03 Juni 2011

Indonesian Marines Corps during parade (photo : kamushukum)

The Defence Ministry is planning to request Rp 80 trillion (US$8.5 billion) in its budget for 2012, a ministry official says.

Defense Ministry Defense Planning Director General Air Vice Marshall Bonggas S. Silaen said Wednesday that the government currently allocated 0.69 percent of the Gross Domestic Product to the nation's defenses.

He said the preparedness rate for the nation's weaponry was on average below 30 percent.

"If the budget could be increased to between 1.8 percent and 2.2 percent of the GDP, the preparedness could be improved between 80 and 90 percent," Bonggas said.

He said he hoped the projected defense budget for the coming two to three years would be above 1 percent of GDP and increase in phases within the next 10 years.

(The Jakarta Post)

Sir Minty captured this warbird at North Shore Airfield on 16-10-2010.
It was originally shown in the following blog:-
http://design-plane.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-north-shore-warbirds.html

I have modified this slightly a follows:-
This Piper Cub with the manufacturers construction number (c/n) of 9024 was built for the US Military as a Piper L-4A-P1 and allocated the serial 42-38455 with the USAAF - I have the date as 30-06-1942. It was struck off charge on 01-06-1946 and entered the US civil aircraft register as NC62052 with Stanley Sabihon at Wahiawa in Hawaii. It became N62052 in about 1971 with C C Jones of Honolulu followed by R L Smith in 1974. T L Hauptman took it over from 07-05-1976. It appears to have been withdrawn from use in June of 1981. It reappeared with Hawaiian Historical Aviation on 24-01-1994. Its final listed owner being J F O'Toole of Honolulu from March of 1994.
It was cancelled from the US register on 23-03-1994 to allow its entry onto the NZ register as a Piper J3C-65 ZK-AIR on 26-03-1994 to Stan & Gilly Smith/Tech-Air (NZ) Ltd of Albany.

I recently had contact with Harry Noyes who sent the following:-

"Today, on a whim I hunted down an old friend on Google and found her on your blog,

Of all the planes I ever flew, my favorite was J-3 N62052 (and the only one whose tail number I can still remember without looking at my logbook ). I am so delighted to see that she is still alive and dressed in her youthful warpaint. If only I had aged as well. She was yellow when I knew her, of course, while attending graduate school at the University of Hawaii. She was a toy basically, with absolutely no practice utility in Hawaii (I tried to get over the mountains to the North Shore one day and the plane's rate of climb wouldn't overcome the downflow from a north wind over the peaks), but God what fun! We were allowed to make touch-and-go landings at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor and flying over that area with the windows open was always a thrill. Once I saw a carrier entering harbor below me, another time a nuclear sub. Once, while I was still learning to fly taildraggers, she started running rough when we leveled off after take-off. We turned back to Honolulu International and I landed with a slight bump (you don't land very hard at 25 mph unless you do it upside down, and with Hawaii's winds I sometimes landed at about 5-10 mph ground speed) and the engine stopped. That also killed our plug-in walkie-talkie radio, of course, so we couldn't explain anything to the tower. I have always imagined that the controllers must have rolled on the floor laughing as they watched my instructor and me jump out and start pushing that teeny yellow plane off the runway onto a cross-taxiway. Thank God, it started back up when we propped it or we would have had to push it about a mile to the ramp. Anyway, I figured out that the problem was the crude gas-gauge and fuel-tank drain arrangements. The gauge consisted (from the photo, it looks as though it still does) of a wire with a cork on the end that floated on the fuel with the wire sticking through a hole in the gas cap. This let water run into the fuel when it rained, which it usually does several times a day in Hawaii. Of course, we always drain the gas tank before flying to check for water. But apparently in the Cub, someone made a bad decision to put the drain in the middle of the tank bottom instead of the rear end of the bottom. Thus when the plane's nose was pointed up (almost all the time, of course, with a Cub), water could settle in the undrained corner behind the drain pipe. After that, we always lifted the tail into the air when draining the gas tank. I think I owe some of the most precious things in my life to Piper 62052. I was chasing a girl who didn't like me much, but didn't totally reject me because she wanted a ride in that airplane. By the time she got it, she had agreed to marry me. True, she fired me from my husband job 20 years later, but meanwhile we had had two incredible kids. My daughter just got married and my son is a foreign service officer, now studying Russian before going to the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. If it weren't for 62052, they might not be here. On such things do the fates of men hang sometimes. Thank you for posting her photo, and if you can, please advise the owners how grateful I am that they have preserved my old friend from 40 years ago.

Harry Noyes
San Antonio, Texas "

02 Juni 2011

HMAS PERTH after her modernisation (photo : Saab)

The Defence and Security company Saab is one of the prime contractors for the ANZAC frigate ASMD project which has reached its most important milestone with the successful firing of an Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile from HMAS PERTH off Jervis Bay, Australia.

The Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) program was commenced in 2004 to redesign and modernise the ship’s critical combat capability. Its prime role was to prepare the ship’s defences for the potential missile threats of the 21st centrury.

”The ANZAC ship now has a very sophisticated combat system which is clearly a world leader. The ship’s weapons, sensors and command and control capabilities are now highly prioritised towards defence in a hostile anti-ship missile defence scenario”, said Managing Director of Saab Systems in Australia, Mr Richard Price.

A major part of this project has been to upgrade weapons capability through introduction of the CEA Technologies CEAFAR active phased array radar and CEAMOUNT missile illuminator. Detection of small, fast missiles by Sagem Vampir infrared search and track sensor has also been added and the ship’s data links will be extended by the addition of Link 16, VMF (Virtual Message Format) and satellite capability.

The Operations Room of HMAS PERTH showing the upgraded Saab 9LV Combat Management System (photo : Saab)

Another vital part of the upgrade has been to enhance the fully integrated combat management system performed by Saab’s 9LV 453 Mk 3E. These enhancements include:

-New 30-inch widescreen operator consoles, with large touch input displays operating commercial Microsoft® operating systems,

-a completely redesigned operations room layout with 10 consoles to improve management and coordination of operations,
-large screen displays on the bulkheads showing intelligence, CCTV and status information,
-redundant Gigabit LANs for greater data capacity,
-new operator modes for fighter control, and
-ulitisation of advanced control modes for the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles.

”Saab will continue to support all variant’s of the 9LV system in the Royal Australian Navy until the rest of the ships are brought up to the ASMD standard,” adds Mr Richard Price.

(Saab)

02 Juni 2011

USCG has 12 ships Hamilton class cutter that will soon be replaced by National Security class cutter (photo : USCG)

US cites ‘re-energized’ relations

WASHINGTON D.C. – The United States is "very pleased" with the re-energized relations with the Philippines as shown by discussions of top US and PHL officials on issues such as "maritime security and a range of economic initiatives."

This was revealed by Kurt M. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, in a speech Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) here.

Campbell mentioned the Philippines first in "a country-by-country evaluation" in a speech on the US outlook in Southeast and North East Asia, highlighting the US "policy of re-engagement" in the region.

Founded in 1962, CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization based in the nation’s capital which "seeks to advance global security and prosperity by providing strategic insights and policy solutions to decision-makers."

Campbell’s speech was a preview on the high-level presence of the US in the region’s upcoming events. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in Bali, Indonesia, for the 18th Asean Regional Forum in mid-July.

Later this year, President Barack Obama will attend his first East Asia Summit, participate in the third US Asean Summit and host the annual APEC Leaders Summit in Honolulu.

Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia Jr., who was present at Campbell’s Asia overview, said the five-year, $434 million Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) anti-poverty grant to the Philippines "is on track."

MCC implementation starts in the Philippines this month. The US has linked release of the grant on the condition of an improved human trafficking record by the Philippines.

Cuisia last week said in a press gathering the Philippines would be purchasing "eight cutters over five years" from the US. The cutters are part of the government-to-government cooperation on heightened Philippines’ coastal watch.

Cuisia formally received the Hamilton class cutter May 13 in California. He said the cutter, named after Philippine hero Gregorio del Pilar, would sail for the Philippines on July 5 and arrive there by August.

(Malaya)

02 Juni 2011

CAE would provide aircrew training service for KC-30A tanker aircraft (photo : Airbus Military)

Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today announced that CAE Australia would provide aircrew training services for the new KC-30A air-to-air refuelling tanker.

Mr Clare said CAE would be on the ground at RAAF Amberley to provide maintenance and support to the simulator on which the aircrews of the
KC-30As will be trained.

“This means 16 more jobs and around $20 million in investment between 2012 and 2018,” Mr Clare said.

“CAE support teams will be on-site at the KC-30A training facility to provide support and maintenance.

“This means any issues that arise with the simulator can be addressed quickly because we have experts based at the training centre to manage them.”

Mr Clare said that this work was an extension of CAE’s existing contract with Defence for the Management and Support of ADF Aerospace Simulators.

“CAE already has the contract to provide management and support to 15 of the Defence Force’s training devices and simulators across the country.

“This is in addition to that work and means that we can take advantage of CAE’s expertise in this area.

“It also means savings. By extending the existing contract Defence can cut overheads and operate a more economical and efficient simulator training system for ADF personnel.”

(Australian DoD)

The date was May of 1969 and the place was Invercargill.
The aircraft is Gulfstream 11 N119K.
Just aft of the open door are miniature flags of the countires that it has visited.
Operator and purpose of the visit has faded into history.

Fairey Britten-Norman BN2A-21 Islander c/n 759 began life in 1975 as G-BCZD with the manufacturer. It was sold on 14-04-1980 to Nigeria. However I can find no Nigerian history for this airframe. It next turned up on the US register as N11216 until being cancelled there on 22-04-1981 for sale in Japan where it became JA5268. It then migrated to PNG and became P2-MFZ followed by P2-VAB. It was ferried into Auckland from Norfolk Island on 09-08-2005 and then over to North Shore Airfield. It has been resident there ever since. It  has not joined the NZ register to date; although it did wear the "KTR" markings for a while. The above photo was taken at NZNE on 09-03-2008.
The shot below was taken as recently as 01-06-2011 by Jean2010 with what looks like a dose of tagging.