When a bully kicks sand in your face, you have two options..You either do nothing and take it, or you do something about it..Well, the Philippines is tired of being bullied by the China of Xi Jinping..According to a media report in the Daily Sabah, the Philippines has ordered two new warships from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s largest shipbuilder, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said this week..And we all know why — modernizing Manila’s navy as it faces a dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea..The Philippine Navy had become run-down in recent decades — even featuring US craft from the Second World War — until President Rodrigo Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino, began a modest modernization program in 2010, the report said..The 28 billion pesos (US$556 million) deal with the South Korean shipbuilding giant sees the delivery of the corvettes by 2026..The South Korean shipbuilder’s corvettes tailored for the Southeast Asian country are set to be a multi-purpose surface combatant with 3,200-ton displacement, 116-meter length and 14.8-meter breadth (127-yard length and 16.2-yard breadth)..With a maximum speed of 25 knots and cruising speed of 15 knots, the corvettes will have a 16-cell vertical launching system (VLS), eight anti-ship missile launchers, a 35mm close-in weapon system (CIWS), a 76mm main gun, two three-tube torpedo launchers and Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar..In other words, it will pack punch. .Chinese coast guard ships have blocked and sprayed powerful streams of water at Philippine boats carrying supplies to troops at disputed South China Sea shoals — they will think twice if they are faced with well-armed corvettes that can sink them and their crews..Meanwhile, the Philippines is not the only country to seek a kick-ass blue water navy..Supported by HHI and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Mechanical Engineering (DSME), the South Korean Navy is in the process of building up its surface fleet and increasing the capability of its submarines to provide more offensive firepower..According to USNI News, the last few months have seen a huge amount of activity:.HHI launched the seventh of an expected eight new Daegu-class (FFX-II) frigates. To be named ROKS Cheonan, in memory of the corvette sunk in 2010, it will be delivered to the RoKN in 2023.HHI was awarded a KW636.3 billion, or $533 million, contract for the second of three new Batch 2 Sejong Daewang-class (KDX-III) destroyers expected to be delivered in 2026. HHI had already completed a keel-laying ceremony for the first Batch 2 KDX-III destroyer, with a launch expected in late 2022 and delivery in late 2024. HHI and Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) signed an MoU to cooperate on the design and development of a new 30,000-ton light aircraft carrier (CVX) for the RoKN — its first such platform.HHI also launched its third Batch 1 Dosan Ahn Chang-ho-class (KSS-III) conventional attack submarine (SSK) named ROKS Sin Chaeho. It will be delivered in 2024.HHI and Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) signed an MoU to cooperate on the design and development of a new 30,000-ton light aircraft carrier (CVX) for the RoKN..Defense researcher Professor Kim Jae Yeop told USNI News that the RoKN’s long-held ambition to become an ocean-going navy “is based on the belief that the country’s security challenge will not be limited to existing threats from the North in the longer-term.” .He said that this view is strengthened considering South Korea’s geopolitical position, surrounded by major powers like China and Japan..“Eventually, the ROKN plans to form a genuinely ocean-going surface fleet from early 2030s, consisting of three flotillas, something like Fleet Escort Force of Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces; along with KDX-II, KDX-III destroyers and other new ships in the future,” Kim added..The RoKN will need all the ships it can get by the early 2030s, with the introduction of a new 30,000-ton light aircraft carrier. .Despite initial skepticism about whether CVX carrier program was a priority, South Korea’s National Assembly has passed a US$6.1 billion budget for the CVX program reversing earlier planned cuts..As in the US, fear trumps everything and the South Koreans are taking no chances. China is only getting stronger and by all indications, Xi’s saber-rattling cannot be taken lightly..China claims almost all of the waterway, through which trillions of dollars in world trade pass annually, with competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam..Beijing has roundly ignored an independent 2016 ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that its historical claim is entirely without basis..Will the bully win out in the end?.Well, with the United States, the Australians, India, the United Kingdom, the French and the Germans, along with the South Koreans, the Philippines and Japan, all teaming up to back Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea, not to mention the United Nations, the arrogant bully might have met his match..Even the Mad Russian in the Kremlin is calling for a fair agreement on FONOPs..And speaking of Japan, Aviacionline reported the nation’s proposed defense budget for fiscal year 2022 recorded a 1.1% increase over the 2021 budget, setting a new record and marking the eighth consecutive year of increases..Linked to this, Japan is developing a new vision of its strategic policy, which is abandoning the purely defensive doctrine to gradually turn the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) into a tool with the capacity to project power beyond its jurisdictional waters..One of the clearest examples of this change in approach is the addition of the Lockheed Martin F-35B, which symbolizes the return of the Japanese Navy’s carrier-based expeditionary capability, a capability it has not had since the end of the Second World War, Aviacionline reported..The short takeoff and vertical landing (STOL and VTOL) F-35B will be able to operate from forward positions in the various island chains that make up the Japanese archipelago, but its main home will be aboard Izumo-class ships..Japan’s homegrown Mitsubishi F-X sixth-generation fighter jet (nicknamed Godzilla) is also being domestically developed at a projected cost of around 5 trillion yen (about US$48 billion)..Britain and Japan announced plans to develop a future fighter jet engine demonstrator and have agreed to explore further air combat technologies..Work on the joint engine demonstrator will kickstart early next year, with the UK investing an initial £30 million in planning, digital designs and “innovative manufacturing developments.”.In addition to working together on a new jet engine for their future fighter jets (the British Tempest and Japanese F-X), Britain is also working with Japan on their “Joint New Air-to-Air Missile” program..President Xi’s policies may be selling well at home, but they have launched the greatest military and naval encirclement — or shall we say, containment — in world history..The beast has awakened, and yes, the “new Cold War” that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, now 98, has warned us about, appears to be well on its way..Dave Makichuk is a Western Standard contributor. .,He has worked in the media for decades, including as an editor for the Calgary Herald and covering military issues in Asia. He is also the Calgary correspondent for ChinaFactor.news,.makichukd@gmail.com
