DEFENSE NEWS

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) will use C-705 missiles from China in its locally-made fast missile boats (KCR). According to plan, 16 KCR-40 warships manufactured in Batam by PT Palindo Marine will be equipped with the missiles.
"The contract had been signed, the missiles are expected to arrive in 2014," First Admiral Untung Suropati, Chief of Information Center for TNI AL, told Tempo on Monday, January 28.
In accordance with Law No.16/2012, the government will cooperate in technology transfer in the purchasing scheme. With the scheme, it is expected that three domestic factories: PT. Pindad, Lapan, and PT. Indonesian Aerospace, will be able to manufacture their own missiles.
Earlier, the Director General of Defense Potential at the Defense Ministry, Pos Batubara, said that he was negotiating a technology transfer contract with China's manufacturers. He ascertained that local producers will be involved in the process. "We hope to be able to produce the missile ourselves," he said.
Head of Defense Planning Division at the Ministry of Defense, Major General Ediwan Prabowo, said that a number of local manufacturers have started their involvement in arming KCR 40. "PT. Pindad had begun its involvement, but the percentage is still small," Ediwan stated.
Without mentioning China's missile procurement contract, Ediwan said that the cost to make the KCR 40 amounts to Rp 75 billion per unit. The entire fund was sourced using a domestic lending scheme.

Caught between the jagged coral of an ocean reef and Filipino environmental and political concerns, the U.S. Navy says it will cut up the trapped USS Guardian and take it away piece by piece.

“Our only supportable option is to dismantle the damaged ship and remove it in sections,” Capt. Darryn James, spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said Jan. 29.

The decision, James said, keeps salvage equipment in deeper water and minimizes further damage to the coral reef.

The salvage plan, he said, aims to “safely remove individual sections of the ship without causing the release of harmful materials.”

Earlier, Rear Adm. Tom Carney, commander of the salvage effort, said the ship was too badly damaged for salvors to tow her off the reef.

Two heavy lift ship-borne cranes are en route to the scene of the grounding in the western Philippines, and should arrive about Feb.1, James said. The dismantling operation is expected to take more than a month to complete.

All the ship’s fuel has been removed, the Japan-based U.S. Seventh Fleet said Jan. 25, and teams continue to take off more materiel.

“The Navy has safely transferred approximately 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 671 gallons of lubricating oil, dry food stores, paints and solvents contained in storage lockers, and the personal effects left behind by the crew from the ship,” the Seventh Fleet said in a Jan. 28 press release.

The 79-man crew evacuated the Guardian late on Jan. 17, hours after the ship went aground on Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea. The minesweeper had been en route from Subic Bay in the Philippines to Indonesia. Most of the crew was returned to Japan last week, and a U.S. Navy salvage team has been working on the wreck.

Tubbataha Reef is about 80 nautical miles east-southeast of Palawan island....

...The Guardian’s hull, according to the Navy, has been punctured by the coral and several compartments have been flooded. Most of the fiberglass on the ship’s port side has delaminated and come off, revealing the ship’s wooden hull.....

Le Minsitère russe de la Défense et OSK (consortium des constructions navales russes) se sont accordés sur la construction de 3 nouvelles corvettes lance-missiles du Projet 21631 Buyan-M. Le contrat devrait être signé prochainement, et le Ministère a laissé entendre qu'il pourrait passer commande pour 2 unités supplémentaires lorsque la construction des nouvelles unités aura débuté. Le chantier naval Gorki (Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan), qui a mis sur cale les cinq premières unités de ce type, est en charge de la construction des bâtiments dont l'affectation, mer Caspienne ou  mer Noire, n'a pas encore été décidée.Les corvettes du Projet 21631 mettent notamment en oeuvre les missiles de croisière de type "Kalibr" (3S14 missiles guidés).

Source :Izvestia