North Korea threatens 'all-out war' over exercises

South Korean and US forces will start annual military exercises, which they say are purely defensive

North Korea has threatened "all-out war" in response to exercises by South Korean and US troops, starting Monday.

The South Korean capital Seoul would be turned into a "sea of flames", the Korean Central News Agency warned.
Pyongyang also said the South should stop sending propaganda leaflets and balloons over the border.
Inter-Korean relations have been extremely tense since 46 South Koreans died when their warship was sunk last March.
Seoul blamed the North for the incident, something Pyongyang denies.
But tensions rose even further after the North shelled a frontier island in November, killing four South Koreans.
Military talks aimed at defusing tensions and restarting dialogue broke down earlier this month.
Annual exercises About 12,800 US troops and some 200,000 South Korean soldiers and reservists will take part in the military exercises, which will last 11 days, according to US and South Korean forces.
Seoul insists the drill is purely defensive but North Korea says it is a pretext for an invasion from the South.
"The army and people of the DPRK [North Korea] will return bolstered nuclear deterrent of our own style for the continued nuclear threat... and our own missile striking action for their vicious attempt to eliminate our missiles," KCNA said.
The North routinely issues war rhetoric against South Korea and the US, but analysts say the risk of clashes is higher when the two sides are not talking to each other.
Earlier, Pyongyang said it would fire across the border if South Korean did not "immediately stop psychological warfare".
The South has been launching balloons, carrying leaflets critical of the Pyongyang regime and news about the recent democracy protests in the Arab world, over the heavily fortified border.
"South Korea is driving the Korean peninsula to overall confrontation, with beefing up anti-republic, psychological plots," the North Korean statement went on.
South Korea has also been attaching food, clothes and radios to the balloons it sends over towards the North.
Pyongyang tightly controls access to the Internet and attempts to block other sources of information about the outside world.

Iran nuclear plans: Bushehr fuel to be unloaded

The Bushehr nuclear plant has been hit by repeated delays

Iran has confirmed it is having to remove nuclear fuel from the reactor at the Bushehr power plant, the latest in a series of delays to hit the project.

On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had new information on "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear plans, which Iran says are purely peaceful.
The IAEA will supervise the unloading of fuel from Bushehr, Iran's nuclear envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said.
Iran began the Bushehr project in 1976.
Iran's Fars news agency says the fuel is being removed for "technical reasons".
The fuel at Bushehr is being provided by Russia, which built the plant and whose engineers will carry out the unloading, under the supervision of the IAEA.
"Upon a demand from Russia, which is responsible for completing the Bushehr nuclear power plant, fuel assemblies from the core of the reactor will be unloaded for a period of time to carry out tests and take technical measurements," Mr Soltanieh said, according to the semi-official Isna news agency.
Computer virus? The BBC's Tehran correspondent, James Reynolds, says diplomats suggest the entire core of the Bushehr plant is being replaced - potentially a serious problem.
There has been some speculation that the Stuxnet computer virus may be responsible, our correspondent says.
Analysts say Stuxnet - which caused problems at another Iranian enrichment facility last year - has been specially configured to damage motors commonly used in uranium-enrichment centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control.
Some experts believe that the problems at Bushehr call into question the safety and effectiveness of Iran's nuclear facilities as a whole, our correspondent says.
The IAEA report - obtained by the BBC and made available online by the Institute for Science and International Security (Isis) - says Iran is "not implementing a number of its obligations."
These include "clarification of the remaining outstanding issues which give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme".
Six world powers are negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme, and the country is subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to build atomic bombs.

Iran nuclear plans: UN concern over 'military angle'

Iran has always denied its nuclear programme is aiming to develop weapons

The UN's nuclear watchdog says it has received new information on "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear development programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the report raised "further concerns" about Iran's activities.
It urged Tehran to co-operate fully with its investigations in alleged weapons experiments, saying it had not done since 2008.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
The IAEA report was obtained by the BBC and made available online by the Institute for Science and International Security (Isis).
It says Iran is "not implementing a number of its obligations including clarification of the remaining outstanding issues which give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme".
The country was also "not providing the necessary co-operation to enable the Agency to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities".
"Based on the agency's analysis of additional information since August 2008, including new information recently received, there are further concerns which the agency also needs to clarify with Iran," says the report.
Among those concerns were that Iran was not engaging with the IAEA on allegations that it was developing a nuclear payload for its missiles.
Six world powers are negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme, and the country is subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to build atomic bombs.
The UN has imposed four sets of sanctions on Iran over the years.
While these have made it more difficult for Iran to acquire equipment, technology and finance to support its nuclear activities, they have not stopped trading in oil and gas - the major sources of Iran's income.

Italian Report Details Arms Sales to Libya

ROME - Italy has sold Libya explosives, gun targeting equipment and other military hardware worth tens of millions of euros (dollars) in the past two years, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on Feb. 26.
The newspaper quoted an official report from the Italian interior ministry that listed signed contracts as well as ongoing negotiations between Libya and several major Italian defense companies including industry giant Finmeccanica.

Missile systems maker Mbda Italia signed a deal worth 2.5 million euros in May 2009 to supply Libya with "material for bombs, torpedoes, rockets and missiles," the interior ministry report was quoted as saying.
Helicopter maker Augusta Westland signed two contracts with Libya in October 2010 worth 70 million euros. Also last year, Selex Sistemi Integrati signed a 13-million-euro deal to provide Libya with gun targeting equipment.
Italy and its former colony Libya signed a friendship treaty in 2008 that opened the way for major business deals. Italy is now Libya's top trade partner and Italian energy major ENI is the biggest foreign energy producer in Libya.
Saturday's report said artillery company Oto Melara had also begun talks with Libya in November 2010 for "weapons or weapons systems with a caliber of more than 12.7 mm, as well as material, spare parts, know how and equipment."
This year, military shipmaker Intermarine Spa started negotiations with Libya for contracts worth a total of 600 million euros.
Selex Sistemi Integrati, Augusta-Westland and Oto Melara are also in talks with Libya for contracts totaling 150 million euros.

Russia Vows to Sell Missiles to Syria

MOSCOW - Russia announced Feb. 26 that it intended to fulfill its contract to supply Syria with cruise missiles despite the turmoil shaking the Arab world and Israel's furious condemnation of the deal.
"The contract is in the implementation stage," news agencies quoted Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying.

Russia initially agreed to send a large shipment of anti-ship Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria in 2007 under the terms of a controversial deal that was only disclosed by Serdyukov in September 2010.
The revelation infuriated Israel and the United States and there had been speculation that Russia would decide to tear up the contract amid the current turmoil plaguing North Africa and the Middle East.
Israel - which is still technically in a state of war with Syria and fears its close ties with Iran - suspects that the shipment is ultimately aimed at supplying Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon.
The disputed sale is believed to be worth at least $300 million and is meant to see Syria receive 72 cruise missiles in all.
Russia has not officially confirmed making any Yakhont deliveries to date.
But Interfax cited one unnamed military source as saying that Russia had already sent Syria two Bastion coastal defense systems that can include up to 36 Yakhont missiles each.
The feared systems can only operate when equipped with radar and target detection helicopters and it was not clear from Serdyukov's comments which supplies - if any - had already been received by Syria.
Serdyukov's comments come amid Russian efforts to keep its military supply lines open to the Middle East despite the wave of revolutions and social unrest currently sweeping the region.
A source in the Russian arms exports industry said this week that the fall of the region's regimes may see the country lose about $10 billion dollars in contracts.
Serdyukov himself confirmed that the unrest may force Russia to give up some of its Soviet-era clients in the Arab world.
"There is a chance we might lose something," the defense minister said on a visit on visit to Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok.
"But I hope that the main weapons and military equipment agreements will be fulfilled," Serdyukov said.
Russia's sales to Syria have come under particularly close scrutiny because of fears that Moscow may be also covertly assisting Damascus' nascent nuclear program.
The head of the country's arms export corporation in October denied that Russia had also signed an agreement to supply Syria with its latest range of MiG-31 fighter jets.
But the same agency confirmed in May that Russia was in the process of supplying Syria with a less advanced fighter jet version - the Mig-29 - along with short-range air defense systems and various armored vehicles.
Russia is the world's second-largest arms exporter behind the United States and its sales are crucial to the country's efforts to keep alive a creaking defense industry whose reforms have dragged on for years.
The military this week announced with some fanfare the start of a $650 billion rearmament drive that will add eight nuclear submarines and hundreds of warplanes to the under-equipped force by 2020.
Serdyukov said Feb. 26 that Russia intended to arm its nuclear submarines with the high-tech Bulava long-range missiles whose deployment is being delayed by a series of embarrassing test failures.
But Russia's last two Bulava launches were successful and Serdyukov said Feb. 26 that the first new missiles would be dispatched to the country's Pacific Fleet.

Gates Warns Against Iraq, Afghanistan-Style Wars

WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY, New York - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Feb. 25 against committing the military to big land wars in Asia or the Middle East, saying anyone proposing otherwise "should have his head examined."
Gates offered the blunt advice - hard won after a decade of bitter conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq - in what he said would be his last speech to cadets at the U.S. Army's premier school for training future officers.

"The odds of repeating another Afghanistan or Iraq - invading, pacifying, and administering a large third world country - may be low," Gates said.
"In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it," Gates said.
Douglas MacArthur, the World War II hero of the Pacific campaign, made the comment at a meeting with then-president John F. Kennedy in 1961 regarding U.S. military intervention in mainland Asia.
Gates, a former CIA director, replaced Donald Rumsfeld in the defense job in 2006 as Iraq was spiraling into civil war and the U.S. military appeared to be facing a historic failure.
The change in leadership and a new strategy executed by Gen. David Petraeus helped salvage the situation, and U.S. forces now appear on schedule to leave the country at the end of this year.
But nearly 100,000 U.S. troops are still deeply engaged in another difficult conflict in Afghanistan, once again under Petraeus' command, with no exit seen before 2014.
Gates said he was not suggesting that the U.S. Army "will - or should - turn into a Victorian nation-building constabulary designed to chase guerrillas, build schools or sip tea.
"But as the prospects for another head-on clash of large mechanized land armies seem less likely, the Army will be increasingly challenged to justify the number, size, and cost of its heavy formations," he said.
Future U.S. military interventions abroad will likely take the form of "swift-moving expeditionary forces, be they Army or Marines, airborne infantry or special operations," which Gates said "is self-evident given the likelihood of counterterrorism, rapid reaction, disaster response, or stability or security force assistance missions."
Gates is set to leave his job this year, and his presentation was a farewell speech to the West Point students.
"We can't know with absolute certainty what the future of warfare will hold," Gates said, "but we do know it will be exceedingly complex, unpredictable, and - as they say in the staff colleges - unstructured."
The United States also has a poor track record at predicting the next conflict, Gates said.
"We have never once gotten it right, from the Mayaguez to Grenada, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Kuwait, Iraq, and more - we had no idea a year before any of these missions that we would be so engaged," he said.
Gates praised the Army's "ability to learn and adapt," which in recent years "allowed us to pull Iraq back from the brink of chaos in 2007 and, over the past year, to roll back the Taliban from their strongholds in Afghanistan."

Tanker Victory Spells Risks For Boeing

NEW YORK - Boeing's triumph over European rival EADS for a major U.S. Air Force tanker contract poses risks amid defense spending cutbacks and multiple delays to its commercial projects.
On Feb. 24, the Defense Department declared Boeing the "clear winner" of a $30-plus billion contract to supply up to 179 refueling tankers to the Air Force.

It is undoubtedly a major prize for the firm, but industry analysts highlighted the challenges that come with submitting what the Chicago-based firm itself called an "aggressive" bid.
"Since the KC-46A is a very competitively bid fixed-price contract for both development and production phases, it carries some execution risks for Boeing," Standard & Poor's analysts said in a client note.
Particularly, they said, "given the company's substantial cost overruns on some of its commercial and military programs in recent years."
Moody's Investors Service said that the difficulties could start early for Boeing, in the initial development phase.
"The development could distract engineering resources from other key programs including the near-term ramp-up of the B-787 Dreamliner," said Robert Jankowitz, senior vice president at Moody's.
The tanker contract comes as Boeing is under pressure from its new 787 Dreamliner program that is now running three years behind the original schedule.
"Given Boeing's headaches getting its new passenger planes out the door, there should be concern about the company's ability to deliver the new tanker on time and on budget," said Paul Ausick of 24/7WallSt.com.
And budget will be at the forefront of policymakers' minds, as the Pentagon, like other U.S. government bodies, struggles to cut the country's massive budget deficit.
"If Boeing misses deadlines and busts budgets, it's reasonable to expect that the Congress and the Pentagon will be reluctant to go ahead with the full complement of tankers," he said.
But there are definite rewards for the company, despite the risks.
Jefferies analysts said the contract spells benefits of "a few pennies per share" in the short term, and in the long-term a healthier business.
"Tomorrow's benefit is that the award adds balance to Boeing's business base, and continues a successful product line into the foreseeable future," they said, referring to the 767 commercial aircraft that will serve as the basis for the KC-46A tanker.
The 767 production line "would have closed within five years without this win," according to Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at aerospace consultancy Teal Group.
Orders for the long-haul, wide-body plane, which entered service in 1982, have dwindled in recent years. Only three 767s were manufactured last year.
But whatever the drawbacks and advantages, the contract may not yet be in the bag.
Feb. 24 was the second time Boeing bested Airbus parent EADS for the contract in the world's largest defense market.
The contract was awarded in 2008 to EADS and U.S. partner Northrop Grumman, but the deal was canceled after the government upheld Boeing protests of a flawed process.
EADS has 10 days after the award to protest the Pentagon decision.
"The battle could go into overtime if EADS decides to appeal, and it's not out of the question given the outlook for defense spending in the years ahead," said Ausick of 24/7WallSt.com.
"Given the budget environment and increasingly high fuel costs, the (EADS) KC-30 was at a disadvantage. But there are a few Southern Republican politicians who may decide to hold up funding," Aboulafia told AFP.

IAF lost 40 planes, 16 pilots since 2008

New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS) The Indian Air Force (IAF) lost 40 planes and 16 of its pilots in air crashes in the past three years, the Rajya Sabha was told Wednesday.
'During the last three years, from Feb 1, 2008, to Feb 17, 2011, 40 accidents of IAF aircrafts have taken place. In these accidents, 16 pilots, 24 service personnel and five civilians have lost their lives,' Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in a written reply to the upper house during question hour.

Antony said every IAF aircraft accident was thoroughly investigated by a court of inquiry to ascertain the cause and remedial measures were taken accordingly to check their recurrence.

Apart from this, the IAF had taken various measures relating to strengthening the aviation safety organisation, streamlining of accident and incident reporting procedure, analytical studies and quality audits of the aircraft fleets to identify vulnerable areas and institute remedial measures to reduce aircraft accidents, he said.

'Visit of all flying bases by senior aerospace safety functionaries of the IAF is undertaken to enhance aviation safety. Measures like Operational Risk Management and Crew Resource Management have been implemented to generate a safe flying culture,' he added.

He said the accident prevention programmes had given an added thrust to identify risk-prone and hazardous areas specific to the aircraft fleets and operational environment to ensure safe practices and procedures.

To another question, he said that in 2010, the IAF reported 12 air crashes and in these five pilots, 11 armed forces personnel and four civilians were killed.

From Jan 1 to Feb 18 this year, there was one air crash, but no pilot, service personnel or civilian was killed, he added.

A MiG-21 fighter jet had crashed Feb 4 this year, 140 km off Gwalior airfield while enroute to Jamnagar. No casualty was reported in the accident.

Russia to build Bangladesh’s first nuclear plant

Russia also will train workers to run the plant, to be built in Rooppur, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Dhaka. – File Photo by AP

DHAKA: Russia has agreed to build energy-starved Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant, the government said Friday.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Science said officials from the two countries signed an agreement in Dhaka late Thursday for the $1.5 billion plant.
Russia will supply two reactors capable of generating a total of 2,000 megawatts of electricity for the plant, which is to be built by 2018, the ministry said. It will also supply fuel for the plant and take back the spent fuel, it said.
Russia also will train workers to run the plant, to be built in Rooppur, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Dhaka.
Relations between the two countries have been close since Russia backed Bangladesh in its 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.
Bangladesh’s decades-old gas-fired power plants are unable to generate enough electricity for the country’s 150 million people, with a daily shortfall of about 2,000 megawatts. Businesses complain that the shortages interfere with production.
The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank say Bangladesh’s economy, which has grown by more than 5 percent in recent years, will suffer if more electricity is not generated to support industries and agriculture.
The country also is looking at options to switch to coal-fired power plants. It has six coal fields with about 3.3 billion tons of estimated reserves. – AP

German DoD Given a Year To Reach Budget Goals

BONN - The German Defense Department has been given an additional year to achieve its saving targets of 8.3 billion euros (11.43 billion).
According to the German Treasury Department, part of these cuts, which were agreed upon last June, now will be stretched from 2014 to 2015. However, the 8.3 billion-euro figure will not be changed.

Under the original plan, the budget would be cut by 1 billion euros in 2013 and an additional 3 billion euros in 2014 as part of the military's structural reform. In addition, the department had to save about 600 million euros in 2011, about 1.1 billion euros in 2012, and another 1.3 billion euros in 2013 and in 2014 in its administrative sector.
The Defense Department declined comment before the new savings plans is drawn up.
The defense budget cuts are part of the German government's overall austerity package, aimed to reduce its global expenditures by around 80 billion euros until 2014.

U.S. Military Pulls Out of Eastern Afghan Valley

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has begun pulling soldiers out of the Pech valley in eastern Afghanistan, a location once said to be vital to the war effort in the region, the Pentagon said Friday.
The commander of U.S.-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, Major Gen. John Campbell, is "repositioning" forces "within the province to achieve greater effect and allow for more flexibility," said Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokesperson.

Campbell, "is moving forces around within his area of responsibility away from isolated static security outposts and more toward protecting the population in Kunar [province]," said Robbins.
"There are dozens of mountain passes and we cannot be in all of them," Robbins said, confirming the news first reported in the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The Post said that a battalion of some 800 U.S. troops have been deployed to the valley since 2006.
"If your forces are static, it takes away your opportunities and flexibility," Campbell told the Post.
The Times reported that U.S. soldiers began withdrawing from the valley starting on Febr.15 in a two-month-long operation. Afghan army units will remain in the valley.
However the Afghan army many not be up to the task.
"It will be difficult for Afghans to hold these areas on their own. The terrain there is very tough," Afghan Defense Minister Rahim Wardak told the Post.
"I personally fought against the Soviets in that area," he said.
During the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Pech valley, located near the border with Pakistan, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between the Afghan resistance and Soviet soldiers.
The Soviets pulled out of the valley in 1988, and many Afghans saw it as a key turning moment in the war, the Times said. Within six months the mujahedeen resistance groups had taken the valley from the Soviet-supported Afghan army.
Nearly 1,500 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan in the longest U.S. war, launched in 2001 to root out Al-Qaeda extremists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
President Barack Obama ordered a 30,000-strong surge under a last-ditch war strategy in late 2009, ahead of handing security to Afghan forces in 2014.

Study: Put General In Charge of U.S. Army's GCV

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The U.S. Army appears to be taking seriously a new study that describes problems that plague service acquisition, from writing requirements to full-rate production.

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The Army announced it had commissioned the 120-day study last May and asked Gil Decker, a former Army acquisition executive, and retired Gen. Lou Wagner, who served as chief of the Army's Materiel Command, to lead the inquiry.
On the last day here of the Association of the U.S. Army's winter symposium, Wagner ran through the study's recommendations for improving the system. He was not originally on the conference's agenda, but was added after InsideDefense broke news of the study's findings in a Feb. 11 story.
While the study group has clearly outlined the scope of the acquisition problems, it remains to be seen whether its recommendations will lead to the kind of change required.
One of its recommendations is to put a general in charge of the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) program, currently led by a colonel. GCV and similarly complex acquisition category (ACAT) 1 programs need to have a general in charge, Wagner said.
If it were the Air Force, a three-star would be in charge, Wagner half-joked.
The Army's track record in getting programs out of technology development and into production does not bode well for GCV, planned as a successor to the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. The acquisition process for the entire U.S. military requires scores upon scores of reviews and layers of bureaucracy that can slow things down, but the Army's recent history appears particularly bad.
From 1990 to 2010, the Army terminated 22 major programs, Wagner said. Of course, several of those fell under the umbrella of the multibillion-dollar Future Combat Systems effort, which was canceled in 2009. This has led to a loss of trust by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Congress and industry in the Army's ability to develop good requirements and move a system into production, Wagner said.
The study's recommendations fall into four broad categories:
* Make the requirements process collaborative and timely. This means bringing the key stakeholders in early from across the Army, something the service did do with GCV, Wagner said. For key ACAT 1 programs, the Army should establish a special task force chartered by the chief of staff or the secretary of the Army, Wagner said.
* Manage risk, don't be risk averse.
To this end, Wagner showed a chart that displayed how Army programs were categorized by risk, based on the amount of development work required. A program that intends to develop a system from scratch versus one that plans to upgrade an existing system does not need to go through the same process, Wagner said.
The Army should not undertake developing systems from the ground up unless the system is truly a game-changer, he added.
* Align organizations and accountability. For example, Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier should be renamed PEO Soldier and Small Unit. PEO Combat Support and Combat Service Support, which currently manages more than 500 systems, should be broken up into two offices,
* Provide adequate requirements and acquisition resources. To reduce funding instability, the Army could fence off funds for larger programs or fund them with a "capital account."
Wagner said he has briefed many people in the Pentagon on the study, including Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter.
So far, the feedback has been very positive, he said.

AUSA: U.S. Army Plans Integrated Network Tests

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - As the U.S. Army reinvents its network strategy, it is planning a busy year of tests and evaluations that will compare program-of-record technologies to other available equipment developed by industry.
The first event is scheduled for June and July at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and the Army is calling it the Integrated Network Baseline Test. The six-week exercise includes a series of limited user tests for important Army network programs.

Limited user tests are designed to grade a system's performance and collect data that can be used when the Army or the Pentagon make a production decision.
The Integrated Network Baseline Test will include limited user tests for two Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) programs: the Ground Mobile Radio and the Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit radios. It also will include limited user tests for the Modern Soldier System and the Joint Capability Release, which is the next generation of Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below battle command capabilities.
The first four weeks will comprise the limited user tests, and during weeks five and six, the Army will conduct brigade-level exercises with non-program-of-record network technologies.
Each battalion in the brigade will have different sets of equipment so the Army can judge interoperability but also compare the capabilities to each other, said Paul Mehney, spokesman for Program Executive Office (PEO)-Integration.
In October, the Army will conduct what it's calling a Brigade Combat Team Integrated Exercise (BCT-IE). This event is designed to bring in emerging capabilities and non-program-of-record technologies and get them into the hands of soldiers, Mehney said.
It is the Army's chance to evaluate what is available and see what could be added to capability sets in the future.
For a company like Harris, which has a radio with capabilities similar to those developed under the JTRS program, the opportunity is exciting. The Army has indicated it wants to evaluate the company's AN/PRC-117G radio, which is a huge change from a year ago, said Dennis Moran, vice president of government business development at Harris.
This year's focus is the company command post and the aerial tier of the network infrastructure. The Army will be looking at the maturity of the technology and its ability to be integrated into the overall network.
A culminating event, called the Integrated Network Test, will take place late in 2012. It will determine what goes into the Army's capability set for 2013 and 2014, Mehney said.
Bringing all of these disparate systems together is a new approach for the Army, said Col. Michael Williamson, deputy PEO Integration.
It is being spearheaded by Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the vice chief of the Army, who directed the service to start testing the separate network pieces together despite their different levels of technological maturity, Williamson said.
The Army tried it out for the first time during a giant network demonstration in July. To pull that off, the program managers and PEOs involved performed integration work that normally would have been done two years from now, Williamson said.
Tests on this scale require a lot of resources in manpower and dollars, but by combining programs' test events, the Army hopes to offset the costs, Williamson said.

Arrow Intercepts Target in Test, Validates New Software

TEL AVIV - The U.S.-Israel Arrow program passed another milestone Feb. 22 with the spectacular, nighttime head-on intercept of a long-range target off the California coast.
Part of the ongoing, jointly funded Arrow System Improvement Program, the test validated new Block 4 versions designed to improve discriminating capabilities of the Arrow 2 interceptor, the Green Pine search-and-track radar and the Citron Tree battle management control system.

"To see that explosion off the shores of California was truly gratifying. It was a body-to-body impact that completely destroyed the target," Arieh Herzog, director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) told reporters via teleconference shortly after the nighttime launch at the U.S. Navy's Point Mugu Sea Range.
Herzog said validation of the Block 4 software would provide the Israel Air Force "with a better system than they have now." The software upgrades, he said, improve detection capabilities and lethality needed to defend against "new and different threats."
In a Feb. 22 statement, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) noted that the Green Pine radar successfully detected and tracked the target, transferred information to the Citron Tree management control system and launched the Arrow interceptor, "which performed its planned trajectory and destroyed the target missile."
The MDA statement noted that the test "represented a realistic scenario" and involved operationally ready elements of the Arrow weapon system.
In an interview earlier this month, Herzog said the sea-based target, provided by the MDA and launched from a mobile launch platform, was "representative of threats we face in this theater."
Herzog declined to provide details, but experts here said the target simulated increasingly longer-range missiles equipped with decoys designed to disorient and confuse defensive interceptors. A program official cited projected threats from upgraded versions of Syrian Scud-D and Iranian Shahab, Ashura and BM-25 missiles as drivers for continuous upgrades to Israel's defensive capabilities.
"We need to create all kinds of bodies in space to do discrimination against decoys. These features went into production with the Block 4," the program official said.
Herzog was more reticent on threats driving Block 4 requirements. He acknowledged, however, that Block 4 upgrades "improve the process of discrimination of what happens in the sky and the transmission of target data [to the Citron Tree battle management center] for much better situational control."
Finally, Block 4 upgrades to Arrow 2 interceptors refine midcourse guidance which, when coupled with improved target identification and discrimination capabilities, improves lethality.
Herzog added that Block 4 upgrades would be retrofitted into current Arrow 2 interceptors, as well as other program elements.
Udi Shani, MoD director-general, credited the close cooperation with the Pentagon's MDA and other U.S. defense establishment agencies for supporting the IMDO and Israel's efforts to deploy cutting-edge defense capabilities against escalating threats.
Meanwhile, IMDO and MDA are developing an upper-tier Arrow 3, an exoatmospheric, two-stage intercepting missile that uses pivoting optical sensors and its own upper-stage kick motor instead of separate control rockets to steer itself precisely into incoming targets. The so-called high-divert Arrow 3 is expected to weigh about half that of Arrow 2 and intercept maneuvering targets high in Earth's atmosphere.
In parallel, IMDO is working on a Block 5 upgrade aimed at merging the lower-tier Arrow 2 and the planned exo-atmospheric Arrow 3 into a single national missile defense system. The planned Block 5 Arrow weapon system will include new ground and airborne sensors, a command-and-control system, and a new high-performance target missile to simulate the Iranian Shahab and other potentially nuclear-capable delivery vehicles developed by Tehran.
The MLM Division of Israel Aerospace Industries is prime contractor for Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, with Chicago-based Boeing serving as subcontractor for production of critical components.
Last week's test completes a milestone held in abeyance since a July 2009 so-called "no test" due to software glitches. The glitch occurred when data transferred from the Green Pine radar to the battle management center erroneously showed intercept would take place out of the prescribed safety range, causing automatic mission abort.
Herzog said he expected the Israel Air Force to declare Block 4 versions of the Arrow 2 fully operational later this year.

Merkel 'Regrets' U.S. Tanker Decision

ERLIN - The U.S. Air Force's decision to award a huge tanker contract to Boeing is disappointing and Washington has missed a chance to deepen the transatlantic relationship, Germany's chancellor said Feb. 25.
"The chancellor ... took note of the decision with regret. From the German point of view this is a missed opportunity to deepen the transatlantic partnership," a spokesman for Angela Merkel told a regular briefing.

The Pentagon on Feb. 24 announced that Boeing had won the contract, worth over $30 billion, to supply aerial refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force, at the end of a long and tortuous contest.
The head of EADS, Airbus' parent company, has already said he was "disappointed and perplexed" by the decision.
Germany's economy minister Rainer Bruederle also said Berlin considered the EADS offer an attractive one.
The U.S. firm is now tasked with delivering 18 aircraft by 2017, but the contract is expected to grow to 179 tankers.
The planes, effectively flying filling stations, give the U.S. aircraft global reach and allow Washington to project military power well beyond its borders.
The decision capped a nearly 10-year attempt by the U.S. Air Force to begin to replace an aging Boeing-built fleet of 400 tankers dating back to the 1950s.
But it was an upset, with most experts predicting the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company would land the contract.

France's Lagarde Confident About Airbus

SINGAPORE - French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said Feb. 25 confident about Airbus' ability to compete in the global market after the European aircraft maker lost a key U.S. military contract to rival Boeing.
Lagarde, who is on a visit to Singapore, would not comment on the Pentagon's decision on Feb. 24 to award the $30 billion contract to supply aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. air force to Boeing.

"I have no comment at this stage," she told reporters.
"All I know is Airbus is a magnificent company and I have full trust and confidence in its ability to face competition and challenges of the markets," Lagarde told reporters.
A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin on Feb. 25 that the Pentagon's decision was disappointing and Washington had missed a chance to deepen the transatlantic relationship.
The head of EADS, Airbus' parent company, has also said he was "disappointed and perplexed" by the decision.
Boeing is now tasked with delivering 18 aircraft by 2017, but the contract is expected to grow to 179 tankers.
The planes, effectively flying filling stations, give the U.S. air force global reach and allow Washington to project military power well beyond its borders.
The decision capped a nearly 10-year attempt by the U.S. air force to begin to replace an ageing Boeing-built fleet of 400 tankers dating from the 1950s.

Father Of Soviet Submarines Dead At 91

SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia - Sergei Kovalyov, the father of the Soviet Union and Russia's nuclear submarine program, has died at the age of
91 in his native Saint Petersburg, his colleagues said Friday.

A towering figure in the secret world of strategic arsenals, Kovalyov is credited with designing 92 types of submarines at a time when Moscow and Washington fought a bitter war for supremacy of the world's seas.
He began his career in 1948, working at first on the design of a revolutionary S-99 model that became the fastest submarine in the Soviet Union's nascent naval forces.
Kovalyov began designing his first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine in 1958, the same year he was appointed in charge of the Soviet Union's entire strategic naval forces program.
In a congratulatory message issued on Kovalyov's 90th birthday, President Dmitry Medvedev called him "a designer who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of the national ship building industry."
Most recently, Kovalyov was involved in designing off-shore oil and natural gas production platforms, an industry vital to Russia's efforts to develop the energy reserves trapped off its Pacific coast.

Pakistan Navy to participate in Aman 11 exercise

The top Pakistan and Chinese defense officials held a meeting where the new projects to expand their military cooperation, were discussed. The timely completion of the current projects was also an important part of the meeting.
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Pakistan Army Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne met Administrator of China”s State Administration of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence Chen Qiufa discussed the issues related to defense cooperation and the present and future projects that the two countries are involved together.
General Wynne is in China to take part in the eight round of Pakistna-China security dialogue and he publicly thanked Chen Qiufa for the support in all defense projects and showed his appreciation for the active of SASTING in ensuring the timely completion of all current joint projects.
At the moment the major supplier of weapon systems for Pakistan – China, is being involved in a list of defense projects which include the development of the new modern fighter – The JF-17 Thunder which is currently being produced in both countries and the engines for the fighters are being supplied by the Russian military.
China is also involved in the construction of Naval Frigates for the Pakistan Navy which has so far received three of those frigates and the fourth one is currently being constructed in the Karach Shipyard and Engineering Works with the cooperation of the Chinese navy.

Raytheon discussing pilot training with Pakistan

The US defence major Raytheon has just won a competition for a $42.8 million contract to train the Afghan airforce pilots in the Middle East. This is the first contract of this type in the region.
According to Vice President of Raytheon, Kevin Massengill, the company is also negotiating for the training of Pakistan pilots as well. Massengill said that the contract has been signed and the training will take place in an Arab Gulf country. However, he declined naming the country where the training programme will be performed. The entire programme is expected to last a couple of months by the end of which, the Afghanistan army will have a batch of well-trained pilots

Former military officers say cuts will damage defence

Harrier jump jets were among the victims of the strategic defence review

Ten retired senior military officers have written to the prime minister to voice their concerns over the loss of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

A former field marshal, three generals and six admirals say the loss of Ark Royal and its fleet of Harrier jets has damaged Britain's defence capabilities.
They say Britain can no longer mount amphibious operations without putting troops' lives at "considerable risk".
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has defended the "difficult decisions".
The BBC's defence correspondent, Jonathan Beale, said the letter, which was leaked to the Daily Telegraph, raises questions about what military rescue operation forces could mount in the future.
In December, Dr Fox announced that the frigate sent to evacuate British nationals from Libya - HMS Cumberland - is to be decommissioned in April, following the strategic defence and security review (SDSR).

“Start Quote

The government's plans were based on strategic and international geo-political assumptions, many of which have been shaken over the past month”

End Quote Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy

Our correspondent says this is not the first time former military top brass have warned that recent cuts in the armed forces have left Britain dangerously exposed.

Labour has already called for the defence review to be reopened in light of events in Egypt, Bahrain and Libya.
The letter - written before the current evacuation operation in Libya - is signed by, among others, Field Marshal Lord Bramall, a former chief of the defence staff; Maj Gen Julian Thompson and Adm Sir Jeremy Black, who commanded the carrier Invincible during the Falklands conflict.
Dr Fox insists Britain still has the "right military assets" in place to respond to crises.
But this group of former military commanders is calling on the prime minister to reassess the decisions made in the defence review.

HMS Cumberland is due to be scrapped in April

They have called for a re-evaluation of the SDSR, which they say is "unduly trusting in an uncertain, fast-moving and dangerous world".
However Dr Fox defended the steps taken to tackle the £38bn deficit left by Labour and said the review would not be reopened.
"For our future carrier strike capability, it makes strategic sense to move towards greater inter-operability with the US and France and installing catapult and arrestor gear will deliver this.
"Sustaining both Tornado and Harrier would be prohibitively expensive in this current economic climate and Tornado continues to provide vital support to the front line in Afghanistan," he said.
Referring to Libya, he said Hercules C-130 aircraft had lifted 51 UK citizens to safety on Thursday - and more than 100 were on their way to Malta on HMS Cumberland.
"None of our allies have seen fit to position an aircraft carrier off the coast of Libya as this is not the tool required for this task; there is no requirement for ground attack aircraft, but even if there were we would use our extensive regional basing and overflight rights," he said.
But shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said: "The government's plans were based on strategic and international geo-political assumptions, many of which have been shaken over the past month.
"Recent dramatic events mean that the defence review must be reopened and perhaps even rethought. It would be sensible to stop and reflect again on our nation's strategic defence needs."

Lawmakers React to USAF Tanker Pick

Here are the initial statements from several U.S. lawmakers on the U.S. Air Force's decision to select Boeing to build the service's KC-X next-generation tanker.
■ Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa.: "Today's long-awaited decision by the Pentagon is the right one for our military, our taxpayers and our nation's aerospace workers," said Murray, an avid Boeing supporter. Boeing intends to build its 767-based tankers in her home state.

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"At a time when our economy is hurting and good-paying aerospace jobs are critical to our recovery, this decision is great news for the skilled workers of Everett and the thousands of suppliers across the country who will help build this critical tanker for our Air Force," she said." This decision is a major victory for the American workers, the American aerospace industry and America's military. And it is consistent with the President's own call to 'out-innovate' and 'out-build' the rest of the world.
■ Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala.: "After having already won the competition three years ago and having brought to the table the best refueling aircraft for our military, it's deeply disappointing that Mobile and the Gulf Coast were not chosen as the home of the new Air Force tanker," said Bonner. EADS intended to assemble its tankers in Bonner's district of Mobile, Ala. "Unfortunately, the best tanker for our military was not selected. I intend to demand a full accounting as to why.
"While there was great optimism that our team would ultimately prevail, we've also been conditioned to expect the unexpected," he continued. 'This competition has been challenged before and it's not unlikely it will be challenged again. It will ultimately be up to EADS to determine whether they will protest this decision and I will fully support whatever decision they make."
■ Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.: "I am deeply disappointed that the EADS team was not selected to build the next air refueling tanker for the Air Force," Sessions said. "Three years ago, EADS won this competition because their aircraft had objectively superior capabilities and offered dramatic savings for the taxpayer. In light of today's result, I intend to examine the process carefully to ensure it was fairly conducted.
"Regardless of today's unfortunate outcome, the EADS team's decision to manufacture the aircraft in Mobile was a clear affirmation by a world-class corporation of our state's remarkable workforce," he continues. "EADS would not have chosen Alabama if they did not firmly believe that our state was a great place to do business in the global economy. I look forward to assisting them in expanding their presence in Alabama."
■ Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.: "I applaud the Obama administration for this decision, especially after such a long process, and I am delighted to see the Department of Defense select the best air refueling tanker for our nation's brave war fighters at the best price for our taxpayers," said DeLauro. Boeing intends to install Pratt & Whitney-built engines, which are built in Connecticut.
"The award comes at a critical time when we need to be creating jobs and driving long-term economic growth, in Connecticut and nationwide," she said. "Along with terminating the costly and unnecessary Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine program, this has been a great week for defense manufacturing jobs in Connecticut."
■ Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.: "Today, I applaud the United States Air Force and Boeing on bringing 50,000 jobs to our nation and taking the first step in assuring current and future U.S. air dominance," Inhofe said. "The KC-135 tanker aircraft has proven essential to our nation's defense as the success of our recent military operations would not have been possible without the utilization of our tanker inventory. Replacing the first 179 aging Eisenhower-era KC-135s is paramount to maintaining our military's strategic advantage.
"Now, we must ensure that funding levels remain constant and quality planes are delivered on time. I look forward to the next steps, including determining basing locations," he said. "The 97th Air Mobility Wing at Altus, AFB has long stood ready to train the next generation of tanker operators, and they look forward to continuing the mobility training mission. The 76th Maintenance Wing (MXW) and Oklahoma Air Logistics Center Aerospace Sustainment Directorate at Tinker, AFB will play key roles in maintaining the new tanker."
■ Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., co-chairmen of the Senate Tanker Caucus: "I'm pleased the Defense Department has finally awarded the contract to replace our nation's aging fleet of KC-135 tanker aircraft," said Hatch.
"The awarding of this contract is long overdue," Conrad said. "The men and women of our Air Force need and deserve the most up to date equipment. That includes the best refueling tankers in the world. This announcement is the first step to getting a long, drawn-out process back on track so that we can deploy these much-needed replacements to support our troops."
■ Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: "I am pleased that the Air Force has made a decision to award a contract for a replacement aerial refueling tanker," McCain said. "The tanker aircraft that the Air Force will ultimately buy under this contract will be critical to how joint operations are conducted for the foreseeable future. I look forward to the Air Force demonstrating over the next few weeks how today's decision was made fairly, openly and transparently. Only such a process will ensure that we obtain the most capable aerial refueling tanker at the most reasonable cost."
■ House Armed Services Committee leaders: "Today's announcement moves us closer to providing the world's premier aerial fighting forces with a new and much-needed aerial refueling capability," they said. 'Our primary goal on the Armed Services Committee is to provide our military's men and women with the resources they need in the most effective and efficient way possible.
"Moving forward, the committee will continue the necessary oversight to ensure the evaluation was transparent and fair to each competitor," they continued. "We look forward to receiving more information from the Air Force as we review their decision-making processes. The Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee will hold a hearing on this issue as soon as enough information is publicly available."

Envoys Discuss North Korea's Nuclear Program

WASHINGTON - South Korea's nuclear negotiations chief met with U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth on Feb. 24 to discuss Pyongyang's uranium enrichment program, officials said.
The program disclosed last November potentially gives the North a second way to make nuclear weapons, in addition to its plutonium stockpile and envoy Wi Sung-Lac's visit came a day after the North's main ally China blocked publication of a United Nations report criticizing the program.

Wi also held talks with Robert Einhorn, the U.S. State Department's special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, and with his U.S. counterpart Sung Kim, according to a spokesman.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Wi would hold talks Friday with Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Kurt Campbell.
Prior to his departure, Wi told reporters his trip would focus on how to cope with the uranium program at the U.N. Security Council and consider ways to create the right conditions for resuming long-stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.
The sanctions panel report blocked by China calls for tougher implementation of the measures and outlines the progress the North has made on uranium enrichment, according to diplomats.
It describes the enrichment as a new violation of sanctions imposed following atomic tests in 2006 and 2009.
China chairs the talks grouping China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas last held in December 2008 and has been trying to revive them to ease overall tensions on the Korean peninsula. It says the uranium issue should be dealt with at that forum.

Taiwan Reels From Spy Arrest

TAIPEI - Taiwan military officials are still reeling from the late-January arrest of a one-star army general on accusations of spying for China, the worst espionage scandal in Taiwan's history.
Gen. Lo Hsien-che, who ran the communications, electronics and information division of Army Command Headquarters, stands accused of compromising the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) C4I program. Po Sheng includes a fiber-optic communication cable network and procedures for sharing information with U.S. Pacific Command.

During Lo's 2002-05 stint as defense attaché in Thailand, he was allegedly recruited by a mainland Chinese agent in 2004.
Sources in the Ministry of National Defense (MND) indicated that an investigation into Lo began in October. He was arrested in his home Jan. 25.
MND officials announced his arrest Feb. 8, and said a damage assessment team is looking into how much Lo may have given China.
U.S. officials are pressuring Taiwan to be more transparent about the damage allegedly caused by Lo. The consequences could include losing the Pentagon's confidence in Taiwan's ability to protect U.S. defense technologies sold to the self-rule island. Taiwan is pushing Washington hard for the release of new F-16 fighter aircraft and is awaiting delivery of Patriot PAC-3 air defense missile systems and P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. All are technologies China is anxious to learn more about.
One former Taiwan defense attaché said the MND is unlikely to dig too deeply. There's a long tradition of "making a big issue small" (da shi hua xiao) in Taiwan's military bureaucracy, the former attaché said.
"Even if the top leader asks whoever is in charge of the investigation to be completely honest, from the second level down, people will most likely try to make it sound less serious," he said.
He said the MND must begin polygraphing returning attachés or risk further problems.
A MND official said the level of damage is uncertain and accused local media outlets of making up quotes and information to sensationalize the Lo case.
What is certain is the Lo case is one of several arrests over the past five years of Taiwan and U.S. officials involved in the Po Sheng program.
These include the 2008 arrest and subsequent conviction of Gregg Bergersen, director of the Pentagon's C4ISR program for Taiwan at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Bergersen was part of the Kuo Tai-shen spy ring that included James Fondren, another Pentagon official working on Taiwan issues. They are now in U.S. federal prisons.
In November, a Taiwan colonel in Taiwan's Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) was arrested and charged with supplying the names of MIB agents to China.

Top US Officer In Gulf To Reassure Allies

MUSCAT - The United States' top military officer on Monday made a discreet visit to Oman which guards the Strait of Hormuz opposite Iran's coast as Pentagon strategists monitor the strategic and vital waterway.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also visited Bahrain, home to Washington's Fifth Fleet, as anti-regime protests gathered steam in the kingdom.

The key U.S. ally has been rocked by anti-regime protests since Feb. 14 as thousands of mainly Shiite protesters demand an end to the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, which has ruled Bahrain, a majority Shiite country, for over 200 years.
Mullen has been touring the Gulf since Sunday to reassure U.S. regional allies after mass revolts in the Arab world that have toppled two of Washington's allies, Tunisia's Zine El Abdine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.
Mullen has said his visits were aimed at "reaffirming, reassuring and also trying to understand where the leaderships of these countries are going, and in particular in Bahrain."
After having arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh earlier this week, Mullen then visited Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
He will also head to Kuwait to participate in ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the country's liberation in 1991 from Iraqi occupation.
In Oman, Mullen and Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, in charge of the wars in Iraq and and Afghanistan, met officials whose identities were not disclosed.
The Hormuz Strait through which 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes is less than 31 miles wide, with Oman to the south and Iran to the north, and Mullen's visit underlines U.S. determination to keep it open.
Iranian commanders have repeatedly threatened to block navigation through the strait, which links the Gulf to the Indian Ocean, if the Islamic republic comes under attack.
Western powers led by the United States suspect Iran is masking a weapons drive under the guise of a civilian atomic program, a charge strongly denied by Iran.
"We've been concerned about Iranian capabilities to impede the flow of oil through the Hormuz straight for a long time," a military official traveling with Mullen told AFP.
The Iranians "certainly would have an initial impact but we do not believe they can close it down for a lengthy period of time."
t"We have very robust naval capabilities in the region, these are international waterways that they don't own and we're very committed to protect them," said the official.
In Bahrain, Mullen will visit the forces stationed in the Fifth Fleet, the major U. S. Navy base that has been in the kingdom for 63 years.
The Gulf archipelago state has been hit by protests calling on the government, headed by King Hamad's uncle Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman who is widely despised by Shiites there, to step down.
Seven people have been killed in a police crackdown on the protesters.
However, the United States has praised the monarchy for taking "positive steps" to reach out to protesters.
The U. S. Navy has also said that the demonstrations have not disrupted American operations in the kingdom.
"As far as Fifth Fleet operations, no, the demonstrations have not had any impact here - we're continuing to conduct our regular business out here," a spokesman for the Fifth Fleet told AFP on Monday.

US Army Ordered Psy-Ops On Own Lawmakers: Report

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army ordered the illegal use of psychological operations to influence American lawmakers on the Afghanistan war, Rolling Stone magazine reported Thursday, forcing the U.S. commander there to launch an inquiry.
The article said the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, in charge of training Afghan troops, pressured U.S. soldiers specializing in "psy-ops" that normally influence enemy behavior, to manipulate visiting U.S. senators and congressmen - as well as other VIPs and senior foreign officials - into supporting more money and troops for the war.

The report shook up Washington at a time of growing public dissatisfaction with America's longest war, with lawmakers urging a swift investigation of the "disturbing" charges.
Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan said war commander Gen. David Petraeus "is preparing to order an investigation" to determine "what actions took place and if any of them was inappropriate or illegal."
The report says a lieutenant colonel told the magazine he had been repeatedly ordered by Caldwell's staff to target senators including 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin, to get Caldwell's message across.
Among those the team was told to pressure during a four-month period were Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, Germany's interior minister, and the Czech ambassador to Kabul, according to members of the "information operations" (IO) team and internal documents.
And when the officer sought to bring the operation to a halt, a campaign of retaliation was launched against him, according to the magazine.
"My job in psy-ops is to play with people's heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave," Lt. Col. Michael Holmes, leader of the IO unit, told Rolling Stone.
"I'm prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you're crossing a line."
The magazine also said Caldwell's chief of staff asked Holmes how the general could secretly manipulate the U.S. lawmakers.
"How do we get these guys to give us more people?" the chief of staff demanded. "What do I have to plant inside their heads?"
Reed, a Democrat who sits on key committees with oversight over the conflict, called the charges "serious and disturbing, and they have to be fully investigated."
An inquiry will likely check whether the IO effort was in violation of U.S. law that forbids targeting U.S. nationals with such propaganda campaigns.
Both Reed and Levin, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, denied they had been influenced by the effort.
The report was the second scoop on the military affairs front by the music magazine in under a year.
In 2010, Michael Hastings, the same writer as of Thursday's article, wrote a withering critique of Petraeus' predecessor Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff, attributing blunt comments to the commander's staff which led to his ouster.
Hastings wrote that Holmes, who became the subject of an army investigation after e-mailing a military lawyer to address his discomfort with the psy-op orders on U.S. civilians, said Caldwell "seemed far more focused on the Americans and the funding stream than he was on the Afghans.
"We were there to teach and train the Afghans. But for the first four months it was all about the U.S.," he added. "Later he even started talking about targeting the NATO populations."
In response to Holmes's e-mail, military lawyer Capt. John Scott agreed with Holmes and wrote that the "IO doesn't do that," according to the report.
"[Public affairs] works on the hearts and minds of our own citizens and IO works on the hearts and minds of the citizens of other nations," Scott wrote.
"While the twain do occasionally intersect, such intersections ... should be unintentional."
In a statement to the magazine, a Caldwell spokesman "categorically denies the assertion that the command used an Information Operations Cell to influence distinguished visitors."

Boeing Wins U.S. Air Force Tanker Battle

Boeing has won the long-running battle to supply the U.S. Air Force with a new aerial refueling tanker, the service announced today.

The new U.S. Air Force tanker will be based on Boeing's 767 twin-engine widebody airliner. (Boeing)

The initial contract was a fixed-price incentive firm contract valued at over $3.5 billion for KC-X engineering and manufacturing development and the delivery of 18 aircraft, dubbed KC-46As, by 2017. The Air Force will eventually spend an estimated $30 billion to buy 179 planes.

Based on the modern Boeing 767 twin-engine widebody airliner, the new tankers will replace many Eisenhower-era KC-135 aircraft, based on the Boeing 707.
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, along with DoD acquisition executive Ashton Carter, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz made the announcement during a briefing at the Pentagon this evening.
In a Feb. 24 statement, the chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee vowed "to continue the necessary oversight to ensure the evaluation was transparent and fair to each competitor."
"We look forward to receiving more information from the Air Force as we review their decision-making processes. The Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee will hold a hearing on this issue as soon as enough information is publicly available," said the statement by Reps. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., and Adam Smith, D-Wash.
"A Boeing victory means that the company retains a 50-year franchise in being the sole supplier of aerial refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force. It's worth tens of billions of dollars to the company and it also assures the commercial arm of EADS will not start building airliners in North America," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.
He said that Boeing's victory caught most observers off guard; an EADS victory seemed all but certain.
"The Boeing victory suggests that the Air Force was concerned about the higher cost of building and then operating an A330, which burns a ton more fuel per flight hour than the Boeing aircraft," he said.
Thompson said service officials did not consider the industrial base when making their selection.
"This is purely about the price and performance of the competing aircraft," he said.
The program is likely to be the largest award during the Obama Administration, and a source of steady work for decades.
If EADS decides to protest, the European firm may have the upper hand in a political battle, thanks to Republican control of the House of Representatives and their increased presence in the Senate, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Teal Group, Fairfax, Va. By contrast, Boeing's political power seems to be waning.
Still, he said, a lengthy battle is all but unavoidable. EADS sees the tanker contract as crucial for breaking into the U.S. military market, Aboulafia said.
Despite EADS' participation, the tanker contract does not signal that the United States is necessarily more open to foreign companies acting as prime contractors for large military contracts.
"I don't think this tells you much about the future access of foreign companies to the U.S. market," Thompson said. "This is a one-shot deal."
The analyst said there were unique factors surrounding the tanker contract.
Because the Air Force wanted a competition, industry sources said, EADS received a number of waivers for several "key performance parameters," including the ability to take off from 7,000-foot runways, fitting into existing hangars, and refueling all types of Air Force aircraft - it reportedly cannot pass fuel to Air Force V-22s. As well, the sources said, the contractor will not be required to integrate government-furnished classified hardware.
EADS and Boeing have been battling over the tanker for nearly a decade. In the early 2000s, the Air Force tried to lease 767-based tankers from Boeing under a sole-source contract, then tried to appease critics by switching to a plan to buy 80 aircraft and lease 20. But opposition to the plan, led by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), torpedoed the deal in November 2003.
The tanker contract was further marred with the revelation that a senior Air Force contracting official named Darleen Druyun had steered contracts at inflated prices to Boeing in exchange for employment for herself and family members. The contract was formally ended in January 2006.
In January 2007, the Air Force launched the KC-X tanker competition, drawing bids from Boeing and archrival EADS, which partnered with Northrop Grumman. In February 2008, the Northrop-EADS team won the contract with their Airbus A330-based aircraft.
The following month, however, Boeing protested, claiming the Air Force failed to evaluate the two proposals using the published criteria. That June, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld the protest, which led to the cancellation of the program.
The Defense Department attempted to restart the program, but aborted the attempt because a winner could not be picked before the Bush Administration left office.
The KC-X program was restarted for a third time in September 2009 by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Though the Air Force controls the selection process, the Office of the Secretary of Defense has been closely monitoring the process. In the new competition, military acquisition officials issued 373 requirements for the tanker, but said that the unit cost of each aircraft would be adjusted to reflect lifecycle cost over 40 years. The Air Force would also judge how effectively the aircraft would meet "warfighter effectiveness."

Amid PKK Operations, Turkish Air Force Buys Deterrence Weapons

WASHINGTON and ANKARA - The Turkish Air Force, whose main combat activity these days is the low-intensity, asymmetric battle against Kurdish separatists, sees no near-term threat of air-to-air combat. Still, its modernization efforts run largely to conventional weapons aimed at maximizing firepower and deterrence.
"Because of the PKK situation, the Air Force presently has an attack role in air-to-surface terms, and this is expected to remain in place as long as the PKK threat continues," one Ankara defense analyst said. "But in general, the Air Force strategy is designed to defend the homeland, and doesn't have a power projection agenda in its region."

Turkey's latest national security threat paper, published in 2006, portrays Iran and neighboring northern Iraq, where the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is based, as potential threats, but says air-to-air combat is unlikely.
Greece, Turkey's NATO ally and former foe in the Aegean, also is seen as a distant but still possible threat. But the two neighbors' greatly improved ties over the past 10 years, and the fact that Greece is a member of the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join eventually, makes a sustained air conflict highly unlikely.
Turkey has a considerably strong Air Force in its region and attaches top priority to the modernization of its fighter fleets. It operates more than 210 F-16s and more than 140 older F-4Es and F-5s. Most of these aircraft already are under upgrade or modernization programs.
Under an agreement with the United States and Lockheed Martin, which leads an international consortium, Turkey plans to buy 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II aircraft worth some $11 billion after 2015. As a stopgap solution, the Air Force will receive within five years 30 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 50 fighters worth more than $1.8 billion.
Most of Turkey's existing F-16s will continue flying well into the 2030s. Fifty-two of the Air Force's F-4Es have been modernized in cooperation with Israel. But earlier plans to modernize an additional 48 F-4E fighter-bombers were dropped to buy the new F-16s.
In addition to peacetime duties, the Air Force uses its fighter aircraft to attack PKK targets on Turkish territory and, with U.S. intelligence support since December, inside northern Iraq. In the foreseeable future, the Air Force's air-to-ground operations are expected to be its main warfare activity.
"In the case of an unlikely confrontation with Iran, Turkey relies on the superiority of its Air Force," the analyst said.
The Air Force mostly meets its need for air-to-air and air-to-surface munitions from the United States through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deals, although there are increasing efforts to buy from domestic sources.

Non-Fighter Purchases

The main threat from Iran might be ground-to-ground missiles. As a result, the Air Force is seeking to boost its surface-based air defenses.
The Turkish Air Force recently has taken delivery of I-Hawk surface-to-air missile batteries from the United States through an FMS arrangement, replacing its obsolete Nike Hercules systems. Authorization also has been given to buy medium- and high-altitude air defense systems that could also shoot down tactical ballistic missiles, suggesting an upcoming competition between U.S. Patriot-based systems and Russian S-300s or S-400s.
In what Turkish officials call the war against PKK terrorism, Ankara says it lacks advanced UAVs. The military has a few UAVs, including some leased from Israel.
The Air Force expects to receive before the end of 2008 the first of 10 Heron UAV systems from Israel, but deliveries already have been delayed for more than a year. There also are plans for some locally made UAVs for the Air Force.
The Air Force's strategic reconnaissance will get a boost when the country selects the winner in its first military observation satellite program, called Gokturk. British, German and Italian companies are vying for the contract, worth more than $250 million. The satellite should be launched in 2011 or 2012.
Turkish officials see a planned acquisition of airborne early warning and control aircraft from Boeing as a major force multiplier for the Air Force. There is more than a two-year delay in deliveries, and the systems now are expected to begin entering service in 2009 or 2010. The planes also may assume NATO-related roles.
On transport capabilities, 13 C-130 aircraft are being modernized locally, and a gap to be left by the retirement of C-160s should be filled by the arrival of A400Ms in 2009 or 2010 under a joint European program.
Turkey has 10 planes on order. However, the C-130s are going through avionics modernization only, and the Air Force may consider replacement transport aircraft in the not-too-distant future, procurement officials said.

Pakistan Targets Air Combat Needs To Protect Air Defense, C2 Early in War

TAIPEI - The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has not seen serious air combat since the 1965 and 1971 wars with India, but the ability to defeat a massive Indian assault on its air defenses early in a war remains its primary mission.
In 1965, Pakistan successfully trumped India in air combat, but it was ill-prepared for the 1971 conflict in which India dominated the skies. Fears of losing another war, much less a nuclear war, are unthinkable, and the PAF is modernizing its air interdiction, air surveillance and reconnaissance, command and control, and honing its air delivery skills for nuclear weapons.

Air interdiction is the PAF's primary mission, but it has not ignored retaliatory strike missions, said Haris Khan of the Pakdef Military Consortium. The PAF has expanded modernization efforts to include "nuclear weapons delivery, support of ground operations, fleet protection/maritime strike, and search and rescue are secondary," he said.
The PAF believes the Indian Air Force will launch a massive assault on Pakistan's air defense and command-and-control hubs during the first wave of a war, said A.B. Mahapatra, director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Asian Strategic Studies - India.
The Indian Air Force's primary mission is to neutralize Pakistan's nuclear option, he said.
"Thus, PAF is enhancing its air combat profile to encounter such future challenges," Mahapatra said.
The PAF's interdiction efforts include new and refurbished Lockheed Martin F-16s, now on order, and JF-17 Thunder fighters, built by Pakistan with Chinese assistance, now being manufactured.
In June 2006, the PAF ordered 18 F-16 C/D Block 52M fighters along with an option to procure another 18. A midlife upgrade will augment its existing fleet of 40 F-16 A/B Block 15s, along with buying 20 more F-16 A/B models via the Excessive Defense Articles program.
The F-16s will not be outfitted with nuclear weapons, but question marks remain for the JF-17. Known as the Chengdu J-10 Vigorous Dragon, the JF-17 will replace about 450 aging Nanchang A-5C Fantans, Dassault Mirage III/Vs and Chengdu F-7P Skybolts in the air-to-air combat and ground-support roles.
"The replacement will not be matched by an exact number, but initial reports indicate between 250 and 300 aircraft will be purchased by PAF," Khan said.
Khan said the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex is conducting flight evaluations of prototype aircraft "fitted with the Chinese-built NRIET KLJ-10 radar" and "Chinese-designed SD-10/PL-12 active-homing medium-range air-to-air missile."
The first 50 JF-17s will be outfitted with Chinese avionics, radar and missiles. But under an agreement with France in February, newer JF-17s will be outfitted with MBDA Mica air-to-air missiles and Thales RC 400 multimission radars.
The Russian-built RD-93 turbofan engine outfitting the JF-17 will have to be replaced due to pressure from India on Russia. Khan said the Chinese-built WS-13 Taishan engine is the most likely replacement.
There are unconfirmed reports, Khan said, that the PAF has ordered four aerial refueling tankers, possibly the Ukrainian-built Il-76.

Tentative UAV Plans

PAF also is improving its surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
"Pakistan uses UAVs for surveillance and is keen to augment the reconnaissance capabilities to a new height," with plans to procure up to 60 UAVs by 2010, Mahapatra said.
The Army has ordered the Luna short-range UAV from Germany and the Italian-built Galileo Falco UAV.
"An agreement was also signed in July of 2006 between the PAF and Turkey to jointly manufacture a UAV, which will meet the requirements of both air forces. The PAF UAV program is still in its adolescent stage, but they acknowledge the significance of the program for its future war plans," Khan said.
In April, the first of five Saab 2000 turboprop aircraft equipped with the Saab-Ericsson Erieye Airborne Early Warning & Command (AEW&C) system was rolled out during a ceremony in Sweden. Delivery to Pakistan is expected in mid-2009. Khan said there are discussions with China to co-develop an AEW&C aircraft designated as ZDK03 modeled on the Shaanxi Y-8F-400.
"PAF has mapped a very detailed and comprehensive plan for an early warning system to cover Pakistan's airspace with both airborne platforms and a ground-based radar network," he said.
Pakistan will integrate this plan with ground-based radar, including the U.S.-supplied AN/TPS-77 and Chinese-supplied JYL-1, JL3D-90A and JY-11 D air surveillance radars.
Khan points to other efforts, including a 2006 test of the Czech Vera passive radar system and an order for a number of MBDA Aspide/Spada 2000 low- to medium-altitude air defense batteries.
"These missiles are supposed to replace Thales Defence Systems Crotale. PAF is actively looking to purchase a high-altitude missile air defense system," with the Chinese-built FT-2000 as the front-runner, Khan said.
In the 1965 and 1971 wars with India, Pakistan successfully attacked ground targets, including high-value targets, within 200 miles of Pakistan's border.
Khan said in any future conflict with India, "I believe PAF will employ similar tactics," but with more intensity on high-value targets.
"PAF would, in the first instance, be tasked with countering India's planned advance into Pakistani territory by seeking to prevent the Indian Air Force from achieving local tactical air superiority," he said. "At the same time, it would be required to strike surface-to-surface missile launchers, if these can be identified. It would also be called upon to provide air cover for the strike corps in their limited advance to occupy Indian territory."

USAF Tanker Award Set for 5:10 p.m. ET

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, Pentagon procurement czar Ashton Carter, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Air Force Chief Gen. Norton Schwartz are to announce the winner of the U.S. Air Force's long-running KC-X tanker contract at 5:10 p.m.

EADS's Airbus A330, top, and Boeing's 767, below, are competing for the $35 billion U.S. Air Force KC-X contract. (EADS, Boeing)

flash goes hereEADS's Airbus A330 and Boeing's 767 are in an epic dogfight to supply the Air Force with 179 tankers for a total value that could amount to $35 billion.

Mullen: US to continue anti-piracy efforts

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti (AFP) - The United States will remain involved in the anti-piracy campaign off the Somali coast despite the killing of four Americans by Somali pirates, the top U.S. military officer Thursday.
"There's an international focus on this and rightfully so we'll continue to pursue it," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff during a visit to Djibouti, home to the only U.S. military base in Africa.

On Monday, the U.S. military said Somali pirates killed four Americans on a yacht they had captured last week. The four had been sailing from India when they were seized.
The pirates have become more sophisticated and prowl the vast Indian Ocean to distance of up to 1,500 nautical miles from the war-torn Horn of Africa state.
Mullen said the more than 30 warships involved in the anti-piracy drive underscored the "significance of the challenge [of piracy] and also the priority in terms of focus."
Despite the presence of the foreign navies, Somali pirates have continued to hijack vessels, and last year they seized 53 ships and took 1,181 seamen hostage, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
Mullen said hunting down the sea bandits in such vast waters was like seaching for a "needle in a haystack."
The small Red Sea state of Djibouti also hosts a French military base. It also serves as a launching base for U.S. drone attacks against Al Qaeda according to security information website Globalsecurity.org.

Pakistan, China to Hold Joint Military Exercises in 2011

Pakistan and China will hold two joint military exercises in 2011, a Pakistani senior military leader said Tuesday.



The two exercises, one army drill and one air force one, will be held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pakistan and China, said General Khalid Shameem Wynne, chairman of Pakistan's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Wynne, who is paying a five-day visit to China, told reporters that the two countries will also participate in a multinational navy drill in March.

Wynne hailed the strategic partnership between Pakistan and China, saying it is "the best example" of bilateral ties and a "stabilizing force" in the region.

"The China-Pakistan partnership is a source of comfort and stability for the entire region," Wynne said.

The visit is Wynne's first official visit to China since he was promoted to the rank of general and assumed his present position in October 2010.

In July 2010, Wynne led a joint anti-terrorism drill between Pakistan and China in Qingtongxia in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Afghanistan Seeks U.S. Help Post-2014

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan on Feb. 23 appealed for the United States to provide security assistance beyond 2014, the date by which President Barack Obama wants to withdraw U.S. combat troops.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, right, and Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne, left, listen Feb. 23 as they meet with Defense Minister of Afghanistan Abdul Rahim Wardak at the Pentagon. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak was holding talks at the Pentagon to look at future relations, despite recent tensions between the two governments over civilian deaths in the NATO-led campaign against the Taliban.

"We do strongly believe that for Afghanistan to be able to survive in that very volatile region, it will need your help beyond 2014," Wardak said at the start of a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Wardak saluted the nearly 1,500 U.S. troops who have died in America's longest war, which was launched in 2001 to root out al-Qaeda extremists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"We should be extremely grateful for all the sacrifices which your sons and daughters have given," Wardak said.
Gates said that such meetings on future security relations would take place twice annually between the two countries, with one session each year involving the U.S. defense secretary.
Gates hoped that the forum would lay "an enduring foundation for our partnership well beyond 2014."
The meetings should "demonstrate to others in the region and to our own people, in concrete terms, that together we are putting Afghanistan on a path towards stability and security," Gates said.
Opinion polls show dwindling U.S. public support for the war in Afghanistan, with many in the public questioning the continued human and financial toll nearly a decade after troops were first deployed.
Obama has poured more troops into Afghanistan but said that he will start pulling them out in July this year. However, the administration has recently shifted focus and emphasized 2014 as the date by which U.S. troops will leave.
The Obama administration has repeatedly said that the United States will remain committed to assisting Afghanistan in 2014, even if the military component winds down.