European Missile Defence

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US airs confidence it could down NKorean missile

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_airs_confidence_it_could_down_NKorean_missile_999.html

US airs confidence it could down NKorean missile

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) March 4, 2009
As Washington steps up diplomacy to prevent a North Korean missile launch, the US military is also voicing growing confidence that it can shoot it down if Pyongyang goes ahead.

Stephen Bosworth, the new US administration's envoy on North Korea, was holding talks in China on Wednesday as he consults allies on what could turn into an early foreign crisis for President Barack Obama.

But the US military is taking no chances with North Korea, which has warned it is preparing a "satellite launch". Washington and Seoul say the real purpose is to test a missile which could theoretically reach the US state of Alaska.

In unusually blunt remarks, Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of the US Pacific Command based in Hawaii, said that interceptor ships are ready "on a moment's notice."

"Should it look like it's something other than a satellite launch, we will be fully prepared to respond as the president directs," he said in a recent interview with ABC News.

"Odds are very high that we'll hit what we're aiming at. That should be a source of great confidence and reassurance for our allies," he said.

Charles McQueary, the Pentagon's director for operational tests and evaluation, said the United States has carried out three test scenarios for a North Korean missile launch and destroyed the threat each time.

"To me, that was a demonstration that this system has the capability to work," McQueary told a congressional panel.

North Korea is preparing its apparent missile test amid a stalemate in a six-nation 2007 deal under which the impoverished state agreed to end its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security promises.

The United States and its allies have ramped up defenses since 1998 when North Korea fired a Taepodong long-range missile over Japan's main island of Honshu into the Pacific Ocean.

The United States operates some 28 ground-based interceptors, 18 ships equipped with the Aegis radar tracking system and a number of radar systems, including the "Cobra Dane" complex in Alaska's Aleutian islands, according to the Missile Defense Agency.

Regional US allies Japan and South Korea also have Aegis-equipped vessels. Japan, which has tense relations with North Korea, has set up Patriot interceptor missiles including in central Tokyo.

North Korea expert Bruce Klingner, who formerly worked for the CIA, saw a 70 to 80 percent chance of Pyongyang going ahead with a missile test.

"It is the next step in Pyongyang's escalating efforts to try to get the US to soften its demands in the six-way talks and back away from the requirement of international standards for verification" of nuclear disarmament, said Klingner, now at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

But he said that a test could trigger even closer military cooperation between the United States and its allies, such as leading South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak to expand missile defense.

Until Lee took over a year ago, South Korea had a decade of liberal leaders who focused on reconciliation with the North and shied away from anything that could be seen as military confrontation.

"A successful launch would significantly and overnight alter the threat perception in northeast Asia," Klingner said.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Monday that Tokyo -- officially pacifist since World War II -- was ready to shoot a North Korean missile targeting the country.

However, it remains to be seen -- both technically and politically -- if Japan could shoot down a missile flying over its territory toward the United States.

Current Japanese military doctrine says the country will only fire on a missile that directly targets its soil, although conservative governments have called for a change to allow so-called "collective self-defense."

earlier related report
NKorea missile launch not imminent: minister
North Korea is pushing ahead with preparations to fire a missile but a launch is not imminent, South Korea's pointman on the communist state said Wednesday.

"I don't believe a missile launch is quite imminent but there are preparations ongoing," Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek told reporters, without indicating any timeframe.

The communist state has said it will fire a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, in what Seoul and Washington see as a pretext to test a missile that could theoretically reach Alaska.

They say any launch would breach a UN resolution adopted after the last missile test in 2006.

The new US envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is touring China, Japan and South Korea this week. He will discuss ways to dissuade the North from a launch and try to persuade it to resume stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

Inter-Korean tensions are also high, after the North on January 30 announced it is scrapping all peace accords with Seoul -- including one that recognised the western sea border as an interim frontier.

Seoul has warned of possible naval clashes along the Yellow Sea border known as the Northern Limit Line.

"I consider the situation in the West (Yellow) Sea and around the NLL as very serious," Hyun said. "But we are responding very closely and resolutely."

The North is angry at South Korea's conservative leader Lee Myung-Bak, who scrapped his predecessors' policy of offering virtually unconditional aid to Pyongyang.

The minister again offered the North dialogue "anytime, anywhere" but told it to stop heaping insults on Lee. He said Seoul would "actively consider" providing any humanitarian aid that the North requires.

earlier related report
China, US opposed to NKorean missile launch: envoy
China and the United States agree that North Korea should not go ahead with a missile launch, a US envoy said here on Wednesday after talks with Chinese officials.

"We both believe it would not be a good idea to have a missile launch," the new US envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, told reporters.

North Korea has said it will fire a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, but the United States and South Korea believe it is a pretext to test a missile that could theoretically reach Alaska.

They say any launch would breach a UN resolution adopted after Pyongyang's last missile test in 2006.

China, one of North Korea's closest allies, has been more circumspect about its position in public, but has also in recent days called for Pyongyang not to do anything that would jeopardise regional stability.

Bosworth briefed the media immediately after what he described as very good talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

He said China and the United States were also in agreement that stalled six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme should restart soon.

"I think there is a great convergence of views that we are very much committed to the notion that it is important to resume six-party talks as soon as possible," Bosworth said.

Under a landmark six-nation deal in 2007, North Korea agreed to scrap its atomic weapons programmes in exchange for badly needed energy aid.

But the talks, also involving the United States, Russia, South Korea, China, and Japan, became deadlocked late last year when North Korea balked at demands to allow verification of disarmament moves.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who also met Bosworth in Beijing, said verification remained the key hurdle, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Parties involved have not reached an agreement on the issue and efforts are being made to find a solution acceptable to all," said Wu, Beijing's envoy to the six-party talks, which are hosted by China.

Bosworth is scheduled to travel Thursday to Tokyo for talks with top Japanese officials.

He is then due to fly on Saturday to Seoul, where he will meet Russian and South Korean officials.
 

A.V.

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Turkish Aerospace Industries delivers first composite parts for F-35

Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI), a major supplier to Northrop Grumman Corporation on the F-35 Lightning II aircraft program, has produced and delivered its first composite parts for the jet. The new parts - structural composite panels used to form the outer surface of the new international, multi-role fighter - represent a critical first step in TAI’s plans to eventually produce 400 center fuselages for the program. Northrop Grumman will integrate the parts into the center fuselages of the first two production F-35s.

According to Mark Tucker, vice president of tactical systems and F-35 program manager for Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector, the composite panels also represent the first F-35 parts produced in a new composites manufacturing facility opened by TAI last November in Ankara, Turkey. To date, Northrop Grumman has trained nearly two dozen TAI employees in the high precision fabrication techniques being used in that facility.

TAI’s recent shipment included six composite panels - three for each of the two jets being produced under the first phase of low rate initial production. As part of its F-35 work share, the company will produce similar composite panels for every jet made during the production phase of the program
 

A.V.

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Dash For The Gulf

March 7, 2009: The UAE (United Arab Emirates) are buying two Dash-8 300 twin prop transports (costing about $20 million each) and spending several times that to fit each of them out with several tons of sensors (radar, heat sensor, day/night vidcam with high zoom, plus commo, GPS and electronic countermeasures.) The 19 ton Dash-8 is normally used as a 50 passenger transport. Equipped for maritime reconnaissance, the aircraft can stay in the air for over six hours. Several other nations already use the Dash-8 for maritime patrol, and are quite pleased with the price and performance. The UAE version will, however, have the most elaborate electronics suite.
 
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Russia to monitor US Arctic submarine exercises:

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_to_monitor_US_Arctic_submarine_exercises_report_999.html

Russia to monitor US Arctic submarine exercises: report

Russia's navy will monitor submarine exercises by the US navy to be held under the Arctic Ocean later this month, a Russian navy spokesman told the RIA-Novosti state news agency on Thursday.

"Any activities by foreign submarines in the immediate vicinity of Russia's maritime borders naturally require increased attention by the navy," said the spokesman for Russia's Pacific Fleet, based in the port of Vladivostok.

Such monitoring is especially important "considering that during the last exercises there was an incident with a British submarine," he told RIA-Novosti, referring to a 2007 accident in the Arctic that killed two British sailors.

The comments came after the Navy Times publication reported Tuesday that two nuclear-powered attack submarines were headed to waters off Alaska to participate in Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2009.

At the previous ICEX in 2007, two British sailors were killed and a third injured in an explosion and fire caused by a malfunctioning air-purification system aboard the HMS Tireless, a hunter-killer submarine.

No British submarines are participating in this year's exercises, the Navy Times said, identifying the two US subs as the Helena and the Annapolis.
 

EnlightenedMonk

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The missiles surely can reach. They clearly would have the range demonstrated by the satellite launch.

But, does Iran have any ground targetting capability?? I mean, to target a specific point on the ground, you'll need GPS or something similar. Does Iran have any access to any such technology?

Because, placing a satellite in orbit is one thing. Making a warhead hit a particular point on the ground, is quite another. Both are difficult, but they are different. That's what I want to say...
 

Payeng

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The missiles surely can reach. They clearly would have the range demonstrated by the satellite launch.

But, does Iran have any ground targetting capability?? I mean, to target a specific point on the ground, you'll need GPS or something similar. Does Iran have any access to any such technology?

Because, placing a satellite in orbit is one thing. Making a warhead hit a particular point on the ground, is quite another. Both are difficult, but they are different. That's what I want to say...
Ballistic Missiles guidance system is not primarily a GPS guided one however GPS can assist in mid course correction of the calculated projectile of the missile, our very own Prithvi Missile uses a inertial guidance system and not a GPS however l don't have any information about any latter modification.

Also to note that Ballistic missile have their existence since WWII in the form of V2 rocket much prior to GPS technology.
 

Rage

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Iran test fires new long-range missile: report

Iran test fires new long-range missile: report

March 8th, 2009 - 11:03 pm ICT by IANS -


Tehran, March 8 (Xinhua) Iran has “successfully” test fired a new long-range missile, the country’s English-language television station Press TV reported Sunday.

“Iran’s defence ministry said it has successfully installed long-range (air-to-sea) missiles on some of its jet fighters,” the report said, but did not say when the test was conducted.

“The ministry said Iranian experts have managed to build and test-launch the new missile to hit its naval targets within a range of more than 110 kilometres,” the report said.

“These are also equipped with radar system for automatic navigation and target recognition,” the report said, adding the 500-kg missile is Iran’s latest military development.

The country’s latest test of its long-range missiles comes amid global efforts to soothe the tension between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme. Tehran has said its military agenda is defensive and its technology is aimed at possible aggressions.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said that Israel’s nuclear sites are within the reach of its missiles.

“All the nuclear sites in every part of the occupied lands by the Zionist regime (Israel) are within the reach of Iran’s missiles,” Jafari was quoted as saying.

The US and Israel have consistently refused to rule out the possibility of military strikes against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear programme.

The US and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear programme. Iran has denied the US charges and insisted that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.


http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal...-new-long-range-missile-report_100164265.html
 
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Sudan seeks India’s help against ICC ‘targeting’ its president

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal...st-icc-targeting-its-president_100163598.html

Sudan seeks India’s help against ICC ‘targeting’ its president
March 6th, 2009 - 9:43 pm ICT by IANS -

New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Attacking the US for its alleged double standards, Sudan Friday sought India’s diplomatic support against International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s decision to indict President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of genocide in Darfur.
“Sudan strongly rejects the decision of the ICC. The targeting of Sudan’s president is political, not judicial,” Omer Elamin Abdalla, charge d’affaires at the Sudanese embassy, told reporters here.

Repudiating the ICC decision, Abdalla said the indictment of the Sudanese president was done without any first-hand evidence. “Moreno-Ocampo or his team never visited Sudan or Darfur,” he said while describing the ICC as “an illegal child of white men”.

Abdalla also charged that the ICC, at the behest of certain western powers, was trying to dismantle the fabric of Sudanese society by sowing the seeds of discord among its citizens.

“This decision affects the political and economic life of the country,” he said while adding that Sudan, the largest country in Africa, is neither a party nor a signatory to the Rome Convention, which resulted in the founding of the ICC.

Accusing the US of “hidden designs” of trying to dismember Sudan in the name of concern for the people of Sudan, Abdalla said “the US administration and European governments are not morally qualified to lecture us on human rights.

“These are the last people who should talk about human rights,” he said.

“The genocide in Gaza and the killings in Iraq and Afghanistan were committed by the former regime of George Bush. Why don’t they bring Bush to justice?” he asked.

Drawing a distinction with the West’s policy of “double standards”, the Sudanese diplomat sought India’s help in supporting Khartoum over the issue. “I believe that in the light of long relationship between India and Sudan, India should support,” he said.

“Nehru and Gandhi were known for their struggles for justice and fairness for all people. We believe the Indian people and the Indian government will not fail Nehru and Gandhi,” he underlined.

Last year, the ICC prosecutor indicted al-Bashir on 10 charges, including three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder and sought his arrest.

About 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in Darfur since the violence between feuding tribes erupted in 2003, according to UN estimates. Khartoum contests these figures and says that the problem in Darfur was largely a competition for resources among nomads and settlers of the region.
 
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U.S. says Chinese vessels harassed Navy ship

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090309/pl_nm/us_usa_china_navy

U.S. says Chinese vessels harassed Navy ship



WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five Chinese ships including a naval vessel harassed an unarmed U.S. Navy ocean surveillance ship in international waters in the South China Sea Sunday, the Pentagon said.

The incident prompted the U.S. embassy in Beijing to lodge a weekend protest with the Chinese government, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

U.S. defense officials Monday reiterated the protest to China's defense attache in Washington, an official said.

The Chinese vessels "shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity" to the USNS Impeccable and its crew of civilian contractors, with one ship coming within 25 feet, a Defense Department statement said.

It said the American ship was conducting routine operations 75 miles south of Hainan Island.

"The unprofessional maneuvers by Chinese vessels violated the requirement under international law to operate with due regard for the rights and safety of other lawful users of the ocean," Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Major Stewart Upton said in a statement.

"We expect Chinese ships to act responsibly and refrain from provocative activities that could lead to miscalculation or a collision at sea."

The encounter was the latest incident of "increasingly aggressive" Chinese conduct in the area, which in recent days also included fly-bys of U.S. Navy ships by Chinese maritime surveillance aircraft, the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon identified the Chinese vessels in Sunday's incident as a navy intelligence ship, a bureau of maritime fisheries patrol vessel, a state oceanographic administration patrol vessel and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers.

The Impeccable is one of six Navy surveillance ships that gather underwater acoustical data while operating as part of the U.S. Military Sealift Command, the Pentagon said.

The Chinese vessels surrounded the Impeccable while two closed to within 50 feet, waving Chinese flags and telling the U.S. ship to leave the area, the Defense Department said.

The Impeccable responded by spraying one of the vessels with fire hoses and later informed the Chinese ships by radio that it was leaving the area and requested a safe path to navigate, it said.

Two of the Chinese vessels stopped directly in front of the U.S. ship and dropped pieces of wood in its path.

The Pentagon described accounts of half a dozen other incidents dating back to March 4, in which the Impeccable and its sister vessel USNS Victorious were subjected to aggressive behavior, including dozens of fly-bys by Chinese Y-12 maritime surveillance aircraft.

On March 7, a Chinese intelligence collection ship challenged the Impeccable over the radio, calling her operations illegal and directing the vessel to leave the area or "suffer the consequences," the Pentagon said.

Two days earlier, a Chinese frigate approached the Impeccable and crossed its bow twice, once at a range of 100 feet.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray and Paul Eckert; Editing by Paul Simao)
 

A.V.

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freighters collide off Japan

TOKYO, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - Sixteen sailors are missing, feared dead, after their cargo ship collided with a larger freighter off the coast of Japan, in the Pacific Ocean, local officials said on Tuesday.

The collision, between the South Korean-registered vessel, the Orchid Pia, and a Panama-registered cargo ship, occurred 13 kilometers (8 miles) off Izu Oshima Island to the south of Tokyo at 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday (17:15 GMT Monday), a spokesman for the 3rd regional maritime safety headquarters in Yokohama said.

The Panama-registered Cygnus Ace was undamaged in the collision, however, the Orchid Pia, which had a crew of seven South Koreans and nine Indonesians, disappeared from radar screens shortly after the incident and is believed to have sunk, the spokesman said.

Patrol boats and aircraft are involved in the rescue operation to try and trace the vessel and crew, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

So far Japan's coast guard has only recovered life vests and an emergency raft from the collision site, Yonhap said.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090310/120486925.html
 

A.V.

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France to open new military base in U.A.E

PARIS, March 5 (RIA Novosti) - France plans to open a military base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on May 27, a leading French newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to Le Monde, the United Arab Emirates has long been in favor of a French base on its territory. However, former President Jacques Chirac's presidential administration was pushing for bases in French-speaking African countries.

The military base will be created under a 1995 agreement between France and the U.A.E. on defense and strategic cooperation. It is expected that some 450 French military personnel will be based at the military installation.

Citing an unnamed diplomat, Le Monde said that the United Arab Emirates "has for a long time needed to stand out from its neighbors and not depend only on the United States."

The newspaper said the Emirates is France's largest buyer of weapons.

France already has two bases in the Indian Ocean, on the island of Reunion and in Djibouti, and the opening of a third base is in line with France's changes in its strategic priorities, outlined in a new doctrine of national security, called the White Book, that President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced last summer.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090305/120444960.html
 

EnlightenedMonk

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North Korea prepares for war, puts troops on high alert

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/north-korea-puts-troops-on-alert-warns-of-war-danger/87292-2.html

Seoul: North Korea put its troops on alert and cut the last hot line to Seoul on Monday as the American and South Korean militaries began joint maneuvers.

The communist regime warned that even the slightest provocation could trigger war.

The North stressed that provocation would include any attempt to interfere with its impending launch of a satellite into orbit. US and Japanese officials suspect the launch is a cover for a test of a long-range attack missile and have suggested they might move to intercept the rocket.

“Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war,” North Korea's military threatened in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. Any interception attempt will draw ‘a just, retaliatory strike,’ it said.

The North has been on a steady retreat from reconciliation since President Lee Myung-bak took office in the South a year ago.

After Lee said the North must continue dismantling its nuclear program if it wants aid, Pyongyang cut ties, suspended joint projects and stepped up its belligerence rhetoric.

“The danger of a military conflict is further increasing than ever before on the Korean Peninsula because of the saber rattling which involves armed forces huge enough to fight a war,” the North's news agency warned as Pyongyang put its armed forces on standby for combat.

Allied commanders say the exercises are nothing more than the annual drills the two nations have held for years, while the North has been condemning them as a rehearsal for invasion.

Analysts say North Korea's heated words are designed to grab President Barack Obama's attention. With South Korea cutting off aid, the impoverished North is angling for a diplomatic coup of establishing direct ties with the US, analysts say.

For weeks, the North has said it is forging ahead with plans to send a communications satellite into space — a launch that U.S. and Japanese officials say would violate a UN Security Council resolution banning the North from testing ballistic missiles. That decree came after the North test-fired a long-range missile and conducted an underground nuclear weapon test in 2006.

Analysts say the launch could occur late this month or in early April, around the time North Korea's new parliament, elected Sunday, convenes its first session with leader Kim Jong Il at its helm.

Kim, 67, was among legislators unanimously elected to a five-year term, the North's state media said. Elections in North Korea are largely a formality, with the ruling Workers' Party hand-picking one candidate for each district and voters endorsing the sole nominee.

Observers were watching the results for signs of a shift in policy — or hints that Kim, who reportedly suffered a stroke last August, might be grooming a son to succeed him. None of his three sons appeared on a list of lawmakers announced on state TV late Monday.

In Seoul, Obama's special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, urged Pyongyang not to fire a missile, which he said would be an ‘extremely ill-advised’ move.

“Whether they describe it as a satellite launch or something else makes no difference,” Bosworth said after talks with his South Korean counterpart on drawing Pyongyang back to international talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Won Tae-jae, played down the North’s threats as ‘rhetoric,’ but added that the country's military was ready to deal with any contingencies.

Hundreds of South Koreans were stranded in the northern border town of Kaesong after Pyongyang severed the last communications link between the two governments to protest the US-South Korean military exercises that began Monday.

North Korea banned nearly all cross-border traffic in December amid deteriorating relations with Seoul but has allowed a skeleton staff of South Koreans to work at a joint industrial zone in Kaesong that is a crucial source of hard currency for the isolated communist regime.

The two Koreas use the hot line to coordinate the passage of people and goods through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, and its suspension shut down traffic and stranded about 570 South Koreans north of the border.

All South Koreans in Kaesong are safe, Seoul's Unification Ministry said as it called on Pyongyang to restore communications.

Cutting the hot line for the duration of the 12-day US-South Korean maneuvers leaves the two Koreas without any means of quick, direct communication at a time of high tension, when even an accidental skirmish could trigger fighting.

North and South Korea technically remain in a state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are massed on each side of the DMZ.

The United States, which has about 28,000 military personnel in South Korea, routinely holds joint military exercises with the South.

Last week, the North threatened danger to South Korean passenger planes flying near its airspace if the maneuvers went ahead, and several airlines rerouted their flights as a precaution.

General Walter Sharp, the US commander, said the joint exercises — involving some 26,000 US troops, an unspecified number of South Korean soldiers and a US aircraft carrier — are ‘not tied in any way to any political or real world event.’
 
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Britain grounding Nimrods for modifications after Afghan crash-or shot down by an SAM

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Bri...for_modifications_after_Afghan_crash_999.html

Britain grounding Nimrods for modifications after Afghan crash

London (AFP) March 9, 2009
Britain is to temporarily withdraw Nimrod spy planes from overseas operations to carry out safety modifications ordered after a deadly crash in Afghanistan, a government minister said Monday.

Fourteen servicemen were killed in the 2006 crash, when their Nimrod exploded in mid-air shortly after refueling, in the British military's single biggest loss of life in a single incident for nearly 25 years.

An inquiry into the crash in Kandahar province called for the replacement of fuel seals and engine bay hot-air ducts -- modifications which should have been completed by March, but which have been delayed.

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said the temporary suspension of overseas operations "will allow us to free up the maximum number of aircraft for the modification programme, while also allowing Nimrod to continue with its critical homeland security tasks".

"During this period, we will use other UK and coalition assets to maintain an effective surveillance capability overseas," he added.

The coroner at the inquest into the 14 deaths concluded last year that Britain's entire fleet of Nimrod spy planes has never been airworthy -- a finding disputed by the Ministry of Defence.

Ainsworth said Monday: "We have reassessed the situation in the light of these developments and concluded that the Nimrod fleet remains airworthy and safe to fly, subject to the measures outlined above."

The Royal Air Force operates 16 Nimrod MR2 reconnaissance aircraft -- with its distinctive "double bubble" fuselage -- out of its base at Kinloss in northeast Scotland.

Graham Knight, whose 25-year-old son Ben was among the victims of the 2006 crash, described Monday's announcement as a "vindication" of what coroner Andrew Walker said.

"This is what we were asking for back after the inquest. We all said that we would like these repairs and modifications to be carried out before they flew again," he said.



I THINK TALIBAN MAY HAVE SHOT THIS DOWN WITH A SAM???SIMPLE REASON CRASH IN 2006 MODIFIED 2009??
 

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THE MISSILES OF MARCH

President Obama is proving his critics right about at least one thing: Re garding foreign policy, he's on a steep learning curve.

Exhibit A: The deal he recently offered Russian President Dmitry Medvedev - America scraps plans for a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic (which Moscow opposes), and Russia helps stop Iran from getting nukes.

Now, that may sound like a sensible idea. But it's actually so flawed that the president may have hurt America's case merely by offering it.

"To the extent that we are lessening Iran's commitment to nuclear weapons," Obama said, "then that reduces the pressure for, or the need for, a missile-defense system."

He's right, up to a point: To the extent that the system was meant to block Iranian nuclear missiles, there's little need for it if there are no such missiles.

But the Poles and Czechs were counting on the shield to guard against threats perhaps not only from Iran, but from any regional force (think: Russia).

They vested much in the belief that Washington would stick to its game plan. They placed themselves squarely in America's camp - openly defying Moscow, for instance, after its troops invaded Georgia last summer.

And Obama gave them every reason to think their alliance would mean something. He stressed "partnerships" and argued that America needs allies.

Obama's missile offer was foolish in other ways, too. Not for nothing are such initiatives normally advanced by intermediaries. If they are rejected, the president's prestige isn't damaged.

Instead, Medvedev blew it off - making Obama look weak and naive.

Now what will Obama do? If he scraps the shield and gets nothing in return, his quid pro quo will be an embarrassing quid pro no quo.

There's more evidence, too, that Obama - despite his earlier remarks - fails to appreciate the importance of alliances.

Consider his shabby treatment of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The UK is one of America's closest allies, but Obama denied Brown the honor of a dual-flag photo-op and an invite to Camp David, as ex-PM Tony Blair got.

Then Press Secretary Robert Gibbs downgraded Britain's historic "special relationship" with America to a "special partnership" - either an unconscionable slight, or evidence that Gibbs fails to appreciate that words have meaning.
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10413&Itemid=132
 

jayadev

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Global Insights: Russia, Iran, and Washington Battle Over S-300s

Will Russia supply Iran with the advanced S-300 surface-to-air missile system? That is the most important -- and persistent -- question regarding Russia's ongoing arms sales to Iran. The repeated rumors and confusion regarding a possible sale indicate that Russian policymakers are divided over the issue. It also illustrates the degree of mistrust between the Russian and Iranian national security communities over the subject of bilateral arms transfers in general, and disagreement over the extent to which Moscow should support Iranian defense aspirations over American and Israeli objections in particular.

The "S-300" family encompasses a range of specific models that the USSR and Russia have manufactured for the last three decades. They have varying capabilities, with the most advanced version (the truck-mounted S-300PMU1, designated as the SA-20 Gargoyle by NATO countries), capable of tracking and firing several interceptor missiles at multiple targets --including both cruise missiles and aircraft -- over a hundred kilometers away.

The Iranians have been seeking to buy the S-300 since Russia resumed arms sales to Iran in early 2001. An S-300 missile battery typically consists of a command and control center, a target acquisition radar as well as a target engagement radar, and as many as a dozen launch vehicles that can each shoot four interceptor missiles stored in cylindrical containers. The current negotiations apparently involve a contract to deliver some 40-60 launch systems, each with four individual interceptor missile tubes, as well as the associated radar and command-and-control systems.

All presently available versions of the S-300 have a much longer range and better accuracy than the Tor-M1 short-range air defense systems Russia provided Iran in late 2005. In combination with the Tor batteries, the S-300s could enable Iran to establish a more comprehensive, multilayered air defense network that would make it much harder for American or Israeli warplanes to attack Bushehr or other targets in southern Iran. For these reasons, Iranian defense planners have long sought to acquire the S-300s, while U.S. and Israeli officials have lobbied Moscow against such a transaction.

In December 2007, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said that Russia would supply several dozen S-300 systems to Tehran in 2008. Sources in the Russian military subsequently confirmed this report, with Mikhail Dmitriyev, director of the Russian Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, defending Russia's right to sell any weapon to Iran that was not prohibited by international law or other agreements. The Russian journal Kommersant then published an article reporting that Moscow was prepared to sell Iran five batteries of S-300 surface-to-air missiles for $800 million. Shortly thereafter, however, the Russian government repudiated the story, forcing Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini to issue an embarrassing retraction of Najjar's statement.

A similar episode arose in late December 2008. Again, Iranian sources reported the imminent sale of the controversial S-300s to Iran, with the deputy head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Esma'il Kowsari, claiming that Russia and Iran had reached an agreement on the issue. When asked about the sale the following day, the apparently surprised Russian Foreign Ministry simply replied that it was investigating the issue. At a subsequent Moscow news conference, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov dismissed the entire affair as a rumor concocted by the Western media: "I am very surprised by the fuss this story has caused recently. I think this is due to a lack of interesting international news in the run-up to the holidays that many of our Western neighbors are celebrating."

Various officials from Russia's arms exports bureaucracy subsequently defended Russian arms sales to Iran as adhering to Russia's obligation under international law, insisting that they promote regional security and involved "defensive weapons" that did not threaten other states.

On Feb. 17, while Najjar was in Moscow, Kommersant again confirmed that Russia and Iran had signed a contract for the delivery of five batteries of S-300s in exchange for $800 million, but that the Russian government had yet to ratify the deal. According to the paper, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told his Iranian counterpart that the Russian government had decided to delay delivering the S-300 to Iran until at least after Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama held their first direct meeting. Russian officials apparently wanted to avoid any action that could disrupt a possible "reset" of the Russian-American relationship. A Russian defense industry source quoted in Kommersant said that other possible arms sales, including the Buk-M1 medium-range air defense missile, are also the subject of joint discussions but await decisions by Russia's political leadership to proceed further.

These S-300 episodes have never been fully explained. One possibility is that Russian policymakers have sought to use media leaks as trial balloons to gauge the likely international reaction to such a sale. If the foreign response had proved indifferent, Moscow might have gone ahead with the deal. When it proved sharply negative, Russia retreated, to Tehran's embarrassment.

Another possibility is that the Russian government has sought to draw attention to the possible sales as a means of pressuring Western, Iranian, or both parties into making concessions on other issues. In this interpretation, Moscow is trying to remind Washington and its allies that it has the potential to damage U.S. security interests in a vital area if American policymakers prove too obstreperous regarding Georgia, missile defense, or other issues.

A third explanation, which also does not exclude the other two, is that the Russian national security elite is divided, with some favoring such a transaction on commercial or strategic grounds while others object for diverse foreign policy reasons. From one perspective, the sale would provide the Russian defense industry with additional revenue to modernize its aging plants at a time when the deteriorating Russian economy threatens to curtail the sustained growth of Russia military spending. It could also deepen Russian-Iranian security ties, while encouraging the Iranian government to pursue its confrontational polices towards the West, which some in Russia see as enhancing Moscow's own bargaining leverage with Washington. On the other hand, other Russian strategists would like to see a modest relaxation in Iranian-Western relations in order to weaken support for the deployment of American missile defenses in Eastern Europe.

And then there is the Iranian angle to consider. Some Iranian officials, perhaps in collusion with Russian supporters of the sale, may have attempted to pressure Russia into consummating the long-sought S-300 deal by presenting them with a fait accompli through their public comments. The Iranian military is currently reorganizing to create a fourth branch -- in addition to the army, navy, and air force -- dedicated to air defense. Najjar may have aimed to pressure the Russians into completing the transaction by underscoring what he characterized as Iran's growing ability to manufacture its own advanced missiles. The implicit message being that the window of opportunity for Tehran's possible purchase of the Russian-made S-300s may be closing.

When asked about the possible sale of the S-300s at his joint March 6 press conference in Geneva with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Lavrov avoided giving a direct answer and instead replied with the standard Russian line that all military sales to any country are "in accordance with the Russian legislation dealing with the export controls . . . and in accordance with our international commitments." He also repeated that, "We supply our partners, first of all, non-destabilizing defensive types of weapons, and" -- in an allusion to American sales of weapons to Georgia -- "we want our partners to behave with equal restraint in their military supplies to the countries who quite recently used those weapons quite close to our borders."

Yet, Lavrov added that Russia takes seriously "concerns expressed by our partners from the United States and our partners from Israel," while stressing the P5+1 negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as the best avenue to allay those concerns. He further called for a regional dialogue "to ensure stable, reliable security where all countries there, including Israel, would live . . . side by side in peace and security."

President Barack Obama will have an opportunity to engage with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev directly on the S-300 issue at a side meeting almost certain to take place at next month's G-20 summit in London. But unless Washington is willing to make concessions regarding European missile defense, NATO expansion, or other Russian priorities, Moscow is likely to avoid any firm commitment to indefinitely defer S-300 sales to Iran.
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=3425
 

A.V.

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Raytheon Awarded USD 128 Million for Patriot Engineering Services

Raytheon Company has been awarded a $128.1 million U.S. Army contract for engineering services for the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System.

Issued by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, the contract calls for Raytheon to provide systems analysis, software and hardware engineering, testing and logistics support.

"This contract represents a continuation of the U.S. government and Raytheon's commitment to ensure that Patriot systems deployed by the U.S. Army and 11 international partners are maintained in the highest state of readiness," said Sanjay Kapoor, vice president of Patriot Programs at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS).

In addition to U.S. Patriot systems, Raytheon will be supporting Patriot systems for Germany, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, Kuwait, Spain, Taiwan, Greece, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates under the Foreign Military Sales program.

Raytheon IDS is the prime contractor for both domestic and international Patriot Air and Missile Defense Systems and systems integrator for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles.
 

Singh

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Why shouldn't Kim Jong Il fire his missile?

Why shouldn't Kim Jong Il fire his missile?

There's an air of unreality about the imminent North Korean missile test. In theory, it's very, very bad indeed: crazed Oriental Despot to let off large bomb. But no one can quite bring themselves to get in a stew over it. Hence the bored and anti-climactic utterances by US government spokespersons. The most upset that Hillary Clinton managed to get was when she opined that the firing of an ICBM by the mad bad Kim Jong Il would be "very unhelpful". Unhelpful? Unhelpful? Unhelpful is when Bill sits reading Hustler while Hillary is in the kitchen unpacking a big box of groceries. Surely an act of warmongering by the world's last Stalinist dictatorship can at least be classified as "rude"?

Partly, of course, it's good sense not to get into a rhetorical shomben match with the Norks - when it comes to inventive vituperation, they cannot be bested, and there's nothing to be gained from trying. But I sense a lack of seriousness about the whole thing too. Everyone knows that they should be in a panic, that an appearance of panic would be seemly somehow. But they recognise in their hearts that it's not justified.

I may, I suppose, be proved spectacularly wrong, but I'm pretty sure that this missile launch is insignificant in itself - and I set out some of my reasoning here. And then, when you come to think of it, why shouldn't Kim Jong Il fire a rocket anyway, any time he wants?

It's sneeringly assumed that the Norks are is simply lying when they claim that what's being planned is the launch of a satellite-carrying civilian rocket, not a missile. But in 1998, this was perfectly true. The North fired a long range rocket which arced over Japan; its purpose, they explained, was to put into orbit a satellite which would beam down patriotic hymns, including the 'Song of Kim Jong Il'. Everyone else chuckled sractasically and denounced it as irresponsible warmongering - and then weeks later "US intelligence analysts" quietly admitted that a small satellite had indeed been attached to the rocket (although it didn't make it out of the atmosphere).

The good-old Nodong Sinmun (Worker's Daily) went into a good deal of detail about this, and convincingly put in its place the argument that because the rocket had passed over Japan it was in some way a violation of Japanese soveregnty. "They cite as evidence the fact that our artificial satellite's flight was above Japan's territorial sky and through the airspace of the Tsugaru Strait," the Nodong Sinmun observed.

It is true that our artificial satellite flew over Japan's territorial sky and passed through the airspace of the Tsugaru Strait. However, it cannot be a "threat to Japan's security" or a "violation of its sovereign right".

Let us ask the Japanese authorities: Don't you know what the territorial sky is, or an international strait, or the legal position of the airspace above such international straits?

As for the territorial sky, its height has not yet been internationally defined and the only general standard - that the height of the territorial sky should be extended only to a height appropriate to guarantee the security of each country - applies. So, over the past 100 years, the height of the territorial sky has been internationally recognized between 40 to 50 km. . . . Recently, however, some argued that the height of the territorial sky should be about 100 km, on the grounds that the flight altitude of ballistic missiles launched by many countries nowadays is generally within 100 km and that some of the satellites orbit more or less 100 km from the earth. As a result, nowadays, about 100 km is regarded as the height of territorial sky. No nation claims higher territorial sky, nor is it recognized. When it flew over the Japanese archipelago, our artificial satellite's flying altitude was over 200 km.

Now, Japan alleges this as a violation of its territorial sky. What an absurd allegation it is!

It goes on:

The Japanese authorities say that we had not informed them of our plan to launch a satellite in advance and, therefore, this constitutes a "violation of international law." Japan has launched dozens of satellites so far and has it ever informed us of any single one? If we are to follow Japan's logic, it has violated international law dozens of times. The Japanese authorities claim to be reasonable and they have never mentioned this. Why? Nothing could be more absurd. Japan must remember this clearly: no regulations in general international law, or any space laws for that matter, mention the requirement for countries that launch satellite to make information available in advance.

But suppose the North was to launch a missile - a straightforward, unembarrassed, honest to goodness ICBM? Provided, of course, that it didn't misfire and fall on someone's head - would that be so wrong? The "security" of the "West" has been guaranteed by such weapons for the past 60 years, or so we are reassured.

It violates United Nations sanctions perhaps - but then disregarding the opinion of the UN is not a monopoly of the Axis of Evil. We may not feel comfortable with it, but it seems to me that in answer to the North Korean question, 'Why shouldn't we possess and test missiles for our own defence?', the rest of the missile-possessing, missile-testing world has no more persuasive answer than: "Because we don't like you."

http://timesonline.typepad.com/times_tokyo_weblog/2009/03/theres-an-air-o.html
 

A.V.

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F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Program Completes Infrared Search and Track System Tests

The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Infrared Search and Track (IRST) program has successfully completed a series of risk-reduction flight tests that demonstrated the compatibility and effectiveness of the IRST system on the Super Hornet strike fighter.

IRST is a passive, long-range sensor system that searches for and detects IR emissions within its field of view. It can track several targets simultaneously and provide an effective air-to-air targeting capability, even when facing advanced threats equipped with radar-jamming technology.




Photo Credit: U.S. Navy
Boeing, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, and General Electric developed a prototype IRST sensor that was installed in the front section of a modified 480-gallon fuel tank. The U.S. Navy conducted six flight tests at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and four at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.

Chris Wedewer, F/A-18E/F IRST program manager for Boeing, said the flight tests allow for low-risk entry into the development phase of the program. “Boeing and Lockheed Martin successfully demonstrated transfer alignment, long-range target detection, and the ability to operate in a fuel tank,” Wedewer said. “Boeing also demonstrated integration of the IRST into the F/A-18E/F’s multisource integration algorithms, allowing for the fusion of IRST tracking data with data from other sensors.”

Wedewer added that the demonstration ensures effective and efficient progress as the IRST program moves into development and production.

IRST is part of the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Block II Super Hornet Flight Plan, which is a series of planned capability enhancements that ensures the Super Hornet will continue to outdistance known and emerging threats over the coming decades.

The Block II F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a multirole aircraft able to perform virtually every mission in the tactical spectrum, including air superiority, day/night strike with precision-guided weapons, fighter escort, close air support, suppression of enemy air defenses, maritime strike, reconnaissance, forward air control and tanker missions. Equipped with the APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, the F/A-18E/F seamlessly conducts simultaneous air and ground missions.
 

pyromaniac

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Israel Isn't Safe NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS threat in Israel

March 10, 2009: For over a decade, Israel has been trying to improve chemical warfare protection for its civilian population. Things have not gone well. A new gas mask design was found to be defective, and attempts to find and purchase gas masks from foreign manufacturers has not succeeded (especially when it comes to obtaining masks for children, especially infants). It wasn't supposed to be like this, especially since masks were obtained and distributed, with few problems, two decades ago.

Since 1990, Israeli civilians have had gas masks for protection against chemical attack by Iraqi missiles. Five years ago, those gas masks were collected, checked, refurbished as needed and stored in army warehouses. The government felt that, with Saddam Hussein out of power, there was no other potential source of chemical attack, so no need to maintain the gas masks in the hands of the civilian population. But then Syria became more of a threat (with their hundreds of ballistic missiles, and large supplies of chemical weapons). Suddenly, the military realized that they had not refurbished all the masks because they lacked the money. On top of that there was the problem of finding a supplier for new masks, since many of the old ones were too far gone for refurbishment. When pressed on this matter, the Defense Ministry said that there would be six months warning of a chemical attack, which would be ample time to get the gas mask problem taken care of. Then it was pointed out that the 2006 war in southern Lebanon came without warning, and the Syrians could have gotten involved with that one. Now, for nearly a year, there's been a budget dispute between the Defense and Treasury officials, over who should provide the money to hire a contractor to actually distribute the masks. There's much speculation over how much more this situation can be screwed up.

But wait, there's more. Twelve years ago, Israel decided to upgrade its civil defense arrangements. They passed a law mandating that new houses have at least one "bomb proof" safe room, to be used as a shelter during rocket attacks. But most builders have ignored the law. It's expensive. To add such a room to existing houses would cost about $25,000 per home. But many Israelis have designated one room in the house as the "safe room", and perhaps reinforced it a bit, and stored emergency supplies there. Some have bought their own gas masks for the safe room. Meanwhile, government planners calculate how many Israeli civilians will die if the Syrians attack with their missiles (16,000, or more if the gas masks are not available for civilians).


http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htchem/articles/20090310.aspx
 

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