The five-domains update
Posted By
Luke Courtois, Rhys De Wilde, Mali Walker and Genevieve Feely
on February 19, 2019 @ 13:07
Sea state
UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has been criticised by China and cabinet colleagues for
announcing that the Royal Navy’s flagship, aircraft carrier HMS
Queen Elizabeth, would sail through the South China Sea. This is not the first time a senior British government official has proposed the idea.
In 2017, Britain’s ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch, said that the UK was planning to send the carrier to the Pacific. UK Chancellor Philip Hammond’s trade visit to Beijing has reportedly been postponed due to Chinese ‘irritation’ over Williamson’s comments.
The
38th annual Cobra Gold exercise, led by Thai and US forces, is underway in the northern Thai province of Phitsanulok. It’s the largest and longest-running annual military exercise in the Asia–Pacific and more than 25 nations are taking part. This year, the exercise focuses on jungle warfare, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
USS
Hornet, one of the most important US aircraft carriers in World War II, has been
found near Solomon Islands. Research vessel
Petrel, which also discovered the wreck of
USS Indianapolis two years ago, located the
Hornet at a depth of 5,400 metres. The carrier became famous in April 1942 when the Doolittle Raid, the first Allied air attack on the Japanese mainland, was launched from its deck. The
Hornet was sunk in October of the same year after also participating in the Battle of Midway.
Flight path
The US Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force began the
Cope North exercise at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam yesterday. More than 2,000 US service members will participate alongside 850 Australian and Japanese personnel. Cope North started in 1978 as a quarterly exercise between Japan and the US and is focused on building humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief abilities among the three Pacific allies.
Rafale combat aircraft from the French air force and navy conducted their
first test firings of the Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile on Wednesday last week. The tests were the last step in incorporating the Meteor into Rafale’s arsenal. The Meteor has also been used by the Royal Air Force’s
Typhoon combat jet, and will eventually be used by British F-35s.
India’s defence ministry has
approved the purchase of 54 Israeli HAROP attack drones for the country’s air force. The unmanned aircraft will be included in ‘Project Cheetah’, which aims to deck out all three of India’s services with high-quality attack drones and improve surveillance capabilities. The new drones will be tasked with patrolling India’s borders with Pakistan and China.
Rapid fire
The United Arab Emirates
signed nearly $1.9 billion worth of weapons contracts on the first day of the five-day defence exhibitions known as
IDEX and
NAVDEX. A contract worth about $444,000 was
awarded by the UAE to Australian company EOS Defence for ground and naval systems. Some of the weapons on display are being used in the war in Yemen and have been provided to militia forces by the UAE. Amnesty International has
called on all states to halt the sale of weapons that are ‘fuelling war crimes and serious human rights violations in Yemen’.
Kosovo’s new army has paraded for the first time, at celebrations marking the 11th anniversary of the nation’s independence from Serbia. Previously, the Kosovo Security Force was a lightly armed unit used for civil defence and to deal with natural disasters. Kosovo’s parliament
voted late last year to turn the service into a 5,000-strong standing army, despite criticism from NATO and anger from Serbia. Photos from the parade can be found
here.
As army helicopters
drop fodder to cattle stranded by the Queensland floods, farmers have been asked to
drop Google Maps pins to direct crews to the right locations. Graziers are also asking the army to
help bury up to 500,000 dead cattle killed in the floods.
Zero gravity
A British satellite has
successfully captured space junk using a harpoon, a development crucial to solving the growing threat to satellites and other spacecraft posed by space debris. It’s estimated there are
500,000 pieces of trackable space debris and millions more pieces that are too small to track. Watch a video of the successful capture
here.
NASA has
requested bids for the development of lunar landers that can carry humans, signalling its intent to establish a permanent human presence on the moon by 2028. The proposal says that NASA is looking for the best approach for getting
both commercial payloads and astronauts to the moon using its Lunar Gateway, a spaceship that will sit in lunar orbit and serve as a base for exploration and access.
After 15 years exploring the surface of Mars, NASA has
officially ended the Mars exploration rover
Opportunity’s mission. The rover fell silent in June last year during
intense dust storms and since then NASA has
made over 1,000 attempts at re-establishing contact. Even though the rover was only intended to last for 90 days, it far exceeded expectations by
travelling over 45 kilometres and delivering
indispensable photos of the red planet.
Wired watchtower
An automated text generator model has been
deemed too dangerous for public release. It was created by artificial intelligence research group OpenAI and is able to produce
remarkably coherent text without any human input. But in the ‘fake news’ era, concerns have been raised over its ability to create convincing false stories instantaneously and its
potential for abuse by malicious actors.
Chinese facial-recognition company SenseNet left a database logging sensitive information on over six million people, including
nearly three million in Xinjiang province, open and unprotected for six months, Dutch researcher Victor Gevers has
revealed. Information in the database included identification numbers, birthdays, home addresses and recent locations.
US prosecutors have
unsealed an indictment against Behzad Mesri, an Iranian hacker said to be an associate of the ‘Charming Kitten’ cyber group. The US government alleges that Mesri and Charming Kitten used intelligence provided by US Air Force defector Monica Witt to put US intelligence officials under surveillance. Iranian hackers have an
ambiguous relationship with the Iranian government, as the Revolutionary Guard Corps is said to provide lucrative contracts to Iranian hacking groups.
Luke Courtois, Rhys De Wilde, Mali Walker and Genevieve Feely are research interns at ASPI. Image courtesy of the Department of Defence.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-five-domains-update-47/
[1] announcing: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/16/gavin-williamson-defence-minister-china-visit-gaffes-conservative-anger
[2] In 2017: https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-supercarrier-hms-queen-elizabeth-deploy-pacific/
[3] 38th annual Cobra Gold exercise: https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/cobra-gold-one-of-world-s-largest-multinational-military-exercises-kicks-off-in-thailand-1.568443
[4] found: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-15/sunken-wwii-aircraft-carrier-hornet-found-in-pacific/10817978
[5] Petrel: https://paulallen.com/Indepth/Petrel/
[6] USS Indianapolis: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/uss-indianapolis-wreckage-found/
[7] Cope North exercise: https://www.postguam.com/news/local/service-members-aircraft-to-converge-for-cope-north-exercise/article_f5e4e1f6-30ef-11e9-a314-4725d2d3f476.html
[8] first test firings: https://www.janes.com/article/86432/french-rafales-conduct-first-meteor-firings
[9] Typhoon combat jet: https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/strike-air-combat/3405-uk-air-combat-capabilities-reach-new-heights-with-ioc-for-f-35
[10] approved the purchase: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/government-approves-54-killer-drones-from-israel-for-indian-air-force/articleshow/67971351.cms
[11] signed nearly $1.9 billion: https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/a-feast-of-war-and-terror-as-abu-dhabi-fair-showcases-military-might-20190218-p50yfd.html
[12] IDEX: https://idexuae.ae/
[13] NAVDEX: https://www.navdex.ae/
[14] awarded by the UAE to Australian company: http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302740148
[15] called on all states to halt: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/02/uae-arms-fair-showcases-belgian-weapon-in-use-by-yemeni-militias/
[16] Kosovo’s new army has paraded: https://www.reuters.com/video/2019/02/17/kosovos-new-army-parades-serbs-disapprov?videoId=516185099&videoChannel=118262&channelName=Reuters+Now
[17] voted: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/world/europe/kosovo-army-serbia-nato.html
[18] here: https://balkaninsight.com/2019/02/17/kosovo-marks-independence-day-with-army-parade/
[19] drop fodder: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=360310651229192
[20] drop Google Maps pins: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/military-to-airdrop-hay-to-stranded-queensland-cattle-20190206-p50w2a.html
[21] help bury up to 500,000 dead cattle: https://www.afr.com/news/politics/armageddon-graziers-call-for-army-after-qld-flood-kills-500000-cows-20190213-h1b74r
[22] successfully captured space junk: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/15/experimental-british-satellite-tests-harpoon-in-orbit/
[23] 500,000 pieces of trackable space debris: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-17/space-harpoon-fires-target-cleaning-space-junk/10819842
[24] here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-21/experimental-net-catches-space-junk/10289648
[25] requested bids: https://www.nasa.gov/nextstep/humanlander
[26] both commercial payloads and astronauts: https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/nasa/nasa-wants-speedy-development-of-commercial-lunar-landers/
[27] officially ended: https://theconversation.com/farewell-opportunity-rover-dies-but-its-hugely-successful-mars-mission-is-helping-us-design-the-next-one-111862
[28] intense dust storms: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/06/13/huge-dust-storm-knocks-aging-mars-rover-out-of-contact-with-earth/
[29] made over 1,000 attempts at re-establishing contact: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-14/mars-rover-opportunity-pronounced-dead/10810292
[30] travelling over 45 kilometres: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/02/the-sheer-distance-opportunity-roved-across-mars-still-has-us-in-awe/
[31] indispensable photos: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/science/mars-opportunity-rover-dead.html
[32] deemed too dangerous for public release: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-text-generator-too-dangerous-to-make-public/
[33] remarkably coherent text: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/02/elon-musk-backed-ai-company-claims-it-made-a-text-generator-thats-too-dangerous-to-release/
[34] potential for abuse: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47249163
[35] nearly three million in Xinjiang province: https://www.ft.com/content/9ed9362e-31f7-11e9-bb0c-42459962a812
[36] revealed: https://www.cnet.com/news/chinese-facial-recognition-company-left-database-of-peoples-location-exposed/
[37] unsealed an indictment: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/02/15/meet-charming-kitten-the-iranian-hackers-linked-to-air-force-defector/
[38] ambiguous relationship: https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-hackers-go-after-nuclear-workers-us-officials-and-think-tanks/