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VMETRO to support F-35 program
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:07 PM
HOUSTON, May 16 (UPI) -- VMETRO announced it has been contracted by Lockheed Martin to support the U.S. Defense Department's next-generation strike fighter F-35 Lightning II program. -
Navy contracts BAE for TCDL tech
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:07 PM
WAYNE, N.J., May 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy says it has contracted BAE Systems for tactical common data link technology to provide pilots with real-time sensor and targeting information. -
South African army to get wireless tech
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:05 PM
JERICHO, N.Y., May 16 (UPI) -- Saab Grintek Communications has contracted Telephonics for wireless intercommunication technology in support of a deal with the South African army.
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Analysis: European defense contracts
Published: May 16, 2008 at 10:15 PM
By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS
UPI Correspondent
BRUSSELS, May 16 (UPI) -- Patria could lose Slovenian deal to bribery charges; Italian training aircraft for Philippines; Estonia opens cyberterrorism center and looks to purchase field artillery -
BMD Watch: Japan changes space policy
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:35 PM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- The Japanese Parliament Tuesday formally agreed to permit the deployment of space surveillance satellites as part of the country's ballistic missile defense program. -
Analysis: China boosts Jiangxi air defense
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:10 PM
By ANDREI CHANG
HONG KONG, May 16 (UPI) -- China's air force has substantially reinforced its air defense posture in Jiangxi province in the past year. There are indications that China has completed its second-line air defense operational deployment against Taiwan centered on Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. This has greatly expanded the depth of China's air defense coverage. -
Outside View: Russia at war -- Part 1
Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:07 PM
By ILYA KRAMNIK
UPI Outside View Commentator
MOSCOW, May 16 (UPI) -- The scale of the armies engaged, the casualties suffered and inflicted on both sides, and the number of weapons systems deployed in the conflict between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany dwarfed all other theaters of World War II and all conflicts since then. -
Analysis: China copter deal -- Part 3
Published: May 15, 2008 at 7:16 PM
By MARTIN SIEFF
WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Russia's landmark sale of transport helicopter assembly kits to be assembled in China could point the way to a vastly larger transformation in global arms production. -
Outside View: Georgia civil war -- Part 2
Published: May 15, 2008 at 12:13 PM
By ILYA KRAMNIK
UPI Outside View Commentator
MOSCOW, May 15 (UPI) -- Georgia's officer corps is said to be riddled with corruption, there are no trained sergeants, only about 50 percent of the nation's military equipment is operational, and coordinated operations in adverse conditions are impossible.
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Defense Focus: China's weapons -- Part 3
Published: Feb. 8, 2008 at 3:34 PM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The weapons that China wants from Russia -- and that Moscow won't sell Beijing -- provide a remarkable insight into the current transitional state of the Chinese arms industry.
For although China now has arguably the broadest low-tech industrial base on Earth and a space development program that has more promise and vastly more resources devoted to it than those of either the United States or Russia, Beijing remains dependent on enormous quantities of foreign imports for most of its crucial land weapons systems.
Up to a few years ago, Chinese orders accounted for up to 40 percent of Russian arms export volumes worth $6.5 billion, but today they have dramatically shrunk because of an enduring deadlock.
Russia wants to sell a lot of its older, cast-off weapons to China. But China wants to buy Russia's most modern ones, especially ones that can be used for land warfare. Beijing also wants co-production deals so that it can buy the technology to make such weapons itself. Beijing says it no longer needs relatively ineffective Russian weapons without the relevant production licenses and that Moscow should start selling more advanced, hard-hitting and high-tech weaponry and military equipment.
Most importantly, China wants to launch their joint production, to receive state-of-the-art defense technologies, inventions and composite materials. Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has proven willing to make such deals with other countries. Within the last year it has signed lucrative contracts with Venezuela to build factories to manufacture Kalashnikov automatic rifles and other weapons and with India to co-produce a supersonic cruise missile. But it flatly refuses to make any such deals with China.
The Chinese armaments industry still cannot make any world-class Main Battle Tank of its own. We know this because Beijing wants to buy Russia's formidable T-90, but the Russians won't sell. However, they have just concluded a multibillion-dollar contract to sell 347 T-90s to India.
According to Russian experts, the General Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army wants to buy large batches of Russian-made Shmel -- Bumblebee -- rocket infantry flame-throwers, 120mm Nona-SVK and Vena self-propelled guns, 152mm Msta-S self-propelled artillery systems, 300mm Smerch -- Tornado -- multiple-launch rocket systems -- MLRSs, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers -- APCs, Mil Mi-28N Havoc and Kamov Ka-50 Hokum "Black Shark" attack helicopters, various types of 3-D radars, naval Shtil-1 R-29RM -- SS-N-23 -- surface-to-air missiles on vertical launchers, as well as electronic counter-measures -- ECM -- systems, Ka-27 and Helix Ka-28 ship-borne helicopters, know-how for manufacturing fourth-generation and fifth-generation aircraft engines, highly alloyed steels and other materials.
In other words, it can safely be said that China's arms industry, for all the country's astonishing economic and industrial achievements, is still incapable of making a vast range of weapons, especially for land warfare and tactical air support of ground operations that it must buy from other sources.
China's domestic arms industry can be said to have hit a plateau, or glass ceiling. It has reached maturity in a limited number of areas where it does what it knows how to do extremely well. But the Chinese, understandably, are not satisfied with that. They want to import the technology and expertise to mass produce robust, state-of-the-art weapons and combat equipment that is comparable with American, Western and Indian output. The natural partner to help them climb this industrial mountain is Russia. But so far, the Russians aren't playing.
This continuing weakness has profound implications for China's diplomacy, grand strategy and choice of conflicts it would be prepared to undertake for many years to come.
--
Next: Why China needs Russia
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The weapons that China wants from Russia -- and that Moscow won't sell Beijing -- provide a remarkable insight into the current transitional state of the Chinese arms industry.
For although China now has arguably the broadest low-tech industrial base on Earth and a space development program that has more promise and vastly more resources devoted to it than those of either the United States or Russia, Beijing remains dependent on enormous quantities of foreign imports for most of its crucial land weapons systems.
Up to a few years ago, Chinese orders accounted for up to 40 percent of Russian arms export volumes worth $6.5 billion, but today they have dramatically shrunk because of an enduring deadlock.
Russia wants to sell a lot of its older, cast-off weapons to China. But China wants to buy Russia's most modern ones, especially ones that can be used for land warfare. Beijing also wants co-production deals so that it can buy the technology to make such weapons itself. Beijing says it no longer needs relatively ineffective Russian weapons without the relevant production licenses and that Moscow should start selling more advanced, hard-hitting and high-tech weaponry and military equipment.
Most importantly, China wants to launch their joint production, to receive state-of-the-art defense technologies, inventions and composite materials. Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has proven willing to make such deals with other countries. Within the last year it has signed lucrative contracts with Venezuela to build factories to manufacture Kalashnikov automatic rifles and other weapons and with India to co-produce a supersonic cruise missile. But it flatly refuses to make any such deals with China.
The Chinese armaments industry still cannot make any world-class Main Battle Tank of its own. We know this because Beijing wants to buy Russia's formidable T-90, but the Russians won't sell. However, they have just concluded a multibillion-dollar contract to sell 347 T-90s to India.
According to Russian experts, the General Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army wants to buy large batches of Russian-made Shmel -- Bumblebee -- rocket infantry flame-throwers, 120mm Nona-SVK and Vena self-propelled guns, 152mm Msta-S self-propelled artillery systems, 300mm Smerch -- Tornado -- multiple-launch rocket systems -- MLRSs, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers -- APCs, Mil Mi-28N Havoc and Kamov Ka-50 Hokum "Black Shark" attack helicopters, various types of 3-D radars, naval Shtil-1 R-29RM -- SS-N-23 -- surface-to-air missiles on vertical launchers, as well as electronic counter-measures -- ECM -- systems, Ka-27 and Helix Ka-28 ship-borne helicopters, know-how for manufacturing fourth-generation and fifth-generation aircraft engines, highly alloyed steels and other materials.
In other words, it can safely be said that China's arms industry, for all the country's astonishing economic and industrial achievements, is still incapable of making a vast range of weapons, especially for land warfare and tactical air support of ground operations that it must buy from other sources.
China's domestic arms industry can be said to have hit a plateau, or glass ceiling. It has reached maturity in a limited number of areas where it does what it knows how to do extremely well. But the Chinese, understandably, are not satisfied with that. They want to import the technology and expertise to mass produce robust, state-of-the-art weapons and combat equipment that is comparable with American, Western and Indian output. The natural partner to help them climb this industrial mountain is Russia. But so far, the Russians aren't playing.
This continuing weakness has profound implications for China's diplomacy, grand strategy and choice of conflicts it would be prepared to undertake for many years to come.
--
Next: Why China needs Russia
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