Bulgaria, Israel to Sign Cooperation Deals

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria's defense minister will sign two accords with Israel while on a two-day visit to Israel that starts Jan. 16, his office said.

Anu Angelov will ink a deal on increasing cooperation on military training and another on closer ties between the two countries' armaments industries, the Bulgarian defense ministry said.

The defence industry is an important employer in Bulgaria, exporting $380 million (300 million euros) worth of arms in 2011, according to a newspaper report, although the sector is a 10th of the size of during Soviet times.

Bulgaria and Israel enjoy close ties, helped by Bulgaria having been the only ally of Nazi Germany to have saved Jews from the death camps during World War II. Angelov will also visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and meet with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on his trip.

U.S. Draws Up Contingencies in Case Israel Attacks Iran: Report

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran over U.S. objections, and has stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 13.

The newspaper said U.S. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a series of private messages to Israeli leaders, warning about the dire consequences of a strike.

Obama spoke by telephone Jan. 12 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet with Israeli military officials in Tel Aviv next week, the report said.

The report said that the U.S. military was preparing for a number of possible responses to an Israeli strike, including assaults by pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Up to 15,000 U.S. diplomats, federal employees and contractors still remain in Iraq.

To help deter Iran, the United States is maintaining 15,000 troops in Kuwait, and has moved a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf area, the report said.

India Casts Wider Net for Short-Range Missiles

NEW DELHI - The Indian Army has entered the global market to buy short-range surface-to-air missile (SRSAM) systems for $1.5 billion, a move that could further undercut a four-year effort to develop a system with MBDA of France.

The Army convinced the Indian Defence Ministry there is an urgent requirement for SRSAM, said Army sources, and did not want to wait for the Maitri project conceived four years ago. India and France have not been able to agree on details of the Maitri project, including funding arrangements, the source added.

The Army last month sent global tenders to defense companies in Europe, the United States and Russia including Raytheon of the U.S., Israel's Rafael, MBDA and Thales of France, Diehl Defence of Germany, KBP Tula and Rosoboronexport of Russia, Ukraineexport of Ukraine and LIG NEX1 of South Korea.

The requirements of the SRSAM are similar to those of the proposed Indo-French Maitri project, the Army source said.

The current tender is for two regiments (36 systems, 1,000 missiles) estimated to cost about $800 million each. The total Indian Army requirement is likely to be about eight regiments in the next five to seven years.

The Maitri project was proposed to be jointly developed by India's Defence Research and Development Laboratory and MBDA.

The selected vendor will have to transfer technology of the systems, as well.

The supply will be made in two batches and completed within five years of the signing of the tender, including the launchers, sensors, vehicles for transportation and the missiles. The system must have a service life of at least 20 years and the missiles of not less than eight years.

The SRSAM system should be able to engage multiple targets, including those flying up to 500 meters per second, and have a maximum range of not less than 15 kilometers.

In 2009, India bought two regiments of Spyder quick-reaction surface-to-air missile systems from Rafael. Another Indo-Israeli joint project is the $2.5 billion long-range surface-to-air missile project signed in 2009 and expected to be inducted in 2013, Indian Defence Ministry sources said.

Meanwhile, the Indian Army has begun inducting the homemade medium-range Akash, which has a range of up to 30 kilometers. In 2011, the Indian Army ordered the induction of two Akash regiments at a cost of about $3 billion.

The Army also has been negotiating the purchase of David Sling and Iron Dome missile interceptor systems.

Boeing: U.S. Army EMARSS Delivery in December

Boeing is set to deliver four Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS) intelligence gathering aircraft to the U.S. Army in December, a company official said Jan. 11.

With a contract award last June, Boeing is obliged to deliver an operational aircraft within 18 months, said Waldo Carmona, Boeing's director of networked tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

"We have an 18 month contract to deliver four aircraft, fully integrated and tested to deploy, by December 2012," he said. "I tell you firmly today, that we're on schedule to go do that."

According to Carmona, the Boeing team has an internal target to beat that delivery date.

Dan Goure, an analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute, said that he was impressed at how quickly the program is proceeding.

"This was quite amazing in the sense of how fast they were able to get a program of record up, moving and, now, the first four vehicles in the field," he said. "It's quite impressive."

To make sure the company delivers on time, Boeing has purchased a Hawker-Beechcraft King Air 350ER which it will modify to aerodynamically match the actual EMARSS aircraft, said Carmona.

The modified aircraft will have an extended nose where the operational plane would have its retractable electro-optical infrared (EO/IR) camera ball and it would have all of the antennas mountings of the real thing.

"From an external configuration, our risk reduction prototype is going to look just like the real airplane," Carmona said.

The prototype will fly in May, said Carmona. He said he hopes the aircraft will be FAA certified by no later than early June.

"That's one of the reasons that will allow us to meet the schedule," he said, adding that the FAA certification will simplify testing for the Army when it receives the first aircraft.

Simultaneously, a Joint Integration Test Facility operated by Boeing and the Army will test the intelligence gathering hardware and software in a lab in Aberdeen, Md. The lab facility will also look at future upgrades to the system, Carmona said.

Flight testing with all of the hardware and software onboard the aircraft will happen later this year after the FAA certification is completed.

Once airborne developmental testing is done, the four EMARSS aircraft will be sent to Afghanistan for limited user trials, Carmona said. In essence, operational testing will be during real-life combat missions.

"The whole plan is to put it in a real environment and assess its capability," he said.

While the EMARSS is not a revolutionary leap in capability, it does offer better performance than older aircraft like those used by the Army Task Force ODIN or the Air Force's MC-12 Project Liberty planes, said Goure.

"It makes absolute sense in the long-run to now put together a program of record that gets you everything you want, replaces the existing aircraft and lasts 25 years," he said. "It's a substantial improvement in capability and maintainability."

Carmona said that in addition to its powerful Wescam 15 EO/IR camera, EMARSS will carry a signal intelligence and communication intelligence payload. It also carries line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight high bandwidth data-links and can link to the Army's Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS-A). There are provisions for three intelligence analyst stations onboard, one of which can be configured for special mission packages. The EMARSS has provisions to carry 400 pounds of special intelligence payloads that are not part of the regular aircraft suite, Carmona said.

In the cockpit, the pilots are afforded a Situational Awareness Data-link (SADL) display, which enables the aviators steer the aircraft onto the crew's intended quarry.

Despite the weight, drag and power requirements, the aircraft will have seven hours of endurance, Carmona said.

Currently, the Engineering Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract is for four aircraft only, Carmona said. The Army has a requirement for 36 production planes, but the money for those planes is not in the budget.

The EMARSS program's budget has been caught in a political battle between the Army and the U.S. Air Force, said Goure.

"The issue here is politics," Goure said. "The Army essentially zeroed this out of the [Program Objective Memorandum] because it was afraid that, like on the C-27s, that it was going to put up the money, the program was going to go to the Air Force and the Air Force would just walk away with the money."

The problem will persist until the Pentagon sorts out who runs manned tactical airborne ISR, Goure said. Moreover, the Air Force is not willing to guarantee the availability of the aircraft to the Army whenever it asks because it manages assets across the entire theatre of operations, Goure said. Logically, the mission should be part of Army's repertoire, he said.

"It's a fundamental issue of how you manage tactical ISR," Goure said.

The Army needs to push for the EMARSS program to prove that it can successfully acquire and manage a program properly and in less than a 10-year span, Goure said.

"You need a win," Goure said. "Why would you pick this program to torpedo?"

Goure noted that EMARSS is amongst the most successful of Army procurement efforts in terms of execution, budget and timeliness.

Carmona said hopes to convince the Pentagon of the value of the EMARSS by demonstration just how good the aircraft really is over Afghanistan. A Milestone C decision on whether the Army will ultimately buy the plane is expected in the first quarter of 2013, he said.

Greece, Israel Pledge to Boost Defense Ties

ATHENS - Greece and Israel pledged to boost defense cooperation with a view to improving regional stability, their defense ministers told reporters Jan. 10.

GREEK DEFENCE MINISTER Dimitris Avramopoulos, right, and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak review a military honour guard during a welcoming ceremony in Athens on Jan. 10. (Aris Messinis / AFP)

"We are committed to work together to deepen our relations in defense and security," said Israel's Ehud Barak. "We have to be prepared for many kinds of developments. ... We must think ahead of time and work together."

Traditionally pro-Arab Greece, which did not officially recognize Israel until 1991, has stepped up efforts to attract investment and expertise to shore up its debt-struck economy.

The two countries are trying to "make up for lost time", Greek Defence Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said, asserting Greece's "commitment to deepening the alliance with Israel ... in the name of friendship, peace and stability for all the peoples of the region".

Barak's two-day visit is the fourth by a senior Israeli official in 17 months. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited in August 2010, followed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in January 2011 and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon in November, when Israel hosted a joint exercise with the Greek air force.

He said their cooperation was "honest and sincere (and) not directed against anyone", in a reference to Turkey, formerly a staunch ally of Israel but now on deteriorating terms with the Jewish state.

"To the contrary, this cooperation can create new sources of wealth for the entire region," Avramopoulos said at a time when Greece, lumbered with a severe debt crisis, hopes for economic benefits from closer ties with Israel.

Athens is keenly interested in Israel's economic rapprochement with traditional Greek ally Cyprus to develop undersea gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.

Pro-Palestinian Greek activists meanwhile have denounced Barak's visit, with a rights group calling him a "war criminal", and were set to stage a protest in central Athens later in the day.

Last July, Greece banned a flotilla of ships headed for Gaza from leaving its ports on a mission to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory.

An Israeli raid last year on another Gaza-bound aid flotilla left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead, all of them Turks or of Turkish origin, and precipitated a diplomatic crisis with Greece's regional rival Turkey.

Israel Hikes Defense Spending By $700 Million

JERUSALEM - Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu announced Jan. 8 an increase of nearly $700 million in the defense budget, after saying last year that he would cut military spending to finance social reforms.

"We are going to add three million shekels to the defense budget," Netanyahu said at a news conference.

Netanyahu had in October supported the recommendations of a report he commissioned, by respected economist Manuel Trajtenberg, which were intended to address rising frustrations about the cost of living and income disparity in the Jewish state that triggered mass protests last year.

One of the Trajtenberg report's proposals was to cut a defense budget that amounts to around $14 billion, of which $3 billion comes in annual U.S. military aid, to finance a series of social initiatives without increasing the deficit.

"I have reflected on this question, but in view of what has happened in the region, I have reached the conclusion that cutting the defense budget would be a mistake, even a big mistake," Netanyahu said.

"Any sensible person can see what is happening around us. ... All these changes have strategic implications for the national security of the state of Israel, for our ability to face the new challenges and instability," he told a weekly cabinet meeting, according to a statement from his office.

The Israeli army "is the shield of the country, which is why we must increase its means," he added.

The prime minister said that in return for the spending increase, the defense ministry would have to respect the principle of transparency, which would allow the government to monitor the management of the budget.

"In the past, we discovered things late, whereas now we will become aware of them in real time," Netanyahu said.

Israel's cabinet in October approved the recommended economic reforms outlined by the 267-page Trajtenberg report, which covered housing, competitiveness, social services, education and taxation.

Israel and U.S. to Hold Joint Missile Drill

JERUSALEM - Israel and the United States are to hold a joint missile defense exercise, the Israeli military said late Jan. 5.

Although the exercise, codenamed "Austere Challenge 12," comes at a time of spiraling regional tensions over Iran's suspected nuclear arms program, the army said the maneuvers were planned in advance.

"The exercise scenario involves notional, simulated events as well as some field training and is not in response to any real-world event," the military said in a written response to an AFP query

"The U.S. European Command and the Israel Defence Forces periodically conduct routine exercises in Israel. These exercises, which are part of along-standing strategic partnership, are planned in advance and part of a routine training cycle designed to improve the interoperability of our defence systems."

It did not say when the exercise would take place. Local media said that it would get underway in the spring and would be the biggest ever joint maneuvers between the two allies.

Israel and the United States have a longstanding strategic alliance and are jointly developing the Arrow anti ballistic missile system.

In November the Jewish state staged a major civil defense drill in the Tel Aviv region aimed at simulating a response to conventional and non-conventional missile attacks.

Although Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian use only, the international community believes it is striving to acquire nuclear arms and Israel says that it is a prime target of the Islamic republic.

Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's oil flows, if it is hit with sanctions, and has warned the United States not to send an aircraft carrier back into the Gulf.

Last week it test-fired three missiles during war games east of the strait at the entrance to the Gulf.

Elbit Wins Customer in Americas for Hermes 900

TEL AVIV - Israel's Elbit Systems announced Jan. 3 that it has secured a contract to supply the Hermes 900 unmanned aerial system (UAS) to an unidentified American country. According to the firm, the approximately $50 million deal includes Hermes 900 airframes, universal ground control stations, the firm's advanced DCoMPASS electro-optical payloads and satellite communications links. Deliveries of the complete system will conclude in about a year.

SOURCES IN ISRAEL would only say that the end user was not an Air Force, but rather a government organization in a Central American country. (Elbit Systems)

The publicly traded firm declined to identify its latest customer for the Hermes 900, and defense and industry sources here were only willing to note that the end user was not an Air Force, but a government organization in a Central American country.

Less than six months after first flight of the prototype Hermes 900 in December 2009, Elbit began serial production of its self-funded system - first for the Israel Air Force and then for the Chilean Air Force.

The Hermes 900 medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAV is a higher-flying, heavier-hauling version of the firm's Hermes 450, operational in Israel, the United Kingdom and more than a half-dozen other countries. Like the Hermes 450, the Hermes 900 is designed for autonomous flight, automatic takeoff and landing, and full payload management by Elbit's universal ground control station. In addition to the redundant wideband line-of-sight datalinks built into the 450 model, the Hermes 900 features an advanced satellite communication channel for long-range missions at altitudes of more than 30,000 feet.

"We are proud that yet another customer has selected the Hermes 900, following orders by the Israel Defense Forces and Chile," Elad Aharonson, general manager of Elbit's UAS Division, said in the firm's Jan. 3 announcement.

Israel Cancels Air Surveillance Deal With Turkey: Paper

JERUSALEM - Israel has cancelled the sale of air surveillance equipment to Turkey over fears that it might fall into the hands of countries hostile to the Jewish state, the Haaretz daily said Dec. 22.

The report said that the contract was signed in 2008 with Elbit Systems and worth some $140 million.

• Ynetnews, reporting the same story, said both the defense ministry and Elbit had confirmed the cancellation.

Haaretz's website said the decision was made "out of security concerns, principally in consideration of Turkey's ties with enemy states of Israel, particularly Iran."

It said the defense ministry highlighted that "we do not allow such advanced technology to fall into other hands, in this way the system can fall into enemy hands."

Export of any military equipment or defense technology is subject to ministry approval.

Haaretz said that, when asked about the cancellation, a security official said "ties with Turkey are extremely important to the state, but we have a security responsibility over any product that is given approval for export."

Once-flourishing Turkish-Israeli ties plunged into deep crisis last year when Israeli forces killed nine Turks in a raid on a Turkish ferry, part of an activist flotilla carrying aid to Gaza.

U.S. Vows to Back Turkey Over Kurdish Rebels

ANKARA - The United States will maintain its support of Turkey in the fight against Kurdish rebels, visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Dec. 16.

"In my discussions here in Ankara, I made very clear that the United States would continue to assist Turkey in confronting this threat," Panetta told a press conference.

The United States said in October it planned to sell Turkey with three new Super Cobra attack helicopters for the campaign against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in a deal worth $111 million.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community including Washington, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

The United States also said in November it was redeploying four Predator drones to Turkey from northern Iraq, with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.

"We're prepared to discuss further efforts to try to improve the capabilities" of Turkey regarding drones, Panetta said without elaborating.

Some members of the U.S. Congress are opposed to the possible provision of drones to Ankara as they are concerned about the strained ties between Turkey and Israel.

"We try to share that information with the Congress so that they understand why this is important we take those steps. We continue to explore other steps that can be taken to assist Turkey in the effort to deal with the PKK," Panetta said.

Relations between one-time allies Turkey and Israel plunged into crisis after Israeli commandos killed nine Turks on board a flagship of a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip last year.

Russia Signs Deal to Sell 42 Jets to India

MOSCOW - Visiting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev oversaw the signing of an agreement Dec. 16 to sell to India 42 Su-30 jets in kit form as the Kremlin scrambles to retain ties with its Soviet-era arms purchaser.

AN HONOR GUARD salutes Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, right, and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as they meet in the Kremlin on Dec. 16. (Vladimir Rodionov / AFP via Getty Images)

The agreement comes after India, the biggest importer of military hardware among emerging nations, had earlier this year rejected Moscow's bid to supply its traditional ally with 126 multi-role combat aircraft in a deal worth about $12 billion (9.2 billion euros).

The two leaders sought to play up progress in bilateral ties, stressing they withstood the test of time.

"Our cooperation with India in the military technical sphere has reached an unprecedented level," Medvedev said in comments released by the Kremlin.

After the talks the two leaders oversaw the signing of an agreement to "render technical assistance in the organization of production of the SU-30plane," the Kremlin said in a statement without providing further details.

The Kremlin said ahead of the signing the two sides had planned to ink an agreement to supply India with 42 Su-30 jets in kit form that would be assembled in India.

New Delhi and Moscow have enjoyed close ties that date back to the 1950s but relations have recently come under strain as India becomes more demanding over pricing and quality and looks to other countries like Israel and the United States as potential military suppliers.

Singh said the two countries discussed nuclear cooperation and supplies of liquefied gas adding they also agreed the terms of a Russian loan to build two additional generating units at a nuclear power plant in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Israel Approves New Joint SOF Command

TEL AVIV - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Dec. 15 approved the formation of a joint special operations force oriented to multidisciplinary missions far from Israel's borders.

The force will be led by Maj. Gen. Shai Avital and will report directly to Lt. Gen. Beni Gantz, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

Defense News first reported the likelihood of the proposed force - known as Depth Corps - in its Nov. 14 editions.

The force will integrate elite commando units into a single special operations command for counterterror, anti-smuggling, anti-proliferation and other operations beyond its immediate and intermediate circles of enemy states. Israel's military censor did not allow reference to these outer circle states, but foreign sources have defined them to include Iran and countries lining the Horn of Africa.

"The primary task of the Corps will be to extend joint IDF operations into the strategic depth," noted an IDF statement released late Dec. 15.

Iran Missile Projects Unaffected By Blast: General

TEHRAN - A deadly explosion at a missile development plant last month has not affected Iran's ballistic missile program, its top general said in comments published Dec. 3.

Armed forces chief of staff Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said the death of Iranian military experts at the Bid Ganeh base outside Tehran on Nov. 12 "had no effect on the self-sufficiency unit" of the elite Revolutionary Guards- responsible for weapons research, the Resalat newspaper reported.

"The forces and military weapons of the Islamic republic, including ballistic missiles, are more than ready to confront the enemy," he said.

The blast killed at least 36 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, including a key figure in Iran's ballistic missile program, Maj. Gen. Hassan Moqaddam.

Firouzabadi reiterated repeated assertions by Iran that the blast was accidental, suggesting that safety measures may have been neglected.

Iranian commanders "who have experienced dangerous situations (during the 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq) ... do not take safety measures seriously," he said.

Following the blast, Firouzabadi had said that work at the plant had been delayed by only two weeks as a result. But commercial satellite photographs of the facility released by a private Washington institute suggested the explosion had caused serious destruction, with some buildings completely razed.

"The entire facility was essentially destroyed," said Paul Brannan, a senior analyst at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which posted the images this week.

"It looks like almost half of the buildings are gone and what's left are the skeletons of the buildings. I would call that a complete destruction of the facility," Brannan, who wrote an analysis of the pictures, told AFP on Wednesday.

The plant appears to have been used for the development of a new long-range ballistic missile, according to fragmentary reports published by Iranian media.

Following the blast, Firouzabadi said the base was being used for the production of an unspecified "experimental product" that could be used against the United States or Israel.

Moqaddam's brother, Mohammad, himself a Guards commander, spoke of a "project related to intercontinental ballistic missiles," which "was in its final phase" and was "completely hi-tech and secret" - in remarks he later retracted.

The Islamic republic already possesses several types of medium-range missile, some capable of reaching Israel or U.S. bases in the Middle East -both stated targets for retaliation in the event that Iranian facilities are attacked.

Iran's ballistic program, which along with its nuclear activities is subject to U.N. sanctions, has created worries in the international community that Tehran could succeed in producing missiles capable of delivering anatomic warhead.

Tehran denies any such ambition and says its nuclear program is for civil energy and medical purposes only.

Israel's Livni Urges U.S. to Step Up Iran Sanctions

JERU.S.ALEM - Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni urged U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to ratchet up sanctions against Iran" without delay," a statement from her Kadima party said on Dec. 3.

It said that the two met in Washington on Dec. 2.

Israeli media said that the meeting took place before Panetta delivered a speech urging Israel to break out of growing regional "isolation" by repairing diplomatic ties with Egypt and Turkey, and renewing peace efforts with the Palestinians.

"The world needs to stop Iran," the Kadima statement quoted Livni as telling Panetta.

"Stronger, tougher sanctions are required without delay."

Israel and much of the international community fear that Iran's nuclear program masks a drive for a weapons capability. Tehran denies any such ambition and says the program is for peaceful civilian energy and medical purposes only.

In his comments on Friday to the Brookings Institution's Saban Centre for the Middle East, a Washington think-tank, Panetta vowed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, saying the Obama administration had not ruled out possible military action.

But he warned of the potential downside of any strike, which he said could actually strengthen the Tehran regime while not necessarily destroying all targets.

The Pentagon chief said he understood Israel's anxieties over turmoil in the Middle East but said the Arab Spring offered an opportunity for the country to forge a more secure place in the region.

It was crucial for Israel to reach out and "mend fences" with countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Jordan that share an interest in regional stability, said Panetta, who issued similar appeals in a visit to the region in October.

Israel also needed "to lean forward on efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians," Panetta said.

Livni said that neutralizing Iran and making peace with the Palestinians were both factors for Middle East stability.

"The struggle against a nuclear Iran, and renewed movement in negotiations with the Palestinians will strengthen the pragmatic camp in the region," she told Panetta.