Rapid Fire 2011-07-19: Taiwan’s National Defense Report

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* Taiwan publishes its biennial national defense report. Despite outlining that China’s defense budget is 21 times higher and its military force levels are 10 times higher than Taiwan, the report says the island will not enter into an arms race with its neighbor. Instead Taiwan will focus upon putting its ‘limited defense resources to its utmost effective […]

* Taiwan publishes its biennial national defense report. Despite outlining that China’s defense budget is 21 times higher and its military force levels are 10 times higher than Taiwan, the report says the island will not enter into an arms race with its neighbor. Instead Taiwan will focus upon putting its ‘limited defense resources to its utmost effective use’.

* The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) publishes its analysis of the 2012 defense budget [PDF]. The report suggests that while defense expenditure increased by $300 billion between FY2001 and FY2011, almost half of the spending was unrelated to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

* UK Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox MP announces that the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) equipment budget will be increased by £3 billion ($4.8 billion) after 2015. The funding will allow the MoD to order equipment including 14 Chinook helicopters as well as converting the first Queen Elizabeth Class carrier to include catapult and arrestor gear.

* Meanwhile the UK Government’s Defence and Security Organisation (DSO) reveals that British defense exports for 2010 totalled £8 billion ($12.9 billion). Despite a decline in defense sales, the DSO further revealed that the UK’s share of the export market had increased by 4% throughout the same time period.

* The next Lockheed Martin Freedom Class Littoral Combat Ship will be named USS Little Rock.

* The Indian Air Force is set to ignore requests from rival bidders and maintain its preference for the Pilatus PC-7 turboprop for its training aircraft requirement.

* Codan wins a sole source contract [PDF] to deliver its MRX-I Interoperability Gateway and NGT high power high frequency radios to the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) J6 Directorate.

* Ukraine exported almost $1 billion worth of defense products in 2010. The majority of exports involved African countries, including sales of T-55 and T-72 main battle tanks (MBT) to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo respectively. However, a former director of the state-run arms exporter, Ukrspetexport, disputes the figures.

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