Strategy Page

choi

(1) Warplanes: The Mysterious Copy Hawk Lands In China. Dec 30, 2013.
www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20131230.aspx

three consecutive paragraphs:

"Recently photos from China showed what appeared to be an American UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter landing at a Chinese military base. This mystery helicopter was promptly dubbed 'Copy Hawk' 山寨黑鹰 for the Chinese eagerness to copy foreign military gear.

"While China has never had any Black Hawks, they did manage to buy 24 S-70s, the civilian version of the UH-60, 30 years ago (before the Tiananmen Square massacre and subsequent arms embargo). At least three of these S-70s are known to still be in service the Copy Hawk, on closer examination, was definitely now an S-70. There were several obvious differences (mainly in fuselage shape and rotor configuration). Parts of the Copy Hawk looked like the new Chinese Z-10 helicopter gunship. * * *

"China could have reverse engineered the S-70 and even used parts taken from the twenty or so S-70s withdrawn from service and used all that to build a real, and probably quite workable, “Z-20” helicopter. Time will tell, especially when additional details get out.

choi

(2) Attrition: Taiwan And The Enemies Within. Dec 28, 2013.
www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20131228.aspx

Quote:

"But the plan [for Taiwan to switch from conscription to all-volunteer military] has not worked because the military has not been able to attract enough volunteers. Solving that will cost more money and a change in attitude within the military. Conscription has long been unpopular in large part because of the culture of brutality towards new recruits. If that could be eliminated a smaller force of willing troops could be recruited and be much more effective.

"In Taiwan the military has lost a lot of popular support over the last decade. Despite the continued threat from China, many Taiwanese have opposed efforts to upgrade military equipment and buy new weapons. Part of this is a reluctance to spend all that money, partly it’s the realization that no amount of arms buying will stop China if they are determined to take Taiwan.

choi

(3) Space: GPS And The Three Competitors. Dec 27, 2013.
strategypage.com/htmw/htspace/articles/20131227.aspx

Quote:

"China began developing its Beidou system, which is currently ahead of the EU effort. Galileo is supposed to offer limited service by 2015 but that will be complicated by an unresolved technical dispute with Beidou (both systems use some of the same signal frequencies meaning they can interfere with each other). * * * The Chinese Beidou ('Compass') network incorporates the best features of the Russian GLONASS and European Galileo systems, as well as items planned for the next generation GPS satellites.

"Four [GPS satellites or equivalents] is the minimum number of satellites needed to provide three-dimensional location information. * * * the way Galileo is being set up, it will provide improved reliability in higher latitudes and in built up areas. The Russians and Chinese are making the same pitch.

choi

(4) Morale: Porn To Die For. Dec 24, 2013
strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/20131224.aspx
("In October North Korea publically executed eight people from the Kim Il Sung Political University for viewing forbidden images. This school trains students destined for senior military and government jobs and its faculty and students are considered the most reliable supporters of the dictatorship. The eight who were shot by firing squads were caught possessing videos from South Korea and China. Some of the videos were pornography while others were more mainstream entertainment (that is not available in North Korea because it is considered decadent)")

Note: There is no need to read the rest of the report.

choi

(5) Sea Transportation: Thinking Really Big. Dec 24, 2013.
strategypage.com/htmw/htseamo/articles/20131224.aspx

Quote:

"For a long time the largest ships at sea were warships. But in the last few decades this has changed. As early as 1976 there were 414 meter (1,360 feet) long super tankers displacing over 600,000 tons. The largest warships, since the 1960s, have been American aircraft carriers displacing 100,000 tons. Before that there were some battleships during World War II that displaced over 70,000 tons.

"Now there’s a new type of large ship, the FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) which is a 488 meter (1,601 feet) long LNG (liquid natural gas) facility that takes natural gas in its gaseous state, lowers its temperature until it is a much more compact (by a factor of 600:1) liquid that can be carried to consumers aboard special refrigerated ships. The first FLNG ship displaces over 600,000 tons

Note:
(a) floating liquefied natural gas
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_liquefied_natural_gas
(While no FLNG facilities currently exist, a facility is in development by Royal Dutch Shell,[1] and is due to be completed by around 2017)

There is no need to read teh rest of the Wiki page.
(b) A Revolution in Natural Gas Production. Shell, undated
www.shell.com/global/aboutshell/ ... gas-production.html
("Shell is building the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project * * * The first site to use Shell’s FLNG will be the Prelude gas field, 200 kilometres (around 125 miles) off Australia’s north-west coast")