Reading Time: 3 minutes China’s first aircraft carrier has this week engaged in public live-fire exercises, flexing its own weapons as well as those of its fully armed combat aircraft. Beijing has declared Liaoning to be ‘fully operational’ and ready for combat after three years of testing, training and evaluation. Now it has set about proving this is so. […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes China’s military is developing ships, submarines, aircraft, intelligence systems and foreign bases in a bid to become a global military power, according to a forthcoming congressional China commission report. The late draft of the annual report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission contains a chapter on Beijing’s power projection development and warns that […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute A Sukhoi SU-30 MK2 fighter jet of the Vietnamese Air Force has reportedly gone missing during a training flight along South China Sea coast. Carrying two pilots, the Russian-built fighter jet was flying between 30km and 40km off the coast of Nghe An province when it lost contact with air traffic control on Tuesday, Reuters […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Pentagon said Wednesday that two Chinese J-11 fighter jets intercepted a US EP-3 reconnaissance plane in “international airspace” above the South China Sea in a manner characterized as “unsafe.” According to US defense officials, the Chinese jets came within about 15 meters of the US spy plane. Scenarios in which US spy planes face […]