Question again:, most material give the range of those single stage SM2 missile to be around 70km so I guess this is about right. So is the missile in the article a new version or they just push it to the limit?

Those “most materials” are inaccurate.

The official US Navy site gives 40-90 nautical miles (46-104 statute miles) as SM-2 Block III/IIIA/IIIB’s range and SM-2 Block III production started in FY88, more than 15 years ago.

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/missiles/wep-stnd.html

So, who here arround plays Navyfield?

Just curious, do you like the name Navy Field?

I have an interest in the history of piracy in the age of sail. Although alot of information can be found about european pirates of the Carribean, I cant find anything about piracy in the middle east and far east. Im wondering if anyone from asian nations who visits this forum can give me any info on where to find books or websites about history and folklore of piracy in your respective seafaring history.

http://www.nus.edu.sg/sup/9971-69-242-2.html

Try “Iranun and Balangingi: Globalisation, Maritime Raiding and the Birth of Ethnicity” by James F. Warren.

Found this in imdex 2005 gallery anyone what korean vessel this is?

That’s an export variant of KDX-II.

Y-8X (Xun, Surveillance) is PLAN’s first long-range maritime patrol aircraft (MPA)(range 5,600km). It is essentially a Y-8/An-12 transport aircraft equipped with a Litton AN/APS-504(V)3 surface search radar in an enlarged undernose radome plus western navigational systems for long range patrols over the sea.

APS-504 is a Canadian-made radar fitted to a number of aircraft used by coast guards of various countries. Interestingly, the ROCN S-2T Trackers also have this radar. It’s not up to P-3C’s APS-137 radar which has ISAR mode for ship identification.

From SIGNAL magazine

[ According to a U.S. Defense Department official, China’s military modernization program focuses on two general areas. One is to build specific capabilities relevant to a potential conflict over Taiwan. The other is to generally modernize the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) so that its elements are not left behind by the advancing state of the art of military capabilities, even in areas where China does not face any particular threat in the foreseeable future.

Nonetheless, even though this buildup does not have a global reach, it does have implications for U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

“If China develops effective open ocean/over-the-horizon surveillance capabilities, we have a problem,” the official states. China also is increasing its ability to hit bases with non-nuclear tactical ballistic missiles, which would hinder the ability of U.S. forces to project power from beyond the range of Chinese forces.

China began changing its military doctrine in 1980, and the U.S. official believes that it is halfway through a 40-year effort to modernize its military operations. The country has emphasized increased flexibility at the tactical level, more realistic training and more innovative tactics. In December 1999, near the end of its ninth five-year plan, China published its first true standardized doctrinal PLA publications. The tenth five-year plan, which began in 2001, implements that doctrine in the training program of the PLA.

Some aspects of modernization deal with threat-free areas. In a broad-based undertaking, the country is modernizing ground forces despite the lack of any ground threat, the official observes. Even though it does not face any such threat for the next 20 years, because China began its 1980 plan three generations behind other countries’ capabilities, the PLA will find itself unable to catch up if such a threat materializes. It has to close the gap well before urgency sets in, so it is modernizing now.

One of the major trends in China’s upgrades for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is that the country has recognized its inability to find targets over the horizon (OTH) at sea, the official states. Accordingly, China “clearly is exploring options” to address that shortcoming.

Airborne early warning remains a high priority. After failing to obtain an Israeli-built Falcon radar system mounted on a Russian aircraft, China has stepped up its efforts to develop indigenous air early warning aircraft. It is leasing A-50/Mainstay surveillance aircraft from Russia, but this is just a stopgap measure until China can develop its own capability in a few years.

Helicopters that came with destroyers purchased from Russia can be used for OTH target acquisition for the ships’ cruise missiles. The congressional report notes that China has skywave medium-wave OTH radars that could be used to target aircraft carriers.

The official describes these efforts as “still at the exploratory phase of trying to decide what to do about this problem. What we don’t see yet is any serious commitment to building a comprehensive network to provide the kind of broad-area ocean coverage that is necessary for their task. And, the obvious task here is to be able to keep an opponent – the only opponent that matters to them is the United States – far enough off their shores so that it cannot strike targets of concern to them or interfere in issues such as a potential Taiwan Strait conflict.

“If they really cared, they could build a pretty good system out of components they have available to them right now – if they felt the need to do it right now,” the official continues. “What does it take – some aircraft with radars on board? That would do it – that’s how we did it in the 1960s. The most likely explanation [of why they are not building it] is that they are not yet ready to commit to large-scale implementation of a solution to this problem – probably because they are not quite satisfied with the state of their own technology in that area, and they don’t want to commit before they achieve the technology level that they want. They don’t want to be locked into something that will seem obsolete soon,” the official warrants.

The official adds that, at the moment, a mismatch exists between the range of China’s strike systems and the range of its surveillance systems to detect targets. Several programs seek to address this shortcoming. A joint program with Brazil aims to develop and launch an earth resources imagery satellite that would improve related military capabilities. China launched its first oceanological satellite last year, and the country intends to orbit a constellation of these satellites by 2010 to monitor the ocean environment. ]