Finland Weighs Surface-to-Surface Missile Options

HELSINKI - Finland's armed forces are examining costs and needs for surface-to-surface tactical missiles (SSMs) as part of the Army's $60 million SSM modernization program, which centers on purchasing new ordnance for guided rocket launchers and 155mm artillery systems.
The main focus is on advancing a procurement solution that will add new strength to the Army's battlefield weapons arsenal, and that can guarantee economy of purchase and deployment. The Finnish military's armory includes the M270 armored and self-propelled multiple-launch rocket system (local designation: 298 RsRakH 06), Euro-Spike anti-tank missiles and Czech-produced RM-70 multiple rocket launcher (local designation: 122 RakH 89).

The SSMs being considered would be launched from heavy rocket launchers. The SSM type review and inspection process is expected to continue into 2013, with a decision on whether to purchase in 2014 or 2015.
A big component of the SSM project would be upgrades to the rocket launchers' computer software support programs, which would enable launchers to use new types of modern ordnance with a range of 200 to 300 kilometers.
The Finnish armed forces have engaged in several notable and capital-intensive strategic defense programs since 2008. In 2009, the Ministry of Defence approved a $700 million budget to cover the cost of a new Norwegian Advanced Air-to-Surface Missile air defense and radar platform supplied by Norway's Kongsberg and the U.S.'s Raytheon.

France Denies Giving Libya Rebels Anti-Tank Missiles

PARIS - The French military on June 30 denied supplying anti-tank missiles to rebels fighting Libyan Moammar Gadhafi's regime, though it admitted parachuting light arms to them.

"No Milan anti-tank missiles have been parachuted into Jebel Nafusa," a region southeast of Tripoli, France's top military spokesman Thierry Burkhard said, referring to earlier reports.

Le Figaro newspaper and a well-placed non-government source said France dropped several tons of arms including Milan anti-tank missiles and light armored vehicles.

Burkhard said France had only supplied "light arms" including machine guns and rocket launchers.

He had said on June 29 that French officials had delivered small arms while carrying out humanitarian aid operations to help local populations under threat from Gadhafi's troops.

"It appeared that in certain zones the security situation was extremely tense for these undefended populations," so France gave them "the means to defend themselves, light arms and ammunition," he added June 30.

France's ambassador to the United Nations said June 29 the delivery of arms to rebels did not breach the U.N. resolution that mandated intervention to protect civilians, which also established an embargo on arms to Libya.

Article 4 of Resolution 1973 specified that allowances to the arms embargo can be allowed if in the interest of protecting civilians.

Lockheed, Raytheon Submit JAGM Proposals

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon submitted their proposals for the next phase of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program June 6.
Built to replace AGM-114 Hellfire, BGM-71 TOW and AGM-65 Maverick missiles, the Government Accountability Office estimates the JAGM program will be worth more than $6 billion over 20 years.

The two defense industry giants are competing for a 48-month contract to continue development and begin low-rate initial production on the missile. Army officials said the Engineering and Manufacturing and Low-Rate Initial Production contract is worth $3.8 billion.
James Smith, a Raytheon executive, said his company expects the Army to make a decision on the contract in October. Army Aviation and Missile Command issued the request for proposal in April.
"Lockheed Martin's JAGM builds on Hellfire, Longbow and Javelin, three of the most trusted precision-guided weapons on the battlefield today," said Frank St. John, vice president of Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, in a statement.
Lockheed chose to outfit its entrant with a cooled seeker, while Raytheon used an uncooled seeker. Raytheon officials said a cooled seeker, while more capable than an uncooled seeker, isn't what soldiers and sailors want in combat.
"Rather than complicating matters by using a cooled seeker, we worked in close concert with our customers to determine smarter and simpler ways to arrive at a superior system solution," said Bob Francois, Raytheon vice president of Advanced Missiles and Unmanned Systems, in a statement.

Underground Weapon

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER - The Israeli Army has developed a new tool in its seemingly Sisyphean struggle against the hundreds of underground tunnels used for smuggling weapons from Sinai into Gaza, or as subterranean staging grounds for cross-border strikes into Israel.
A collaborative effort between the Army's special technology division and EMI, a local explosive materials manufacturer, the system - known here as Emulsion - injects into the ground a blend of commercial-grade liquid explosives, each of which remains nonsensitive to mishandling or even improvised bomb attack until blended and deployed.
"It's all automatic, carries minimal risk to troops and creates maximum, irreparable damage to the tunnels," said Maj. Isam Abu Tarif, director of the special technology division of Israel's Ground Forces Command.
Abu Tarif said the recently completed prototype is actually a second-generation system, following less efficient versions deployed in Gaza in the last seven or eight years. The newest Emulsion-2 prototype is self-navigating and programmed for precision deployment of explosive materials and optimum penetration of the destructive mixture.
"Earlier versions didn't provide optimum destruction, allowing the enemy to dig around the destroyed section," Abu Tarif said. "With this second-generation system, they're better off digging a new tunnel."
First reported in the latest editions of B'yabasha (On the Ground), the official Hebrew-language journal of Israel's Ground Forces Command, the latest Emulsion prototype is mounted on eight-wheeled armored trucks. Future versions will be smaller, tailored for more challenging operational conditions and designed to be towed into high-threat areas by tank.
Deployment of the latest prototype has allowed the Army to amend its doctrine for more effective, force-protective anti-tunnel combat, Abu Tarif said.
"Under our old doctrine, our forces had to endanger themselves while transporting the explosive materials to the target," he said. "Then they had to physically get into the tunnel to perform the mission. ... And there were cases where soldiers died en route or inside the tunnels.
"But now, the two substances are housed separately and are impervious to accidental or enemy-initiated detonation," he said. "Emulsion-2 is designed to withstand [a rocket-propelled grenade] attack. And once we neutralize the threat on approach, automation takes over with the injection of materials for optimum effect."
Finally, Abu Tarif said the Emulsion-2 carries "a huge quantity" of two-component explosive material, allowing specialty units to destroy multiple tunnels in a single deployment to high-threat areas.
"Before, we were limited to the amount of explosives carried in an [armored personnel carrier], but now the carrying capacity is safe and unlimited ... and the effect of the liquid explosive blend creates a chain reaction that extends well beyond the target penetration area," he said.

Overwhelming Threat

Security sources here estimate a network of many hundreds of tunnels of varying levels of sophistication have been built between Gaza and Egypt. While most tunnels are built to sustain Egypt's thriving smuggling industry for appliances, vehicles, livestock and other commercial goods into Gaza, an alarming number are used to deliver primarily Iranian-supplied missiles, anti-tank rockets, other weaponry and even military instructors into the strip via Sinai.
Another category of tunnels - some nearly a kilometer in length - are built for commando strikes and kidnapping attempts on Israel's side of the Gaza border. Security sources here peg the number of so-called terror tunnels built to support subterranean combat operations against Israel in the dozens.
In Israel's Cast Lead incursion into Gaza in late December 2008, the Air Force destroyed 40 smuggling tunnels in the first two days of the 22-day campaign. Since then, the Israeli military claims to have destroyed or heavily damaged 190 tunnels, 150 of them smuggling routes along the Gaza-Egyptian corridor.
Military sources here said another 40 tunnels destroyed in recent years were built to support infiltration operations similar to Hamas' successful June 2006 attack on an Israeli tank. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in that strategically important strike, while one - Pvt. Gilad Shalit - remains in captivity. Shalit's plight has traumatized the Israeli public and taunted a string of successive political and military leaders who have failed to secure his release.
"Combating terror tunnels is a top priority," said Capt. Barak Raz, an Israeli military spokesman. "The orders are maximum readiness to defend our citizens and soldiers from kidnapping attempts and deny the enemy any opportunity for another strategic achievement."
Avi Dichter, an Israeli lawmaker and former director of the Shin Bet security service, said Egypt's decision to open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza will not erode the need for persistent and coordinated military and intelligence anti-tunnel operations.
The late May opening of Egypt's border crossing with Gaza and its 1.5 million residents is a reversal of deposed President Hosni Mubarak's policy of isolating and neutralizing the militant, Islamist Hamas authority in the Strip. And while Israel must remain watchful of those exiting and re-entering Gaza via Egypt, Dichter said more than 90 percent of illicit smuggling will continue to be conducted via underground tunnels.
"As much as we lament the passing of the Mubarak era, we have to admit that he could have done a hell of a lot more to blunt the arms smuggling industry," Dichter told a seminar of Israeli military officers May 26.
"For that matter, when we had control of Philadelphi [the corridor linking Sinai to the southern part of Gaza], we, too, missed a lot of activity," he said. "Bottom line, the tunnel threat is an eternal mission requiring very close cooperation between security forces and all branches of the Israel Defense Forces."

Pakistan To Get Paveway Training Rounds

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will be getting new Paveway II enhanced laser-guided training bombs from Lockheed Martin under the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency's Foreign Military Sales program.
According to a Feb. 22 DSCA announcement, Pakistan will receive 300 Paveway IIs, along with 74 wooden containers and 23 replacement-in-kind wooden containers, for $866,850.

Also, Malaysia will receive 60 Paveway II bombs, along with 15 wooden containers, for $173,370, the announcement said.
The bombs will be produced at Lockheed's plant in Archbald, Pa., and the order is expected to be completed in June 2013. The U.S. Navy's Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., will oversee the contract.
Pakistan has been buying large amounts of U.S. bombs and kits in response to the Taliban insurgency in the tribal areas of the country's northwest. In 2010, the U.S. delivered to Pakistan 1,000 MK-82 500-pound bombs, and 700 GBU-12 and 300 GBU-10 Paveway laser-guided bomb kits produced by Lockheed and Raytheon.
However, a Pakistan military spokesman, Brigadier S. Azmat Ali, said the DSCA announcement does not mean the deal had been finalized.
"It will take some time," he said. "This is a cycle that keeps on going. We've been requesting them for some time. Sometimes they provide them, sometimes they do not."
Other munitions that Pakistan has acquired via the Pentagon's FMS program include TOW anti-tank guided missiles for its fleet of AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters. The TOW missiles been heavily used in counterinsurgency operations.
Ali said operations are "limited at present," as there has been a quiet period on Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan, but that avenues for the munitions' replacement are ongoing.
When asked if there is a timeframe for this, he said there is "no immediate scope; definitely not in the near future."