The Fifth PLAN Task Force.

Note: The AOR 887 participated in the 1st and 2nd PLAN deployments to the Gulf of Aden and the FFG 568 is already en route.

Chinese new naval task force leaves for Gulf of Aden
2010-03-04 10:51:59

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/04/c_13196675.htm

SANYA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A new Chinese naval task force set sail on Thursday morning from a military port in the south Hainan Island to replace the fourth batch of flotilla in the Gulf of Aden escorting merchant vessels.

The new flotilla consists of the navy's missile destroyer DDG-168 Guangzhou, supply ship 887 Weishanhu and missile frigate FFG-568 Chaohu which has been sent to the waters off Somali coast in advance.
Editor: Wang Guanqun

Chinese police in Ashland for helicopter training

The Chinese need pilots for all those choppers they are buying.

Chinese police in Ashland for helicopter training
Brim Aviation hopes this link with China will be first of many

Members of the Shanghai, China, police force are in Ashland learning the finer points of helicopter search and rescue from Brim Aviation employees. “They’re already helicopter pilots,” Burl Brim said. “We’re teaching them disciplines we do.”Brim Aviation
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100226/BIZ/2260319


February 26, 2010
Greg Stiles

ASHLAND — When one of the globe's largest police forces needed search and rescue training, Brim Aviation didn't exactly flow off the lips of Shanghai authorities, and an atlas proved handy in finding Southern Oregon.

Thanks to a mutual associate, however, the Ashland helicopter company is now sharing its world-class expertise with eight of Shanghai's finest in preparation for World Expo 2010, which begins in May.

Never mind that Shanghai's population of 20 million is 1,000 times greater than Ashland, that its 45,000-member police force is double Ashland's population and that high-rises are packed together across the city's 20-mile girth.

Yet, with the world coming to visit China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city — which is a province unto itself — decided to upgrade its ability to deal with aerial rescues. That's where Brim Aviation came in.

"A guy I knew said, 'You do training, these guys are looking for some help, and I'll put you together,' " said Burl Brim, the Ashland company's president.

A deal was firmed up last September for three months of training in the Western United States, followed by 30 days support by Brim Aviation personnel in China and consulting for the next three years.

Four pilots and four crewmen have been learning the finer points of rappelling, fast-rope pick-ups and short hauls with human external cargo along with first-responder, advanced CPR and first-aid classes.

"They're already helicopter pilots," Brim said. "They're very sharp, educated guys. We're teaching them disciplines we do. Currently, we're working with pilots on vertical reference training, the skill you develop to be able to do rope rescues."

Crewmen are working on resource management, teamwork training and specific rescue techniques.

Brim Aviation, which operates out of the Ashland airport, has a trio of four-seat McDonnell Douglas 500 helicopters and one seven-seat McDonnell Douglas 600.

More than 7,000 people per square mile are packed into Shanghai compared with 65 in Jackson County. Oregon's forests, however, are far thicker and Brim said that's a good starting place for learning the ins and outs of urban search and rescue.

"We do a lot of urban-type work," Brim said. "They have a huge river system through Shanghai, so they do a lot of water rescues and swiftwater training. Still, it's a very similar environment when you're working at altitude in the mountains. The confined areas in trees simulate tall buildings pretty well."

Beyond the Siskiyous and Cascades, Brim's staff is training the Chinese aviators in Portland and Seattle as well as Northern California.

"China is huge country with a lot of rural area there," Brim said. "I'm sure they have traveled throughout their country."

Language is no barrier, he said. "Some of them are very fluent and they've been immersed in English before they got here."

Brim Aviation has trained personnel for more than six years, primarily on a local level. Now the globe is its training field.

"This is a door-opener," Brim said, noting they have multiple contracts with Shanghai. "Initially, the students are here. As soon as they are done here, they will go back and establish mission profiles, patrol techniques and then rescue response right in their own environment."

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com.

China a major growth area for helicopter industry

By Tim McAdams
http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2010/100115china.html
In 2008 an earthquake in the Sichuan region of China resulted in many casualties, and Chinese officials cite the failure of emergency teams to reach inaccessible areas as the reason. A few months later a major earthquake hit Japan, but much fewer casualties were reported. The reason turned out to be the availability of helicopters to quickly reach the wounded. This has convinced China’s leaders that they must dramatically increase their helicopter fleet.

Li Daguang, a professor at the National Defense University, said, “The rescue work during the earthquake revealed China’s weakness in the helicopter industry. It does not match China’s current status in the world.” About 180 civilian helicopters are operating in the entire country. Chinese officials have stated a goal to have 2,000 civilian helicopters by the end of 2010 and 10,000 by 2020.

As a result, helicopter manufactures have responded by forming joint manufacturing partnerships. One example is Agusta Westland, which has established a joint venture with Jiangxi Changhe Aviation Industries Corporation to build the A109E light twin-engine helicopter in China. To support these partnerships, Beijing has built a new £750 million helicopter factory and research center in the northern city of Tianjin. However, Li cautioned that China still had a long way to go before it would be able to build a helicopter from scratch without Western input.

For most of the world, helicopters are important tools for disaster relief work and air ambulances; for developing countries, they have proved invaluable for construction work. With China now realizing that benefit, the country has become a bright spot in the struggling helicopter industry.

January 15, 2010

Chinese military history as interpreted by propaganda paintings.

Surprised to see that Chinese government sponsored art can display such a heavy emphasis on the Western 19th century neoclassical style.



Goya's “El Tres de Mayo de 1808 en Madrid o Los fusilamientos en la montana del Principe Pio”

China to Launch Space Station Module

March 3, 2010
China to Launch Space Station Module
By MARK McDONALD

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/world/asia/04space.html

HONG KONG — The Heavenly Palace, the first module in China’s permanent space station, will be launched next year, a senior aerospace official confirmed Wednesday.

The official, Qi Faren, said the craft, an orbiting laboratory known in Mandarin as Tiangong-1, would initially serve as a docking station for other spacecraft. His remarks were carried by Xinhua, the official news agency.

A model of Tiangong-1 was publicly unveiled during New Year celebrations last year. The 8.5-ton laboratory is expected to be 30 feet long, with a crew of three taikonauts, the Chinese term for astronauts.

The China National Space Administration said it plans three docking missions with the lab next year.

The space agency’s long-range plans include a 20-ton permanent space station that will incorporate Tiangong-1, as well as a separate lunar mission by 2022.

China successfully launched its first satellite in April 1970, a craft called Dong Fang Hong-1, or The East Is Red, which was sent into orbit by a Long March-1 rocket. China’s first manned spacecraft went aloft in October 2003 and made 14 orbits of the Earth. The country’s first spacewalk took place 18 months ago.

Aerospace experts and military officials say the Chinese military space program has made major advancements in recent years, notably when it tested an antisatellite system in 2007, using a ballistic missile to shoot down one of its own weather satellites 540 miles up.

Charles P. Vick, a senior analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, said in a white paper that China’s “space station programs have clearly won out in government planning priorities over the lunar aspirations.”

China has long insisted that its intentions in space are peaceful, although the head of the Chinese Air Force, Gen. Xu Qiliang, appeared to have gone somewhat off-message when he said in November that international “military competition has shifted towards space.”

“Such a shift is a major trend now, and such expansion is a historical inevitability,” he said, in remarks quoted by state-run media. “To some extent, if you control space you can also control the land and the sea, and you will be in an advantageous position.”

Meanwhile, American military planners have expressed concerns and uncertainty about China’s intentions.

“Where they’re heading I think is one of those things that a lot of people would like to understand better, what their goals and objectives are,” said Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, the head of United States Strategic Command, following General Xu’s remarks. “But they certainly are on a fast track to improve their capabilities.

“Clearly, I think what we’ve all come to understand is that space is a contested domain. It used to be looked at like a sanctuary. And clearly that’s not the case today.”

PT boats of the PLAN

Feeling nostalgic today for some reason --- here are two good diagrams of the PLAN PT boats from current issue of "Modern Ships"

17 Chinese WIGs exported to UAE

Unless those WIGs are armed, there is no way the deal is worth over a billion dollars.

Chinese made seaplanes to be exported to UAE

11:24, March 02, 2010
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90884/6906187.html

Jiangsu Hengchuan Group in China signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for 17 seaplanes worth billions of U.S. dollars, according to Department of Commerce of Jiangsu province.

The seaplanes will be delivered in May 2011 and they will be completely produced by Chinese enterprises. China also owns the independent intellectual property rights.

As a new kind of high-speed transportation that is a cross between a plane and a boat, seaplanes can take off and land on highways, as well as on the sea surface.

It can fly 0.5 meters above the water surface at the lowest altitude, and at 1,000 meters as the highest.

Seaplanes can reach the speed of 180 kilometers per hour, and its anti-resistance capacity is several times higher than that of common planes.

By People's Daily Online

SW-4 conducts its maiden flight

China's search for more helicopters continues.................

China to Buy 150 Helicopters From PZL Swidnik
agence france-presse
Published: 27 Feb 13:21 EST (17:21 GMT)
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3394355

WARSAW - China will buy 150 helicopters from Poland's PZL Swidnik over 10 years under an agreement signed between the Polish aircraft firm and China's Jiujiang aeronautics plant, PZL Swidnik confirmed Feb. 27.

"It is a framework agreement for co-operation over a decade. We will deliver three types of helicopters: PZL Sokol, PZL Kania and SW-4, according to orders that will be specified on a yearly basis," PZL Swidnik spokesman Jan Mazur told AFP.

A standard version PZL Sokol helicopter costs $4 million dollars (2.6 million euros), while a SW-4 costs less than a million dollars.

"We also intend to assemble our PZL Sokol machines in China," Mazur said, but declined to provide further details.

According to Poland's Rzeczpospolita daily, PZL's Chinese partner is preparing the ground for the assembly plant.

Poland's State Treasury controls 87 percent of the PZL Swidnik aeronautics manufacturer, while the remaining shares are held, among others, by the municipality of Swidnik, southeast Poland.

Italy's Agusta company is reported to have purchased a share in PZL Swidnik.

Joint training pilot of Jinan Theatre in 2010 starts up

Reading between the lines: The new PLA "basic campaign army corps" concept is still in its experimental phase and have yet adopted by other military regions.

Joint training pilot of Jinan Theatre in 2010 starts up

(Source: PLA Daily) 2010-03-01

　　On the morning of February 26, the joint training pilot of services and arms of the Jinan Theatre of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 2010 started up.

　　According to a leading officer of the air force of the PLA Jinan Military Area Command (MAC), the joint training, which is divided into such two layers as theatre and basic campaign army corps, will go through the whole year of 2010. Under the leadership of the Jinan MAC, the training is respectively organized by the air force and a group army of the Jinan MAC. The joint training of this year will focus on exercising relevant missions and subjects, and make efforts to enhance the systematic combat capability based on information system according to the training approaches from unit composition to key element integration and finally to systematic integration.

　　It’s learned that the test and argumentation of the first theatre-level joint campaign training in the history of the PLA conducted in the Jinan Theatre in 2009 had preliminarily explored such joint training models as the military-civilian combination, integration of three services and integration of combat and training within the theatre, established a rather reliable leading mechanism which could efficiently operate for joint training of the theatre and all-roundly tested the operational efficiency of the integrated command platform for joint combat and joint training.

　　It’s learned that a batch of advanced equipment, including destroyer, reconnaissance satellite, early warning aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft will participate in the joint training of the theatre.

　　By Jiang Ning and Yang Jilong

Editor:Chen Jie

China, Kenya to search for ancient Chinese wrecks

China, Kenya to search for ancient Chinese wrecks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022601828.html
The Associated Press
Friday, February 26, 2010; 5:34 AM

BEIJING -- China and Kenya plan to search for ancient Chinese ships wrecked almost 600 years ago off Africa's east coast.

An agreement was signed for a three-year project funded by China's Commerce Ministry to explore waters near the popular tourist towns of Malindi and Lamu, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Exploration work will be conducted for up to three months each year, with the first group of Chinese archaeologists due to arrive as early as July, Xinhua said.

The sunken ships are believed to have been part of a massive fleet led by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He that reached Malindi in 1418. Kenyan lore has long told of shipwrecked Chinese sailors settling in the region and marrying local women.

Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He - whose name is also spelled Cheng Ho - led armadas with scores of junks and thousands of sailors on voyages to promote trade and recognition of the new dynasty, which had taken power in 1368.
ad_icon

Zheng's seven voyages marked a high point in Chinese power. But imperial rulers soon lost interest in the outside world and canceled further exploration more than a half century before Columbus reached the New World.

Zheng's story has been heavily promoted by China's government in recent years as evidence of China's tradition of nonaggression abroad, although historical records show the treasure fleets carried significant firepower and participated in at least three major military actions.