WarShip classifications

WarShips are often classified with the following terms, based on their role. Most of these terms have survived since the Age of Sail, and were updated to reflect the realities of space combat.^[1] Because of the somewhat diffuse criteria associated with each class and role, the classification is arbitrary and ultimately rather subjective.

Ship classes are roughly defined thus:

• Corvettes - The smallest WarShip category, these craft rarely mass more than 500,000 tons. Lightly armed and armored but extremely swift and equipped for extended tours of duty, corvettes are ideal for commerce protection and raiding. They are not expected to stand up to other WarShips, except in a support role.
• Destroyers - Larger and more heavily armed than corvettes, these ships perform the same raiding and escort duties, but also serve as guardians of orbital installations. They typically mass between 500,000 and 700,000 tons.
• Frigates - Rarely smaller than 700,000 tons, these ships can roughly be described as extra-large destroyers, often with an additional capacity such as integral fighter support. Usually they are equipped with excellent sensors and are deployed at the edge of a fleet to act as sentries.^{[citation needed]}

• Cruisers - The most diverse ship category in any fleet, vessels in this class are typically further subdivided into light cruisers, heavy cruisers, and battlecruisers. In the original sense of the word, cruisers were supposed to be more durable than smaller ship classes and capable of prolonged independent operation. Most cruisers pack enough equipment and supplies to operate away from technical support bases, making them ideal raiders. As a whole, cruisers typically mass between 700,000 and 1,200,000 tons.
  • Light Cruisers - As their speed is comparable to destroyers and frigates they serve as escorts, raiders, and picket ships, but outperform the other two ship types in one or more areas (speed, firepower, armor and/or endurance).
  • Heavy Cruisers - These ships tend to trade away some of the light cruiser's speed for additional firepower or armor. Clan toumans typically use these as command vessels.
  • Battlecruisers - These ships are loaded with heavy weapons, but their over-sized engines allow them to remain very nimble and quick in a confrontation, usually sacrificing armor and any other features.
• Battleships - The largest ship class, battleships are easily able to keep pace with frigates and outrun heavy cruisers. Their massive weapon payloads and armor protection ensure that they serve as a fleet flagships, while hitting the most dangerous and determined opposition to break through and create opportunities for their smaller companions to exploit. The pride of the SLDF Navy, the McKenna-class battleship, weighed two million tons, a record that was not broken until Clan Ghost Bear launched the 2.4 million ton Leviathan-class ship.
• Dreadnoughts - Arguably a classification denoting the largest, most powerful and/or technically most advanced class(es) of WarShips. The word is often used to describe a cutting-edge ship class that can outfight any other contemporary WarShip. Typically, Dreadnoughts are very powerful but also very expensive and possibly inefficient, and are not deployed in any significant numbers.
• Carriers - These are WarShip-sized Aerospace Fighter transports. Principally, there have been few ships dedicated to the carrier role; during the Star League era many navies used hybrid designs that combined the carrier role with another ship type. As a result, carrier tonnages have varied from frigate to battlecruiser size. These dual-role ships were not produced by most of the factions in 31st century during the brief resumption of WarShip production; the one exception was Clan Snow Raven, who produced the Conqueror-class Battlecruiser-Carriers in limited numbers.

Other "classes" or designations exist, though they can usually be placed in one of the above classes; examples include "Troop Cruiser", "Yardship" or "Pursuit Cruiser".

Blog Intro

Drone-88 ra đời trong sự gia tăng căng thẳng trên biển Đông, tình trạng chạy đua vũ trang của các nước trong khu vực. Và động thái mới trong cán cân quân sự ở vùng Đông Nam Á, Châu Á Thái Bình Dương đang có xu hướng ảnh hưởng trực tiếp hoặc đe dọa tới nguồn lợi quốc gia của các quốc gia liên quan.

Blog Drone 88 là một trang tin quân sự (gồm thêm một số tin kinh tế và chính trị liên quan). Cái nhìn trung lập của blog sẽ đến từ thông tin đa chiều. Bog sẽ được truyền tải bằng tiếng Anh (theo những nguồn tin gốc) và có thể có một số thông tin bằng tiếng Việt.

Mục đích của chúng tôi không phải cập nhật lọat thông tin mới nhất hoặc độc đáo nhất. Mà chỉ là đăng lại những thông tin lại để thấy được bức tranh tổng thể của vấn đề, những chiến lược dài hạn những tham vọng và quan ngại của các quốc gia có liên quan.



June 2013 --Drone 88--

Taiwan Gets First Batch Of AH-64E Apache helicopters

Miragec14
Defensenews

Taiwan is to acquire 60 Apache from the US.
Taiwan has received the first six of 30 Apache advanced attack helicopters bought from the United States as it modernizes its military despite warming ties with China.
The six AH-64Es were shipped to the southern port of Kaohsiung.
The Taiwanese army will become the first force outside the US to introduce the new model.
A second batch of six is scheduled  to arrive in December while the remainder will be delivered by the end of 2014.

Vietnam to receive two more Gepard frigates in 2017

The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) Navy is scheduled to take delivery of its third and fourth Russian-built Gepard 3.9 (Project 11661) light frigates in 2017, according to financial statements released by Russia's Zelenodolsk Shipyard on 1 April.

The PAVN Navy commissioned its first two modified Gepard-class frigates, Dinh Tien Hoang and Ly Thai Ho , in March and August 2011 respectively. The two additional vessels, reported to be anti-submarine warfare (ASW) variants, are being built under a contract signed in late 2011.

Ukraine to Repair Engines of Vietnamese Su-27 Aircraft

Su-27 Vietnam People's Air Force (photo : lockonfiles)

Kyiv (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukroboronservice state-owned enterprise, a part of the state-run concern Ukroboronprom, and Vietnamese VAXUCO have signed a contract on repairs of AL-31F aircraft engines for the Vietnam People’s Air Force.

The press service of the state concern told an Interfax-Ukraine agency that, according to the contract, the Ukrainian side will repair AL-31F aircraft engines at the “Motor” Lutsk Repair Plant in Volyn region. According to a separate agreement, apart from the repairs, the Ukrainian side will also provide Vietnam with technical consulting on overhauls of AL-31F aircraft engines.

The state concern did not disclose other details of the contract.

The AL-31F aircraft engines were designed for the Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and its modifications.

During a meeting between Ukroboronprom Director General Serhiy Hromov and Commander of the Vietnam People’s Air Force, Colonel General Phuong Minh Hoa before the signing of the contract, the sides reaffirmed their mutual interest in further bilateral military and technical cooperation.

Hromov said that in the near future the Ukrainian side would send to its Vietnamese partners its proposals on the supply and modernization of air defense equipment, aircraft and armored vehicles, as well as on repairs and upgrading of naval equipment. He stressed that training of Vietnamese experts was also an important part of cooperation.

“This part will be taken into account during the signing of further contracts on supplies of military equipment to Vietnam,” he said.

“Vietnam is a promising country for our national defense industry products and we will continue to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the marked of this dynamically developing country,” he said.

In turn, Commander of the Vietnam People’s Air Force praised the signed agreements and cooperation development prospects with Ukraine.

“These agreements open prospects for new contracts on repair documentation, tooling, and facilities for the repairs of aircraft engines. Ukraine is one of Vietnam’s strategic partners in the defense sphere. We are ready to expand cooperation in the spheres of the procurement of new arms, as well as the modernization and prolongation of durability of military equipment of the Vietnam People’s Army,” he said.

Ukraine and Vietnam approved a plan and a program for military and technical cooperation for 2011-2015 in September 2010 on the results of the seventh meeting of their intergovernmental coordinating commission for military and technical cooperation.

The sides have successful cooperation experience, in particular in the sphere of the modernization of a wide range of military equipment for the Vietnamese Army, the creation of an aircraft maintenance facility, and the development of a shipbuilding program for Vietnam.

Interfax

Military spending spree

Mar 2013, Economist

THE tiny island-state of Singapore, home to just over 5m people, has a well-deserved reputation as a quiet, clean-cut hub for banking, lawyering and golf. Yet beyond the fairways it bristles with weapons.

According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Singapore is now the fifth-largest arms importer in the world, bested only by some obvious behemoths—China, India and Pakistan—plus South Korea. Singapore accounts for 4% of the world's total spending on arms imports. Its defence spending per head beats every country bar America, Israel and Kuwait. This year $9.7 billion, or 24% of the national budget, will go on defence.

These are striking figures, but then Singapore has been one of the bigger spenders in the region since its rancorous split from Malaysia in 1965. The difference now is that almost every country in South-East Asia has embarked on a similar build-up, making it one of the fastest-growing regions for defence spending in the world. Military analysts at IHS Jane's say that South-East Asian countries together increased defence spending by 13.5% last year, to $24.5 billion. The figure is projected to rise to $40 billion by 2016. According to SIPRI, arms deliveries to Malaysia jumped eightfold in 2005-09, compared with the previous five years. Indonesia's spending grew by 84% in that period.

It is part of a wider Asian phenomenon. For the first time, in modern history at least, Asia's military spending is poised to overtake Europe's, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank in London. China is doubling its defence budget every five years and India has just announced a 17% rise in spending this year, to about $40 billion.

Until recently domestic insurgencies have amply justified some South-East Asian countries' defence spending. Yet for decades there have been no interstate conflicts. An existential angst remains in Singapore over Malaysia to the north and Indonesia, its big neighbour to the south. Still, it is hard to imagine any of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) locking horns, apart perhaps from Cambodia and Thailand, who lob the occasional artillery shell at each other over a disputed temple on the border.

Mostly, though, countries seem to be exploiting economic success to update their hardware while the going is good. Defence spending slowed sharply after the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, when many planes and ships were already old. Now many countries are enjoying rapid economic growth, of up to 6% a year, and robust budgets. This is not, says Bill Edgar of IHS Jane's, a “strategic” arms race. Rather, he says, it is all about modernisation.

Take the regional giant, Indonesia. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 not only devastated communities, it also laid bare the shortcomings of the armed forces, which proved to be ill-equipped and demoralised. As American and Australian troops poured off aircraft carriers and other ships into the ravaged province of Aceh to bring aid and search for victims, Indonesian troops were reduced to spectators. The newly elected president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, took the humiliation personally. A former general, Mr Yudhoyono has since made modernising Indonesia's armed forces a priority.

Indonesia is spending $8 billion this year on defence—still rather modest for a country of 240m, but up sharply from $2.6 billion in 2006. Much is going on new hardware and spare parts. The country has acquired Russian and American warplanes, including F-16 fighters, vessels for its navy, and spare parts for its C-130 transport planes. In January Indonesia signed a $1.1 billion deal for three German-made diesel-electric submarines, and lawmakers are debating whether to buy 100 Leopard tanks from the Netherlands. Mr Yudhoyono also wants to improve the lot of soldiers, with higher salaries and benefits.

Domestic political calculations are another factor behind the region's defence splurge. Terence Lee at the National University of Singapore argues that in countries where the armed forces have meddled in politics, civilian politicians use larger defence budgets to buy political compliance from the military—Thailand is a case in point. Singapore, on the other hand, has a different motivation. It is the only country in the region building its own high-tech arms industry. Singapore has long sold weapons to other developing countries, but has recently been winning its first large orders from Western armies too. ST Engineering, the only South-East Asian firm in SIPRI's top 100 defence manufacturers, has sold over 100 Bronco (or Warthog) armoured troop carriers to the British, for use in Afghanistan.

For all that, strategic concerns do count for something. For example, the sea lanes leading to the Strait of Malacca are the lifeblood of Singapore's prosperity. And over the past decade, some may have worried that America was distracted by war elsewhere. So the growth of a Chinese blue-water navy has implications.

Strategic concerns also loom large for any country with a territorial claim to the disputed South China Sea (see article), where China's assertive stance has provoked a surge of spending by, for instance, Vietnam. The country recently ordered six Kilo-class submarines from Russia. Vietnam is also buying seven or so new frigates and corvettes over the next decade. In the Philippines the government of President Benigno Aquino almost doubled the defence budget last year, to $2.4 billion.

Even with new submarines and planes, Vietnam and the Philippines are still no match for Asia's new superpower, should it come to war. But it might make China think twice, or even thrice, before trying anything, and buy time before America—presumably—comes to the rescue.