source CNIM Group

CNIM sera présent du 17 au 21 mars à LIMA’15, un salon sur l’Aéronautique et la Défense ayant lieu à Langkawi en Malaisie, et qui constitue un événement majeur dans le domaine de la Défense pour la zone Asie-Pacifique.

CNIM exposera le L-CAT®, son navire amphibie rapide et innovant, compatible avec tous les radiers de l’OTAN. Grâce à sa grande autonomie et à sa conception RoRo, le L-CAT® est le navire idéal pour mener les opérations amphibies modernes.
 

Pour plus d’information sur CNIM à LIMA, consultez le catalogue du Pavillon France.

March 9, 2015 Defense News

Now that Paris has shelved plans to deliver two helicopter assault ships to Russia, Moscow is working overtime to convince India to dump plans to buy French fighters and instead buy a new Sukhoi jet.

In 2012, New Delhi tapped Dassault's Rafale as its next fighter, with plans to acquire 126 of the twin-engine jets for $12 billion. At the time, Indian officials said the French jet would help them reduce their reliance on Russian equipment (India also flies French Mirage 2000 jets as part of a longstanding policy to avoid exclusive dependence on Moscow for military hardware).

By choosing Rafale, India also gains access to cutting-edge technology to advance its aerospace and defense industries.

But talks have stalled over price and who would bear responsibility for Rafales license-produced in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

Russia is irked that its once-close ally has invested tens of billions of dollars on American transports, helicopters and maritime patrol planes and now is about to buy French jets.

At the recent IDEX trade show in Abu Dhabi, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov announced that Russia and India had inked a deal to co-develop a new version of Sukhoi's Su-35. Indian officials, however, say Russia has pitched the jet, but have not yet agreed to move forward on the project.

The Su-35 is a formidable aircraft and an improvement over India's Su-30s, but the Rafale is superior as a system, with greater mission capability and reliability. And its technology is more likely to serve as a foundation for a more competitive Indian defense and aerospace industry.

The entire rationale behind the Rafale deal wasn't to get the least expensive fighter to meet India's needs, but the aircraft that would best satisfy the nation's long-range military needs as well as its industrial interests.

March 8, 2015 by Dinakar Peri - thehindu.com

Reiterating that India-U.S. partnership is a “key component” of America’s “rebalance” to the Indo-Asia-Pacific, a top U.S. Admiral last week expressed concern over China’s increased “assertiveness” in enforcing its claims in the South China Sea and supported India’s increased role in the region under the principles of open sea lanes and freedom of navigation.

During the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to India in January, both sides signed a strategic vision document, “U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region,” which specifically referred to safeguarding maritime security in the South China Sea. It had not gone down well with Beijing.

“The South China seas are international waters and India should be able to operate freely wherever India wants to operate. If that means the South China Sea, then get in there and do that,” said Admiral Harry Harris, Commander US Pacific Fleet while speaking at the National Maritime Foundation.

At the same time, the Admiral described China’s naval presence in the Indian Ocean as “positive” as it was involved in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden.

Read more

Japanese people are more concerned about China's military strength and assertiveness in Asia than any other security issue, according to a public opinion poll released by the government at the weekend.

9 Mar 2015 businesstimes.com.sg

[TOKYO] Japanese people are more concerned about China's military strength and assertiveness in Asia than any other security issue, according to a public opinion poll released by the government at the weekend.

More than 60 per cent of respondents to the survey conducted in January said China concerned them, compared with 46 per cent in a similar poll three years earlier. The number worried about North Korea fell to about 53 per cent from around 65 per cent.

Asia's two largest economies are at loggerheads over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, with ships and planes from both countries frequently criss-crossing near the disputed area. North Korea is developing atomic and ballistic missile technology, though it hasn't held a nuclear test since 2013.

"There is a lack of transparency in China's military and security policy, including about the budget," Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters on Friday. "We want to continue to seek disclosure from China."

Read more

06.03.2015 Marine Nationale

Jeudi 5 mars 2015, le Bâtiment de Projection et de Commandement (BPC) Dixmude et la Frégate Légère Furtive (FLF) Aconit ainsi qu’un détachement aéromobile ont quitté la base navale de Toulon en direction de l’océan indien et la mer de Chine pour la mission « Jeanne d’Arc 2015 ».

08.03.2015 i24news (AFP)

La crainte d'un rapprochement entre les USA et Téhéran pousse l'Arabie saoudite à importer plus d'armes

L'Arabie saoudite a dépassé l'Inde pour devenir en 2014 le premier importateur mondial d'équipements militaires dans un marché dont le volume a atteint un niveau record, nourri par les tensions au Moyen-Orient et en Asie, indique un rapport d'experts publié dimanche.

En 2014, les ventes d'armes "ont augmenté pour la sixième année consécutive", atteignant 64,4 milliards de dollars, contre 56 milliards en 2013, soit une augmentation de 13,4%, affirme ce document rédigé par le cabinet d'experts IHS Janes, basé à Londres.

"Ce chiffre record a été alimenté par une demande sans précédent des économies émergentes pour des avions militaires et la hausse des tensions régionales au Moyen-Orient et (dans la zone) Asie Pacifique", explique Ben Moores, de IHS Janes.

Le rapport, qui couvre quelque 65 pays, indique que Riyad est désormais le plus gros acheteur d'armes au monde, avec des importations atteignant 6,4 milliards de dollars.

Suite de l’article

March 6, 2015: Strategy page

China surprised Western military professionals in 2009 when Chinese media ran stories, with photos, of Chinese developed professional wargames in action. The photos and text included enough detail for Western military wargamers to discern what was going on. The wargame shown was the TCCST (Tactical Command and Control Simulation Training System), and it was being used by members of the 6th Armored Division for a training exercise. It's a typical "blue versus red" (where "red" is the good guys and "blue" is the enemy) type game but few in the West expected China to be developing and producing stuff like this on their own. Over the next few years more Chinese wargames for media attention, if only because these were now widely used in the Chinese military and there was no point in trying to keep them secret.

The Chinese games looked comparable to simulations used by U.S. troops, and those of other Western nations. The United States has been the leader in this field, and since the late 1990s professional wargames have absorbed much of the graphics and realism commercial games (not just wargames) have developed. It's obvious that the Chinese have adopted much of the technology available in the West and stuff that commercial game companies have created. Since the late 1990s there have been a growing number of commercial wargames available that are useful for training battalion and brigade commanders, but designed mainly for a civilian gamer market. Some of these were designed by active duty and retired military personnel, and some are used by professionals, as well as civilians, interested in military affairs. The same thing was happening in China, where computers became enormously popular (and increasingly common) after 2000. China banned (until recently) game consoles so if Chinese wanted wargames they had to be written to run on PCs. The Internet spread even faster than PCs in China and young officers were soon in tough with their civilian peers discussing how to adapt civilian wargames for military use.

During all this China reinvented a lot of wargaming technology, largely because while wargames were an ancient Chinese military planning tool all that knowledge had been dismissed by the new communist government that took over in the late 1940s. During the “Cultural Revolution” from the mid-1960s t0 mid-1970s all professional military education was shut down, in part because if was considered “counter-revolutionary.” When China cast aside that revolution in the late 1970s and decided to adopt a market economy (while keeping the communist police state) all resources were devoted to economic development and the military budget was cut. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that military education for officers and planners was resumed and at this point it was realized that the West had done great things with wargaming.

China had revived military staff analysis capabilities in the early 1990s and one of the first things studied was the 1991 Gulf War. The results of that study horrified Chinese military and political leaders. It was now obvious that the West had used modern technology, new training techniques and wargaming to create armed forces of unprecedented capabilities. From this point on China decided to reform their armed forces to be able to do what the Westerners did in 1991. One of the more obvious results of that are Chinese troops wearing combat uniforms similar to those of Western troops and Chinese made weapons that were also similar. What got little attention in Western media was the rapid development of effective wargames. In part this was because the Chinese began with nothing. The communists had eliminated their own wargaming past and the easiest examples of wargames to copy were from the West. The Chinese were helped by the fact that the U.S. Army had abandoned traditional wargames from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s and also had to start from scratch, using commercial wargames (which had become a hobby in the late 1950s) to revive their professional wargames program. Although the U.S. tried to prevent the Chinese from getting these wargames by declaring them “munitions” and thus illegal to export to China, there were plenty of other ways for China to send someone into a store and just buy them and get them shipped back to China one way or another.

The officers put in charge of developing Chinese wargames were smart guys with a technology background. They had one major advantage in that traditional Chinese wargames were always heavily influenced by what the senior commanders wanted, not what the situation really was. The new Chinese wargames were developed by officers who were scientists and their games were based on reality. The senior officers respected that as did the senior political leaders. All this was kept secret because the higher level (strategic) games showed that China was weak and vulnerable. But Chinese leaders used their wargame results to more effectively rebuild Chinese military power. The main reason China has not become a military superpower by now is the long tradition of corruption in the military continues to resist efforts to eliminate these bad habits.

Westerners were not surprised that the Chinese obtained, and adopted, Western wargames technology, but were unclear about what reality the Chinese were simulating. Put simply, that means how effective were Chinese and Western weapons, equipment and, most importantly, the subordinate leaders whose effectiveness is built into the game, portrayed.  Some Western games allow the users to set these qualitative values at different levels. But Westerners knew that in East Asia in general free (let the chips fall where they may) play is not acceptable to most senior military commanders. There's more a tendency for the generals to want their forces to be portrayed in a positive light. So there were suspicions that the Chinese forces are portrayed, in their wargames, as more powerful than they actually are. This would be consistent with the large scale military exercises are organized, where the good (Chinese) guys are programmed to win. It was only recently that it became known that the Chinese wargame developers had managed to avoid that trap.

Winning and losing is not the main goal of professional wargames, or military exercises. The Department of Defense has always insisted that wargames are not to be used, "to validate courses of action or specific tactics and techniques." In other words, testing tactics or "fighting to win" is not allowed, or at least not encouraged. Despite the generally accepted idea that a wargame is a competitive exercise, this is not the way it works in the Pentagon. The higher level wargames tend to be driven by procedures, not a war of wits on a simulated battlefield. While this sounds absurd, it's a long used practice. There is a purpose to this approach, and that is to make sure the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of officers involved planning and carrying out a major operation, know the many procedures required to get such a large organization functioning smoothly. In effect, this kind of "wargame" is used to see if everyone can follow the same script. Winning or losing is measured by how well everyone communicates and executes administrative drills. Or, as the military puts it, the main objective is to perfect ones "tactical decision making process" (TDMP). Thus much Department of Defense wargaming results in showing our commanders and staffs how to lose neatly, rather than how to scrape and scramble to a victory. Real world battlefields favor the latter, peacetime perfectionists favor the former. Military training for officers concentrates on learning procedures, not investigating different, and perhaps better, tactics.

Thus it would appear that the Chinese wargames showing up in Chinese media were more about training staff officers to work together effectively. Other screen shots show games similar to Western wargames that operate more at a tactical level. No doubt Chinese troops, and junior officers, like their counterparts in the West, were using commercial wargames that showed what looked like battlefield video. These began showing up in the late 1990s giving the Chinese military plenty of time to incorporate them into official tactical training wargames.

The Chinese now use their wargames in much the same way Western armies do. A lot of wargaming is just to train staffs and commanders to work together while at lower (tactical) levels officers and troops learn tactics and what to avoid in combat.

6 mars 2015 par Henri Weill – Ainsi va le monde !

Le gouvernement néo-zélandais se serait livré à de activités " massives " d’espionnage, via la surveillance des réseaux de téléphonie mobile dans plusieurs pays du Pacifique Sud, notamment en Polynésie. Ces révélations sont extraites de documents publiés, ces dernières heures, par Wikileaks concernant l’activité des services néo-zélandais et en particulier leur Bureau de sécurité des télécommunications (GCSB) situé à Waihopai (île du sud).

Autres pays écoutés : Fidji, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Salomon, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Ces renseignements seraient ensuite mis à la disposition de la National Security Agency américaine (NSA), et de « l’Alliance des cinq yeux » (Five Eyes alliance), qui lie, outre les États-Unis et la Nouvelle-Zélande, l’Australie, le Royaume-Uni et le Canada. Après la divulgation de ces informations, on attend maintenant la réaction de Paris (avec Flash d'Océanie).

4 Mars 2015 Source : Marine nationale

Du 12 au 16 février 2015, le patrouilleur La Glorieuse a fait escale dans le port de Sydney, en Australie. Ce port, et plus exactement Botany Bay à 15 km au sud de la ville, n’est pas une escale anodine pour un bâtiment de la Marine nationale. Ce fut la dernière escale connue de l'expédition menée par Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse.

Cette expédition, mandée par Louis XVI en 1785 est alors composée de deux frégates: La Boussole et L'Astrolabe. La mission confiée à Monsieur de Lapérouse, alors marin renommé, consiste en l'exploration du Pacifique dans le but d'en découvrir les territoires jusqu'alors inconnus du monde occidental.

Les deux bâtiments, après avoir passé le Cap Horn, remontèrent jusqu'en Alaska puis descendirent à Hawaï, avant de s’aventurer le long du rivage asiatique. Après presque trois ans de navigation, l'expédition posa pied à Botany Bay le 26 janvier 1788. Une flotte anglaise, commandée par Arthur Philip s’était installée sur le site seulement quelques jours plus tôt afin d’y établir une colonie pénitentiaire, colonie qui fut le départ de la nation Australienne.

Les deux frégates continuèrent ensuite leur exploration vers le Nord. Pris dans une tempête au large de l'île de Vanikoro (Iles Salomon), les deux navires s'échouèrent dans les récifs coralliens qui protègent l'île. Bien que l’expédition soit passée en Nouvelle-Calédonie par la suite, Botany Bay est bien la dernière escale connue de Lapérouse.

Un monument commémoratif ainsi qu'un musée ont été fondés ici pour rappeler cette page commune de l'histoire de la France et de l'Australie. C'est donc en mémoire de ces marins disparus que M. Eric Berti, consul général de France et officier de réserve de la Marine nationale, le commandant de La Glorieuse et son équipage, l'association des anciens combattants français ainsi que des représentants australiens se sont réunis lors d'une cérémonie.

Cette cérémonie a également vu la participation de la "Brigade française", association de passionnés d’histoire, qui commémore les batailles de l’époque Napoléonienne. Une dizaine d’Australiens, vêtus de costumes d'époque ont clôturé la cérémonie de tirs de canons et mousquets aux cris de "Vive la France".

Cet évènement a été l’occasion d’échanges chaleureux entre l’équipage de La Glorieuse et des Australiens  et français passionnés par l’histoire du comte de Lapérouse. Il a permis aux marins français de constater que malgré la distance avec la France et 1788, le passage de l’expédition française n’est pas oublié.

04 Mar. 2015 NATO

Participants from nearly 50 nations across five continents met in Doha, Qatar on 1-3 March to discuss current threats and challenges posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) including in the Middle East and Asia. The event provided an informal forum to exchange views on key issues ahead of the 2015 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference in spring.

The three-day event marked the very first time that the Annual NATO Conference on WMD Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation was held outside Europe and was hosted by a partner from the Gulf. It is one of NATO’s largest outreach activities involving Alliance member states as well as partners from around the world.

“This conference is a strong demonstration of the important role that NATO attributes to engaging with partner countries here in the Gulf region,” said NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow. “The case of Syrian chemical weapons shows that it is possible to meet non-proliferation challenges … Further success will require two things: first, all countries and all international institutions must play their rightful part. And second, we need an open and frank debate on what the challenges are and how we can address them.”

Other key speakers included the Defence Minister of Qatar, Major General Hamad bin Ali Al Attiyah, NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, and Lord Desmond Browne, former UK Secretary of Defence.

 “This first NATO WMD conference in the region reflects the full commitment of ICI partners and Qatar to increased cooperation with NATO in the fight against WMD proliferation and terrorism and to peace and security in the region,” said Major General Hamad bin Ali Al Attiyah. “The meeting comes in times of serious turmoil in the Middle East challenged by regional conflicts and terrorism,” he added.

“The security situation in both the East and the South is of particular importance for NATO Allies,” said Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges. “These new challenges have been addressed by NATO in a very timely manner at the Wales Summit in September 2014 where NATO leaders reaffirmed that the proliferation of WMD and means of delivery both by states and non-state actors continues to be a serious threat of global scope,” he also stated.

The future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Weapons of mass destruction remain a pressing security issue worldwide despite the existence of major non-proliferation treaties and disarmament conventions in the fields of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons – as not all countries are yet parties to these instruments.

NATO’s WMD conference prepared the discussions for the 2015 NPT Review Conference, which will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 27 April - 22 May and will bring together all the NPT states to review the implementation of the treaty.

The discussion also addressed the conventions prohibiting chemical and biological weapons, and the challenges created by the nexus between technological change, terrorism and WMD proliferation.

Dealing with CBRN risks

“There is a growing concern that chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) material, still not all fully accounted for in Syria and Iraq, as well as remaining material in Libya could be used by terrorist organisations, such as ISIL and Al Qaida, as ’weapons of terror’ both in countries of the region, as well as beyond,” said Wolfgang Rudischhauser, Head of the NATO WMD Non-Proliferation Centre.

NATO is engaging its wide network of partners in practical cooperation on CBRN risks and nuclear security.

Last December, for example, a CBRN training course, open to all countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, was hosted by Kuwait.

Also in 2014, the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme supported a training course, led by Italy and Morocco, to introduce diplomats, army and internal security officers from Morocco and Algeria to the key concepts of nuclear non-proliferation, security and safety. Coming up in June this year, an event involving Allies and partners will be organised in Vyškov, the Czech Republic, on how best to cope with new challenges in the area of CBRN defence.

Other SPS activities seek to improve resilience to nuclear and other weapons through training and multi-year projects in both NATO and partner countries.

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Previous NATO conferences on the challenges of WMD proliferation were held in Italy (2004), Bulgaria (2005), Lithuania (2007), Germany (2008), Poland (2009), the Czech Republic (2010), Norway (2011), Hungary (2012), Croatia (2013) and Switzerland (2014).

Qatar is one of four countries – along with Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates – participating in NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI). Launched in 2004, ICI seeks to promote political consultation and practical cooperation between NATO and countries in the Gulf region.

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23.032.2015 by Maki Catama - aseanmildef.com

JAKARTA, -- Vice-President M Jusuf Kalla has said the government might postpone a plan to buy military weaponry from Brazil after it has postponed the presentation of credentials by Indonesias ambassador-designate to the country.

"We are reconsidering our plan to purchase weapons (from Brazil)," Kalla told the press here Monday.

The bilateral relations between Brazil and Indonesia have become tense following Brazilian President Dilma Rousseffs unwillingness to receive Indonesian Ambassador-designate to Brazil Toto Riyanto.

"On the same evening after the refusal, the President ordered the recall (of the ambassador-designate). I communicated with the Foreign Affairs Minister to recall (him) immediately," Kalla stated.

Indonesias Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly protested the decision of the Government of Brazil to abruptly postpone the presentation of credentials by its Ambassador-designate to Brazil, Toto Riyanto, after formally inviting him to present the credentials at a ceremony in the Presidential Palace of Brazil at 9.00 a.m. (Brazilian time) on February 20, 2015.

"The manner in which the foreign minister of Brazil suddenly decided to postpone the presentation of credentials by the Indonesian Ambassador-designate to Brazil, when the Ambassador-designate was already at the palace, is unacceptable to Indonesia," said a statement on the ministrys official website on Saturday.

The Brazilian government has postponed the credential letter presentation in protest against the recent execution of a Brazilian drug offender by the Indonesian government.

Indonesia will go ahead with the implementation of the death penalty on major drug offenders, despite protests from the governments of Australia and Brazil, Kalla stated.

"We have reiterated many times that we have the sovereignty and will carry out the executions. Remember that the death penalty is based on a court verdict and not a presidential instruction," Kalla noted here Monday.

He understands the right of a country to lodge its protest against the execution of its citizen. Indonesia has also protested whenever its citizens were about to be executed in other countries, he added.

March 4, 2015: Strategy Page

After years of pressure from manufacturers, and allies, the United States has finally reduced most of the prohibitions for exporting large (a ton or more) UAVs (like the Predator and Reaper). The restrictions were largely based on media misinterpretation of what the UAVs actually do. Over the last two decades the media myth was created that depicted UAVs, especially armed UAVs, as a horrific new weapon. The reality was that the only advantage UAVs had was in surveillance and stealth. As a surveillance aircraft (what the military first, and still, used aircraft for) UAVs were a major step forward because they created an unprecedented level of “persistence” (spending lots of time watching some area below) or literally following (“tailing” in detective lingo) an individual or group. Adding guided missiles to the UAV enabled the attack to be made as soon as the identity of the target was confirmed (often after dozens or more hours of observation) and before the target could get away (into a forested or urban area where tracking was much more difficult).

This sort of thing could have been done before UAVs using manned aircraft but it would have cost more than ten times as much and not have been as effective. What is also missed in the enormous reduction in civilian casualties when using UAVs. Until precision bombs and missiles came along military targets anywhere near residential areas led to high civilian casualties when attacked. The use of precision weapons and UAVs has reduced civilian casualties over 90 percent. For some reason all this never became news. But the myth did force American politicians to bar exports of UAVs.

What really changed minds about UAV exports was the fact that China was now offering similar (in some cases what appear to be copies) of American UAVs to anyone who can pay. These UAVs come with a Chinese version of the American Hellfire missile, and no restrictions on how the buyer will use the UAVs.