China's First Aircraft Carrier To Begin Sea Trials

HONG KONG - China's first aircraft carrier - a remodeled Soviet-era vessel - will go on sea trials next week, a report said June 21, amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea.

China's top military official reportedly confirmed earlier this month that Beijing is building a huge aircraft carrier, the first acknowledgement of the ship's existence from China's secretive defense program.

The sources said the test has been expedited in view of rising tensions in the South China Sea - home to two potentially oil-rich archipelagos, the Paracels and Spratlys - in recent weeks.

The Hong Kong Commercial Daily, which broke the story of the vessel's confirmation, quoted unnamed military sources saying the carrier will go on sea trials on July 1 but will not be officially launched until October 2012.

China's military "hopes it will show the strength of the Chinese maritime forces to deter other nations, which are eyeing the South China Sea, in order to calm tensions," the sources said.

They added that the sea trial date was also picked to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party but noted that factors such as weather could affect the planned test run.

China's military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Tensions between Beijing and other rival claimants to the strategically vital South China Sea have heightened recently.

China has claimed mineral rights around the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and argued that foreign navies cannot sail through the area without Beijing's permission.

In September, Japan and China also clashed over the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, located in the East China Sea.

But Chinese officials have previously said that its first aircraft carrier would not pose a threat to other nations, in accordance with Beijing's defensive military strategy.

The Chinese aircraft carrier plan was confirmed when the chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, Chen Bingde, confirmed the ship's existence in an interview with the Hong Kong paper.

He said the 990-foot former Soviet carrier, originally called the Varyag, was being overhauled. The ship is currently based in the northeast port of Dalian.

An expert on China's military has reportedly said the carrier would be used for training and as a model for a future indigenously-built ship.

The Varyag was originally built for the Soviet navy but construction was interrupted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The PLA - the largest army in the world - is hugely secretive about its defense programs, which benefit from a large military budget boosted by the nation's runaway economic growth.

Romania Summons Iranian Envoy Over Missile Remarks

BUCHAREST - Iran's ambassador to Bucharest was summoned by Romanian authorities on June 20 to explain claims in an interview that U.S. plans to build a missile shield were directed at Russia.

"Bajador Aminian Jazi was summoned to the Foreign Affairs Ministry and asked for clarifications," a news release said. "The Romanian side stressed that such statements are not constructive. The system is a purely defensive one and cannot therefore be aimed against any country."

In an interview with HotNews website, the diplomat had said that Iran did not see the deployment of U.S. missile interceptors in Romania as a threat.

"We believe the anti-missile shield is not aimed against us. We don't have a nuclear program targeting any other country, our missiles are defensive only," he said.

However, he added, "you are importing Russian gas. I think that in the future, given also this anti-missile system, you will have some problems with them."

Jazi said this project dated back to 1984, when it was drawn up "to annihilate the Soviet Union's supremacy."

"Yes, [it is directed] against Russia," he added.

Bucharest and Washington last month concluded talks on the deployment of 24 U.S. missile interceptors at a former airbase in south Romania, insisting on the project's purely defensive purpose.

But Russia said it would seek legal guarantees that the shield was not directed against its strategic nuclear forces.

India Military Delegation Arrives in China

BEIJING - An Indian military delegation arrived in Beijing on June 19 for a six-day visit, an Indian official said, marking the resumption of defense ties that were frozen for a year over a visa dispute.

The eight-member delegation, headed by Maj. Gen. Gurmeet Singh, will visit the Chinese capital and the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, a senior Indian defense official told AFP earlier.

A spokesman for the Indian embassy in Beijing confirmed the delegation arrived the afternoon of June 19 but could not provide details on their itinerary or with whom they would meet on the Chinese side.

India suspended military exchanges in July last year after Beijing refused to provide a proper stamped visa to the then head of India's Northern Army Command, which controls the region of Indian Kashmir.

China controls a sliver of Kashmir and regards the region, which is also split with Pakistan, as disputed territory. India has been angered by its practice of providing special stapled visas for visitors from Indian Kashmir.

"We decided to pause defense exchanges because of these differences of opinion," a second source in the Indian government told AFP previously on condition of anonymity.

"There were still phone calls and other contacts, but now with this visit we are seeing the resumption of normal, full-scale military exchanges," said the official.

Singh, the delegation chief, heads the Delta Force, part of a specialized anti-insurgency unit deployed in Kashmir.

Suspicion pervades relations between the two Asian giants amid border disputes over Kashmir and the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The two also fought a short war in 1962, while the presence in India of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, adds to the tension.

Media reports suggested that the decision to resume defense cooperation was reached during talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao in China in April.

S. Korea Not Punishing Soldiers Who Shot at Plane

SEOUL - South Korea's military said on June 19 it will not punish soldiers who fired at a passenger jet flying from China, mistaking the aircraft for an enemy plane amid sea fog and high tensions with North Korea.

"Early-morning sea fog disrupted their vision... they did what they had been told to do based on military manuals," a Marine Corps spokesman told AFP.

"The action was partly caused by high tension with the North … we for now have no plan to punish them given there was no damage to the plane," he said.

Marines guarding the islands near the tense sea border with the North will be given extra training to distinguish between enemy planes and passenger jets, he said.

Two marines at a guard post on the South's Gyodong island near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the North fired 99 K-2 rifle rounds at the plane, which had 119 people on board, on June 17.

The jet, owned by Seoul-based Asiana Airlines, was descending towards the South's Incheon International Airport when the soldiers opened fire. There was no damage to the plane.

The Airbus 321 was following a normal route from the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu, the company said.

Ties between the two Koreas are at their lowest ebb in more than a decade after Pyongyang announced late last month it was breaking all contacts with the South's conservative government.

Seoul accuses Pyongyang of torpedoing a warship and killing 46 sailors in March 2010 - a charge the communist North angrily denies.

But Pyongyang went on to shell a frontier island off the west coast last November, leaving four South Koreans including two civilians dead.

Then, South Korea's defense minister Kim Kwan-Jin, smarting from criticism of what was seen as the military's feeble and slow response to the attack, told frontline troops to strike back in the event of provocation without waiting for orders from top commanders.

Tension further heightened after nine refugees from the impoverished North crossed the sea border by boat earlier this month to defect to the capitalist South. Seoul last week rejected Pyongyang's demand to return them.

Seoul's policy is to accept all North Koreans who wish to stay in the South, while repatriating those who stray across the sea border by accident.

The arrival in February of a boatload of North Koreans sparked weeks of acrimony. That boat drifted across the Yellow Sea border in thick fog, possibly accidentally.

U.S. Senate Bill Requires Fixed-Price JSF Contract

The defense authorization bill passed by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on June 16 requires a fixed-price contract for the next F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) buy, forcing the contractors to absorb any cost overruns.

The Pentagon plans to buy 32 JSF aircraft in 2012: 19 for the Air Force, seven for the Navy and six for the Marine Corps. (Senior Aiman Julianne Showalter / U.S. Air Force)

The Senate panel met throughout the week behind closed doors marking up the authorization bill for 2012. Details of the markup were released in a June 17 email from the committee.

"The bill contains a unique requirement that the low-rate initial procurement contract for the FY11 lot of the Joint Strike Fighter (LRIP-5) program must be a fixed-price contract and the contract must require the contractor to absorb 100 percent of costs above the target cost," the committee's statement said.
With lot 4, the Pentagon converted from a cost-plus, award-fee plan to a fixed-price, incentive-fee deal. It is negotiating the LRIP 5 buy with prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
If included in the final bill passed by both chambers, the Senate committee's amendment would make using a fixed-price contract legally binding.
The bill fully supports the Pentagon's budget request for procurement of the aircraft, allocating $3.2 billion for the Navy and $3.7 billion for Air Force's JSF buy. The Pentagon plans to buy 32 JSF aircraft in 2012: 19 for the Air Force, seven for the Navy and six for the Marine Corps.
The JSF program is under intense scrutiny by Pentagon leadership due to dramatic cost overruns and production delays. Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the Marine Corps variant on a two year-probation earlier this year.
A Defense Acquisition Board review that would have established a new cost baseline for the F-35 has been postponed until the fall, according to JSF program executive officer Vice Adm. David Venlet.
The review had been scheduled for late May, and then was rescheduled for mid-June.

Pilatus to Sign Aircraft Deal with India: Report

GENEVA - Switzerland's Pilatus Aircraft is about to sign a record deal to supply 75 of its successful PC-7 trainers to the Indian Air Force for 850 million francs ($1 million), according to a press report June 18.
The daily Le Temps, which described the contract as the biggest in the company's history, said it could eventually be extended to as many as 200 of the single-engine turboprop.

Pilatus declined to comment on the report that the trainer had been selected as the winner of offers invited by India two years ago for a new trainer.
More than 500 PC-7s have been sold across the world to air forces and private customers.

Pilatus declined to comment on the report that the trainer had been selected as the winner of offers invited by India two years ago for a new trainer.
More than 500 PC-7s have been sold across the world to air forces and private customers.

Italy May Consider Final Date of Libya Mission: Minister

ROME - Italy may begin thinking about a date for the end of its active duty in Libya after the three-month period of its commitment in the conflict is over, its defense minister said in an interview June 18.
"What I'm saying is that thinking about a final date for our active participation could lead our British, French and U.S. allies to look for a diplomatic solution to the crisis," Ignazio La Russa told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

La Russa said that both Italy's government and parliament should be involved in the process.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition government is riven by tensions after the small but influential anti-immigration Northern League called for a halt to Italy's participation in NATO air raids in Libya.
La Russa said that whatever Italy's position after the three-month period Rome would continue to make its military bases available for allied operations.
He also denied assertions by the Northern League that Italy's participation in the Libya campaign had caused an influx of refugees from North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea, which he said would have happened anyway.
The overwhelming majority of the estimated 11,000 Africans who have arrived in Italy from Libya are protected by the Geneva Convention and cannot be repatriated.
According to figures released June 17, only 60 of the 11,000 were Libyan.
Very few of the estimated 900,000 people who have fled fighting between the NATO-backed rebellion and forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi have ended up in Europe, Antonio Guterres, the head of the U.N. refugee agency, said Wednesday.
The Libyan regime and the country's former colonial ruler Italy signed a pact in August 2008 on tackling illegal migration which have seen the number of clandestine arrivals decline by 94 percent.
Under-pressure Gadhafi has threatened to spark a migration invasion of Europe.