Doomsday Clock Moved to 5 Minutes to Midnight

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced today that the hands of the Doomsday Clock were moved forward one minute to now read at 5 minutes to Midnight.

In a formal announcement Tuesday noted "It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one closer to midnight back to its time in 2007."

The change was made due to the clear and present danger of nuclear proliferation and climate changes.

 With Iran coming closer to producing nuclear weapons, North Korea becoming even more of an unknown, China building its military stronger, and Russia beginning to flex their muscle again; one
has to wonder when, not if, it will happen.

The United States and Russia did sign an agreement to reduce the stockpiles of nuclear weapons,
but there are rumblings that Russia might back out of the deal. With the distinct and inevitable possibility of the return of Putin as president of Russia, it seems quite likely that there will be a "reset" to the "reset", and not for the better.

Plus there are still many who say that climate change is not a cause for concern and that the world is merely progressing through natural cyclic changes. Of course anyone with even a small understanding of the true and relentless and ever spreading changes around us daily must know the truth. Something has to be done to reverse the warming on the planet.

The ticking of the clock becomes louder and all of the world leaders should take notice.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Is It Possible China Will Bid On U.S. Military Contracts?

Can we possibly allow this to happen?

China Aviation Industry Corp. is in talks with U.S. Aerospace Inc. and has been for some time. This
could lead to the Chinese bidding on military contracts.

It seems the company is interested in bidding on replacing the Marine One helicopter fleet. Marine
One is used to transport the president.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the company also wants to supply the Air Force with
over 400 training aircraft for the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters.

The Marine One fleet was supposed to be replaced by Lockheed Martin, but due to cost
overruns and rising prices President Obama orderd the plan scrapped and told the military
to find less expensive options.

This might enable the Chinese state-owned company to obtain secret U.S. military technology
by using this partnership with a U.S. company.

China has in the past attempted to enter critical U.S. industry, and these attempts have always
been defeated. Current regulations and vociferous political backlash led to the demise of these
past attempts.

As China continue to rapidly expand and grow its military, pushing hard to gain a strategic
foothold on the world; it would be foolhardy and incomprehensible to allow China to even
think this would be a possibility.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said recently "Even as the United States pursues a more
constructive relationship with China, we and our allies cannot ignore the Chinese military's
recent advances in missiles, space and cyber warfare."

So the answer must be a very large resounding NO to any possibility of a Chinese company
bidding on U.S. military programs.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"



---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

China Stole Technology to build Stealth Fighter

So do we continue to allow China to build their military? Do we just sit back and say that every

thing is OK and allow China to grow strong enough to deny the U.S. passage in "open waters"?

Chinese officials recently unveiled a new, high-tech prototype stealth attack plane that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority - and some of its technology, it turns out, may well have come from the US itself.

Balkan military officials have said that, in all probability, the Chinese gleaned some of their technological know-how from an American F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.

Nighthawks were the world's first operational stealth

aircraft, planes that are very hard for radar to detect. But on 27 March, 1999, during Nato's aerial bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo war, a Serbian anti-aircraft missile shot down one of the Nighthawks. The pilot ejected and was rescued.

It was the first time one of the much-touted "invisible" fighters had ever been hit. The Pentagon believed a combination of clever tactics and sheer luck had allowed a Soviet-built SA-3 missile to bring it down. Posters saying "We didn't realise it was invisible" become very popular in Serbia.

The wreckage was strewn over a wide area and civilians collected the parts as souvenirs.

"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," said Admiral Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff in the Kosovo war.

"We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies … and to reverse-engineer them," Adml Domazet-Loso said.

A senior Serbian military official confirmed that pieces of the wreckage were removed by souvenir collectors, and that some ended up "in the hands of foreign military attaches".

China's multi-role stealth fighter - the Chengdu J-20 - made its inaugural flight on 11 January, revealing dramatic progress in the country's efforts to develop cutting-edge military technologies.

Although the twin-engine J-20 is at least eight or nine years from entering service, it could become a rival to America's top-of-the-line F-22 Raptor, the successor to the Nighthawk and the only stealth fighter currently in service.

China rolled out the J-20 just days before a visit to Beijing by US defence secretary Robert Gates, leading some analysts to speculate that the timing was intended to demonstrate the growing might of China's armed forces.

Parts of the downed F-117 - such as the left wing, the cockpit canopy, ejector seat, pilot's helmet and radio - are exhibited at Belgrade's aviation museum.

"I don't know what happened to the rest of the plane," said Zoran Milicevic, deputy director of the museum.

"A lot of delegations visited us, including the Chinese, Russians and Americans … but no-one showed any interest in taking any part of the jet."

Zoran Kusovac, a Rome-based military consultant, said the regime of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic routinely shared captured Western equipment with its Chinese and Russian allies.

"The destroyed F-117 topped that wish-list for both the Russians and Chinese," Kusovac said.

Russia's Sukhoi T-50 prototype stealth fighter made its maiden flight last year and is due to enter service in about four years. It is likely that the Russians also gleaned knowledge of stealth technology from the downed Nighthawk.

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

U.S., China Affirm Military Ties During Hu Visit To Washington

By Carol L. Bowers
American Forces Press Service

Hu is paying a state visit to the United States Jan. 18 to 21, and the statement came on the second day of his trip, which included meetings with Obama and a joint press conference.

"Both sides agreed on the need for enhanced and substantive dialogue and communication at all levels: to reduce misunderstanding, misperception, and miscalculation; to foster greater understanding and expand mutual interest; and to promote the healthy, stable, and reliable development of the military-to-military relationship," Obama and Hu said in their statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently met with Hu in China during a recent tour of East Asia to discuss security issues. Gates attended Hu's arrival ceremony today.

Obama and Hu termed Gates' visit to China "successful" and noted the United States will in turn welcome the Chief of the People's Liberation Army General Staff Gen. Chen Bingde to the United States in the first half of 2011.

In the joint statement, the two sides also reaffirmed that the Defense Consultative Talks, the Defense Policy Coordination Talks, and the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement will remain important channels of communication in the future. Both sides will work to execute the seven priority areas for developing military-to-military relations as agreed to by Gates and Gen. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission in October 2009.

During the joint press conference today, Obama said he also has conveyed to the Chinese president "that that we appreciated China's role in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and we agreed that North Korea must avoid further provocations."

"I also said that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program is increasingly a direct threat to the security of the United States and our allies," Obama added. " We agreed that the paramount goal must be complete denuclearization of the peninsula. In that regard, the international community must continue to state clearly that North Korea's uranium enrichment program is in violation of North Korea's commitments and international obligations."

Discussions between Obama and Hu also included other global security issues.

"With respect to global security, I'm pleased that we're moving ahead with President Hu's commitment at last year's Nuclear Security Summit for China to establish a center of excellence, which will help secure the world's vulnerable nuclear materials," Obama said during the press conference.

"To prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, we agreed that Iran must uphold its international obligations and that the U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran must be fully enforced." 
 

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

As China builds their military, should we be cutting our strength?

China is on a continuing course to become a major military force in the world. They not only have
the largest army in the world, they now have a stealth fighter/bomber, an anti-carrier missile
and are rebuilding a Russian aircraft carrier; and it is thought to be building its own new
carrier.

Just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington and as US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Beijing this week to patch up frayed defence ties, China's military sent its first stealth fighter into the skies. 

 

Analysts agree the test flight of the J-20 carried out by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which surprised many military observers, was no coincidence.

"China is sending a strong message to the US and countries in the region that China's military modernisation is unstoppable, and China is determined to become this region's dominant actor," said Taiwan-based PLA expert Arthur Ding.

The emergence of the first photos of the J-20 just before Gates' visit forced the Pentagon chief to admit that China "may be somewhat further along in the development of that aircraft than our intelligence had predicted".

Analysts who have studied every pixel of these shots say while it is difficult to estimate just how advanced the plane -- seen as an eventual rival to the US Air Force's F-22A -- really is, the message sent by Beijing is clear.

"While it does not truly demonstrate China's capability in terms of developing the latest-technology military equipment, it certainly does demonstrate their ambition," said Gareth Jennings, an aviation expert at Jane's Missiles & Rockets magazine.

The PLA -- the largest army in the world -- is hugely secretive about its defence programmes, which benefit from a big military budget boosted by the nation's runaway economic growth.
Officially, China says its military technology is 20 to 30 years behind that of the United States, and maintains that the modernisation of its army is purely defensive in nature.

But its neighbours are worried. Japan last month labelled Beijing's military build-up a global "concern", citing its increased assertiveness in the East and South China Seas.

Analysts say Beijing's stated position no longer corresponds to the facts.

China, without formally acknowledging it, is building at least one aircraft carrier, which more than anything else will showcase its ability to project its military might further afield.

"They have equipment that is far from being defensive. More and more they have planes capable of striking ground targets," a Western military expert based in Beijing, who refused to be named, told AFP.

"What is the use of that when you say you want to defend yourself?"

In 2007, China -- a nuclear power -- sparked international concern when it destroyed one of its satellites with a missile strike. And last January, the Chinese military intercepted an airborne missile.
Now, it is developing a ballistic missile capable of striking aircraft carriers -- a move that threatens US supremacy in the Pacific.

Admiral Mike Mullen, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Wednesday that China's new weapons programes, including the J-20, appeared to be directed against the United States.
Observers worry that the balance of power will shift in East Asia, where there are several potential sources of conflict revolving around Taiwan, North Korea and territorial disputes with neighbouring states.

They say a new arms race seems inevitable.

"Today, nobody knows for sure how many J-20s the PLA will eventually deploy, nor how many ballistic missiles," said Dennis Blasko, an expert on the PLA based in the United States.

"Neither can we predict the size and composition of US and allied forces beyond four or five years."
Dean Cheng, a China expert at the Heritage Foundation, a US think tank, said there was "still time for the US to take corrective measures to hedge against these Chinese capabilities, both in its own arsenals and in what it provides Taiwan."

The self-ruled island is a sore point in China-US military ties. Last year's multi-billion-dollar arms deal between Washington and Taipei angered Beijing so much it suspended defence relations with the United States.

But for Rick Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, the United States and its allies "have a very short timeframe to get really smart about the PLA's intentions and technology directions".

"If this cannot be done, for reasons of lack of information or lack of political will, Washington could soon find itself increasingly following China, and not leading the arms race," Fisher said.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Sec. Defense says Taiwan could be less "Hot-button"

Taiwan Could be Less Hot-Button Issue in Future, Gates Says

By Jim Garamone 
American Forces Press Service
BEIJING, Jan. 11, 2011 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates believes that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan may evolve into a less hot-button issue in U.S.-China relations.

The secretary expressed his opinion about Taiwan during a roundtable discussion with reporters here today. 

The United States sold defensive weapons to Taiwan last year, and the People's Republic of China suspended all military-to-military contacts with America in response. Gates is here this week, in part, to re-start those contacts. 

Chinese officials, Gates said, didn't say directly that they would again suspend military-to-military contacts if the United States sold weapons to Taiwan again, but it was clear that they consider such sales against their core interests. 

Gates, who worked in the White House when President Richard M. Nixon made his historic trip to China in 1972, said he made the American policy clear to his Chinese counterparts. "First of all, we do have a One China Policy. We do consider the policy to be based on the three Joint Communiqués and –- I always add –- the Taiwan Relations Act," he said. 

The Three Communiqués were signed in 1972, 1979 and 1982. 

Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979, and it is a law and not a policy, Gates said. The law requires the United States to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons and "to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan." 

Gates stressed that the United States does not support independence for Taiwan. He said both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama "have been certainly cognizant of Chinese sensitivities and I believe the decisions that have been made have focused on defensive capabilities." 

Gates told Chinese leaders that the United States is not going to change its policies. 

"But over time, if the environment changed and if the relationship between China and Taiwan continued to improve, and the security environment for Taiwan changed, then perhaps that would create the conditions for re-examining all of this," the secretary said. "But that would be an evolutionary and long-term process, it seems to me. I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. 

"They made their point and I made mine," he said.

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Secretary Gates concerned about China

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signaled his concern over China’s rapid military modernization
.
His move is highlighted by the latest picture of a Chinese stealth bomber, as he begins talks aimed at repairing security relations in Beijing today.

But Dr Gates warned China not to underestimate the US or the continuing power of its military.
“I’ve watched this sort of cyclical view of American decline come around two or three times, perhaps most dramatically in the latter half of the 1970s,” Dr Gates told reporters en route to China.

“And my general line for those both at home and around the world who think the US is in decline is that history’s dustbins are filled with countries that underestimated the resilience of the United States.”

This week’s discussions, which will include President Hu Jintao, signal an end to an 11-month hiatus in military-to-military relations between China and the US after the $US6.5 billion US sale of arms to Taiwan last February. They come amid mounting evidence Beijing’s arms spending spree is paying dividends.

As well as the stealth plane, Washington is worried about China’s plans for a groundbreaking anti-aircraft-carrier missile as well as longer-term plans for its own aircraft carriers.

“We’ve been watching these developments all along,” Dr Gates said. “I’ve been concerned about the development of the anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles ever since I took this job."

“We knew they were working on a stealth aircraft. I think what we’ve seen is they may be somewhat further ahead in the development of that aircraft than our intelligence had earlier predicted.
“They have the potential to put some of our capabilities at risk.”

Still, he questioned “just how stealthy” the aircraft would be.

China believes the US is not ready to accept another strong military power, especially in the Asia-Pacific. The leaking of the stealth fighter photos has been seen as intentional.

“Whether the reported new weapons are true or not, in the long run China will own first-class weapons that are capable of competing with the US war machine,” Communist Party-run nationalist tabloid Global Times said in an editorial last week.

“Apparently the US is not ready to treat China as a major power. They cannot accept the fact that China will . . . possess a first-class military. They are too used to the old power structure.”

In both countries, civilian governments have to battle with their military machines. Chinese generals regularly emerge in the media advocating more aggressive policies. Dr Gates has reached a compromise to cut $US78 billion ($78.5bn) from his defence budget — the biggest cut in decades — as the Obama administration searches for ways to reduce its massive deficit.

Mr Hu will visit Washington next week.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"


---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

China developing military

China has announced that they are indeed investing heavily in their military.

They have developed a stealth fighter they call J-20. This aircraft has been designed and built by
the Chinese from the drawing board, and not  using technology that has been gathered from other
nation's planes.

While at the present it is not on a par with U.S. or Russian fighter/bombers and needs much work
to bring it even close to our planes. Some have said it will take 10 or 15 years to reach that level.

Still it is a frightening thought that China is progressing as quickly as they are.

China also has announced that it has developed an anti-ship ballistic missile designed to target
aircraft carriers is now operational.

The land based, and mobile missile, called Dongfeng 21 D is designed to attack aircraft carrier groups
with the help of satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV) and come at them from high
altitudes.

Although the U.S. has not seen an over the water test of the new missile, it combined with China's
increased anti-access area denial capabilities, such as submarines, long range anti-ship cruise
missiles, anti-ship aircraft, are causing great concern; not only in the U.S. but also in neighboring
countries.

Japan and Taiwan  are sure to be thinking long as well as short range possibilities. The recent
buildup of China's military is almost like telling the U.S. that China is a force to be reckoned
with, and will do what they feel necessary.

How far will China go? What will be the next step?

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996