{"id":32799,"date":"2017-07-11T12:28:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T02:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=32799"},"modified":"2017-07-11T12:28:42","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T02:28:42","slug":"sea-air-land-space-updates-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/sea-air-land-space-updates-39\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea, air, land and space updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sea state<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US Coast Guard is still looking for a vendor<\/a> to equip its Legend-class national security cutter with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Lacking the expertise to operate UAVs itself, the Coast Guard wants the full package, \u2018including the people, the antennas, [and] the software<\/a>\u2019. But to reduce costs, it\u2019ll just be getting the basic capabilities for now\u2014like electro-optical and infrared camera systems\u2014with the more whizz-bang intelligence tools to come later, in pace with emerging technology. Eventually, the aim is to have a completely autonomous drone fleet. (But, according to The Drive<\/em>, the Coast Guard might already have something pretty cool<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

A new report<\/a> from the ICC International Maritime Bureau revealed the extent of international piracy in the first half of 2017. Overall, there were 87 attacks<\/a>\u201410 fewer than in 2016. That included 63 hostage-takings, 41 kidnappings and two deaths. The report warns<\/a> that Somali pirates still have the capacity to attack far offshore, and remain a threat to merchant ships. Southeast Asia was also identified as still being a high-risk area. The Diplomat <\/em>provides a compelling argument<\/a> for Australia\u2019s interests in this area by looking at the threat to trade and economic prosperity should piracy spread to the Melanesian \u2018arc of instability\u2019.<\/p>\n

Flight path<\/strong><\/p>\n

Austria will phase out<\/a> its fleet of Eurofighter Typhoon strike fighters and Saab 105 OE training aircraft from 2020. The defence minister made the announcement last Friday after an expert commission, responsible for studying the air force\u2019s options after 2020, found the \u20ac5 billion bill<\/a> of maintaining 15 Eurofighters over 30 years to be unsustainable. While the Saab 105 is already scheduled to be retired after 2020, the Tranche 1 Eurofighter faces early retirement<\/a> after only a decade in the sky. Austria\u2019s decision to buy or lease 15 fighter jets that can operate by 2020 is apparently imminent, with Saab\u2019s JAS Gripen and Lockheed\u2019s F-16 rumoured to be the frontrunners.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, the US Air Force dispatched two NORAD<\/a> F-15s from Barnes Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts to intercept<\/a> a Cuba-bound Canadian Sunwing Airlines plane over New York and escort it back to its departure airport in Montreal after a passenger made \u2018non-specific threats\u2019.<\/p>\n

The US B-1B Lancer bombers at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam are getting plenty of action. A B-1B flew<\/a> with its Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighters over the East China Sea last Thursday, conducting night-time training for the first time. After that, two B-1Bs flew over<\/a> the South China Sea, marking the Trump administration\u2019s first freedom of overflight<\/a> operation in those contested waters.<\/p>\n

Rapid fire<\/strong><\/p>\n

As tensions between India and China continue to simmer<\/a> over parts of an 89-square-kilometre Himalayan plateau claimed by both China and Bhutan, the People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) has conducted its first-ever \u2018high altitude drill<\/a>\u2019. The exercise involved the PLA\u2019s most advanced battle tank, the ZTZ-96B<\/a>,\u00a0and was aimed at testing the integration and readiness of military elements in the \u2018complex high altitude environment of the Tibetan plateau\u2019. In a series of conflicting narratives, China\u2019s Global Times <\/em>described the exercises<\/a> as a signal to India to \u2018drop [the] delusion of military strength\u2019, while India Today<\/em> accused China<\/a> of wanting to \u2018grab Bhutan\u2019s land and blame India\u2019.<\/p>\n

The territorial dispute erupted in June<\/a>, when Indian soldiers opposed China\u2019s attempts to extend a border road\u00a0through the Doklam plateau<\/a>. While India has no official territorial claim there, the plateau is within artillery range of a significant Indian weak point\u2014the Siliguri\u00a0Corridor<\/a> (or \u2018chicken\u2019s neck\u2019), a\u00a0narrow stretch of land that links India with its northeastern states.<\/p>\n

Finally, as the nine-month battle for Mosul nears its so-called end<\/a>, this devastating series of photographs<\/a> from the Old City of Mosul\u00a0lays bare the \u2018full horror of the battle to defeat Islamic State\u2019 and the extent of the destruction that\u2019s been wrought on the city. The images, and recent drone footage<\/a>, offer an \u2018up-close glimpse of the apocalyptic suffering being inflicted in the name of the war against terrorism\u2019\u2014inviting the question: at what price?<\/p>\n

Zero gravity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relations between the US and the DPRK might be bottoming out after Kim Jong-un\u2019s ICBM test<\/a>, but that\u2019s no reason to stop looking up (to space, that is). The Cipher Brief<\/em> considers the role that space-based assets can play in ballistic missile defence, asking three questions: whether space is the next frontier<\/a> in missile defence, how the space-based sensor system can be improved<\/a>, and how space assets can be made more resilient<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People mean different things when they talk about space-based missile defence. At one end of the spectrum there\u2019s the space-based sensor layer\u2014that\u2019s a critical component of existing capabilities provided by platforms like the SBIRS heat-detecting satellites<\/a>. At the other end, the conversation turns to space-based interception<\/a>\u2014that\u2019s a different ballgame and, after the \u2018Star Wars<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018Brilliant Pebbles<\/a>\u2019 initiatives of yesteryear, a controversial pitch. It\u2019s true that space launches are coming faster<\/a> and cheaper<\/a> than ever before\u2014but that\u2019s probably not enough to revive what is, in the recent words of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a technological zombie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s finish on a high: watch<\/a>\u2014please watch\u2014as four intrepid YouTubers travel to Kazakhstan, navigate booby traps and security patrols, infiltrate a military facility<\/a>, and finally break into a cavernous aircraft hangar. Inside\u2014rendered by stark photography<\/a> and stunning drone footage\u2014the Dutchmen camp among the wrecks of two abandoned Soviet-era space shuttles<\/a>. Welcome to the sprawling Baikonur Cosmodrome<\/a>. Born of the Cold War space race, it\u2019s the oldest spaceport in the world, and still leased to Roscosmos<\/a> today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sea state The US Coast Guard is still looking for a vendor to equip its Legend-class national security cutter with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). 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