China Conducted 3rd Missile Interception Test

China had successfully conducted another ground-based mid-course missile interception test on its territory on 23rd July. No further detail about the test was given. This is the third exo-atmospheric missile interception test conducted by China, following the two successful tests in January 2010 and January 2013.

China’s missile defence programme can trace its origin to Project 640, a multidisciplinary strategic defence programme launched in the late 1960s. The programme was cancelled in 1980 but researches on relevant technology were being continued under Programme 863 since 1986. These researches began to yield results after 2000, which has led to a number of high-profile weapon tests since 2007.

The missile interception test at a night in January 2013 was witnessed by many people in western China.

 

China conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test in January 2007, destroying a retired satellite in low Earth orbit using a booster-carried kinetic kill vehicle (KKV). The same technology was believed to have also been used in the two mid-course missile interception tests in 2010 and 2013, and possibly the latest test too.

The 2013 missile interception test was conducted in the missile impact zone in Xinjiang in western China, with a booster-carried KKV (reportedly designated SC-19) successfully intercepting a ballistic missile launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre.

Latest of Z-10 Fierce Thunderbolt (Pi Li Huo, 霹雳火) Attack Helicopter

Latest set of images of Z-10 Fierce Thunderbolt (Pi Li Huo, 霹雳火) Attack Helicopter in service with the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA)।

In The Same Line: J-20, Y-20 and KJ-500

Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon

Three prototypes are currently conducting test flights at Yanliang Airport near Xian.   The most interesting of this bunch is probably the KJ-500 AWAC, a domestic modification of the  ZDK-03 exported to Pakistan.  

 KJ-500 AWACS

Unlike the ZDK-03, this Chinese AWAC is based on the newly available Y-9 tactical transport airframe with longer range and greater payloads rather than the older Y-8.

Xian Y-20 Heavy Transport

Mysterious Chinese Helicopter Emerges on Internet

2013-09-03 — An interesting image has emerged from the prolific Chinese Internet. It depicts a mysterious helicopter being moved on a truck in China. Even if the aircraft is hidden below a protective covering, its shape can be guessed.

The chopper seems to have something in common with the U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk, hence it may be a Z-20, a Chinese model believed to be based on the S-70C, a medium transport/utility helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky already in service with the People’s Liberation Army. 

 

Mysterious Chinese Helicopter

 However, there is another intriguing and (less likely) possibility: China has reverse-engineered the Stealth Black Hawk helicopter used by the Navy SEALs in the Osama Bin Laden raid.

Obviously this is a far fetched theory, since only a few chunks survived the crash landing at Abbottabad. Still, on Aug. 14, 2011, several media outlets all around the world, published the news that China was given access by Pakistani intelligence to the remains of the Stealth Black Hawk used during Operation Neptune’s Spear.

What if they copied the general design of the tail rotor and, just like this author did with Ugo Crisponi, designed a chopper whose shape is similar to the one of the U.S. black MH-X or the Israeli Stealth Yanshuf?

NATO head expresses concern about Turkey’s Chinese missile deal

(Reuters) – The head of NATO expressed concern on Monday over Turkey’s decision to co-produce a missile defense system with a Chinese firm, saying he expected Ankara to choose a system that was compatible with those of other allies.

 

Turkey has said it is likely to sign a $3.4 billion missile defense deal with a Chinese firm that is subject to U.S. sanctions, although its decision is not yet final.

The United States has expressed serious concerns to Turkey, saying the Chinese missile defense system would not work with NATO systems.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said choosing a defense system was a national decision. 

 

“What is important for us is that the system acquired by the individual country … must be able to work and operate with the systems in other countries. I expect that Turkey will also comply with that,” the former Danish prime minister told Reuters, speaking in Danish.

“I of course expect that each allied nation makes sure of this. It comes with being a NATO member,” Rasmussen said, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Copenhagen.

Rasmussen said he understood Turkey had not yet made a final decision and was still in talks on the new defense system.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said last month it favored China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp’s (CPMIEC) FD-2000 missile defense system over more expensive rival systems from Russian, U.S. and European firms.

The United States announced sanctions on CPMIEC in February for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. 

 

NATO diplomats say buying a system that did not work with NATO systems would hamper the ability of NATO allies to work together, undermining a principle of the 28-nation alliance.

CYBER CONCERNS

Some NATO diplomats said integrating a Chinese system into NATO’s defenses would raise cyber-security concerns and issues about NATO swapping technical data with a Chinese firm.

Turkey sees a growing threat of spillover from the war in neighboring Syria, as well as wider turbulence in the Middle East, and has been scrambling to bolster its air defenses.

Turkey has said the selection was not politically motivated, and that the Chinese offer met Turkey’s main demands of price and the ability to place much of the production in Turkey.

For China, the deal would be a breakthrough in its bid to become a supplier of advanced weapons.

Some Western defense analysts have said they were surprised by Turkey’s decision, having expected the contract to go to Raytheon Co, a U.S. company that builds the Patriot missile, or the Franco-Italian Eurosam SAMP/T.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries to southeastern Turkey this year after Ankara asked NATO to strengthen its defenses against possible missile attack from Syria.

By Mette Fraende