Xi Tells PLA to ‘Prepare for War’ in South China Sea, Taiwan

(Photo Credit: The Kremlin/www.kremlin.ru)

 

Details of the Chinese president’s speech were not made public for nearly 24 hours.

Today, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post has reported that state-controlled CCTV broadcaster has reported on a Thursday speech made by Chinese President Xi Jinping in which he told the military region responsible for monitoring the South China Sea and Taiwan to “prepare for war.”

Amid Iran tensions, Saudi holds live-fire drills in Persian Gulf

As-Sadiq class missile boat Oqbah (525) of the Royal Saudi Navy participates in a photo exercise with ships from the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) during a bilateral exercise in the Persian Gulf. (US Navy)

 

 

Kingdom’s navy, air force, marines and ‘special units’ take part in war games to protect against ‘any possible aggression’

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia is conducting live-fire drills during war games underway in the Gulf, official media said on Tuesday, as tensions simmer with Iran.

Exercise Gulf Shield 1 has begun with naval ships, aircraft, marines and “special units,” the Saudi Press Agency said.

Russia Begins Massive War Games Involving Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet

 

The exercise codenamed as Caucasus 2016 follows a period of heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine after the Kremlin accused Kiev of plotting terror attacks against Russians in Crimea.

On Monday, the Russian forces began a massive military exercise to test troops’ combat readiness and cooperation between different branches of the country’s armed forces. The exercise, involving over 12,500 servicemen including Navy, Airborne and Aerospace units was conducted in the south of Russia.

21st Century Warfare (I)

Guess who’s playing a more leading role in NATO:

 

BERLIN/BRUNSSUM (Own report) – The Bundeswehr plays a key role in the current restructuring of NATO’s rapid intervention force. The implementation of a “Very High Readiness Joint Task Force” (VJTF) of between 5,000 and 7,000 troops for future offensive operations, known as “Spearhead,” is an integral element in this process. Half of the troops will be German. NATO’s Allied Joint Force Commander for Northern and Eastern Europe, German Colonel-General Hans-Lothar Domröse is in charge of the creation of the VJTF. According to Domröse, the objective is to get the western military alliance “into shape” for “waging wars in the 21st Century,” which is particularly expressed in the capacity “to be able to control a territorially limited destabilization by elusive subversive enemy forces.” The core of the VJTF will be comprised of the Mechanized Infantry Battalion 371, which disposes of the most modern weapons systems and is stationed in Marienberg (Saxony). The unit has demonstrated its combat readiness in two maneuvers last year. Both maneuvers were to train for combating insurgent separatists – a scenario, the Bundeswehr describes as, “very realistic in the current political environment.”

Unannounced Test of Strategic Nuclear Weapons Readiness Starts in Russia

 

“The Committee of the Command of Strategic Missile Forces is conducting an unannounced test of the condition and security provisions of nuclear weapons in the Yoshkar-Ola Missile Unit,” the SMF’s press service said in a statement.

Russian military received 38 intercontinental missiles in 2014 — defense minister

MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces added 38 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to their tables of equipment this year, including 22 submarine-based missiles, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday at an expanded session of the Defense Ministry’s Board.

The percentage of upgraded armaments in the Armed Forces has thus reached 56%, he said. The Strategic Missile Troops now have three new regiments operating Yars missile complexes.

By the end of December, the Navy will have three strategic nuclear-powered submarines of the Borei class. The first of them, the Yuri Dolgoruky, has already come on full-scale combat duty.

Eastern Military District Troops Moved to Highest State of Combat Readiness

MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) – Troops in Russia’s Eastern Military District are moved to the highest state of combat readiness as surprise drills begin in the region, the Russian Ministry of Defense informed on Friday.

PLA orders discussion of combat readiness

The People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department has ordered the army and armed police across the nation to discuss combat readiness and effectiveness, the army’s media outlet PLA Daily reported on Tuesday.

The PLA Daily said the across-the-board discussions are aimed at instilling the concept of combat readiness, adding that the discussion will be the army’s prime political task this year.

Xi Jinping told aircraft carrier captain to build up combat readiness: official magazine

A Communist Party magazine has revealed the chief concerns President Xi Jinping  expressed during his inspection of the country’s first aircraft carrier in August.

“[You should] build up [the carrier’s] combat readiness and logistics and support expeditiously,” the carrier’s captain, Zhang Zheng, said Xi told him before wrapping up his inspection of the Liaoning, according to an account in this month’s issue of Dangjian, or Party Construction, magazine.

Army: Only two brigades ready to fight

Systematically destroyed from within, under the guise of budget cuts. America is now at the peak of the process in degredation, whereas both China and Russia are on par with capability, combat readiness and deployment, or are soon to be.

Budget cuts mean only two Army brigades are combat-ready, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Monday.

Odierno made the admission at an Army conference, where he said thousands of soldiers might not be properly trained for deployment.

“Right now, we have in the Army two brigades that are trained. That’s it. Two,” Odierno said at the annual Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference.

Russia to establish 40 more army brigades by 2020

Russian Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov announced on 30 September that Russia plans to establish 40 new army brigades by 2020, according to an official military statement.

Pankov indicated new brigades will be raised without increasing the strength of the armed forces above their current authorisation of 1,000,000 men. The Russian ground forces currently have around 300,000 personnel.

He also hinted that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) may re-establish a couple more divisions disbanded after 2009.

Moscow beefs up air defense with 4 new all-altitude radar stations

From the Kremlin mouthpiece, Russia Today:

Four mobile radar stations designed for S-300 and S-400 air defense batteries have been added to the shield covering Moscow against airstrikes. The new all-altitude detectors can track up to 100 targets, be they missiles, drones or manned aircraft.

The addition of the hardware was announced on Saturday by Deputy Commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces, Major General Kirill Makarov.

Beijing War Prep – China moves mobile missiles near coast amid tensions with Japan over islands

The PLA war machine’s intimidation is more than a test for the Japanese. Rather, it’s a test for the United States to show itself to Japan as either a reliable ally or an unreliable ally. At the rate the USA is disarming combined with the economy’s effect on the military and national security, it’s no longer unthinkable that it wouldn’t even be able to protect itself within the next four to ten years — let alone Japan or another ally.

United States intelligence agencies recently detected China’s military shifting road-mobile ballistic missiles closer to its southern coast near the disputed Senkaku Islands amid growing tensions between Beijing and Japan over the islands dispute.

U.S. defense officials said the movements are being watched closely as China’s military is also holding large-scale military exercises that some fear could be a trigger for a conflict with Japan that could involve U.S. forces.

Russia slams Israeli attack on Syria. US forces in Jordan on alert

By now most have heard about the Israeli air strike against a Syrian military site. What’s not new or alarming is knowing that an entire region called the Middle East could’ve been lit on fire, but that a Russian Mig-31 fighter flew over Sinai, seemingly in response.

The Syrian announcement of an Israeli air strike on a military site near Damascus Wednesday, Jan. 30, drew strong condemnation from Moscow the next day: “Such action if confirmed would amount to unacceptable military interference in the war-ravaged country,” said the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry Thursday. “If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violate the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it.”

Israel has made no comment on the Damascus statement which described in detail an Israeli air strike against a “military research institute” near the capital. Witnesses say it was a plant for manufacturing “unconventional weapons.” The facility was destroyed and two staff members killed.

Lebanese sources later reported a Russian Mig-31 fighter had crossed over Sinai Wednesday in the direction of Israel. It veered west over the Mediterranean after encountering an Israeli warning not to intrude into its air space and continued flying over Lebanon.

Taiwan to hold computer-aided war games

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) Taiwan will hold a five-day computer-aided war game beginning Monday as the second part of the Han Kuang series of exercises to test the country’s defense capabilities amid the growing military threat from China.

The computerized drills will test Taiwan’s information and electronic warfare capabilities, combat readiness of attack helicopters and anti-submarine aircraft, as well as other warfare tactics, the Ministry of National Defense said recently.

…

The computer-aided war games follow the five-day military drills which took place in late April when innovative high-tech and asymmetrical military tactics were practiced in an attempt to fend off simulated invasions by Chinese forces.

Full article: Taiwan to hold computer-aided war games (Focus Taiwan)