May 12, 2014 Military Aviation News

China sends fighter jets to protect oil rig: Vietnamese official

05/12/2014

Vietnam yesterday accused China of despatching fighter jets to protect an oil rig in contested South China Sea waters. Over the weekend, two groups of Chinese military aircraft flew over Vietnamese ships tasked with preventing the rig from drilling, Vice-Commander and Chief of Staff of Vietnam’s Coast Guard Ngo Ngoc Thu told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, AFP reported.

IAF plan for upgraded Jaguars fails to take off as it gets caught up in design and development delays

05/12/2014

The Indian Air Force's (IAF) plan to add much-needed new teeth with advanced missiles, engines and avionics to its ageing fleet of Jaguar fighters has failed to take off as the programme has got stuck with certain design and development issues. The IAF initiated the process of upgrading the Jaguars in 2009 to bring a fleet of 61 aircraft to DARIN (Display Attack Ranging Inertial Navigation III) standards.

Should Australia buy armed drones?

05/12/2014

Fairfax defence correspondent David Wroe had what his editors labelled an exclusive in the weekend Sydney Morning Herald: Royal Australian Air Force chief Air Marshal Geoff Brown told Wroe the RAAF is interested in buying armed drones. No disrespect to Wroe, whose background piece on drones in the same day's paper was excellent, but the real exclusive would have been if Brown had said the RAAF was not interested in armed drones.

Two Chinese frigates shadow Blue Ridge near Panatag

05/12/2014

As the territorial row between China and Vietnam continues in the Paracels, two Chinese missile-firing frigates shadowed the USS Blue Ridge, the command and control ship of the United States 7th Fleet, near Panatag Shoal in Zambales on Friday. The two Chinese warships – a guided-missile frigate and a guided-missile destroyer with bow numbers 572 and 170 – kept their distance from the Blue Ridge but their presence heightened the maritime tension in the region.

Southeast Asia Ministers Urge Self-Restraint on Sea Spat

05/12/2014

Southeast Asian nations called for self-restraint on territorial disputes in the South China Sea as tensions escalate over China’s pursuit of its claims to large swaths of the resource-rich region. Leaders called on all parties to “refrain from taking actions that would further escalate tension,” in a statement issued at the end of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting yesterday in Naypyidaw in Myanmar.

All Articles