Global Hawk. Photo: via Reuters

The Pentagon’s biggest, most high-tech spy drone aircraft — one of the hottest items on the international arms market — is the key to a burgeoning robotic alliance among the United States, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

The RQ-4 Global Hawk, a $215 million, airliner-size Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by Northrop Grumman, could help this four-nation coalition monitor both China, as it increasingly flexes its military muscles, and North Korea, as it develops ever more sophisticated nuclear weapons.

If, and when, Canberra, Tokyo and Seoul acquire their Global Hawks — all three sales negotiations are still at an early stage — they could all share intelligence with Washington and vice versa. For all would be using the same hardware and software system. The resulting network could monitor millions of square miles of land and sea around the clock and in real time.

Read the rest at Reuters.

Y-8 Surveillance aircraft. Image via Pakistan Defense.

by JAMES SIMPSON

It was a disturbing week for China-watchers. March 2 saw the Chinese causing trouble with their neighbors: two Y-8 planes headed to the Senkaku islands causing the Japanese ASDF to scramble into action, illegal fishing inside Korean waters, and the harassment of Philippine vessels near the Spratly Islands. Add the other concerning news that there would be no limit to China’s nuclear arsenal and the 12.7-percent hike in defense spending, and you have cause for alarm.

The incidents around the Senkaku islands, where the two planes did not cross into Japanese-claimed airspace, and the Spratly Islands, in which a Philippine OV-10 bomber and Islander light reconnaissance aircraft were deployed to the Reed Bank after two Chinese patrol boats harassed a Philippine oil exploration vessel, demonstrate China’s desire to maintain pressure over its territorial claims.

The incident at the Reed Bank comes as the Philippine government prepares for a British contractor to conduct a three-dimensional seismic survey of the islands and is the first such incident in recent years. It will be interesting to see if this is a one-off or part of a broader policy of a more permanent presence in these two energy resource and fishery-rich areas.

A week earlier, China conducted counter-piracy drills near the Spratly Islands raising protests last week from Vietnam.

The Philippine president, Begnino Aquino III, wants to raise China’s growing belligerence in the region among its fellow ASEAN members, Indonesia and Singapore, in visits this week. China has refused to cooperate with the ASEAN nations over how to conduct exploration and control over the South China Sea and claims:

“China has indisputable sovereignty over Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters,” Chinese Embassy spokesman Ethan Sun said in the statement, using the Chinese name for the Spratlys.

“China has been consistently sticking to the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and committed to maintaining peace and stability.”

These disputes carry important strategic costs. Aside from the energy resources in the subsoil of the two regions, the areas are major shipping routes. By controlling as much of the so-called first island chain as legally possible, China will be able to secure its maritime logistics, an interest already demonstrated by the deployment of PLAN vessels to the Gulf of Aden. As Chinese confidence and capabilities grow, we should expect more of these incidents. For Japan, this is justification for its new National Defense Posture Review, and will spur on the strengthening of its forces in the Okinawan region.

Originally posted at Japan Security Watch.

BM-21 multiple rocket launcher vehicle. Wikipedia photo.

New details have emerged over the last week regarding the North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong island, as well as the South Korean government’s response. According to reports, last Tuesday’s North Korean artillery attack consisted of an initial barrage of 15 artillery rounds on the island and then a 40-minute lull, after which the remainder of the estimated 160-170 rounds was fired. An estimated 70 of the artillery rounds fell into the sea. Artillery involved is thought to have been 130-millimeter coastal guns and 122-millimeter BM-21 rockets.The accuracy of the artillery fire has led to the South Korean government to consider the possibility that espionage was involved.

South Korean forces immediately responded with 80 rounds fired from K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers based on Yeonpyeong, although half of the six howitzers were unserviceable at the time of the incident. The response was reportedly aimed at the North Korean artillery command posts and barracks. Activists report that the fire killed one North Korean officer and wounded two. Responding to complaints by politicians that the guns themselves were not targeted, South Korean defense officials stated that the guns, emplaced in bunkers, would have been too difficult to hit directly. Critics have also noted that the South Korean government had actually detected the movement of a battalion of BM-21 multiple rocket launchers from the North Korean 4th Corps to firing areas along the coastline, launchers which were used to attack the island, but did not bombard them.

All 1,300 or so civilians have been evacuated from Yeonpyeong island. The island has been designated a “military control area”, placing it under the equivalent of martial law. Ground troops deployed to Yeonpyeong and the other islands in the so-called “West Sea” numbered roughly 4,000 before the incident, and are believed to have been reinforced. The number of K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers based on the island has been doubled to 12, and will eventually be boosted to 24. South Korea has also deployed six American-made M270 MLRS systems to the island.

Responding to criticism that the 80 howitzer rounds fired by South Korea was an insufficient response to the estimated 160-170 North Korean artillery rounds, South Korea has also changed the rules of engagement. The rules will differ depending on whether a military or civilian target is hit, and one South Korean media source reported that the military will be required to return fire “with shots two to three times more powerful than the enemy artillery”.

South Korea and the United States held a four-day series of military exercises described as counter-proliferation in nature, including practicing boarding ships at sea searching for nuclear materials. The exercises however also included precision strikes on ground targets,  air intercepts and anti-submarine warfare exercises. The exercises included the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and, South Korean F-15K and F-16 fighters, and the South Korean Aegis destroyer Kim Sejong the Great. In response, North Korea loaded SA-2 surface to air missiles and Silkworm and Samlet anti-ship missiles onto launchers near the exercise area.

The South Korean Defense Minister, Kim Tae-young, resigned after the opposition party demanded his resignation, cited a weak military response to the attack. The former general and head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had already offered to resign after the sinking of the Cheonan earlier this year, but was kept on. He was replaced by former general Kim Kwan-jin,

The South Korean Ministry of Defense quickly requested an increase in the defense budget to defend the western border, including Israeli-made Spike-NLOS bunker-busting missiles, Swedish ARTHUR artillery-locating radar systems and more K-9 self-propelled howitzers. The government is also considering turning Baeknyeong island, a larger island west of Yeonpyeong, into a forward operating base for amphibious operations against North Korea.

Internally, it appears that South Korean public opinion has turned a corner on North Korea. Only recently, there was a pronounced generational gap in South Korean attitudes concerning North Korea, with older citizens being much more wary of the North and younger citizens as likely to view the United States as the primary security threat. In the aftermath of the attack, 64 percent of South Koreans believe that the government should continue its stance of retaliation in case of attack, with a remarkable 70 percent of people in their 20s supporting a hard-line policy.

Yeonpyeong Island. Google Maps.

North Korean forces fired on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong yesterday, killing two Republic of Korea marines and injuring 17, with an additional three civilians wounded and two missing. The attack, the first on South Korean soil for decades and the first against civilians, triggered an immediate response in kind from South Korea, which returned fire against North Korean coastal artillery. President Lee Myung-bak has called it an “undeniable provocation” and vowed to retaliate if Pyongyang attacks again.

Yeonpyeong island, located near the border with North Korea, is home to approximately 1,600 civilians and a garrison of 1,000 ROK marines. Most of the population is concentrated in a small town the southern side of the island. In addition to the garrison, the island is ringed with tank traps and trenches. Nineteen underground bunkers have been built to accommodate local civilians, who participate in monthly civil defense drills.

According to Voice of America, there was an initial salvo of 15 artillery rounds, and the main barrage began 40 minutes later, with about 100 North Korean artillery rounds fired in all. South Korean K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers responded, firing 80 155-millimeter shells in response. South Korea also scrambled KF-16 and later F-15K fighters to patrol over the island. Firing from North Korea ended 11 minutes after the South Korean military contacted the North Korean military and requested a cease fire. Currently South Korean forces are at maximum alert, and President Lee has reportedly directed the military to strike North Korean missile bases near Yeonpyeong island in the event of future attacks. The U.S. and South Korean governments have also vowed to coordinate any military response.

For its part North Korea insists that South Korea started the incident by conducting military drills on the island it later attacked. South Korea responded by saying that firing involved in the Hoguk drills was “routine” and was aimed at a target 20-30 kilometers to the southwest, away from North Korea. North Korea warned that if South Korean forces infringe on its territory by even “.001 millimeter” it would take “merciless military counter-actions.”  How it decided on this precise distance is unclear and unlikely ever to be known.

According to reports on Twitter, within minutes of the attack Scan Eagle UAVs were launched from nearby American submarines to provide real-time intelligence on the situation. As Galrahn at Information Dissemination noted, there are considerable American naval forces operating in the Pacific and Indian oceans, including two Amphibious Ready Groups in the Western Pacific, two Carrier Strike Groups off the West Coast of the United States, and two CSGs supporting Operation Enduring Freedom from the Indian Ocean.

There has been widespread speculation as to why North Korea instigated the attack. One theory is that this was executed in order to be attributed to Kim Jong Il’s heir designate, Kim Jong Un, who has no military experience. Robert Farley, at the blog Lawyers, Guns & Money, guesses, “North Korea is taking behavioral cues from the increasingly tense security relationship between China on the one side and the U.S. and Japan on the other side. The North Koreans may believe that these tensions open up a wider space for action because they reduce the chances of collaboration between China and the U.S. ” Yet another theory is that Kim Jong Il has died, and North Korea is lashing out to pre-empt its enemies striking it during a time of perceived weakness.

This is really good news:

The Korean and Japanese troops have offered humanitarian assistance to rebuild areas in Carrefour, near Haitai’s capital, Port-au-Prince, since Friday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Colonel Kim Su-seong, chief of the 240-member Korean unit in Haiti, described the joint mission with the roughly 350-member Japanese unit under the name of the United Nations peacekeeping operations as historically significant.

Japanese and Korean military cooperation is great news. The two countries, both Asian export economies, have a lot in common and there is plenty of room for further cooperation. I wonder what the joint mission command structure looks like?

Unfortunately, it’s just one more thing for China to get paranoid about.

Originally posted at Japan Security Watch.