offensive pushes on the ground. The US has also confirmed accusations it used depleted uranium munitions<\/a> against Islamic State targets in late 2015, despite earlier promises not to.<\/p>\n Finally, for those who missed it, tune into Four Corners<\/em>\u2019 most recent episode<\/a>. \u2018Highway to Hell\u2019 takes viewers to the battlefields of Iraq and looks at the \u2018gruelling street-by-street fighting\u2019 taking place on the ground in Mosul right now.<\/p>\n Zero Gravity<\/strong><\/p>\n India grabbed headlines this week with the successful, simultaneous launch<\/a> of 104 satellites. The majority of them were international<\/a> which reads well for India\u2014foreign parties shouldered half the launch cost<\/a> and already there\u2019s talk of snowballing this victory<\/a> into more technological innovation.<\/p>\n One company, Planet Labs Inc.<\/a>, had 88 micro-satellites on board. Planet recently purchased<\/a> Google\u2019s existing in-house satellite business. Google will license Planet\u2019s imagery, but by ceding space, so to speak, to a nimbler start-up, Google\u2019s anticipating a growing trend<\/a> in near-Earth commercialisation. For now, though, Planet\u2019s fleet of newly-launched cubesats<\/a> will be used in a historic first\u2014imaging the entirety of Earth\u2019s landmasses daily<\/a>!<\/p>\n There have been a few dry months since the last juicy story about Martian colonies, so props to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, who announced the \u2018Mars 2117 Project<\/a>\u2019. Space pundits will know that plans for human settlement, however well-intentioned and received, generally rest on wildly ambitious timeframes<\/a> and grand rhetoric<\/a> rather physics, physiology and economics. So it\u2019s refreshing to hear talk of centuries rather than years. With an initial focus on shorter Mars missions<\/a>, spinoff technologies<\/a>, international collaboration and education infrastructure, there\u2019ll be near-term payoffs too. That said, if you\u2019re aiming for a 600,000-inhabitant<\/a> robot-built city, it\u2019s going to be one rocky ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sea State There\u2019s been an alarming update on 30 January\u2019s Saudi frigate attack by Houthi rebels. Initially believed to be a suicide boat attack, the US Navy declared on 18 February that it was in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":30624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1627,271,249,247,1276],"class_list":["post-30622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-aliens","tag-f-35","tag-human-rights","tag-iran","tag-japan-self-defense-forces"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n