In Geopolitics Today - Thursday, September 9th
China Plans Ambitious Hydropower Plant on the Brahmaputra River and Russia’s Northern Fleet Boosts Command & Control Capabilities
China Plans Ambitious Hydropower Plant on the Brahmaputra River
The most recent iteration of China’s Five-Year Plan was approved by the National People’s Congress earlier this year and this 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) focuses on economic and social development. The importance of renewable energies has been elevated in importance in this latest plan, and this has generated a debate the way China plans to curb its greenhouse emissions.
In particular, the inclusion in the plans of a hydropower plant at the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River has triggered speculation that China may soon begin undertaking massive hydropower projects in Tibet. The Brahmaputra River begins as Yarlung Tsangpo on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and flows through Arunachal Pradesh in India, then into Bangladesh as the Jamuna River, before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
India is particularly concerned about Chinese hydropower intentions, as the Brahmaputra River accounts for almost 30 percent of all its freshwater resources. As China extends its influence further into Asia, there are fears, especially in New Delhi, that the region downstream from China’s hydropower projects could one day see the river used as a weapon against them. The central fear in this regard is that China could choose to control the water flow of the Brahmaputra River. These fears have led to the Indian authorities taking countermeasures, namely by contracting their own projects to mitigate the adverse effect of Chinese dam projects upstream.
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Russia’s Northern Fleet Boosts Command and Control Capabilities
Early last month, Russia’s Northern Fleet participated in a large-scale naval exercise around the north-eastern Atlantic. The naval exercises were intended to test the use of the highly-capable Tsirkon 3M22 hypersonic cruise missile system within a new command and control structure for the Northern Fleet. The officially reported results of the combination of the two advanced systems working together demonstrate an exponential increase in Russia’s maritime strike capabilities.
The missiles were launched as part of the exercise from the cruiser Marshal Ustinov, the frigate Admiral of the Fleet Kasatonov, and thenuclear submarine Orel. Providing data to the launch vehicles were Tu-142 reconnaissance and anti-submarine aircraft, working together to launch a precise hypersonic strike at a designated target to a distance of up to a hundred kilometres. According to Russian military sources, the new automated command and control structure tested was able to identify critical targets and decide the manner of engagement. Experts view the introduction of this automated system as a significant boost to the firepower, target acquisition, and lethality of Russia’s naval forces.
When Russia first announced its hypersonic program, many US officials promptly dismissed the stated capabilities of the system as outlandish. But now, US military officials are increasingly sounding the alarm about the vulnerabilities that such weapon systems expose. The head of US Strategic Command, Admiral Charles Richard, admitted that the current ground-based and space-based sensor system that the US relies on “may not be capable of detecting and tracking these missiles.” He went on to stress that Russia is now a “leading country in the world in hypersonic technologies.” The integration of hypersonic weapons systems within an automated command and control system considerably boosts Russia’s naval capabilities.
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