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S - 400 Can Wipe Out Taiwan's Air Defense: Defense News
Dec 11th, 2014
Daily NewsWant China Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Russian Air Force's S-400 in military parade. (Internet photo)

In his recent article written for the Defense News, Wendell Minnick, an American military analyst, said on Dec. 6 that the People's Liberation Army's new S-400 purchased from Russia has the ability to completely wipe out Taiwan's air defense.

Reports from Russia indicated that China signed a US$3 billion contract to purchase enough S-400 surface-to-air missiles to equip its six air defense battalions based near its major eastern cities. Those missiles will be scattered along the coast facing Taiwan and Japan. With a range of 400 km, the missile can cover the entire air space of Taiwan, according to Vasiliy Kashin from the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies based in Moscow.

Once the S-400 is deployed, the Republic of China Air Force will be completely useless to stop China's anti-access and aera denial strategies even if it purchases F-16C/D fighters from the United States. "Given its extremely long range and effective electronic warfare capabilities, the S-400 is a game-changing system that challenges current military capabilities at the operational level of war," said Paul Giarra, the president of Global Strategies and Transformation.

Giarra said that the S-400 has the effect of turning a defense system into an offensive system and extends China's capability to carry out military operations over the territory of American allies and the high seas. York Chen, a former senior adviser of Taiwan's National Security Council also said that the S-400 missile can give China enough confidence to control the airspace over the Taiwan strait. It is likely to be used to wipe out the remaining fighters of the ROCAF after the PLA destroys Taiwan's air bases and runways.

To enhance Taiwan's defense against this new threat, Chen suggested the United States sell Taiwan F-35B fighters and V-22 cargo/troop transports with vertical take-off capabilities. With 1,300 short-range missiles, he believes that China is able to wipe out all air force bases in Taiwan in short order. In addition, it can be used to monitor Japanese and American activities over the disputed Diaoyutai islands as well.

Ian Easton, a researcher from the Project 2049 Institute, said that a countermeasure for Taiwan, Japan and the United States to defeat the S-400 exists. “As soon as its long-range radar is turned on, it would be subject to immediate interception by Taiwanese signals intelligence [SIGINT] units on Tung-yin island and Matsu island," said Easton. An official from the ROC defense ministry told Minnick that the S-400 is more likely to be deployed at fixed sites even though they are road-mobile.

Equipped with various weapon systems such as the Tien Kung 2 and Tien Kung 3 surface-to-air missiles and the Hsiung Feng 2E land-attack cruise missile, Taiwan still has the chance to destroy or intercept the S-400 during an early phase of the war. Yet Lin Chong-pin, former deputy minister of national defense in Taiwan, said that China is more likely to take over Taiwan with extra-military instruments such as economic, media-related, diplomatic, and psychological means — as it hopes to eventually integrate Taiwan into China.

Navy Declares Laser Weapons Ready to Protect Ships in Persian Gulf
Dec 11th, 2014
Daily Newsmilitary.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Navy's 30-kilowatt solid-state laser aboard the USS Ponce is now being fired in operational scenarios by sailors in the Persian Gulf, marking the first-ever deployment of a sea-based directed energy weapon.

"We've tested it in the lab we've tested it operationally at sea. Now, we are not testing it anymore. This is operational," said Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, chief of naval research at the Office of Naval Research. "They are using it every day."

If a small or large attack boat, missile or aircraft launched an attack upon the USS Ponce, sailors are equipped to destroy an approaching threat in seconds with the new laser weapon.

"If we had to defend that ship today, it will destroy any threat that comes in-bound. We have the ROE (rules of engagement) to support that," he said. 

The Navy's Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, uses heat energy from lasers to disable or destroy targets fast, slow, stationary and moving targets. The system has successfully incinerated drones and other targets in tests shots, and is now operational aboard an amphibious transport dock, the USS Ponce.

The scalable weapon is designed to destroy threats for about 59-cents per shot, an amount that is exponentially lower that the hundreds of thousands or millions needed to fire an interceptor missile such as the Standard Missile-2, Klunder explained.

While at sea, sailors have been using the LaWS for targeting and training exercises every day.

"They've used it to disable and destroy some targets," Klunder said. "The sailors on the ships are using the time with this weapons system to hit fast moving targets, slower targets, ones that are larger and ones that are smaller. They have gone through the paces regarding what they might see in terms of not only speed of the target, but also size of the target."

Navy sailors and engineers have discovered some unanticipated intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance value from the laser weapons system by using its long-range telescope to scan for targets, Klunder added.

"LaWS is ISR capable. Not only are we using the directed energy to quickly and effectively disable and destroy threats, we've also using it on an everyday basis for targeting and identification of potential threats," He said. "We're picking up things at long ranges with a high degree of resolution. The large aperture telescope provides power and magnification."

Navy leaders said the LaWS system is effectively integrated with the ship's radar systems and weapons such as the Close-In-Weapons-System, or CIWS, a technology designed to fire small interceptors able to defend the ship against approaching enemy fire.

"So far it has exceeded expectations. Went to sea in September and the laser has been operational since. It has been integrated with the ship's navigation systems, radar and Close-In-Weapons System. We put it in a demanding marine environment," said Rear Adm. Bryant Fuller, deputy commander, ship design, Integration and naval engineering at Naval Sea Systems Command.

While laser weapons offer new levels of precision and speed for naval warfighters, Navy officials said they also bring increased safety for ships and crews, as lasers are not dependent on the traditional propellant and gunpowder-based ordnance found on ships. Lasers run on electricity and can be fired as long as there is power.

Klunder said the system is durable and able to function in various weather conditions. He explained that the LaWS functioned extremely well following a dust storm in theater.

Along with analyzing data from the weapon's operational use, Navy officials are also working on a much more powerful, next-generation 100 to 150 kilowatt laser weapon to be ready by 2016 or 2017, Klunder added.

Although future specifics are still being determined, the Navy is confident it will be putting laser weapons on a wide range of ship platforms to possibly include the destroyers, cruisers and the Littoral Combat Ship, among others.

"We've done analytical work and we know what ships we can put it on. Frankly it is a lot of them in the naval inventory. We're talking through which ones we might want to do in the future, specifically those more suited to the higher power 100 to 150 kilowatt laser. That is the one we are really targeting for more extensive use," he said.

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 11th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

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China Confirms Third Test of Hypersonic Missile
Dec 11th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Free Beacon
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

An artistic rendering of a hypersonic aircraft / AP

China on Wednesday confirmed that it carried out a third flight test of a new hypersonic strike vehicle that U.S. officials say is part of efforts by Chinese nuclear forces to penetrate U.S. strategic missile defenses.

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman told state-run news media the Dec. 2 test was routine.

“Scientific experiments carried out by China within its borders are normal ones conducted according to its schedule, and they are not directed against any specific country or target,” the Defense Ministry stated through a spokesman. The comments were reported in the official China Daily newspaper.

The official confirmation is unusual because China’s military development programs, and specifically its nuclear arms, are shrouded in secrecy.

The Ministry comment was made in response to the Free Beacon’s disclosure Dec. 4 that China had conducted a third flight test of the maneuvering high-speed hypersonic glide vehicle called the Wu-14. The test was carried out in western China.

Defense officials said the test was the third by China of the new ultra-high speed vehicle. Two earlier tests were monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies on Jan. 9 and Aug. 7.

The third test of the advanced weapon in a single year is an indication of the high priority China has placed on building the weapon, military analysts said.

John Tkacik, a former State Department China affairs specialist, said the Wu-14 development is one reason the Pentagon increasingly has expressed anxieties over Chinese weapons development in public.

“Clearly, hypersonic reentry vehicles are intended eventually to deliver nuclear weapons to a target,” Tkacik said. “And clearly, China is modernizing its nuclear weapon systems far more extensively than Washington policymakers have been willing to believe.”

Tkacik noted that the Wu-14 program comes “at a time when America’s nuclear weapons infrastructure, from Air Force delivery systems launch units down through the industrial base, is attriting its expertise, its scientists, its manufacturing capacity, its military morale.” By contrast, “China has upped the ante and is betting all in,” he said.

Mark Stokes, a retired Air Force officer and former Pentagon China specialist, the latest test indicated “the People’s Liberation Army—presumably the Second Artillery Force—and the space and missile industry have been carrying out engineering design work on a boosted hypersonic glide vehicle for quite some time.”

“Certification of the design requires prototype testing of the post boost vehicle,” he said.

Tkacik said hypersonic strike vehicles are designed to reduce warning time of an attack to zero so that “the target never knows what hit it, nor does an anti-ballistic missile system have the time to plot a track before it’s hit.”

“Unlike the U.S. which can’t build a nuclear warhead any more, China’s drive for a hypersonic capacity centers on nuclear weapons delivery,” Tkacik said. “But this is a reality that no one in Washington can quite allow himself to believe.”

The Wu-14 is launched atop a ballistic missile, travels to near-space, and then re-enters the atmosphere and glided to its target. It travels at speeds of up to Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound, around 7,680 miles per hour.

Operating a weapon at such speeds is difficult because of the stress on materials and the difficulty of controlling the vehicle.

U.S. officials have said the Wu-14 is being developed primarily to carry a nuclear warhead, but could also be used as part of China’s conventional strike capabilities, such as attacking aircraft carriers at sea.

The annual report of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, made public Nov. 20, described Chinese hypersonic weapons as “a core component of its next-generation precision strike capability.”

“Hypersonic glide vehicles could render existing U.S. missile defense systems less effective and potentially obsolete,” the report said.

A deployed Wu-14 strike vehicle will give China’s military the capability of conducting attacks any place on earth within minutes to hours, the commission report said.