• Russian ships arriving in China for naval war game

    By msnbc.com staff

    Guang Niu / AP file

    Russian missile cruiser Varyag is shown in this 2009 photo docked at Qingdao port, China's Shandong Province.

    The Russian guided-missile cruiser Varyag arrived at an east Chinese naval base Saturday ahead of a planned joint exercise with the Chinese navy, news agency Xinhua reported.

    The large-scale war game, the navies’ first bilateral drill, is scheduled Sunday through Friday off the resort city of Qingdao in the Yellow Sea, Xinhua said.

    Russia also sent from Vladivostok three Udaloy class destroyers and three support ships, said Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

    China will use 16 ships, including destroyers, frigates and two submarines, in the drill called Maritime Cooperation-2012, Ria Novosti said.

    A Chinese aircraft carrier may also participate, the International Business Times said.

    “The exercises will involve several simulated missions, including the rescue of a hijacked ship, the escort of a commercial vessel, and the defense a convoy from air and sea attacks,” a Russian military spokesman told the news agency.

    The exercise will promote strategic coordination and mutual trust between the two militaries, said Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Chen also said the drill would strengthen the naval forces' ability to jointly confront new regional threats and maintain peace and stability in the region and world.

    Since 2005, China and Russia have conducted several joint military exercises within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which also includes the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

    Dondi Tawatao / Getty Images Contributor

    Filipino protesters demanding that China pull out of the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea demonstrate Friday outside the Chinese Embassy in Makati City in Manila, Philippines.

    The new drill comes after President Barack Obama last November signaled a "return to Asia" following a decade of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    On Monday, the U.S. and Philippine military launched joint exercises involving in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China. The exercise includes 4,500 U.S. troops and 2,300 Filipino troops in a two-week event called "balikatan," or shoulder-to-shoulder, the Voice of America reported.

    The Philippines, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims in the South China Sea, Voice of America said.

    China and the Philippines are in a standoff over fishing rights in the area. China's most advanced fishing patrol vessel, the Yuzheng 310, arrived Friday in waters off the coast of Scarborough Shoal, China and VOA said.

    Xinhua reported the vessel will conduct routine patrols in the area to “protect China's sea rights and ensure the safety of Chinese fishermen.” The Philippines tried to arrest Chinese fisherman in the shoal, but Chinese surveillance ships intervened.

    Late Friday, China said authorities released 21 Vietnamese fishermen whom they had detained for more than a month on a disputed island in the South China Sea.

    Chinese security forces intercepted the fishermen’s two boats in early March near the Paracel islands, known in China as the Xisha Islands.

    The Paracels are occupied by China but also claimed by Vietnam.

    This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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  • Satellite spots China's first aircraft carrier at sea

    DigitalGlobe / AP

    This satellite image provided by the the DigitalGlobe Analysis Center shows the Chinese aircraft carrier Shi Lang (Varyag) sailing in the Yellow Sea. The picture was acquired Dec. 8 by DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    A commercial satellite operator says it has captured a rare image of China's first aircraft carrier as it sailed through the Yellow Sea, after going through an exercise that's the 21st-century equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.

    DigitalGlobe said the aircraft carrier showed up on a cloud-filled picture snapped on Dec. 8 by its polar-orbiting QuickBird satellite from a height of 280 miles (450 kilometers). An analyst spotted the ship while checking the image on Tuesday, said Stephen Wood, the director of the company's analysis center.

    "There is something that is always indispensable about having people involved," Wood told me. The ship was identified "using a combination of the satellite imagery plus open-source material on the Internet, and geography," he said, but "at the end of the day, it still comes down to a person."

    Experts have been hoping for months to get a glimpse of the aircraft carrier at sea. The former Soviet Union started building the ship, originally known as the Varyag, but never finished it. After the Soviet breakup, the Varyag ended up in the hands of the Ukrainian government. The ship was auctioned off to the Chinese in 1998. Since then, the Varyag, which has reportedly been rechristened the Shi Lang, has been under refurbishment for sea service.

    "This is a ship and a story that has had legs for many years," Wood said.

    DigitalGlobe

    Don't feel bad if you can't spot the aircraft carrier in this wide-field version of the satellite image from QuickBird. It's in the very center of the picture.

    NBC's Brian Williams reports on the DigitalGlobe satellite picture.

    DigitalGlobe said this picture was taken during the carrier's second sea trial, approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) south-southeast of the port of Dalian. Wood said the picture indicates that the ship is "moving at a decent rate of speed, which would be expected in the middle of the ocean." The U.S. military could no doubt glean more information about the Shi Lang's status, from QuickBird's pictures as well as from classified, higher-resolution imagery.

    China says the Shi Lang will be used for research and training, and the project is thought to be part of the country's strategy to expand its presence as a naval power. The Chinese military is expected to build more copies of the ship in coming years. In fact, sources told Reuters in July that a second aircraft carrier was under construction.

    "China's next moves have to be watched carefully, or there eventually could be a negative impact on maritime safety in Asia," Yoshihiko Yamada, a professor at Japan's Tokai University, told Reuters at the time.

    QuickBird's view of the Shi Lang serves as today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which features an image of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Here are the past offerings in the series:

    Update for 10:45 p.m. ET: The Associated Press' Dan Elliott got in touch with a Pentagon spokeswoman, Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, who said the progress made by the Chinese on the aircraft carrier was in line with the U.S. military's expectations. A Defense Department report to Congress said the carrier could become operationally available to China's navy by the end of next year, but without aircraft. "From that point, it will take several additional years before the carrier has an operationally viable air group," Hull-Ryde told Elliott in an email.

    Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.