Rule of the Sea: China Pushes Boundaries

From 2010’s shift prediction and 2015’s South China Sea giveaway to 2016 where China has solidified the region and is now able to project power. This is where America stands today in Asia:

 

As China’s coastguard bullies its neighbors into submission, America looks on.

At 10 p.m. Saturday night, an Indonesian special task force intercepted a Chinese fishing boat at the southern end of the South China Sea. The event took place within Indonesia’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone off the Natuna Islands, which are far from mainland China.

Onboard the Chinese vessel were nine crewmen, all of whom were taken into custody by the lightly armed Indonesian force. The Indonesian vessel, with the compounded Chinese vessel in tow, began the trip back to an Indonesian base in the Natuna Islands.

Is Russia flying NUCLEAR missiles over the Channel? Fears over Putin’s jets in UK airspace

Last February, two Tu-95 bombers intercepted over the Channel were found to be carrying a nuclear missile designed to destroy Trident submarines.

Cockpit conservations confirming the bomber’s nuclear payload were intercepted by a Norwegian military listening post and passed to the Ministry of Defence.

Russia Conducts Nuclear Bomber Flight Near Alaska

America has been lulled into a false sense of security and this article stands to prove it doesn’t care to do anything about it. The walls are down and the sword is coming.

 

 

Two Bear H bombers intrude into air defense zone

Two Russian nuclear-capable bombers intruded into the U.S. air defense zone near Alaska last week in the latest saber rattling by Moscow, defense officials said.

The Tu-95 Bear H bombers flew into the Alaska zone on April 22. But unlike most earlier incursions, no U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow them, said defense officials familiar with the latest U.S.-Russian aerial encounter.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), declined to confirm the incursion. But he said no jets were dispatched last week to intercept intruding aircraft.

Great powers manoeuvre in Asia

Consider the territorial disputes roiling the Indian Ocean and other East Asian regions, sparked by China’s repeated _ and increasingly assertive _ efforts to claim sovereignty over vast maritime areas. As China’s incursions reignite long-smouldering disagreements and threaten to destabile [sic] the regional status quo, countries throughout Asia are reconsidering their strategic positions.

For example, the Philippines is revamping its security strategy by enhancing cooperation with the United States _ China’s counterweight in the region _ only two decades after it closed two major American military installations, the naval base at Subic Bay and Clark Air Base. Vietnam, too, has strengthened its ties with the US. And, after decades of absence, America has resumed training programmes for Indonesia’s military.

Chinese troops adopt new tactic, stop Indian Army from patrolling in its own territory

Amid a spate of incursions by China in Ladakh, its troops are also resorting to tactics like preventing the Indian Army from patrolling posts in this sector along the border which was well within India’s territory.

In what is being described as an aggressive approach by China, the tactics have come to the fore in the wake of yet another incident last week when Indian troops launched its patrol “Tiranga” from Trade Junction area in North of Ladakh for two posts located 14 km up in the higher reaches along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The Indian army personnel were stopped by Chinese troops who came mounted on heavy and light vehicles, official sources said on Sunday.

The patrol party was shown a banner that it was Chinese territory and that they cannot proceed to the posts, they said.

The sources said the Chinese troops were aggressive in their approach while stopping the Indian patrol who were at their posts.

DEBKAfile: Simultaneous Iranian, Syrian military exercises – unprecedented

Although Iran completed a missile drill as recently as July 5, it is launching another big exercise Monday, July 8, against alien aircraft and missile incursions. Never before have Iranian and Syrian armed forces carried out simultaneous and coordinated exercises. They are both devoted to the same objective of repelling foreign intervention, having apparently accepted the Russian intelligence presumption that Western military intervention in Syria would create a beachhead for attacking Iran.

Full article: DEBKAfile: Simultaneous Iranian, Syrian military exercises – unprecedented (DEBKAfile)