Despite Sales Drop, France 4th Largest Exporter

PARIS - French arms export orders fell in 2010, but the country held its ranking as the world's fourth-largest exporter, an annual report on foreign defense sales to parliament said Oct. 26.
Exports declined to 5.12 billion euros ($7.12 billion) in 2010 from 8.16 billion euros in the previous year, according to the report.

The foreign sales were secured in a "difficult climate and in an extremely volatile context," a Defense Ministry spokesman, Army Gen. Philippe Ponties, told journalists.
Exports are seen as vital to French defense industry and the government, as the domestic budget is expected to fall sharply as part of deficit reduction plans.
A major objective next year is to pursue at a New York conference an international treaty on arms sales, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.
France held a 6 percent share of the world market based on an annual average of deliveries, behind the United States, which dominates with a 53.7 percent share, Britain with 12.5 percent, and Russia with 8.2 percent, the report said.
The world market was estimated at 60 billion to 70 billion euros in annual sales, Ponties said.
Major deals sealed last year included a sale of the A330 multirole tanker transport aircraft to Saudi Arabia, Cougar helicopters to Malaysia, and the upgrade of Alphajet trainer jets for Morocco.
This year, France sold two Mistral-class command and projection ships to Russia, and signed a long-awaited contract to modernize Mirage 2000 fighter jets for the Indian Air Force.
Winning a big contract for 60 Rafale fighter jets with the United Arab Emirates has proved elusive, as the UAE balked at an initial $10 billion price tag.
Defense Minister Gérard Longuet said Paris is in "final negotiations" with the UAE on the Rafales, but there has been no comment from UAE authorities.
Paris supports foreign arms sales, which are seen as a key foreign policy tool, helping France hold its place at the top in international affairs, Ponties said.
The sales are conducted under a strict export control regime, he said.
The foreign contracts also are seen as vital to maintaining the country's defense industry and technology base and supporting 135,000 directly employed in the domestic economy, he said.

Indian chopper force to land,after violating airspace of Pakistan

An Indian military Cheetah helicopter belonging to the 666 Siachen Falcons Squadron that violated Pakistani airspace near the Line of Control in Kargil sector in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan at 1:00 p.m. (PST) was forced to land near Olding, Pakistan after being intercepted by Pakistan Air Force fighter jets. The helicopter has been impounded and all four Indian military personnel on board have been taken into custody by the Pakistan Army. The four military personnel include 1 pilot (a Colonel), 1 co-pilot (a Major), 1 Engineer (a Major) and a JCO. The helicopter and crew are now in Skardu.

Indian television reports cited army sources saying the airspace violation by the Cheetah model helicopter operated by the 666 Siachen Falcons was not intentional.

The reports said the helicopter entered Pakistan territory during “whiteout” conditions due to snow in the montainous region.

“It was due to bad weather that the Cheetah chopper strayed across the LoC. There was no deliberate attempt to intrude,” the Indian army said in a statement to Times Now television station, referring to the de facto border in the divided Kashmir region known as the Line of Control.

The military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas had told Reuters that ”the helicopter had came deep into our airspace. It was forced to land. Four Indian army officers have been taken into safe custody. They are safe.”
The two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals have fought three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947.
However, their relations have improved after they resumed a peace process this year which was suspended after co-ordinated attacks by Pakistan-based militants in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, that killed 166 people.

U.S. Military Sees JLTV Development Gain Speed

The U.S. military's program to replace the Humvee has had more ups and downs than the road on which they are tested, but things look to be moving forward.

Above, an artist's rendering of Lockheed Martin's entry into the JLTV competition. (Lockheed Martin)

U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps leaders trimmed a lot of extras to cut the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) cost by $100,000. This also will slice 16 months from the $52 million engineering, manufacturing and development phase, which will end in May 2012. That means the $270,000 base vehicle will come cheaper and sooner, as a single contract award is now scheduled for 2015.

The Army wants at least 20,000 JLTVs with the potential for a larger buy for the program with an estimated worth of $20 billion. Army officials plan to replace a third of their 150,000-vehicle Humvee fleet with the JLTV. The Marine Corps plans to buy 5,500.
The services are now trying to convince the Senate Appropriations Committee, which had recommended the JLTV program be terminated, to come along for the ride.
"We spent all the time with the Marine Corps getting the requirements right that we frankly didn't tell the story to you all, to the Senate, and particularly the Senate Appropriations Committee about the good work that is going on," said Lt. Gen. Robert Lennox, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Army programs.
The new vehicle, outlined in an Oct. 3 draft request for proposal, will have the survivability of a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, better mobility than a Humvee and the ability to add mission kits. It will be transportable by ship or helicopter and be able to provide 30 kilowatts of exportable power. Six variants with companion trailers will make up the JLTV family, which will include a four-seat, close-combat weapons carrier, a two-seat utility carrier and shelter, a four-seat general purpose vehicle, a heavy guns carrier and command-and-control-on-the-move vehicle.
The latest changes include an increase to allowable weight from 12,600 pounds to 14,000 pounds. The original number was needed so the Marine Corps' CH-53 Sea Stallion could sling load the JLTV at high altitudes and high temperatures. But industry teams would have to experiment with exotic materials to reach such weight, said Katheryn Hasse, Lockheed Martin's director of tactical wheeled vehicles.
And while most initial entries could produce as much as twice the required 30 kilowatts of external power, the new standard will cut weight and cost.
Critics have ripped the program's lengthy technology development phase, but service officials wouldn't have been able to reach the requirement consensus without it, said Col. David Bassett, the Army program manager for Tactical Vehicles.
Four defense teams led by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Oshkosh Defense and General Tactical Vehicles, a joint team of General Dynamics Land Systems and Humvee-maker AM General, have developed prototypes and will submit bids for the EMD phase. Three will be selected to move forward. Officials are mum on a lot of the details, as they don't want to show their hand before placing their bets. But here is a taste of what is to come:

BAE Systems

BAE Systems delivered 11 JLTVs for the TD phase, which is 12 months of rigorous government testing.
The vehicle, now in its fourth generation, is designed with payload, protection and performance in mind but is scalable for future technologies, said Deepak Bazaz, program manager.
If the decision were made on looks alone, the sleek BAE vehicle would have this in the bank. But this isn't a beauty pageant, and BAE knows it. So its bottom-up design is centered on the soldier. The company even calls the vehicle a "Valanx," a combination of the ancient Greek "phalanx" formation designed to protect soldiers in combat, with a nod to the V-shaped hull designed to deflect a mine blast away from the vehicle.
BAE also teamed with the existing commercial base in a strategy to keep production and spare parts costs down, Bazaz said. Northrop Grumman has the lead on command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The vehicle comes with a Navistar engine, Allison transmission and Meritor suspension.
Clip structures forward and back take the load into the suspension system to provide greater survivability. Ground height is not set, though earlier variants had a 24-inch max standoff. Simply put, the higher the vehicle is, the farther away the soldier is from a roadside bomb blast.
Officials said they "prefer not to share specific numbers" as the program approaches the EMD competition but are "very confident" the vehicle will meet reliability and fuel economy requirements. Bazaz also said the vehicle will achieve weight standards "with margin."
"It all comes down to performance against the requirements," he said. "We've got a very compliant vehicle at an affordable price point because of our commercial relationships and our partner strengths with our expertise in survivability. When you put all of that together, you get a very strong combination that we can bring to the Army."

General Tactical Vehicles

The General Dynamics/AM General team is finishing the redesign on a vehicle that combines the General Dynamics' skills in survivability with AM General's experience in this arena. And the influence of the latter is evident when looking at the vehicle, which some have described as a "Hummer on steroids."
The GTV JLTV incorporates the Stryker's double-V hull, said Mike Cannon, senior vice president of ground combat systems for General Dynamics.
"Lessons learned out of the TD phase are really going to inform us on the EMD phase," Cannon said. "We did not pay enough attention to quality going in the TD phase, but we're going to be dead on it in EMD. We're going to be all over it."
The tag team is also exploring other nondevelopmental capabilities, primarily relief from the height requirement. The company looked to negotiate a change during a private, two-hour session with program leaders that was offered to each company last week. Cannon said the height requirement would force them to reduce either the space between the vehicle and a roadside bomb or the crew space, and the company is not interested in an adjustable suspension because it adds a lot of cost.
"We have a really strong partner," Cannon said. "We have strong capabilities, systems integrators, systems engineering and survivability. That's our forte."

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed's JLTV is designed to bridge the capability gap between the Humvee and MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle by boosting mobility, payload and force protection, Hasse said.
The V-hulled vehicle achieved MRAP-level blast protection Oct. 4 while weighing 40 percent less than the M-ATV. Lockheed, which has partnered with BAE Global Tactical Systems, has logged more than 160,000 testing miles and has a fuel efficiency of 12 miles per gallon with the Gunner Protection Kit - a 50 percent increase over a Humvee with no armor. The company also is designing the JLTV to 13,800 pounds to provide a margin for growth and is confident it will hit the reliability requirement of 3,600 mean miles between failure.
"Are we there today? The answer is no," Hasse said. "But we will begin the EMD phase at a very substantial level of reliability … about 3,600 mean miles between hardware mission failure. That is a very reliable base to continue to tweak the design and take the corrective actions to achieve the level of reliability the government desires.
Soldiers will especially like the user-friendly crew cab, which was designed around the war fighter. Lockheed leveraged its aerospace background and systems integration experience to incorporate a substantial amount of capability into the dashboard, which frees space for the war fighter.
"We're going to provide the levels of force protection that the Army requires, which are substantially more than JLTV was and originally intended to do, and we're going to do it in a package that is very reliable," Hasse said. "We've already proven that in our TD program and our internal testing program."

Oshkosh Defense

Despite its strong showing with the M-ATV, Oshkosh is the new kid on the JLTV block as it did not participate in the TD phase.
But that doesn't cause Rob Messina, vice president for defense engineering, to lose any sleep. His Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle, or L-ATV, is the sixth generation in a light vehicle family in which Oshkosh has invested more than $60 million. "We can show reliable history, well-developed components and performances that are in the range the customer is looking for," he said.
This latest evolution leverages the M-ATV's modular and scalable protection. It replaces the diesel-electric power train with an electric power train, but its key strength is its mobility. The vehicle includes the TAK-4i intelligent suspension system. Built on 10 years of operational experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, the system provides up to 20 inches of independent wheel travel. These combine to provide a vehicle that is 50 percent faster off-road than the M-ATV, Messina said.
Improved shock absorption also allows high speed on rough terrain while keeping passengers comfortable and lowering driver fatigue. Messina would not say where the L-ATV stands on reliability, fuel efficiency or weight, but he said the Marine Corps' high-hot requirement, which is 12,600 pounds, is achievable with the base variant.
Messina said he is confident Oshkosh can provide a "threshold or better performance" at the cost requirement - so confident, in fact, that Messina said he will be asking Army leaders to change their policy and give credit for performance above threshold.

Taiwanese Official: F-16 Buy From U.S. 'Hopeless'

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's bid to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States has become "hopeless," a top Taiwanese official was quoted as saying in an Aug. 20 report. This follows up a report by Defense News last week that Washington told Taiwan it will not sell the jets.

AN ARMED U.S.-BUILT F-16 fighter takes off during a drill in April. (Sam Yeh / Agence France-Presse)

The comments by parliamentary speaker Wang Jin-pyng, who said the U.S. had changed its mind about selling the jets, mark the first time an official has stated publicly that the long-awaited deal is expected to fall through.

At that time, both U.S. and Taiwanese officials insisted no decision had been made.

It is now "all but hopeless" for Taipei to get the jets, although Washington will still help it upgrade the F-16A/Bs and provide the island other defensive weapons, Wang said in an Aug. 19 speech, according to the report in the Taipei-based China times newspaper.

However, the Taiwanese defense ministry said it was still seeking to acquire the new jets.

"We will continue to push for our request to buy the F-16C/Ds and we will not give up on that," ministry spokesman David Lo said.

Taiwan applied to the U.S. in 2007 to buy the 66 F-16C/Ds, improved versions of the F-16A/Bs that the island's air force now uses, claiming that the new jets were needed to counter a rising China.

Washington recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei but remains a leading arms supplier to the island.

China reacted furiously in January 2010 when the Obama administration announced a $6.4 billion arms deal with Taiwan. That package included Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and equipment for Taiwan's existing F-16 fleet, but no submarines or new fighter jets.

Turkey Signs Deal To Buy Six CH-47 Copters

ANKARA - Turkey has signed a government-to-government deal with the United States to buy six CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift transport helicopters, worth up to $400 million, a senior procurement official said.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the Pentagon body that coordinates weapon sales, notified Congress of a potential sale of 14 CH-47F heavy-lift helicopters for $1.2 billion in December 2009, and Congress gave permission later that month.

But because of financial constraints, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), Turkey's arms procurement agency, later decided to buy only six CH-47Fs, five for the Army and one for the Special Forces Command, postponing a decision on the remaining eight aircraft. Contract negotiations among the SSM, the U.S. government and Chinook maker Boeing were launched last year.
"The contract was signed in late July," the procurement official said. "It was worth around $400 million. After the helicopters begin to arrive, we plan to make some modifications on them according to our needs."
The six CH-47F Chinooks will be the first heavy-lift helicopters in the Turkish Army's inventory. Their deliveries are expected to begin in 2013 and end in 2014.
"These helicopters have incredible capabilities. Three or four of them can transport a company-sized unit and its equipment to long distances only in a few hours," the procurement official said. The maximum speed of the CH-47F is about 312 kilometers an hour.
Developed in the 1960s, the Chinooks have been exported to many countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Japan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
The Chinook has been successfully operated in combat in several wars and armed conflicts.
The Chinook is a twin-engine, twin-rotor helicopter. The counter-rotating rotors eliminate the need for an anti-torque vertical rotor, allowing all power to be used for lift and thrust.
The CH-47F is the upgraded version of the CH-47D, and is the latest model in this helicopter family. It can carry up to 60 troops and personnel.
A CH-47 Chinook was shot down by Taliban forces southwest of Kabul in Afghanistan in earlier this month, killing 30 U.S. troops, including 23 Navy SEALs, and eight Afghans.
"These are not unsafe devices. On the contrary, these helicopters had mission flights of thousands of hours in Afghanistan only this year, and this was the first such incident," the procurement official said.
Turkey usually manufactures its own defense equipment, or jointly produces it with foreign partners. But since the number of heavy-lift helicopters being ordered is rather small, SSM decided on direct procurement from a single source, i.e. Boeing. The heavy-lift helicopter program is expected to be among Turkey's last direct foreign procurement projects.

Chinese Troops Join Pakistan Exercise

NEW DELHI - The Pakistan Army has included Chinese troops for the first time in exercises that were conducted along the border with the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan, Indian Defence Ministry sources said.

The 101 Engineering Regiment of China's People's Liberation Army is taking part in the exercises, the sources added. No Defence Ministry official has publicly commented on the exercises, but Indian Army officials privately have expressed great concern.

Indian military strategy calls for the capability to fight Pakistan and China simultaneously. While Indian defense officials admit India will spend $100 billion in the next 10 years on weapons and equipment, military analysts here say that figure could well reach $150 billion, given plans to prepare for both Pakistan and China.
New Delhi claims China has been helping Pakistan build its nuclear arsenal along with delivery systems. Pakistan buys a variety of weapons, aircraft and equipment from China, including airborne warning aircraft, fighter jets and precision-guided munitions.
Recent sales of Chinese conventional weapons to Pakistan include JF-17 fighters along with production facilities, F-22P frigates with helicopters, K-8 trainer jets, T-85 tanks, F-7 aircraft, small arms and ammunition. Pakistan also is seeking to buy 36 Chinese-made J-10 fighters.
Pakistan also has sought Chinese help to build nuclear-capable missiles near Rawalpindi, Indian Defence Ministry sources said.

U.S. Helo Crashed in Taliban Trap: Afghan Official

PULI ALAM, Afghanistan - The Taliban lured U.S. forces into an elaborate trap to shoot down their helicopter, killing 30 American troops in the deadliest such incident of the war, an Afghan official said Aug. 8.
The Taliban lured U.S. forces into an elaborate trap to shoot down their helicopter -- similar to this CH-47 Chinook -- an Afghan official said. (Pfc. Donald Watkins / Army)

A total of 38 people - 25 U.S. special forces members, five U.S. crew members, seven Afghan commandos plus an interpreter - were killed when their Chinook came down during an anti-Taliban operation late Aug. 5.

The crash marked the biggest single loss of life for American and NATO forces since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban in late 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The senior Afghan government official told AFP on condition of anonymity that Taliban commander Qari Tahir lured U.S. forces to the scene by tipping them off that a Taliban meeting was taking place.
He also said four Pakistanis helped Tahir carry out the strike.
"Now it's confirmed that the helicopter was shot down and it was a trap that was set by a Taliban commander," said the official, citing intelligence gathered from the area.
"The Taliban knew which route the helicopter would take," he added.
"That's the only route, so they took position on the either side of the valley on mountains and as the helicopter approached, they attacked it with rockets and other modern weapons. It was brought down by multiple shots."
The official, who spoke anonymously as he was not authorized to discuss the issue, also said President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government "thinks" the attack was retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The Taliban themselves did not make such an assertion on claiming responsibility for the attack, which took place in the Taliban-infested Sayd Abad district of Wardak province, just southwest of Kabul.
In Washington, the U.S. military said it was too early to say whether the helicopter had been lured into a trap.
"I would say any conclusion like that is premature until we conduct an investigation in terms of the facts. That's just speculation," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan told reporters.
U.S. media reported the dead included members of the Navy's SEAL Team 6, the secretive unit behind the daring raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan in May.
U.S. administration sources interviewed by AFP said the casualties did not include anyone who took part in the bin Laden raid on May 2.
When questioned about whether the attack was linked to a trap laid by a Taliban commander, the militia's spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said: "We have used various tactics over the past 10 years. This could also be a tactic. The informant could have been one of our comrades."
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the cause of the crash was still being investigated but issued a statement giving details of the moments before the fatal crash.
"The operation began as a security search for a Taliban leader responsible for insurgent operations in the nearby Tangi Valley," it said.
The first wave of ISAF ground troops exchanged fire with several insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s, killing several, the statement added.
"As the insurgents continued to fire, the combined force on the ground requested additional forces to assist the operation.
"Those additional personnel were inbound to the scene when the CH-47 (Chinook) carrying them crashed, killing all on board," it said.
Afghan officials said an insurgent rocket downed the helicopter, which was said to have broken into several parts after being hit.
The Pentagon said a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade was "believed" to have knocked out the chopper, which was carrying 22 Navy SEAL commandos, three Air Force special forces members and five Army personnel.
In eastern Afghanistan on Aug. 8, another helicopter made a "hard landing" in Paktya province, although no one was injured and there were no reports of insurgent fire, ISAF said.
U.S. President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Karzai reaffirmed their commitment to the war "which is critical to the security of both our countries" on Aug. 7 in a telephone call following Friday's crash, the White House said.
There are currently around 140,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including about 100,000 U.S. troops.
All international combat troops are due to leave by the end of 2014, but intense violence in recent months, including a series of assassinations in the south, has raised questions about the capability of Afghan forces.

31 U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan Helo Crash

PULI ALAM, Afghanistan - Thirty-one U.S. special forces died in Afghanistan when the Taliban shot down their helicopter, officials said Aug. 6, the deadliest incident for foreign troops in the decade-long war.

A CHINOOK HELICOPTER crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special-operations troops and seven Afghan commandos. (Peter Parks / AFP via Getty Images)

The death toll was given in a statement from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office and was not immediately confirmed by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The Americans were killed alongside seven Afghan soldiers during an anti-Taliban operation late Aug. 5 when a rocket fired by the insurgents struck their Chinook helicopter in Wardak province, southwest of the capital Kabul.

"The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan expresses his sympathy and deep condolences to U.S. President Barack Obama and the family of the victims," it said.

The Afghan defense ministry said the local troops who died were also special forces.

Twenty-five of the dead were U.S. Navy SEALs, U.S. television network ABC News reported. The Pentagon declined to comment on the cause or number of deaths.

The strike was by far the worst to hit foreign troops since American and other international forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The previous biggest death toll saw 16 American soldiers killed in 2005 when a Taliban rocket hit their Chinook in the eastern province of Kunar.

One man who said he witnessed the Aug. 5 crash, Mohammad Saber, told AFP that the helicopter plummeted during a late-night operation in his village.

"At around 10 p.m. last night, we heard helicopters flying over us," he said.

"We were at home. We saw one of the helicopters land on the roof of a house of a Taliban commander, then shooting started.

"The helicopter later took off but soon after taking off it went down and crashed. There were other helicopters flying as well."

Wardak provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the crash happened in Sayd Abad district during an operation against Taliban insurgents who have been waging war on pro-government forces since being toppled from power in 2001.

"The U.S. chopper that crashed last night was shot down by the Taliban as it was taking off," he said. "A rocket fired by the insurgents hit it and completely destroyed it."

He added that the helicopter had broken into several parts.

The Afghan army commander for the region, General Abdul Razeq, also said the helicopter was "shot down by a rocket fired by the enemy."

A spokesman for ISAF said it would issue a statement "at an appropriate moment."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgent group was responsible for shooting down the helicopter, which he said was an American Chinook, and acknowledged that eight insurgents had been killed.

A Western military source speaking on condition of anonymity also confirmed the helicopter type.

Chinooks are widely used by coalition forces in Afghanistan for transporting large numbers of troops and supplies around the war zone.

Elsewhere in eastern Afghanistan on Aug. 6, ISAF said another helicopter made a "precautionary landing" in Khost province, near the border with Pakistan.

A spokesman added that no-one on board was killed and there were no reports of serious injuries. There were no reports of insurgent activity in the area at the time.

The latest deaths take the total number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 342, according to an AFP tally based on the independent website iCasualties.org. Of those, 279 were from the United States.

There are currently about 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, around 100,000 of them from the U.S.

Some troop withdrawals have already begun as part of a process which is due to see all foreign combat forces leave the country by the end of 2014, although the Taliban are still waging a bloody insurgency.

U.S. special forces play a key role in the war against the Taliban and other insurgents by hunting down and killing fighters in targeted night raids.

Foreign troop commanders say the east of Afghanistan, close to Pakistan where insurgents have hideouts, will likely increasingly overtake the south as the focus of the war in coming months.

Navy: UAV Likely Shot Down by Pro-Gadhafi Forces

A Navy unmanned helicopter that crashed over Libya in June was likely shot down by forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi, a Navy spokesman said.

Other details, including what type of weapon brought the aircraft down, were not available.

An investigation revealed no evidence of a mechanical or operator error in the June 21 crash. The MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter was likely shot down during an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, said 6th Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Mark Walton.

Investigators were not able to examine the wreckage or the crash site, Walton said.

Shortly after the incident, NATO and U.S. officials said the Fire Scout lost contact with its command center before crashing. Walton acknowledged that communication was lost, but it could have been due to the attack that brought the UAV down.

The Fire Scout, which was operating over Libya's central coast, was the first military hardware lost since NATO took over operations in the African country March 31. While the campaign was led by U.S., British and French forces earlier this year, an Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle crashed. Crew members ejected safely and were rescued.

The Fire Scout was part of a two-aircraft detachment aboard the frigate Halyburton. The two aircraft, which had a special configuration for missions over Libya, took the place of two other Fire Scouts that originally deployed on the frigate and flew 10 to 15 missions over the country. After the loss, the Navy sent over a replacement UAV. Halyburton returned to Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on Wednesday after a seven-month deployment

Germany, France Mull Ship-Building Alliance

BERLIN - Germany and France are considering a military ship-building alliance, an "EADS of the Seas", similar to what is already done for military aircraft, the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper said Aug. 1.
The European defense group EADS, owner of airplane maker Airbus, manufactures military helicopters and the A400 military transport plane.

Berlin and Paris are considering opening talks later this year on a similar alliance in the field of naval construction which would involve the German ThyssenKrupp group and the French DCNS military dockyards, the business newspaper said, citing sources close to the negotiations.
However in a statement, ThyssenKrupp said it was not currently involved in talks with DCNS on a possible alliance and that no such talks were planned for the future.
Germany had long rejected such a deal, fearing disputes with France over political control of the group and over which dockyards would remain open.
But a recent failure by ThyssenKrupp to sell its Blohm and Voss dockyards to Abu Dhabi MAR has given new impetus to the project which is backed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the paper said.
A joint venture might see France take charge of the construction of frigates, while Germany would be responsible for submarines, the paper suggested.
A recent deal between the French DCNS and the German electronic specialist Atlas Elektronik, a joint venture involving ThyssenKrupp and EADS, for manufacturing torpedoes could serve as an initial test for such a joint venture, the paper added.

USMC to Test Communications-jamming Device

A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier jump jet squadron is set to conduct trials on the services' new Intrepid Tiger II communications intelligence and jamming pod next month.

The device is an open-architecture, commercially derived unit built by the service to quickly and effectively field state-of-the-art electronic attack capabilities on a limited budget. This will be the second iteration of the pod.

Each pod - which is integrated by the service itself, not a contractor - costs less than $600,000 and can be upgraded by simply replacing off-the-shelf internal components without exhaustive integration work or testing, said U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Jason Schuette, who serves in the U.S. Navy's N88 office as the EA-6B and Marine Air Ground Taskforce (MAGTF) electronic warfare requirements officer. Schuette was speaking at the Lexington Institute's Electronic Attack Capitol Hill Conference on July 28.

"In fact, in two years, when I get ready to upgrade whatever is inside this pod, I will just pullout the part and put in the new one," Schuette said of upgrading the device to it's future Intrepid Tiger II configuration. "I will [not] rely on industry to continue to make a part that is old and obsolete; I'll put in the new one."

Eventually the pod will not only collect communications intelligence and jam those transmissions, but also it will be upgraded to provide electronic support.

Schuette said the service was able to build the cheap and flexible pod by leveraging commercial development of the electronic hardware. New civilian hardware can produce very clean signals, he said.

The challenge, said Schuette, is the bureaucracy - the Marines have to convince the test community that the new part will not have to undergo an exhaustive test process from scratch.

"The challenge will be convincing the testing powers-that-be that we shouldn't have to go back and do all sorts integration testing to field this pod that we continue upgrade," Schuette said.

Timely fielding of new technology is critical in the fast moving electronic attack field because technology and threats change rapidly, he said. Fielding upgrades quickly is vital.

The pod will be tested next month with a Harrier squadron and will deploy in the fall if everything goes according to plan, Schuette said. But eventually the pod will also be carried on the F/A-18 Hornet fighter and AH-1 attack helicopters.

In keeping with Marine doctrine, the pod will be used to support Marine ground forces, whose radio battalions will control the pod from the surface. The pilot will be able to control the pod, but the idea is that Marines on the ground control the pod, eventually with a handheld device.

Thai Army Probes Series of Chopper Crashes

BANGKOK - Thailand's army has grounded a number of its helicopter fleet, a military official said July 25, after a string of deadly chopper crashes that some have blamed on angry jungle spirits.

On July 24, three troops were killed when a Bell 212 helicopter went down in Phetchaburi province, southwest of Bangkok - one of three helicopter crashes in the area in little over a week that have together claimed 17 lives.

The crashes had spooked the superstitious even before it emerged that the third chopper had carried the bodies of those killed in the second helicopter, which had in turn been sent to retrieve those who died in the first crash.

"It is a big loss," Maj. Gen. Pitaya Krajangwong, the Thai army aviation commander, told a press conference in the capital.

He said the first two crashes, involving a Huey and a Black Hawk helicopter respectively, seemed on initial investigation to be caused by bad weather, while in the third incident the Bell 212 appeared to have a tail rota fault.

"The other 20 Bell 212 choppers will not fly until they are well-checked.

Once it is found that there is nothing wrong, they can go back to missions," he said, adding that a formal 30-day investigation into the crashes would be held.

The Bell lost on July 24, which was travelling from Bangkok to a task force base in Phetchaburi, had a day earlier transported bodies from a Black Hawk helicopter crash on Tuesday, in which nine people were killed.

The victims were eight military personnel and a television cameraman.

The Black Hawk was found in dense forest just across the border in Myanmar on July 22, three days after it disappeared during a mission to recover the bodies of five soldiers killed in the Huey helicopter accident on July 16.

The strange sequence of events has sparked a range of theories among those living in jungle-heavy areas close to the crash sites, according to Thai media.

A number of military and civilians "believe bad omens are to blame" and have cited earlier predictions by a fortune teller, the English-language Bangkok Post reported July 25.

"The guardian spirits here are very fierce," said one villager quoted by the paper.

The Thai Rath newspaper said the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment planned to hold a ceremony on July 25 to pay respect to spirits believed to be in the jungle.

Top army brass and politicians, including outgoing premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, attended a Buddhist ceremony for the victims of the Black Hawk crash in the western province of Kanchanburi on Monday.

Army chief Gen. Prayut Chan-O-Cha was initially due to travel to the service by helicopter but changed his plans and went by car, Pitaya said.

U.S. Lawmakers in New Bid for Taiwan Jets

WASHINGTON - A congressional panel on July 21 urged the United States to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the latest appeal for the weaponry the island says it needs to counter a rising China.

A Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter jet takes off from a highway in Taianan, Taiwan, on April 12 during a defense drill. A House panel voted July 21 to urge President Barack Obama to sell more jets to the island nation. (Sam Yeh / Agence France-Presse)

With no dissents, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted for a measure saying President Barack Obama "should take immediate steps to sell Taiwan all the F-16 fighter jets that are needed by Taiwan," as well as submarines.

The text quotes a report last year from the U.S. Defense Department stating that China was gaining in its military edge over Taiwan and developing the capability to "settle the dispute on Beijing's terms."
The bill has little immediate effect as it was included as an amendment to a spending bill, one step in a long process in both houses of Congress to approve funding for the fiscal year that begins in October.
But the vote was the latest sign of restlessness in Congress over the weapons. In May, nearly half of the U.S. Senate across party lines sent a joint letter urging the administration to approve the jet sales to Taiwan.
The United States last year approved $6.4 billion in weapons for Taiwan, including Patriot missiles and Black Hawk helicopters. But the administration did not include the F-16s and has said little since on the issue.
Even without the jets, China lodged a strong protest and temporarily cut off military exchanges with the United States.
In 1979, the United States switched its recognition to Beijing from Taiwan, where China's nationalists had fled 30 years earlier after being defeated in the mainland's civil war. But Congress, a stronghold of support for Taiwan, mandated that the United States provide the island with means for self-defense.
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou has repeatedly said that the island needs F-16s to upgrade its aging fleet, despite his drive to improve ties with the mainland since taking office in 2008.

Indian Consortium May Vie for MTA

NEW DELHI - India could soon have a domestic competitor to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), if several private-sector defense companies form a consortium to bid for the Air Force's Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) program.
The Air Force supports such a move because it would give the service more than one local military aircraft supplier and bring healthy competition to the market, one Air Force official said.

The service is slated to invite bids this year on the expected $2.2 billion MTA program, Defence Ministry sources said.
Among the companies discussing a potential group bid are Godrej and Larsen & Toubro, both of Mumbai; and Mahindra Defence Systems and Tata Power SED, based here.
There is broad agreement that the consortium should include three to five major Indian companies, which would lead a group of foreign and domestic subcontractors, said one executive with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI), an industry lobby group.
Despite broad agreement, the firms seem to be stuck on the question of a lead contractor, the FICCI executive said, with Tata Power SED and Larsen & Toubro appearing to be the favorites.
The executive said a group of three to five major Indian companies can handle the job.
The consortium could be created on the lines of the Chinese ARJ-21 project, which has about 58 overseas and domestic private-sector vendors supplying various parts, said an executive of another industry lobby group, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
One Air Force official said private companies already supply equipment and material to HAL-led efforts to build and upgrade aircraft and helicopters.
Aero structures, simulation material, avionics, metals and composites, and system engineering support have been supplied by domestic private-sector defense companies, including Larsen & Toubro, Tata Consultancy Service, Godrej, HCL Technologies and Tata Power SED, the Air Force official said.

MTA Program

The initial MTA contract calls for the manufacture of 56 aircraft to replace Indian Air Force Avros.
The service's Russian-origin Antonov An-32 transport aircraft are already being upgraded.
HAL, which has annual sales of $3 billion, has its hands full. Outstanding orders include the Russian-licensed production of Su-30MKI; BAE Systems Hawk 100; the Indo-Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft program; an upgrade of 51 aging French Mirage aircraft; and production of a variety of helicopters for the Indian defense forces.
The MTA program eyed by the proposed consortium is in addition to the finalized MTA deal with Russia.
The joint Indo-Russian deal is targeted to have an initial market of 200 MTAs, with Russia buying 100, India 45 and the remaining 60 earmarked for exports.
A 50-50 joint venture of Russia's United Aircraft Corp. and Rosoboronexport have agreed to participate with HAL on an equity-sharing basis to build the 15-ton MTA.
There are about 100 medium-lift An-32 aircraft and about 30 heavy-lift Il-76 aircraft in the Air Force's fleet.
India has already contracted purchase of C-17 heavy-lift aircraft and the C-130J Hercules from the U.S., and repeat orders are planned to augment the cargo aircraft force.
Last month, Ukrainian company Antonov handed India five updated An-32 transports, the first batch in a 105-aircraft upgrade deal.
India inked a $400 million contract with Ukraine in 2009 to upgrade the An-32 aircraft.
"India needs a competitor to HAL, especially a private-sector consortium, so that the Indian defense forces are able to get aircraft and helicopters on time and integrated with superior and advanced technologies and systems," analyst Nitin Mehta said

U.S. Army Defends Boeing on Overcharges

U.S. Army officials prefer to focus on the decreased repair turnaround times at a maintenance depot where Pentagon investigators found Boeing overcharged the Army $13 million on spare helicopter parts, not on the $10 roller assemblies that cost the Army more than $1,600.

A U.S. Apache helicopter fires rockets during a joint gunnery exercise. Pentagon investigators found Boeing overcharged the U.S. Army $13 million on spare helicopter parts. (Jung Yeon-Je / AFP via Getty Images)

The Army's Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command bought the 18 parts highlighted in a recent Defense Department Inspector General's report, which made up the $13 million in overcharges. Soldiers and civilians used the parts at Corpus Christi Army Depot, Texas.

The DoD Inspector General's report highlighted extreme overcharges in comparing Boeing prices to those that would have been charged by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). In one case, Boeing charged the Army $71 for a straight pin that would have cost the service 4 cents from DLA. Boeing also charged $381.78 for a bolt retainer; DLA charges $6.77.
In all, the Army paid $23 million for the 18 sets of parts that should have cost the service $10 million, a 131 percent price hike, according to the full IG report, which was first released by the Project on Government Oversight.
However, the 18 parts highlighted in the report make up a small sliver of the 8,000 parts included in Boeing's contract with the Army, according to Dan O'Boyle, an Army spokesman. The price increase paid by the Army for the entirety of the contract is 17 percent, which was acceptable to service officials in order to cut down on back orders and keep up with increased maintenance needs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
"It was recognized that using a material integrator would drive an estimated average material price increase of about 25 percent, based on lower parts quantities and immediate parts availability, but would be offset by the increase in parts availability and increased readiness," O'Boyle said in a statement.
Army officials credited Boeing with reducing back-ordered parts from 292 in 2004 down to 22, which led to an overall increase of readiness rates by 10 percent. Upon further inspection, O'Boyle said, the Army found that about 2,000 parts included in the contract are priced less than Army and DLA inventory prices.
The Corpus Christi Army Depot is a maintenance center used mainly for Army helicopters. Boeing builds the Army's AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the CH-47 Chinook twin-rotor utility helicopter.
A previous Army audit of the initial contract could have caught the overcharges of the 18 parts, but the Army audit only covered "80 percent of the total dollars associated with the bill of material for this contract because of the magnitude of the parts involved," O'Boyle said.
A similar audit by the Defense Department Inspector General is taking place concerning purchases made for the same depot from Sikorsky Aircraft, according to the report.
The Defense Contract Audit Agency also is doing a full audit of actual costs expended on the contract, whereas the Defense Department IG "only sampled a portion of the contractor's expenditures," O'Boyle said in a statement.
"Given the wartime environment for Army aviation, more rotary aircraft today and flying six times above the peacetime flying hours, the critical support to these platforms could not have been achieved without this agreement," O'Boyle said in a statement.
After the Defense Department IG released its report, Boeing issued the Army a voluntary refund of $1.6 million for five types of parts, an Army official said.
"The handful of errors cited by the IG's initial report represents an extremely small part of our outstanding support to our U.S. Army customer," said Bob Algarotti, a Boeing spokesman. "Boeing voluntarily reimbursed the government for the items cited and already improved our process, which will prevent reoccurrence of these errors."
In the same Defense Department IG inspection that cited the 18 overcharged parts, inspectors found the Army had not used $339.7 million of inventory before buying the same parts from Boeing. The Army disputes that figure, saying $48.1 million is "actually excess at this point," O'Boyle said.
In response, the Army will use the Enterprise Resource Planning system to ensure that inventory is more visible. Army Materiel Command has "implemented a policy requiring the use of all on-hand inventory before the purchase of any additional material on performance-based contracts," O'Boyle said.

U.S. Navy UAV Crashes In Recon Mission Over Libya

A U.S. Navy unmanned helicopter crashed while flying a reconnaissance mission over Libya on June 21, Navy and NATO officials said.
At 7:20 a.m. local time, the MQ-8B Fire Scout, which was flying over Libya's central coast, lost contact with a command center and crashed.

It is unclear exactly from where the unmanned helicopter was being controlled, where it was attached, or where it flew from. The Navy referred inquiries to NATO. NATO would not provide details about the aircraft's origin or operators. NATO, for its part, would only say that it was an unmanned aircraft that crashed on the coast and that an investigation is underway.
NATO has been using such craft to build up a "knowledge base," according to an Operation Unified Protector spokesman. NATO has used "a number of intelligence, surveillance, [and] reconnaissance platforms ranging from the whole spectrum available" including drones, since the organization began leading operations March 31, Royal Air Force Wing Commander Mike Bracken said at a news briefing in Naples, Italy.
The crash marked the first military hardware loss since NATO took over operations, and it was the second time the U.S. lost an aircraft in Libya. A U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle crashed on March 21, when the campaign was led by American, British and French forces. Crew members safely ejected and were rescued.
There have been previous control problems with Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout. During an Aug. 2 test flight from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. operators lost their communication link to the aircraft. The unmanned helicopter flew for around 30 minutes toward Washington before entering restricted airspace. While the aircraft was around 40 miles outside the district, operators switched control to another ground station and regained command of the aircraft before directing it to Webster Field in southern Maryland. Navy officials blamed a software problem but said they developed a fix.

Western Jetmakers Vie For Asian Contracts

TAIPEI - As Western defense budgets crash, East Asian democracies could spend $23 billion within the decade on new fighter aircraft and upgrades, providing lucrative markets for European and U.S. aerospace and defense companies.

Japan released a request for proposals (RfP) in April for 40 fighters for its F-X program. The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and Eurofighter Typhoon are fighting over the $4 billion deal. Bids are due in August with a contract award by the end of the year. The F-X will replace the Mitsubishi F-4EJ Kai Phantoms due for retirement in 2015.

South Korea is expected to issue an RfP in January for its F-X Phase 3 program. While 60 aircraft likely will be involved, it may come in two tranches, with the first being 40. The Boeing F-15, Typhoon and F-35 are already positioning themselves for the $9 billion deal. The FX Phase 3 will replace aging F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger fighters. The RfP is expected for release in January.

Taiwan is an exception. Due to Chinese pressure, the U.S. ignored a 2006 request for 66 F-16C/D Block 50/52 fighters for $5.5 billion. Taiwan also awaits a reply to a $4.5 billion request for an upgrade package for older F-16A/B Block 20 fighters in 2009.

With Western defense budgets under review and increasing pressure to pursue new market opportunities, European and U.S. combat aircraft manufacturers are "vigorously" engaging the East Asian fighter market, said Doug Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace, U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"While Japan and South Korea have traditionally been U.S. combat aircraft customers, the present round of acquisition programs offers Europe an opportunity to break into the market," Barrie said.

European companies face an "uphill battle" to wrestle control of the fighter market from the U.S., which has "locked in markets" for fighter sales to the region for decades, said Richard Bitzinger, a defense industry analyst at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore.

"The big question will be if the Europeans can break into this market," Bitzinger said. If not, there is future potential for European aerospace companies to participate in indigenous fifth-generation fighter programs in Japan and South Korea, but in terms of new fighter sales, "these countries are still owned by the USA," Bitzinger said.

Barrie said the Typhoon had its best shot at winning in South Korea, despite the fact Boeing won both F-X Phase 1 and 2 with 60 F-15K Slam Eagle fighters. Boeing might propose the stealthy F-15 Silent Eagle in an attempt to edge the Typhoon out of the competition, he said.

In Japan and South Korea, there is a major effort by the competitors to provide local production opportunities.

"The fighter choice in both countries will send a political signal as to the extent to which, if any, South Korea or Japan wants to begin to build a substantial defense-industrial relationship with their respective relationships with Washington," Barrie said.

Japan's F-X program experienced delays over an intense Japanese lobbying effort begun in 2007 to force Washington to release exports of the F-22 Raptor, but the U.S. Congress blocked the effort. After the F-22 rejection, Tokyo set its sights on the F-35, only to see the JSF effort dogged by delays and cost overruns, which postponed the F-X RfP last year.

Tokyo highlighted its interest in stealth by pursuing an indigenous fifth-generation fighter program. Now, Japan is "using their own fifth-generation fighter [TFX] as a bargaining chip" in the competition, but it is still in the research-and-development stage and "hideously expensive," Barrie said.

Japan is desperate to secure local manufacturing options for the F-X, but it is prohibitively expensive for only 40 aircraft. Manufacturing costs could be driven down by the procurement of more fighters to replace F-15Js, increasing the number of F-X fighters to more than 100 and lowering manufacturing costs.

Unless the F-X fighters are produced in Japan, the local fighter manufacturing industry faces dire straits. Japan's only remaining fighter production line, the Mitsubishi F-2, will end in September.

There are also budget concerns after Japan's devastating triple disaster - earthquake, tsunami and a nuclear power plant crisis - and many wonder how the estimated $300 billion price tag for the catastrophe will affect the F-X budget.

Cost issues could push Japan to select the Super Hornet or the Typhoon. Eurofighter officials have been promoting the Typhoon as a flexible, inexpensive alternative to the F/A-18 and F-35. A European industry source in Tokyo said technical restrictions hamper F-35 exports, while Eurofighter has "no black box policy," which means wider options for Japanese industry participation.

Yet the Japan-U.S. military alliance and pressure to procure a U.S. fighter may keep Tokyo from picking a European fighter.

Taiwan's request for new F-16C/Ds is seen as a follow-on request for an earlier procurement of F-16A/Bs in the 1990s. Despite Beijing protests, the U.S. Congress recently called for the White House to release new fighters and upgrade packages, including a request for a follow-on F-16 trainer program for Taiwan's 21st Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. In dollar amounts alone, as the U.S. economy declines, increased pressure on the White House to release the F-16s might be too great to withstand.

"In the case of Taiwan, irrespective of posturing on the part of Beijing, the delivery of F-16 Block 52s should proceed," Barrie said.

Taiwan bought $16.5 billion worth of U.S.­built arms and equipment from 2007 to 2010. Sales included 12 P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft, 30 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters and 60 UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopters. Taiwan has requirements for signal intelligence aircraft, attack jet trainers, basic aircraft trainers and UAVs.