warships Archives - We Are Change TV.US

UK Unveils Plan To “Transform” Navy By Converting Ferries Into Warships

By all accounts, Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster for the UK, largely because the Tories can’t seem to surmount internal squabbling over the finer points (i.e. the dreaded Irish backstop) of the deal negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May.

But while the functioning of Britain’s civil service has more or less ground to a halt as bureaucrats focus on “Operation Yellowhammer” – the contingency planning for how the UK will keep its sweeping bureaucracy functioning if the UK leaves the EU next month without a deal – Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson decided to announce during a Monday speech at the Royal United Services Institute that, in addition to launching a multi-billion-pound tour of the UK’s naval might intended to strike fear into the hearts of the Chinese leadership in Beijing, the Royal Navy will also begin investing in its plans to convert ferries into warships.

Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson

In accordance with its plans, the UK will soon acquire two ferries or cargo vessels and begin the process of converting them to warships. The plan is part of a program to build out more nimble multi-purpose military seacraft (that, we imagine, could also be used to ferry emergency supplies over from the Continent if Brexit truly goes awry). The ships will be among the first assets purchased from the Royal Navy’s multi-million-pound “transformation fund”.

Williamson also revealed that his department is planning on buying off-the-shelf drones that build new “swarm fleets” that would be capable of interacting with the UK’s f-35 stealth fighters.

Here’s more on the costs of the program courtesy of the Times of London:

Two new vessels will be bought or procured under lease-hire to form the new strike-ship concept, which is set to cost tens of millions of pounds and is due to enter service within the next few years. The MoD will scout for ferries and container ships to find a pair of suitable vessels to convert.

Meanwhile, the drones are set to cost £7 million and will be ready by the end of 2019.

One of the ships will be based in the Indo-Pacific, and the other in the Mediterranean…

In a wide-ranging speech at the Royal United Services Institute in Westminster, Mr Williamson said of the new ships: “These globally deployable, multirole vessels would be able to conduct a wide range of operations, from crisis support to war fighting.”

“They would support our future commando force, our world-renowned Royal Marines – they will be forward deployed at exceptionally high readiness and able to respond at a moment’s notice, and bringing the fight from the sea to land.”

He said the two ships should be based to the east of Suez in the Indo-Pacific and one to the west of Suez in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Baltic.

…Because nothing will signal to China and Russia that the UK means business like a couple of ferries outfitted with cannons as the UK works to expand its international presence in the Pacific and elsewhere.

Sources: Iranian Regime Is Sending Elite Forces to Venezuela to Assist Socialist Leaders to Crush the Popular Uprising

Sources inside Iran say the Khomeiniist regime is sending top IRBC Commanders to Venezuela to quash the popular democratic uprising.

Iran already has military forces spread out to Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

This is a frightening development.

ISICRC.org reported:

Sources from within the regime who asked not to be identified report that the Khomeiniist regime is dispatching special anti-riot units Chiefs accompanied by IRGC Commanders to Venezuela in order to offer instruction and reinforcement, in order to quash the anti-Maduro protests. This group of commanders are said to be travelling as oil consultants.

In December the Islamic regime announced that it will likely deploy a new-generation of warships, the Sahand destroyer — which can carry helicopters, fire torpedoes and shoot down airplanes —to Venezuela. The deputy commander of the Iranian navy, Rear Admiral Touraj Hassani Moqaddam, told Reuters: “Our plans for the near future include sending two or three ships, with special helicopters, to Venezuela on a South American mission that could last for five months”.

Tehran’s provocative actions are already raising serious concerns among analysts.

Pressure campaign: U.S., U.K. lead joint drills in the South China Sea

WASHINGTON, U.S. – As part of Washington’s pressure campaign against China’s militarization of the man-made islands it has constructed in the disputed South China Sea – the U.S. and U.K. carried out joint military naval drills in the strategic waterways.

The two navies announced in a statement on Wednesday that they had conducted their first joint naval drills in the disputed South China Sea since China constructed the island bases there.

In a press statement, the U.S. Navy said, “A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer the USS McCampbell, which is based in Japan, and a Royal Navy frigate, HMS Argyll, which is on a tour of Asia, conducted communication drills and other exercises from Friday to Wednesday to address common security priorities.”

In the statement, a U.S. Navy spokesman said, “There’s no record in recent history of operations together, specifically in the South China Sea.”

The spokesman noted that no such joint drills have been conducted there since at least 2010.

The joint drills were also the second time in 12 months that Britain directly challenged China’s growing control of the strategic waterway.

In August 2018, the 22,000 ton British warship HMS Albion sailed close to the Paracel Island chain that is claimed by China in the South China Sea.

The drill last year incited an angry response from Beijing, which accused London of engaging in “provocation.”

Britain’s participation in the joint drills came at a time when the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has increased the frequency of the international freedom of navigation drills in the resource-rich waterways.

The joint drills also comes after the U.S. said that it would like to see more international participation in its pressure campaign against the militarization of the South China Sea.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said that a U.S. warship sailed through the South China Sea to challenge China’s “excessive maritime challenge.”

A statement by U.S. Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr said that the guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell patrolled near the Parcel Islands challenging China’s claim to the region.

It noted that the USS McCampbell sailed within 12 nautical miles of the disputed islands of Tree, Lincoln and Woods in a ‘freedom of navigation operation.’

At the time, McMarr clarified that the operation was not about any one country or to make a political statement.

She added that the visit was intended to “preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law.”

However, the U.S. action triggered a furious response by China, which scrambled warships and aircraft to intercept USS McCampbell.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at the time that the conduct of the U.S. ship had violated China’s and international law.

Kang had stated, “We urge the United States to immediately cease this kind of provocation,” adding that China had sent military ships and aircraft to identify and warn off the ship.

He added that resolving issues would benefit the two countries and the world and added, “Both sides have the responsibility to create the necessary positive atmosphere for this.”

China faces bold international challenge

China has been locked in a dispute with its neighbours, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan – that have competing claims in the strategic waterways for several years now.

Beijing has managed to maintain its dominance over the South China Sea, constructing artificial islands and deploying its weapons and defences in the waterways – in recent years, its aggressive claims have been challenged by the U.S.

The world’s two top economies have engaged in a war of words over the repeated and contentious Freedom of Navigation exercises conducted by the U.S. in the South China Sea.

China has repeatedly rebuked the U.S. over its Freedom of Navigation exercises in the resource-rich waterways, through which about $5 trillion in shipborne trade passes by each year.

For years, China has managed to ward off threats from the other, less powerful neighbours that also claim parts of the South China Sea – through its aggressive tactics and growing financial clout in the Asia Pacific region.

Yet, the country has refrained from responding back harshly in the face of repeated challenges by the U.S., Australia and the U.K.

Instead, China has insisted that it has sovereignty over the mineral-rich waterways and has pursued its brutish claims by discreetly constructing artificial islands throughout the waterway.

The country has constructed military bases on these artificial landmasses in the vital waterways, reinforced them and armed them with military equipment.

In May 2018, outrage against China’s militarization of the artificial islands in the South China Sea grew louder after the country landed its H-6K strategic bomber on an outpost in the Paracels, Woody Island for the first time.

Yet, despite the criticism, China has continued reinforcing and arming its bases in the Paracel Islands and farther south in the Spratly Islands – by deploying missiles and radar equipment.

Warmongering Idiots Are Britain’s Real Enemy, Not Russia

Authored by Finian Cunningham via SputnikNews.com,

Britain’s defense minister Gavin Williamson this week said that he will tackle the alleged threat from Russia… by sending warships, submarines and marines to the Arctic.

No kidding. The man in charge of defending Britain, Gavin Williamson, told Bloomberg News that the UK is to urgently adopt Cold War strategy to confront Russia and that forces must be readied.

Defense Secretary Williamson said under his ministerial watch Britain would be redeploying Cold War strategy which had been abandoned more than two decades ago, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

He said warships, attack submarines and helicopters were being made ready to confront an alleged threat posed by Russia to Britain’s national security.

“In response to current Russian aggression, the UK has also stepped up training of its Royal Marines in Norway’s Arctic,” reported Bloomberg. No evidence was cited as to what constituted the alleged Russian aggression. It’s all on the say-so of people like Williamson and media stenographers.

Now, one would think that given there are only 100 days to go to Britain’s tumultuous divorce from the European Union on March 29, the British minister would have a lot more urgent issues to consider. Apparently not.

Business leaders and assorted commentators, as well as large numbers of the ordinary British public, are deeply alarmed about the possible chaos if Britain crashes out of the EU without any trading arrangement. The so-called “hard Brexit” is looming ever more likely as Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May fails to galvanize support for her withdrawal deal.

There are reports this week of British businesses rushing to form contingency plans in the event of a no-deal Brexit. There are fears of trade and transport disruption causing severe shortages in consumer goods and medicines.

The British cabinet has drawn up plans to deploy some 3,500 troops across the nation in the event of Brexit chaos. What those armed services would be doing precisely is not clear.

But it is reported that Britain’s top national security committee, COBRA, is to meet on a daily basis in the countdown to Brexit, presumably to assess the impact on defenses from a disorderly exit from the EU.

With all the concern over social disruption from the impending divorce from Europe, one wonders why Gavin Williamson devoted his time this week to talk about “tackling the threat from Russia” and dispatching warships and troops to the Arctic.

Surely a preposterous lack of priority! But then what should one expect from the 42-year-old boyish-sounding defense minister who has been one year in the job? Before that high-level posting Williamson has had exactly zero experience in military affairs. He neither served in the armed forces, nor had he any government service relating to military or defense matters.

Indeed it is something of a mystery how a former manager of a pottery and china plate factory should six years after becoming a Member of Parliament in 2010 now be the man in charge of Britain’s war policy.

Previously, Williamson gained notoriety during the Skripal affair earlier this year when he declared that “Russia should go away and shut up!”. For that outburst, Russia’s Ministry of Defense spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov ridiculed Williamson’s “intellectual poverty”.

Despite his dubious intelligence, the former pottery-sales-manager-turned-armchair-general has been running his mouth off about how Russia is allegedly targeting Britain with cyber attacks and other forms of aggression. Williamson has recklessly accused Moscow of plotting to sabotage Britain’s undersea cables for communications and its civilian power infrastructure. Again, no evidence is ever presented, merely lurid sensational claims.

Nothing it seems would please Britain’s callow defense minister than to start a war with Russia. For him that would be a pinnacle career move even though the country he is supposed to be defending might possibly end up as a heap of radioactive ashes. Imagine him atop the pinnacle with a potty on his head and radioactive ruins below.

This scaremongering, warmongering Russophobia is all about keeping idiots like Williamson in a high-paying job. And no doubt a plush job to follow at some warmongering pro-NATO think-tank.

However, this week’s installment involving sending British forces to the Arctic “to defend Britain from Russia” is obviously aimed at the additional purpose of distracting Britons from the Brexit mess that Williamson’s government has created.

It truly is mind-numbingly appalling that a time when Britain is seeing record numbers of child poverty and homelessness — which could all be greatly exacerbated by Brexit — you have the man in charge of national defenses talking about sending warships and troops to the Arctic to fight Russia.

In long-held scurrilous tradition, Britain’s ruling class are squirming out of responsibility for their atrocious failings by blaming some imagined foreign enemy — in this case, Russia.

It is time for British people to realize that their real enemy is the effete, elite ruling class which treats with them contempt, poverty and abject callousness.

Britain needs defending alright — from the likes of Gavin Williamson and his incompetent government.

U.S. builds pressure on China over maritime claims in South China Sea

BEIJING, China – Even as the U.S. and China remained locked in talks over de-escalation of the ongoing trade war this week, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea that is claimed by China.

The move by the U.S. Navy managed to cause anger in Beijing, which has lodged “stern representations” with the U.S.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet confirmed that a U.S. warship sailed through the South China Sea to challenge China’s “excessive maritime challenge.”

According to a statement by U.S. Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr, the guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell patrolled near the Parcel Islands challenging China’s claim to the region.

The Pacific Fleet confirmed that the USS McCampbell sailed within 12 nautical miles of the disputed islands of Tree, Lincoln and Woods in a ‘freedom of navigation operation.’

McMarr said that the operation was not about any one country or to make a political statement.

Adding that the visit was intended to “preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law.”

The U.S. action triggered a response by China, which scrambled warships and aircraft to intercept USS McCampbell.

Further, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that the conduct of the U.S. ship had violated China’s and international law.

Kang said in a statement, “We urge the United States to immediately cease this kind of provocation,” adding that China had sent military ships and aircraft to identify and warn off the ship.

He added that resolving issues would benefit the two countries and the world and added, “Both sides have the responsibility to create the necessary positive atmosphere for this.”

Brutish claims challenged

For several years now, China has been locked in dispute with its neighbors, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan – that have competing claims in the strategic waterways.

While China has managed to maintain its dominance over the South China Sea, constructing artificial islands and deploying its weapons and defences in the waterways – in recent years, its aggressive claims have been challenged by the U.S.

The world’s two top economies have engaged in a war of words over the repeated and contentious Freedom of Navigation exercises conducted by the U.S. in the South China Sea.

China has repeatedly rebuked the U.S. over its Freedom of Navigation exercises in the resource-rich waterways, through which about $5 trillion in shipborne trade passes by each year.

China has managed to ward off threats from the other, less powerful neighbours that also claim parts of the South China Sea – through its aggressive tactics and growing financial clout in the Asia Pacific region.

Yet, the country has refrained from responding back harshly in the face of repeated challenges by the U.S., Australia and more recently even the U.K.

Instead, China has insisted that it has sovereignty over the mineral rich waterways and has pursued its brutish claims by discreetly constructing artificial islands throughout the waterway.

The country has constructed military bases on these artificial landmasses in the vital waterways, reinforced them and armed them with military equipment.

In May 2018, outrage against China’s militarization of the artificial islands in the South China Sea grew more loud after the country landed its H-6K strategic bomber on an outpost in the Paracels, Woody Island for the first time.

Yet, despite the criticism, China has continued reinforcing and arming its bases in the Paracel Islands and farther south in the Spratly Islands – by deploying missiles and radar equipment.

While China claims its facilities in the waters are for defensive purposes, international experts believe this is part of Beijing’s concerted bid to cement de facto control of the South China Sea.

The U.S. administration under the former President Barack Obama repeatedly rebuked China’s domineering actions in the disputed waterway.

The Obama administration aimed at merely warning China against pursuing its unlawful claims and carried out several ‘International Freedom of Navigation’ operations.

However, under the Presidency of Donald Trump, the operation aimed at challenging China in the South China Sea has grown more aggressive and direct.

The Freedom of Navigation exercises by the U.S. over the last 12 months have become more frequent and have featured mightier military power – including powerful U.S. warships.

In response to the more prominent U.S. challenge, China has been boosting its defenses too and has specifically enhanced its naval forces over the last two years under the supremacy of President Xi Jinping.

China has often responded to U.S. threats by conducting menacing counter operations but on the world stage it has responded to allegations of “militarization” by warning against threats to its “sovereignty,” and maintaining that the country is committed to “non-confrontation.”

U.S. Navy ship sails in disputed South China Sea amid trade talks with Beijing

BEIJING (Reuters) – A U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea in what China called a “provocation” as U.S. officials joined talks in Beijing during a truce in a bitter trade war.

The USS McCampbell carried out a “freedom of navigation” operation, sailing within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Island chain, “to challenge excessive maritime claims”, Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr said in an emailed statement.

The operation was not about any one country or to make a political statement, McMarr said.

The statement came as trade talks between China and the United States were under way in Beijing, the first round of face-to-face discussions since both sides agreed to a 90-day truce in a trade war that has roiled international markets.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that the conduct of the U.S. ship had violated China’s and international law, and China had lodged “stern representations”.

“We urge the United States to immediately cease this kind of provocation,” he said, adding that China had sent military ships and aircraft to identify and warn off the ship.

Asked about the timing of the operation during trade talks, Lu said resolving issues would benefit the two countries and the world.

“Both sides have the responsibility to create the necessary positive atmosphere for this,” he said.

China claims almost all of the strategic South China Sea and frequently lambastes the United States and its allies for freedom of navigation naval operations near Chinese-occupied islands.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan have competing claims in the region.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in December agreed to put on hold a spiraling trade dispute of tit-for-tat import tariffs on hundreds of billions worth of goods.

Trump has imposed tariffs to pressure Beijing to change its practices on issues ranging from corporate espionage to market access and industrial subsidies. China has retaliated with tariffs of its own.

Fears have grown in recent months that the dispute is just one vector in a bilateral relationship that is fast cooling across the board, with top administration officials sharply criticizing Beijing for everything from human rights abuses and its influence operations in the United States.

The two countries are also at odds over regional security, including Washington’s overtures to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.

China and the United States have in the past repeatedly traded barbs over what Washington says is Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea by building military installations on artificial islands and reefs.

China defends its construction as necessary for self-defense and says that it is rather Washington that is responsible for ratcheting up tensions in the region by sending warships and military plans close to islands Beijing claims.

(Reporting by Philip Stewart in Washington and Christian Shepherd and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Iran To Sail Warships Into The Atlantic, Pushing Near US Waters

At a moment a US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Stennis is stationed in the Persian Gulf, putting Iran’s military on edge, the Iranian navy has announced plans to deploy warships to the Atlantic starting in March, in a clear attempt to increase the operating range of its forces and extend into the United States’ backyard.

A top Iranian naval commander told the the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Friday, “The Atlantic Ocean is far and the operation of the Iranian naval flotilla might take five months,” and also identified that among the deployed vessels will be its Sahand destroyer, touted as Iran’s latest domestic built stealth destroyer.

*The new Iranian destroyer Sahand sails in Persian Gulf waters, Iranian Army via AP*

While suggesting that the ships could traverse the globe as part of the mission to extend operations, the IRNA described the Sahand as a “four-engine destroyer [that has] has been designed and made more advanced than its predecessor, Jamaran destroyer, with radar-evading capabilities.” The navy’s media statements issued by top ranking Rear Admiral Touraj Hassani also suggested the mission was handed down from the highest levels of Iranian leadership.

The Sahand is also known to be outfitted with a flight deck for helicopters and anti-aircraft systems, advanced missiles, and electronic warfare capabilities.

This latest provocative statement comes after Admiral Hassani last month declared Iran would soon deploy two or three warships on a mission to Venezuela, which the US would see as the most brazen mission yet, following on the heels of Russian temporary deployment of long range nuclear capable bombers to the Latin America country and longtime enemy of Washington.

Iranian military leaders have cited their intent to carry out such missions according to maritime law and in international waters, citing US carriers doing the same, just as American ships commonly pass near Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf.

Friday’s statement comes after on Thursday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif engaged in a war of words via Twitter over Iran’s space program.

Hours Pompeo claimed Iran was using “virtually the same technology as ICBMs” in a “defiant” Space Launch Vehicles launch that will “advance its missile program,” Iran’s Zarif shot back saying “Iran’s launch of space vehicles — & missile tests — are NOT in violation of Res 2231,” — the UN resolution which endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) on Iran’s nuclear program — which the Trump administration pulled out of last May.

Iran’s Navy Plans To Upgrade Speedboats With Stealth Technology To Counter US Navy

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy commander on Monday criticized the presence of US Navy warships patrolling the Persian Gulf and said the IRGC is preparing to upgrade its speedboats with stealth technologies and new missile launchers as tensions increase between Tehran and Washington near the Strait of Hormuz.

“The IRGC’s navy attaches great importance to high speed and maneuverability of its boats in the missions,” Alireza Tangsiri, the top IRGC Navy Commander, was quoted as saying by Press TV.

“We are planning to equip the IRGC’s speedboats with radar-evading stealth technology while increasing their speed in order to conduct their missions,” he said, adding that “new missiles moving at very high speed are being installed on the IRGC’s naval vessels.”

According to the Xinhua News Agency, the IRGC has some of the fastest speedboats in the world. Tangsiri said, “we are working on speedboats with the speed of 80 knots (148.16 km) (per hour) and beyond that.”

The IRGC commander pointed out that the arrival (Dec. 21) of the USS John C. Stennis, a nuclear-powered supercarrier, through the Strait of Hormuz of the Persian Gulf, was met with IRGC vessels shadowing the strike group.

Tangsiri said, “we are constantly monitoring them [US Navy] and have full command on these foreign forces” as they move through the Gulf. “The presence of foreign forces in the region disturbs security, noting that regional countries are capable of guaranteeing their security through staging joint military maneuvers and boosting cooperation,” he added.

On Sunday, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Baqeri said that the US is inciting new fears in the Gulf through its presence in the region.

“The Americans have always sowed insecurity wherever they had a presence,” Baqeri told reporters.

He stressed that the Gulf countries are capable of ensuring security on their own and the US presence in the region is creating more uncertainties.

Earlier in the weekend, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that US warships in the Gulf are “illegal.”

“Increased presence of Americans in the Gulf has always posed threats to the regional states,” he said.

The aircraft carrier arrived in the Gulf after Washington re-imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports in November and pulled out of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal earlier in the year.

To make matters worse, the IRGC recently held a significant war drill in the Gulf, launching an “offensive” maneuvers against enemy forces for the first time.

During that drills, Deputy Chief of Iran’s Army for Coordination Habibollah Sayyari said that Iran would never allow US warships to sail near its territorial waters.

Besides, “they cannot take any measure against us, because we are so prepared and have enough capabilities to stand up to such a publicity stunt,” Sayyari said.

The Strait of Hormuz is the leading maritime route through which Persian Gulf exporters— Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—ship their oil to international markets. The strait is roughly 21 miles across at its narrowest point, bordered by Iran and Oman.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that roughly 17 million barrels of oil per day, 35% of global oil exports, flows through the strait.

While crude has crashed more than 38% from the early October highs of 75, the probability of a geopolitical event in the Gulf has been elevated with not just the US Navy sailing warships through, but the idea that Iran is upgrading its speedboats with the intentions of starting a conflict with the US.

Perhaps, the new instabilities in the Gulf and around the Strait of Hormuz are all that is needed to have oil traders worry about the global oil choke point, and possibly lead to a bottoming in oil prices.

Britain, US and France send warships through Strait of Hormuz

ShareThis

Britain, US and France send warships through Strait of Hormuz –The flotilla will have passed within a few miles of the Iranian coastline. 23 Jan 2012 Britain, America and France delivered a pointed signal to Iran, sending six warships led by a 100,000 ton aircraft carrier through the highly sensitive waters of the Strait of Hormuz. This deployment coincided with an escalation in the West’s confrontation with Iran over the country’s [alleged] nuclear ambitions. The three countries retain a permanent military presence in the Gulf, but a joint passage through the Strait of Hormuz by all of their respective navies is highly unusual.

Citizens for Legitimate Government