UAVs, Stealth, Carriers, Amphibs: DoD Report Details China’s Weapons

WASHINGTON: The People’s Liberation Army has practiced jamming GPS signals, according to a Pentagon report today. The Chinese are testing those and other electronic warfare weapons and they have “proven effective.”

China plans to launch 100 satellites through 2015, including “imaging, remote sensing, navigation, communication, and scientific satellites, as well as manned spacecraft,” says a special section headlined  ”Special Topic: Reconnaissance Satellites” in the annual Pentagon report to Congress about China’s military capabilities and intentions. (Note: that includes manned spacecraft and most of the satellites mentioned are weather, agriculture and related satellites — not advanced spy satellites.)

In another “special section,” this one about low observable technology, the Pentagon report lists weapons “demonstrated” last year:

China’s new stealth frigate commissioned

HANGZHOU – A Chinese-developed next-generation stealth frigate was commissioned to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy) on Tuesday.

The country’s first “type 056” stealth frigate, formerly known simply as ship 582, was renamed Bengbu at a commission ceremony held in a naval port in Zhoushan, a coastal city in East China’s Zhejiang province.

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.