US ‘CYBERCOM’ May Trigger A New Cyber Warfare: Chinese analysts

The US’ announcement to set up a Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), which is aimed at gaining military supremacy in cyber space, might trigger a new Cyber Warfare Race, Chinese strategic analysts have warned.

“It has already had the lead in conventional military and nuclear forces. Now it is expanding this advantage to be the leading force in new fields, such as electromagnetic space and outer space,” state-run China Daily quoted Peng Guangqian, a Beijing-based strategist, as saying.

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, recently, announced the establishment of the world’s first comprehensive, multi-service military cyber operation, called CYBERCOM, which could provide US forces a lead in new emerging strategic fields like space and outer space.

The announcement came only a few days after President Barack Obama laid out his National Security Strategy, stressing for the first time in such a document the importance of cyber security as one of the core national security interests, he said.

Meng Xiangqing, a professor with the National Defence University said there is a very thin line between a defencive and an offencive act when it comes to cyber space.

“CYBERCOM ranks high in the US military, reporting directly to the US Strategic Command, and the US is the most advanced state in cyber technology. This absolute advantage may trigger a new type of arms race,” Meng said.

Despite the US insisting CYBERCOM is mainly defencive, Meng said it “has raised a new challenge for China, and that is how to guard our national cyber security.”

States other than the US have already been planning mechanisms to guard national cyber security, including the UK, France, Russia, South Korea and Israel, which already has a military cyber force.

Song Xiaojun, a Beijing-based military strategist, said even if other countries join in the cyber arms race, they are not capable of competing with the US since it possesses the core technologies of the Internet and of all 13 Internet root servers in the world, 10 are in the US, including the only one main root server.

The newspaper also reported the comments of US Deputy Defence Secretary William J Lynn III that the potential enemy that CYBERCOM will fight has not yet been clearly identified.

“I think we need to be prepared for the unexpected. In fact, over the past several years we have experienced damaging penetrations,” Lynn had said apparently referring alleged attempts by Chinese hackers to break into sensitive defence sites.

http://www.china-defense-mashup.com/

Comments

Pakistani JF-17 A Thunder OR A Blunder

Pakistan has witnessed new defense acquisitions in this decade than any other, and in the center of it all is the new fighter which was designed by China with partial funding from Pakistan. It is formally known as JF-17 Thunder. When the fighter was in development, Pakistani online communities were jumping with excitement comparing it with its arch rival India’s modern combatants Su-30MKI, Mig-29S & Mirage-2000H. There were claims of it featuring western Radars and long range missiles, & Chinese ordering some due to its superior capabilities. But the reality is far from it. China having spent significant amount of money into a fighter which it is never going to use, most probably forced Pakistan to accept its avionics to offset some its development costs. Chinese who are known for their self reliance first and quality next, are further downgrading JF-17s capabilities with their poorly copy-pirated avionics. Along with their dubious weapons, any chance of JF...

India Planned Attack On Pak Navy Mehran Base To Kill Chinese Engineers

The terrorist attack on Karachi's Mehran Naval Station on May 22 was conceived and launched by India with the primary objective of killing the Chinese engineers present there, a Pakistani newspaper has claimed, citing 'informed sources'. Four to six Taliban terrorists had entered PNS Mehran on May 22, destroying two maritime surveillance aircraft and killing ten military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base. "India is the only country in the region that feels troubled by the Pakistan Navy, which had awfully beaten the Indian Navy in Operation Dwarka of 1965. Since then, it has been an earnest desire of India to harm the Pakistan Navy but it was perhaps not possible on the battle front, hence it struck the PNS Mehran," The News quoted sources as saying.

Pakistani F-16s Shoot Down RAF Eurofighter Typhoons During Air Combat Exercises In Turkey

Pakistani pilots flying modernised versions of the 1970s-vintage F-16 Falcon fighter have beaten the RAF's brand-new Eurofighter Typhoon superfighters during air combat exercises in Turkey, according to a Pakistani officer. Analysis: The RAF Typhoon, formerly known as the Eurofighter, should nonetheless have been vastly superior in air-to-air combat whether BVR or close in within visual range (WVR). The cripplingly expensive, long-delayed Eurofighter was specifically designed to address the defects of its predecessor the Tornado F3 – famously almost useless in close-in, dogfighting-style air combat. The Typhoon was meant to see off such deadly in-close threats as Soviet "Fulcrums" and "Flankers" using short-range missiles fired using helmet-mounted sight systems: such planes were thought well able to beat not just Tornados but F-16s in close fighting, and this expectation was borne out after the Cold War when the Luftwaffe inherite...

ASIAN DEFENCE

Search This Blog