majalah militer

March 31, 2009 -- Helicopter Destroyer Hyuga (DDH 181), of Japan Maritime Self Defence Forces (JMSDF) was commissioned on March 18. International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 08 of the year and the United States even designates the whole month of March as ‘Women’s History Month’.

To mark this occasion, Helicopter Destroyer Hyuga is the first JMSDF destroyer to have female crew. The ship is part of 16DDH project (16 as in the 16th year of the Heisei emperor in the Japanese calendar). The warship looks like an aircraft carrier with a flattop deck and is in fact a helicopter carrier but not classified as an aircraft carrier.

The name Hyuga is of a World War II hybrid battleship/carrier. The ship is comparable in size to modern small aircraft carriers of Italy’s MM Giuseppe Garibaldi, Spain’s Principe de Asturia and Britain’s Invincible. (MarineBuzz)

March 29, 2009, New Delhi -- The Tata Group's defence arm, Tata Advanced Systems, has bagged an order for supplying 16 indigenous Akash surface to air missile (SAM) launchers for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The Strategic Electronics Division received the Rs 182 crore order for the launchers on Monday, even as the group celebrated the launch of its Nano small car. The order for the missile launchers is bigger than the Rs 172 crore order for Pinaka multi-barrel rockets manufactured by the group for the Indian army in 2007.

The total contract for two regiments of Akash SAMs worth an estimated Rs 1,200 crore was placed by the IAF on public sector undertaking Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) earlier this year and deliveries are to be completed in three years. While public sector undertaking BDL is manufacturing the missiles, BEL is producing the Rajendra phased array radar. (India-Defence)

March 29, 2009, New Delhi -- Supersonic BrahMos cruise missile Block II was tested today with a striking range of 290 km, successfully hit its target during a test at the Pokhran firing range today, DRDO officials said.

"The missile was successfully launched at 1115 hours in the morning and in the next two-and-a-half minutes, it hit the bull's eye in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan," an official told reporters.

This was the third test-firing of the latest Block II version of the missile. During the test, Army's Director General of Military Operations Lieutenant General A S Sekhon, Artillery School Commandant Lt Gen Rao and Additional Director General (Artillery) Major General V K Tiwari were present.

The launch of the latest land attack version of the missile being developed for the Army was also witnessed by DRDO's Chief Controller and BrahMos Aerospace Chairman A Sivathanu Pillai and DRDL Director P Venugopalan. After today's test, officials said the development phase of the Block II version of the missile was over and it was ready for induction in the Army. They said the mission objectives of the test were completely fulfilled. (India-defence)

March 26, 2009, San Diego -- Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, Vice Adm. Samuel J. Locklear announced the completion of the fleet operational exercise, Stellar Daggers, March 26.

The scheduled event took place March 24 and 26. Command and control of the participants in Stellar Daggers resided with U.S. 3rd Fleet based in San Diego.

San Diego-based Aegis destroyer, USS Benfold (DDG 65) engaged multiple targets during this multi-event exercise with Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Block IIIA and modified SM-2 BLK IV missiles. The overall objective of
Stellar Daggers was to test the Aegis system's sea-based ability to simultaneously detect, track, engage and destroy multiple incoming air and ballistic missile threats during terminal or final phase of flight.

During the event, Benfold's Aegis Weapons System successfully detected and intercepted a cruise missile target with a SM-2 BLK IIIA, while simultaneously detecting and intercepting an incoming short range ballistic missile (SRBM) target with a modified SM-2 BLK IV. This is the first time the fleet has successfully tested the Aegis system's ability to intercept both an SRBM in terminal
phase and a low-altitude cruise missile target at the same time.

Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD), which includes Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), is a Navy core competency and a key warfighting capability
for the U.S. maritime strategy, which calls for credible combat power to be continuously postured to protect America's vital interests.(Navy)