Taiwanese foreign minister wants Australia to help defend against China's 'expansionism'

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/taiwan-australia-worsening-relationship-china/12938540

of December 1, 2020

Future Australian Ballistic Missile? First Steps

Excellent Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter (APDR) has an interesting article, of Dec 1, 2020, 

at https://asiapacificdefencereporter.com/australias-gilmour-signs-launch-pact-with-momentus/ :

“Australia’s Gilmour signs launch pact with Momentus”

“Momentus, a commercial space company offering in-space infrastructure services, and Gilmour Space Technologies, a hybrid rocket company based in Queensland, Australia, announced a new agreement for launch and orbital transport services.

...Gilmour Space is a venture-backed rocket company in Queensland, Australia that is developing new launch vehicles powered by lower-cost hybrid propulsion technologies. The Eris launch vehicle will debut its services in 2022 and offer lift-off capability to LEO in the 300kg class. A more capable variant, Eris Heavy, is intended to be commercially available in 2025 with a lift off capacity up to two tons. The Eris family of launch vehicles will launch from Australian and international launch sites, offering access to low inclination as well as Sun-synchronous orbits...”

[Pete Comment – a strong relationship with the Australian Government’s Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC) is evident. See the Youtube here https://youtu.be/tk_C9kpjoa8 also below]

READ THE WHOLE APDR ARTICLE

US Secretly Aided French Nuclear Program: France a Cutout to Israel

The information below indicates the US not only provided "how to build" nuclear weapons and missile information for France's purportedly "homegrown" nuclear deterrent, but the US provided this information on the understanding France would pass it on to Israel.

US TO FRANCE

William Burr https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/william-burr wrote “U.S. Secret Assistance to the French Nuclear Program, 1969-1975: From "Fourth Country" to Strategic Partner” Dated May 26, 2011

at https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/us-secret-assistance-to-the-french-nuclear-program-1969-1975-fourth-country-to-strategic   Extracts of this long paper include:

“The Nixon administration secretly reversed a policy of opposition to, and non-cooperation with, the French nuclear program that began to emerge during the final years of the Eisenhower administration [ie. late 1950s to 1961].

... Nixon's decisions stayed secret until the summer of 1989 when Princeton University political scientist Richard Ullman published an article in Foreign Policy magazine on "The Covert French Connection." ² [Richard Ullman, “The Covert French Connection,” Foreign Policy, No. 75 (Summer, 1989), 3-33.]

...Supporting the decision to aid the French was the assumption, held by Nixon and national security adviser Henry Kissinger, that making French nuclear forces more effective would strengthen the U.S. strategic position against the Soviet Union.

Drawing upon interviews with over 100 former officials, Ullman sought to puncture two myths: that the French strategic force ["force de frappe"] was "entirely homegrown," and that, owing to Washington's restrictive policy on the diffusion of nuclear technology, only the British had been a recipient of direct assistance.

Recently declassified documents show that during the summer of 1973, French defense minister Robert Galley directly asked for "‘negative guidance' on the trigger for the French nuclear warhead." (Document No. 47)

Defense Minister Robert Galley brought up a variety of problems where the French wanted help, such as multiple reentry vehicles, hardening of reentry vehicles (RVs/warheads), "negative guidance" for nuclear weapons design, and developing underground test sites so that atmospheric tests could end. The aid that the French were seeking would amount to assistance for a new generation of French missiles. As Kissinger aide William Hyland observed, this meant "crossing a line that was observed during previous cooperation." (Document No. 48)

Yet, Ullman also notes that his interview subjects acknowledged that "they had no confidence that anyone really knew what American scientists and engineers said to French colleagues over lunch and dinner once they had been given a basic license to talk." ⁵ [Ullman, “The French Covert Connection,” 20.]

 Thus, the actual conveyance of "negative guidance" may have been a matter outside of White House control. Certainly much more needs to be learned about the U.S. program of assistance to France.”

Pete Comment

Given US distrust of France’s independent foreign policy along with France’s independent nuclear program why was the US willing to help France. The joint enemy USSR was one reason. But I also theorise that French-Israeli nuclear cooperation in the 1950s (eg. France helping build the Negev/Dimona Nuclear Weapons Center and helping with Israel's Jericho missiles) continued in later decades.

In the 1960s, via France, the US secretly provide nuclear help to Israel, the US's most important strategic ally in the Middle East. US nuclear support to Israel occurring via France was more easily covered up. In espionage terms France acted as the deniable cutout for US nuclear weapon and missile intelligence to Israel.

FRANCE TO ISRAEL

Significant evidence of French nuclear assistance to Israel comes from a then serving US officer, who was both a military surgeon and military intelligence officer. He wrote about France’s early 1960s nuclear tests in the French Sahara.  This was US Lieutenant Colonel Warner D. Farr, who in a 1999 report http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/tilney1/docs/farr.pdf to the USAF Counterproliferation Center states "Progress in nuclear science and technology in France and Israel remained closely linked throughout the early fifties." 

Furthermore, according to  Farr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue_%28nuclear_test%29#Explosion "There were several Israeli observers at the French nuclear tests [in the early 1960s in the Sahara] and the Israelis had 'unrestricted access to French nuclear test explosion data.'

Pete Comment

So in the early 1960s there were Israeli observers to French nuclear tests of weapons that were built with US help. 

Other than the "Vela incident" possibility Israel is not known to have conducted its own "hot" (ie. fission and fusion reaction) nuclear weapon tests. Prior to that incident Israel's nuclear weapons' development probably relied on computer modelling using French nuclear test explosion data and joint research by French and Israeli scientists.

India sets up Indian Ocean coastal & island radars.

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/india-sets-up-coastal-radars-in-neighbourhood-to-keep-eye-on-china-1744751-2020-11-27

New Indian radars to be set up in Maldives, Bangladesh and Myanmar (see below). This is against State (China, Pakistan) and Non-State threats (terrorists, pirates, drug/gun smugglers, illegal fishing, etc).

Map courtesy India Today.

Quadrilateral: Networked Defence Against Chinese Military Advances

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, between the US, India, Japan and Australia, is steadily forming a vital networked defence structure in response to China's growing military power in the Indo-Pacific.
(Map courtesy Wikipedia).

The US is still the vital cog in the Quad. This is because the geographically, culturally and linguistically diverse nature of the Quad, tends to weaken it against centrally commanded, Chinese forces.

To redress this weakness increased all services, exercise, interactions of Quad members is vital, as well as common weapons, procedures and broader use of English whenever possible. English is very widely spoken in India, the US and Australia. Knowledge of English in Japan is improving.

In initial response to Pete’s perhaps extravagant claim that far in the future Australia and France may have a nuclear propelled/nuclear weapon submarine deal GhalibKabir made excellent comments on November 20, 2020. The Quad is a regionally useful arrangement at hand ie. very soon, rather than Australia-France Nuclear, which would be way down the track.

GhalibKabir comments:

“Not unless the Quadrilateral or whatever can walk the talk. Else, Australia will not get a nuclear SSN fleet as a [French K15 reactor] LEU based fleet needing refueling every 7-10 years is a costly thing to sink US$ 100-200 billion into.

Unless SIGINT collaboration, Undersea collaboration including bigger IUSS backed by UUV and UAV coordination materializes tangibly, the PLA will keep having an open field.

Most importantly, in case there are serious risks of flare-ups, unless there is serious signalling to China in terms of assured retaliation in terms of [Electronic Warfare?] EW response, [anti-satellite] ASAT retaliations on Chinese satellite constellations etc. China will brush this away like an elephant swatting away a fly.

To use underwater as an illustration, this is what it will take to make China take things seriously in the Indian Ocean and SCS

1. SIGINT/ELINT sats linked up across to P-8s, E-2Ds, RQ-4s/UAVs etc across from India to Australia

2. IUSS/SOSUS: These are to have links to AUV/UUVs and also to satellites above

3. Submarines: Along with UUVs, midget subs, AIP bearing SSKs, SSNs etc. need to be used in a 4 layer mesh. India, US, Australia, UK, France etc might need to collaborate here to manage the nearly 80 submarine plus innumerable UUV holding PLAN.

4. Surface vessels: Right from sharing bathymetry data etc, major surface vessels need to carry good Variable Depth Sonar (VDS) suites and be able to coordinate

5. Air support, missiles and munitions: Again SEAD/DEAD suite bearing fighters, long range munitions, BVRAAM missiles will need coordinated deployment to sustain parity or if not, a small 'first see, first shoot'chance against PLAN planes like the KJ-500 and KJ-600s and [Chinese stealth] J-20 and J-31 [aka FC-31]

This is the bare minimum needed... meaningless 'viagra for hermaphrodites' gestures like FONOPs won't cut any ice."

Philippines set to be first buyer of Indo-Russian BrahMos cruise missile

KIRAN SHARMA and CLIFF VENZON, for Nikkei Asia, in an excellent article. reported, November 22, 2020:

"NEW DELHI/MANILA -- India and Russia are looking to export to the Philippines their jointly developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, a move that may unnerve Beijing, given its border standoff with New Delhi and territorial disputes with other neighbors in the South China Sea.

The BrahMos takes its name from two rivers -- the Brahmaputra in India and the Moskva in Russia. The missile is manufactured by an Indo-Russian joint venture, BrahMos Aerospace, which was set up in India in 1998 and is responsible for designing, developing and marketing the missile. 

...[In December 2019] the Philippines said that it planned to buy the BrahMos for the army and air force to boost its coastal defenses. [Philippine] Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the contract would be signed by the second quarter of 2020, and consist of "two batteries," according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.

...Equipped with stealth technology and an advanced guidance system, the BrahMos can be launched from air, land, sea and underwater platforms and can carry conventional warheads weighing 200 kg to 300 kg. It has a range of 290 km and is supersonic, shortening flight and engagement time. The missile's speed makes it difficult for targets to disburse. No known weapon can intercept it, according to BrahMos Aerospace.

...New Delhi and Manila earlier this month held an online meeting of their commission on bilateral cooperation, co-chaired by India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Teodoro Locsin Jr., his Philippine counterpart. They agreed to strengthen the two countries' defense engagement and maritime cooperation, especially in military training, capacity-building, goodwill visits and procurement of equipment.

China is likely to view these developments with concern, including the involvement of its ally Russia in supplying the BrahMos to the Philippines.

...On Oct. 18, the missile was successfully test-fired from the Indian Navy's indigenously built stealth destroyer INS Chennai, hitting a target in the Arabian Sea "with pinpoint accuracy," a Defense Ministry statement said. On Sept. 30, a BrahMos surface-to-surface ground attack cruise missile featuring many Indian-made subsystems was flight-tested. During the test, the missile cruised at a top speed of Mach 2.8...

..."Russia clearly sees China as a useful partner when it comes to their posturing vis-a-vis the West. But they are also being pragmatic when it comes to [their] defense exports," which are falling, [Harsh V. Pant, head of the strategic studies program at New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation] told Nikkei. He observed that apart from the Philippines, others, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, have also shown interest in the BrahMos. "If you have to make this defense venture economically viable, then exports are very important."

Under the Missile Technology Control Regime that India joined in 2018, avenues for selling the BrahMos overseas have opened up, said Pankaj Jha, a professor of defense and strategic affairs at O.P. Jindal Global University, pointing out that its range is being extended to 400 km from the original 290 km...."

See the WHOLE EXCELLENT NIKKEI ARTICLE