DefenceTalkChinese military planes, mostly fighter jets, made more than 40 flights close to Tokyo-controlled islands at the center of a territorial dispute on a single day this week, a press report said Saturday. The flights took place on Tuesday, when eight Chinese marine surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile territorial zone off the islands in the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-military-planes-flew-close-to-disputed-isles-report-47622/

DefenceTalkJapan would respond with force if China attempts to land on the disputed Senkaku Islands, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Parliament. Abe was responding to a question about what he was prepared to do if Chinese ships sailing close to the islands — called the Diaoyu Islands by the Chinese — tried to land, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/japanese-pm-warns-china-against-landings-47595/

DefenceTalkA senior officer with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy said on Tuesday that “China will have more than one aircraft carrier.” Song Xue, deputy chief of staff of the PLA Navy, told foreign military attaches at a ceremony to celebrate the Navy’s 64th founding anniversary in Beijing, “The next aircraft carrier we need will […]https://www.defencetalk.com/chinas-second-aircraft-carrier-will-be-larger-47579/

DefenceTalkChina and Romania were by far the largest sources of confirmed hacking attempts last year, with China’s mostly from state-controlled sources aimed at data theft, a new report said Tuesday. Verizon’s 2013 Data Breach Investigations report said 30 percent of 621 confirmed attacks were sourced back to China, 28 percent to Romania, and another 18 […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-romania-key-sources-of-hacking-report-47569/

DefenceTalkChina on Tuesday issued a white paper on national defense elaborating on its new security challenges in peacetime and the employment of armed forces to cope with them. The document, the eighth of its kind issued by the Chinese government since 1998, warns that the Asia-Pacific region has become an increasingly significant stage for world […]https://www.defencetalk.com/chinas-defense-paper-stresses-new-military-employment-47501/

DefenceTalkWorld military expenditure totalled $1.75 trillion in 2012, a fall of 0.5 per cent in real terms since 2011, according to figures released today by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The comprehensive annual update of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database is accessible from today at www.sipri.org. The fall—the first since 1998—was driven by major […]https://www.defencetalk.com/world-military-spending-falls-but-china-russias-spending-rises-47478/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon late Thursday said North Korea does not have nuclear-armed missiles, playing down an intelligence report leaked earlier in the day which said Pyongyang had the capability to build atomic warheads that could be fitted on missiles. Pentagon spokesman George Little says it would be inaccurate to suggest the North has fully tested, developed, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-inaccurate-to-say-north-korea-has-nuclear-armed-missiles-47447/

DefenceTalkNorth Korea appears to be preparing a fourth nuclear test as well as a provocative missile launch, South Korea said Monday, despite an unusually blunt call from China for restraint. Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae told lawmakers there were “signs” that another test was in the pipeline, with intelligence reports showing heightened activity at the North’s […]https://www.defencetalk.com/north-korea-preparing-for-fourth-nuclear-test-south-47410/

DefenceTalkThere are further indications North Korea may be preparing to conduct nuclear and missile tests – actions that would again violate international sanctions against it. Amid official concerns in Seoul and Washington that North Korea could be poised to launch one or more of its untested medium-range missiles, South Korea’s government is also acknowledging Pyongyang […]https://www.defencetalk.com/south-korea-confirms-sign-north-korea-making-nuclear-test-preparations-47406/

DefenceTalkIt takes a crisis to concentrate the mind. Faced with unusually bellicose rhetoric from the regime in Pyongyang, the Obama Administration reversed course on National Missile Defense (NMD) and is rapidly bolstering its theater air and missile defenses in the region. The Department of Defense will add 14 ground based interceptor missiles to 30 currently […]https://www.defencetalk.com/crisis-in-northeast-asia-makes-the-case-for-jlens-47395/