LOCATIONS
LAND
18 Aug 14. Indonesia upgrades naval base near South China Sea. The Indonesian Navy (Tentera Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Laut, or TNI-AL) has begun upgrading its naval base at Ranai in Riau Islands to support a planned increase in ship numbers in the region, a senior TNI-AL officer has said. Speaking to IHS Jane’s on 14 August in Jakarta, TNI-AL Chief of Staff for the Western Fleet (KOARMABAR) Commodore Amarulla Octavian described the upgrades as consisting primarily of logistics support facilities, including the building of fuel depots, that will enable the TNI-AL to sustain deployments in the area. “The logistics facilities are being [upgraded] to support the TNI-AL’s increasing presence in the region so that we may safeguard the country’s maritime territories from any hostile forces should they pose a threat”, he said, although without making specific reference to any particular country. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
18 Aug 14. Singapore launches new urban live-firing training facility. The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has inaugurated a new training complex which enables the army to simulate mounted assault and close-quarter combat simultaneously in an urban environment using live ammunition. The new complex, called the Murai Urban Live-Firing Facility (MULFAC), is at Singapore’s Lim Chu Kang live firing area on the western edge of the island. It was officially opened by Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen on 14 August. MULFAC, which was designed by the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) in partnership with the SAF, comprises five single- and double-storey urban operations (UO) training buildings, a hand grenade training room, and an after-action review facility, spread over an area the approximate size of three football fields. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
MARITIME
19 Aug 14. Japanese Advance Plans For Another Air-Capable Assault Ship. The Japanese defense ministry has brought forward a proposal to construct at least one large amphibious assault ship that will enlarge the country’s naval aviation capability. The program may also enhance sales prospects for the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. Entry into service for the ship is now targeted for the fiscal year from March 2019; previous plans implied it would be commissioned in the early 2020s, if at all. The ministry will request funding for studies of the ship for the budget year beginning April 1, 2015, Jiji news agency reports. Missions include rapid reinforcement of the defenses of Japan’s remote islands, with those actively disputed by China—the Senkaku, or Diaoyu, islands—probably a spur. Tokyo must also consider its claim to the Liancourt Rocks, over which North and South Korea also assert sovereignty. Operation of an amphibious assault ship in addition to three small Osumi-class vessels now in commission suggests Japanese purchases of additional Osprey tiltrotors, helicopters or both. The fiscal 2014-18 defense plan allows for an order for 17 Ospreys, but that document included no firm plan for new assault shipping nor, presumably, the accompanying aircraft. The disputed rocks and islands have no airstrips, and the Senkakus are far from the Japanese main territory (see map). Helicopters could fly there from an airport on Miyakojima, an island 200 km (120 mi.) away, but heavy reinforcement would demand sealift, even if the transfer ashore were effected by rotorcraft. While the Japanese navy says it would use air-cushion landing craft and amphibious vehicles only in peacetime or when threats were low, it seems not to have ruled out the possibility of employing vertical lift in the face of enemy opposition. The proposed schedule for the assault ship suggests the ministry already has a pretty good idea of what it wants to build, because it is giving itself only a year for completing a design. Japanese construction of large warships routinely takes three years. Subject to budget approval, “the ministry of defense will study the required functions and size