Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[Colin Parkinson]

HMCS Ottawa has a new friend......

 

[lenaitch]

Excuse me if I don’t take the Global Times (a Chinese state-run publication) as unbiased.

Oh no! Not

reconnaissance and trouble-stirrings

Canada is a country from outside of the region

Perhaps, like China views itself in the Arctic, Canada has decided it is a 'near Asian nation'.

They're not wrong though. One ship following around another ship is a big nothing burger. Silly that we did an article about it in the first place.

At least a network is focusing the CAF on doing military stuff and not trolling for a scandal.

 

[GR66]

For anyone that thinks that Chinese military threats against Taiwan are just bluster...

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/01/china-suddenly-building-fleet-of-special-barges-suitable-for-taiwan-landings/#prettyPhoto

 

[Halifax Tar]

For anyone that thinks that Chinese military threats against Taiwan are just bluster...

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/01/china-suddenly-building-fleet-of-special-barges-suitable-for-taiwan-landings/#prettyPhoto

Any conflict in the Pacific is going to need those.

 

[Kirkhill]

Keeping things simple?

USN LRASMs (and possibly modified JASSM-ERs) from USAF B1Bs (24 per aircraft) and F15s (4-5 per aircraft).

The US Air Force has an ‘almost uncomplicated’ plan to erase China’s Taiwan invasion fleet​

It involves missiles. Lots of missiles
David Axe

24 January 2025 1:35pm GMT

The US Air Force is moving to arm its Boeing F-15E/EX fighter-bombers with the Pentagon’s latest ship-killing munition, the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile.

It’s obvious what the Air Force is worried about: the rapidly expanding and modernising Chinese fleet, which is gearing up to fight its way across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait and land troops on Taiwanese beaches.

If the Americans are going to intervene to save Taiwan, they must do it in the early days of an invasion while Chinese ships are still criss-crossing the strait to deliver people, vehicles and supplies. Once a large invasion force is entrenched on the island, the outcome may be a foregone conclusion – and a dangerous new era for the free countries of the world would have begun.

The Air Force is scrambling to hang its best anti-ship missiles on more types of warplane – so that America can darken the sky over the Taiwan Strait with enough munitions to drown a Chinese invasion during its most vulnerable hours.

A contract notice from the US Naval Air System Command (NAVAIR) last week indicated that the Air Force planned to integrate the Lockheed Martin AGM-158C – the LRASM – on 1990s-vintage F-15E Strike Eagles and new-production F-15EX Eagle IIs. Both models of supersonic F-15 share a similar airframe, but the EX boasts better sensors and radar-jammers and expanded weapons carriage.

The LRASM is a powerful weapon. The 14-foot, subsonic missile borrows much of its design from the AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, but adds a sensitive new seeker which can lock onto a moving ship. Both the JASSM-ER and the LRASM range around 200 miles with a 1,000-pound warhead. Their sleek shape makes them hard to detect on radar, and thus hard to shoot down.

The NAVAIR announcement comes just a few months after the Air Force confirmed a long-rumoured plan to base 36 of the 100 or so F-15EXs it’s procuring at Kadena air base in Okinawa, America’s main hub for air operations over the western Pacific. With a pair of LRASMs under their wings, the Kadena F-15s could react swiftly to a Chinese attack – perhaps within hours – and land the first blows on the invaders.

Considering how many ballistic missiles China has aimed at Kadena, the F-15s may not survive long. But they might not have to. The bulk of the aerial firepower the Air Force intends to land on the Chinese fleet will come from B-1 Lancer bombers flying from far-flung bases to launch up to 24 LRASMs per bomber per sortie.

It’s worth noting the Navy is arming its Boeing F/A-18E/F fighters, Lockheed Martin F-35C stealth fighters and Boeing P-8 patrol planes with LRASM, too.

After the initial F-15 raid, it would take just a single attack by half of the 45-strong B-1 force to exhaust the 650 LRASMs the Pentagon expects to have in its inventory within a year. But those 650 missiles could sink many of the most important ships in a Chinese amphibious flotilla. Amphibious assault ships packed with helicopters and marines. Converted car ferries stuffed with tanks.

More American planes would follow with less boutique munitions. Many of the bombs and missiles in the US inventory have anti-ship modes, including precision gravity bombs and glide bombs. It’s even possible the JASSM-ER could, with a few tweaks to its software, score hits on bigger and more vulnerable ships.

If American warplanes can aim all 3,600 LRASMs and JASSM-ERs the Pentagon expects to have by 2026 at the Chinese fleet, US strategy for the defence of Taiwan may be – according to a 2023 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC – “an almost uncomplicated exercise.”

It would start with F-15s streaking toward the Taiwan Strait, LRASMs under their wings.

The US Air Force has an ‘almost uncomplicated’ plan to erase China’s Taiwan invasion fleet

It involves missiles. Lots of missiles

www.telegraph.co.uk

U.S. Navy intends to equip F-15 Fighters with LRASM long-range anti-ship missiles - Defence Industry Europe

The United States Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has announced plans to integrate the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) onto the F-15E Strike Eagle and F-15EX Eagle II aircraft.

defence-industry.eu

 

[OldSolduer]

Keeping things simple?

USN LRASMs (and possibly modified JASSM-ERs) from USAF B1Bs (24 per aircraft) and F15s (4-5 per aircraft).

Simple plans are often the best plans. KISS.

 

[ytz]

Deepseek.

That is all.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Busted, Canadian edition ....

Ex-UN official from Montreal nabbed by FBI for alleged role selling Chinese weapons to Libya - National | Globalnews.ca

'James' Kuang Chi Wan, an ex-International Civil Aviation Organization deputy director, is suspected of defying an arms embargo to help China sell Libya weapons for financial gain.

globalnews.ca

A bit of backstory from April-May 2024:

RCMP allege two former UN workers in Montreal tried to sell military drones in Libya

MONTREAL — Two men who used to work for the United Nations in Montreal are facing criminal charges for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to sell Chinese attack drones to a Libyan armed group, and sanctioned oil to China. Fathi Ben Ahmed Mhaouek, 61, appeared in a Montreal court Tuesday...

halifax.citynews.ca

... and American edition

Former Senior Adviser for the Federal Reserve Indicted on Charges of Economic Espionage

John Harold Rogers, 63, of Vienna, Virginia, a former Senior Adviser for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (FRB), was arrested today on charges that he conspired to steal Federal Reserve trade secrets for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

www.justice.gov

US charges former Fed official with spying for China

John Harold Rogers allegedly sought to leak trade secrets while being paid US$450,000 pretending to teach at a Chinese university.

www.scmp.com

Former Federal Reserve adviser indicted and arrested for alleged espionage in dealings with China

Federal authorities have arrested a former Federal Reserve senior adviser for allegedly giving inside economic information to China.

apnews.com