Covert radio communications: a viable tactic for international terrorists?

Covert operations by underground groups, such as transnational terrorists, are not new and neither are the methods members of these groups use to communicate in their shadowy world. In this regard, one of the enduring myths is that the main means these covert operatives use to communicate within their cell structure are telephones and emails in their various manifestations. This article critically discusses the possible use of wireless transmissions by transnational terrorists as a reliable form of communications. To critically discuss this proposition, a force field analysis was used to assess the theory that radio is a viable option. Implications of this study's findings are considered in terms of the ramifications they have for defence and security policy.     

大型水陆两栖飞机在反潜战中的运用

大型岸基固定翼反潜飞机虽然具有航程、航时、速度等多方面的优势,但由于其大部分的时间都花费在了巡逻飞行和盘旋等待上面,实际作战能力的发挥有限,且效费比也较低。若发展一型速度和岸基涡扇动力固定翼飞机相当,作战半径大、抗浪性能好、且具备水面持久驻留和低速巡航功能的大型水陆两栖反潜飞机,则可以较好的解决上述问题。文章分析了大型水陆两栖反潜飞机的特点和发展现状,并对其在应召反潜、检查反潜、巡逻反潜和持久威胁组网式反潜中的运用和优势进行了分析和探讨。研究发现,通过利用可在水面起降和长时间驻留停泊的特点,以大型水陆两栖为平台的反潜飞机不仅可以大大提高航空反潜作战的有效性,还能极大的降低运行成本,对增强海军中远海作战能力和体系化作战能力具有重要的意义。     

公安现役部队遂行非战争军事行动训练的发展趋势探析

遂行非战争军事行动训练是公安现役部队教育训练的重要内容。近年来其训练效果在公安现役部队履职实践中得到了良好的体现。但面对日益复杂的斗争形势,公安现役部队在进行常规训练的同时,应更加突出应急训练、联合训练和心理训练,以更好地完成党和人民赋予的神圣使命。     

The African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis: conceptual breakthrough or anti-imperialist phantom?

The creation of an African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis (ACIRC) is a sign of Africa's willingness to take its destiny into its own hands. Presented as a reaction to the slowness of the development of the African Standby Force (ASF), it is also a response to some of the ASF's conceptual weaknesses. This decision reflects a wish to establish an instrument better equipped to deal with the challenges Africa is facing. Departing from the (sub)regional logic of the ASF results from a desire to take into account the transnational nature of threats, while its enlarged mandate is meant to offer Africa the capacity to intervene in all kinds of conflicts, including by undertaking peace enforcement activities. But the obstacles on the road towards the actual creation and mobilisation of this capacity should not be underestimated. These include material difficulties, but also political tensions, between ‘small’ and ‘big’ states as well as between the African Union and subregional organisations. The risk then is high that the ACIRC, whose announcement came as a reaction to France's intervention in Mali, ends up joining the ranks of the many ‘anti-imperialist’ phantoms haunting the history of the Organization of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU). Confronted by events considered ‘neocolonial’ initiatives, African actors have indeed traditionally reacted by launching grand projects that never got off the ground. However, by actually establishing this new instrument, they may also demonstrate that times have definitively changed.     

South Africa's threat environment: a guide for the National Planning Commission

Abstract

The mandate of South Africa's recently appointed National Planning Commission includes addressing ‘defence and security matters’. This article seeks to outline the central elements of the threat environment facing South Africa in the foreseeable future. It is argued that South Africa faces no meaningful existential threat from conventional military forces but that its security forces will need to be prepared to address possible raids and attacks by conventional military forces both on home soil and on vital interests beyond the nation's borders. Other threats highlighted include the threats posed by potential insurgencies, by terrorism, and by crime, social unrest and banditry. Also addressed is the danger of so-called hybrid threats, in which two or more of the single threat types outlined here are combined. Finally, the article challenges the National Planning Commission to rethink South Africa's policy on peace operations in the light of the need to ensure the safety and security of the nation's citizenry.     

‘Fighting for peace’

In Africa, most of the present conflicts are civil, intra-state wars where belligerent groups use guerrilla tactics to achieve various political, economic or ideological objectives. The atrocities and the effect of these on-going wars on innocent civilians, human suffering, poverty and development are beyond comprehension. Not surprisingly, the majority of current peace operations are in Africa, with more than 70 countries contributing forces to these conflict zones. On the continent, South Africa has come to assume a leading role in peace operations and is now a major troop-contributing country to UN and AU missions. In the past 11 years, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has taken part in no fewer than 14 peace missions. This article provides a brief background of the conflicts in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan, the different United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) mandates under which peacekeepers had to operate as well as their objectives, and the extent of South Africa's involvement in the various missions. In the last section, the major challenges, that these operations have posed are highlighted.     

Jihad or qatal? Examining Al Qaeda's modus operandi

There is widespread acknowledgment that the modus operandi of jihadis affiliated with Al Qaeda and associated movements (AQAM) relies on brutal terror-inducing tactics which, more often than not, target Muslim and non-Muslim non-combatants. This article comparatively analyzes the AQAM modus operandi within the traditional stipulations of Islamic precepts with respect to waging jihad al saghir. The purpose is to glean whether or not such tactics such as suicide bombings, declaring fellow Muslim apostates in order to kill them, use of IEDs and EFPs to target civilians, constitute legitimate rules of engagement in jihad al saghir.     

‘Immediate redress’: USS Potomac and the pirates of Quallah Batoo

Maritime interests in the twenty-first century are not immune to the growing number of irregular challenges and hybrid threats that have come to dominate land warfare. In order to better understand these challenges a study of naval history can help provide a vital foundation. In the early 1830s the United States Navy dispatched the frigate USS Potomac to Sumatra to investigate a pirate attack on the spice trader Friendship. Potomac's crew of sailors and Marines conducted a landing at the village Quallah Batoo and fought a pitched battle. As the navies of the world approach naval irregular warfare in the new century, studying past examples like Potomac's mission can help illuminate the principles of successful naval irregular warfare.     

军民融合框架下非战争军事行动应急防疫保障体系建设的思考

2020年初发生的"新冠肺炎"疫情是新中国成立以来防控难度最大的重大突发公共卫生事件,也是对军队应急防疫保障体系的实际检验。军队应立足于军民融合战略思想的大背景,着眼非战争军事行动应急防疫保障体系建设的实际,完善重大疫情防控体制机制,进一步健全公共卫生体系,以全面提升防控和救治能力。本文结合当前新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情和以往非战争军事行动应急防疫保障的实践经验,分析了非战争军事行动卫生防疫保障的特点,阐述了其经验做法和存在的不足,从防疫指挥救治、应急物资保障、卫勤保障法律、心理危机干预以及防疫研发攻关等五个方面给出了对策措施,希翼随着军民融合不断深入推进,军地救治经验的相互交流和科研技术的协助攻关,本研究能够为非战争军事行动应急防疫保障体系建设提供一些参考。     

谈现代反潜作战平台对我军潜艇作战的影响及对策

反潜作战是现代战争中一种重要的作战样式,是决定战争胜负的重要因素之一.通过详细讨论现代反潜作战中主要的武器平台及对我潜艇作战的影响,提出了我军在未来可能的反"台独"作战中潜艇作战的3种主要战法.