'Really Easy' To Close Oil Strait: Iranian Admiral

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran would find it "really easy" to close the world's most important oil transit channel, the Strait of Hormuz at the Gulf's entrance, but would not do so right now, Iran's navy chief said Dec. 28.

"Shutting the strait for Iran's armed forces is really easy - or as we say (in Iran) easier than drinking a glass of water," Adm. Habibollah Sayari said in an interview with Iran's Press TV.

"But today, we don't need (to shut) the strait because we have the Sea of Oman under control and can control the transit," he said.

Sayari was speaking a day after Iran's vice president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, threatened to close the strait if the West imposed more sanctions on Iran, and as Iran's navy held wargames in international waters to the east of the channel.

World prices climbed after Rahimi warned on Dec. 27 that "not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz" if the West broadened sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

"The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them back in their place," the official news agency IRNA quoted Rahimi as saying.

New York-traded light sweet crude rose to $101.36 on the threat.

More than a third of the world's tanker-borne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint that links the Gulf - and its petroleum-exporting states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - to the Indian Ocean.

The United States maintains a navy presence in the Gulf in large part to ensure that passage for oil remains free.

But Sayari asserted that the Strait of Hormuz "is completely under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

He said Iran's navy was constituted with the aim of being able to close the strait if necessary.

Sayari added that the navy maneuvers east of the strait were designed to show Gulf neighbors the power of Iran's military over the zone.

Ships and aircraft dropped mines in the sea on Dec. 27 as part of the drill, and on Dec. 28 drones flew out over the Indian Ocean, according to a navy spokesman, Adm. Mahmoud Mousavi.

Iran has several times said it is ready to target the strait if it is attacked or economically strangled by Western sanctions over its nuclear program.

An Iranian lawmaker's comments last week that the navy exercises would block the Strait of Hormuz briefly sent oil prices soaring before that was denied by the government.

Although the foreign ministry said such drastic action was "not on the agenda," it reiterated Iran's threat of "reactions" if the current tensions with the West spilled over into open confrontation.

Tehran in September rejected a Washington call for a military hotline between the capitals to defuse any "miscalculations" that could occur between their navies in the Gulf.

In Washington, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner dismissed the latest threat from Iran's vice president.

"I just think it's another attempt by them to distract attention from the real issue, which is their continued noncompliance with their international nuclear obligations," Toner told reporters.

The United States accuses Iran of using its uranium enrichment program to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charges.

Extra U.S. and European sanctions aimed at Iran's oil and financial sectors are being considered.

The last round of Western sanctions, announced in November, triggered a pro-regime protest in front of the British embassy in Tehran during which militia members answering to the Revolutionary Guards overran the mission and ransacked it.

London closed the embassy as a result and ordered Iran's mission in Britain shut as well.

Iran Wargames Start Near Strait of Hormuz

TEHRAN - Iran on Dec. 24 began 10 days of wargames around the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route in the Gulf through which more than a third of the world's ship-borne oil passes.

IRAN'S NAVY COMMANDER Adm. Habibollah Sayari points at a map during a press conference in Tehran on Dec. 22, saying that Iran will launch 10 days of naval drills on Dec. 24. (Hamed Jafarnejad / AFP via Getty Images)

The Velayat-90 military exercises, announced Dec. 22 by navy chief Adm. Habibollah Sayari, kicked off as planned, Iran's Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam reported. Iranian navy forces were being deployed throughout the wargame area to the east of the Strait of Hormuz, comprising the Gulf of Oman around to the Gulf of Aden, in the first phase of the exercises, Al-Alam said, citing navy command.

The exercises were taking place at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West, with sanctions being ramped up over Tehran's nuclear program.

The United States, which maintains its own navy presence in the Gulf, has noted Iran's drill. Tehran in September rejected a Washington call for a military hotline between the capitals to defuse any "miscalculations" that could occur in the Gulf.

The wargames were ordered as the United States and its allies ratchet up economic sanctions on Iran, targeting its oil and financial sectors. More measures were expected to be imposed in coming weeks. The sanctions have helped fuel a depreciation of Iran's currency, the rial.

A rumor that spread last Dec. 13 from an Iranian lawmaker's comments that Tehran was to block the Strait of Hormuz in the drill sent the rial to a new low and oil prices soaring before it was denied by the government.

While the foreign ministry said last week such drastic action was "not on the agenda," it reiterated Iran's threat of "reactions" if the current tensions with the West spilled over into open confrontation.

Most Western countries believe Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, despite Tehran's denials. Iran-U.S. tensions have also worsened over U.S. accusations of a thwarted Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Iran's capture this month of a CIA drone, and Tehran's arrest and detention of an American-Iranian it alleges is a CIA spy.

Italy Gives Bombing Stats for Libya Campaign

ROME - In their first official breakdown of facts and figures about Italy's air campaign over Libya this year, officials said military aircraft deployed 710 guided bombs and missiles during sorties. Italian Air Force Tornados and AMX fighter bombers deployed 550 bombs and missiles, while Navy AV8s deployed 160 guided bombs, the officials said during an event at Trapani Air Base in Sicily to honor military personnel involved in the conflict.

The Air Force total included Storm Shadow missiles, which sources put at between 20 and 30, which were fired from Tornado IDS aircraft - the first time the Air Force has deployed the missile during operations. The success rate of the Storm Shadow was 97 percent, one official said.

Otherwise, the Air Force deployed Paveway and JDAM guided munitions. AMX bombers for the first time used Litening III targeting pods, while Tornado IDS aircraft used JDAM munitions operationally for the first time.

Although the Air Force used guided bombs in its Kosovo campaign, Libya marked its first "extensive" use of guided munitions, said Air Force chief Gen. Giuseppe Bernardis.

With up to 12 different aircraft flying missions on given days during the seven-month operation, the Air Force racked up 1,900 sorties and 7,300 flying hours using Tornado IDS and AMX aircraft for strike missions, Tornado ECR for air defense suppression, F-16s and Eurofighters for no-fly zone patrol, C-130J and 767 tanker aircraft for refueling, and the unarmed Reaper UAV for reconnaissance.

Patrol and air defense flights accounted for 38 percent of flying hours, surveillance and reconnaissance flights took up 23 percent, ground-attack missions made up 14 percent, air defense suppression flights took up 8 percent, refueling flights took up 8 percent, flights detecting electromagnetic emissions and undertaking electronic warfare were 4 percent, while "armed reconnaissance and attacks on targets of opportunity" took up 5 percent.

More than 340,000 high-resolution pictures were taken by Reccelite pods on Tornado and AMX aircraft while 250 hours of video was transmitted in real time by Reaper UAVs.

Eight Italian Navy AV8 Harrier jets, which enforced the no-fly zone over Libya and operated bombing missions, flew 1,221 hours from the carrier Garibaldi, while 30 ship-based helicopters, including the EH-101, SH-3D and AB-212 types, flew 1,921 hours as part of the operation.

The Air Force also rushed into service its new Boeing 767 tanker aircraft. A third aircraft was delivered in November and the final aircraft is expected in the first quarter of 2012.

Italian Navy statistics released about the campaign revealed that two submarines, the Todaro and the Gazzana, were involved in the NATO Unified Protector operation.

Alenia, Cassidian To Explore UAV Cooperation

PARIS - In a bid become major industrial players, Italy's Alenia and EADS defense and security unit Cassidian have signed a preliminary agreement to explore cooperation in medium-altitude, long-endurance and combat UAVs, the companies said in a Dec. 14 statement.

"A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Cassidian on behalf of EADS Deutschland GmbH and Alenia Aeronautica SpA to jointly investigate the potential cooperation in the field of medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV)," a joint statement said.

"Alenia and Cassidian are aiming to strengthen their technological know-how in order to establish a leading role in the UAS market," the companies said. "Thanks to this agreement, the two companies will analyze the requirements expressed by each of their respective governments in the UAS sector with the objective to create a strategic partnership and to expand their global UAS market share.

Cassidian sought the agreement with Alenia to extend its work on the Talarion advanced UAV.

"We look forward to investigating further collaboration with Alenia Aeronautica around a next-generation MALE UAS, like for instance the Talarion, which is of outmost importance for Europe's military aviation industry," Cassisian chief operating officer Bernhard Gerwert said in the statement.

France, Germany and Spain have shown no willingness to sign a development contract for the Talarion after EADS delivered its 60-million euro risk reduction study.

Alenia sees cooperation with EADS as a way of staying current in the UAV market.

"The UAS sector has a strategic importance for the future of Alenia Aeronautica's programs, and we are convinced that this agreement will allow us to become even more competitive in this quickly expanding market," Giuseppe Giordo, chief executive of Alenia Aeronautica and Alenia Aermacchi, said.

An Anglo-French cooperation military treaty, which includes collaboration in UAVs and UCAVs, has sparked concern in Germany, Italy and Spain that the agreement is exclusively bilateral and locks out other European partners.

Iranian Cyber Commandos downed the American stealth Drone

A secret U.S. surveillance drone that went missing last week in western Afghanistan appears to have crashed in Iran, in what may be the first case of such an aircraft ending up in the hands of an adversary.

Iran’s news agencies asserted that the nation’s defense forces brought down the drone, which the Iranian reports said was an RQ-170 stealth aircraft. It is designed to penetrate enemy air defenses that could see and possibly shoot down less-sophisticated Predator and Reaper drones.

A stealthy RQ-170 drone played a critical role in surveilling the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was hiding in the months before the raid in which he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in May.

U.S. officials acknowledged Sunday that a drone had been lost near the Iranian border.
 This is the second time in history a stealth tech/plane has been brought down (f-117 being the first). Possible first time ever one has been hacked into in the air, and the fact that it's still in pretty good shape makes it priceless as it now can be disected and reverse/engineered

The chinese and russians are probably dying to take a look at this intact american Toy...

Billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art stealth/drone/aircraft technology is now under the microscope being examined/reverse engineered.

Iran Did Not Down Drone: U.S. House Intel Chair

Iran did not down the U.S. spy drone captured by Iranian armed forces earlier this month, U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers said Dec. 13.

"I am satisfied in this particular case that no outside force brought this drone down," said Rogers, R-Mich., speaking at a conference sponsored by the Foreign Policy Initiative. "I will say without hesitation that this came down due to a technical problem."

On Dec. 12, President Barack Obama made public the U.S. request for Iran to return the drone.
"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
According to news reports, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Iran's defense minister, said Dec. 13 that the aircraft is Iran's property.
While Rogers said he is confident Iran did not down the drone, the United States should still be worried about its potential to do so via cyber attack in the future.
"Anytime that folks with ill intentions toward the United States come into possession of our technology is a bad day for the United States," he said.
However, while Iran tries to reverse-engineer the technology, the United States will be busy engineering new designs, he said.

Viper Strike Becomes MBDA Inc.'s 1st U.S. Buy

Company leaders were on site in Huntsville, Ala., on Dec. 12 as MBDA Inc., the wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of European missile giant MBDA, had its first business day as owner of the Viper Strike missile program.

Closing the deal to purchase the business from Northrop Grumman at midnight Dec. 9, the acquisition is a first for MBDA Inc., which has been operating in California for more than 20 years but has not had a major production center.

Production of the Viper Strike missile, a 44-pound guided weapon designed to be carried on a variety of platforms including UAVs, at its major manufacturing plant in Huntsville is not expected to be interrupted, the company said.

"This was the first acquisition, but it's not the first time that we had been looking at something," said MBDA Inc. CEO Jerry Agee.

The purchase is part of a strategy dating back two years, Agee said, as MBDA looks to grow its footprint in the U.S., despite the uncertainty surrounding the defense budget.

"When we have a very small market share now, any growth is significant for us," he said.

The first day of operations saw Agee and others touring the Viper Strike production plant.

"The employees here are very positive," Agee said. "I think they see the benefit of being inside a company that really focuses on missiles."

As MBDA Inc. looks to increase its U.S. business and production, Agee said overseas sales would not be a part of the equation.

"Right now, we're absolutely focused on the U.S. market," he said. "We've got a much bigger part of the company that's focused on the international market. We try to let them do their business, and we're focusing on where we've been tasked to grow, which is in the U.S. marketplace."

U.S. Air Force Orders Single Predator C Avenger

The U.S. Air Force is buying a single General Atomics Predator C Avenger jet-powered unmanned combat aircraft, the service said in a document posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website on Dec. 9.

According to the heavily redacted document, Lt. Gen. Thomas Owen, commander of the service's Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, approved the procurement. The value of the sole-source contract was redacted.

The document states that the partially stealthy aircraft will be used in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The Predator C is faster, has better sensor capacity and carries a greater payload than the existing MQ-9 Reaper unmanned combat aircraft. The Predator C also has an internal weapons bay and four external hard points, and it is capable of carrying 2,000-pound weapons. The aircraft is compatible with the Reaper's ground control station, the document said.

"This aircraft will act as the test vehicle to develop those next generation UAS [Unmanned Aircraft System] sensors, weapons, and Tactics, Techniques & Procedures (TTPs) ensuring a quick, smooth and efficient fielding of these advanced capabilities to the area of operations," the document said. "Currently, the combatant commanders, with the SECDEF's concurrence, have determined there are insufficient assets in-theater today to gather the necessary information and to fully engage the present threat."

Buying General Atomics' privately funded Predator C aircraft will help the Air Force prepare for current and next generation threats, the document said.

"This effort is an exceptional circumstance not only due to the need outlined by the SAF/AQ [Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition)] but because it fulfills a multi-agency role by providing a test platform for both Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) and customers under an ongoing, classified SECDEF directed program," the document stated.

The aircraft is being procured for classified "customer" who needs the jet urgently. The Predator C was apparently the only aircraft that could fill the Defense Department's needs on such short notice.

Flight International first reported the procurement on Dec. 12.

U.S. to Iran: Give Our UAV Back

The U.S. government is asking Iran to return the Lockheed Martin-built RQ-170 Sentinel UAV that was recently downed over that country.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," President Obama said Dec. 12 during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"I hope he said please," said analyst Dan Goure of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., referring to Obama's statement. "I can't quite see that happening."Obama's statement is the first official confirmation that the stealthy high-altitude spy plane had been captured by Iran. Earlier, the Pentagon had only officially acknowledged that an unmanned aircraft of an unspecified type was missing over western Afghanistan.

Iranian officials have already stated that they will not return the captured aircraft and have promised to reverse-engineer the jet's technology.

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group, mirrored those comments.

"Good luck with that," he said. "I think I read this really bad plot line in a cheap novel a few years ago. Life imitating art, or something like that."

Goure said that there is no chance that Iran will return the Sentinel to the U.S. Nor does Obama have any legal grounds to ask for such a return.

"I'm a little puzzled as to why he even bothered," he said.

Goure said the U.S. had a right to complain when the USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea in 1968 or when a Chinese fighter collided with a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries spy plane in international airspace in 2001. But the more recent episode is different.

"Nobody has argued that it didn't go down inside their airspace," he said.

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Rives, a former judge advocate general, said that the U.S. was within its rights to ask for the return of the RQ-170 if the aircraft accidentally strayed into Iranian territory.

"We're not at war with the Iranians," Rives said. "When we're in our current conditions with them, this was an accident, it was a malfunction, the plane went down, it was our plane, there is no question over that. So it's just a common sense request under international law."

He said Iran has an obligation to return the aircraft, assuming it was operating in either international airspace or western Afghanistan with the consent of that nation's leadership.

"They actually don't have a right to keep it, it's ours," he said. "It did land on their land, and if it caused damage we'd reimburse them for the cost of the damage, but in terms of who owns the aircraft, there is no question it's ours."

However, the case becomes less clear if the Sentinel was intentionally overflying Iranian airspace, Rives said.

After Iranian state television broadcast footage Dec. 8 of the stricken aircraft, one source had confirmed that the images showed a RQ-170. The aircraft looked like it had suffered damage consistent with a wheels-up landing, he said.

Another source familiar with remotely piloted aircraft operations said that the RQ-170 is programmed to hold an orbit if it loses its command link and try to re-establish contact. However, if it begins to run out of fuel, it will divert to a nearby airfield if it can't return to base.

This may be what caused the aircraft to land inside Iran, the source said. The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk has a similar feature, which has proven a bone of contention between the U.S. Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration.

However, that explanation can't account for the Sentinel's loss, Goure said.

"Even if they had lost control of it, it should have had enough fuel to go home," he said. "So that still doesn't explain what went wrong."

Goure said that it's still most likely that the aircraft suffered a catastrophic malfunction, enough so that it couldn't communicate or return home. The only other possibility is that it could have come under attack via cyber or electronic means.

While a cyber attack is some possibility, the system failure could have been caused externally by electronic attacks, Goure said.

"That's still a possibility," he said. "It's possible the Iranians did something."

U.S. Vacates Air Base in Pakistan: Officials

QUETTA, Pakistan - The United States vacated a Pakistani airbase following a deadline given by Islamabad in the wake of anger over NATO air strikes last month that killed 24 soldiers, officials said Dec. 11.

A U.S. AIR Force plane carrying U.S. personnel and equipment prepare to take off from Pakistan's Shamsi airbase on Dec. 11. (Inter Services Public Relations via AFP)

Pakistan's military said in a statement that the last flight carrying U.S. personnel and equipment had left Shamsi airbase, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, completing a process that began last week.

Islamabad's fragile alliance with the United States crashed to new lows in the wake of the Nov. 26 NATO air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and which the Pakistan military called a deliberate attack.

The base was widely believed to have been used in covert CIA drone attacks against the Taliban and al-Qaida commanders in northwest Pakistan's tribal areas, which border Afghanistan.

"The control of the base has been taken over by the Army," the statement said.

A senior security official requesting anonymity earlier told AFP: "The Americans have vacated the Shamsi air base and it has been handed over to the Pakistani security forces."

Another official in Baluchistan confirmed that the last batch of U.S. officials left in two flights on Dec. 11.

Following the November air strikes, Pakistan closed two border crossings to Afghanistan to U.S. and NATO supplies and gave American personnel until Dec. 11 to leave Shamsi airbase.

U.S. Ambassador to Islamabad Cameron Munter told a Pakistan television channel last week: "We are complying with the request."

A security official said the U.S. aircraft left the Pakistani airfield around 3:00 pm with the remaining group of 32 U.S. officials and material.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 4 expressed condolences to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari for the soldier deaths and said the NATO airstrikes that killed them were not a "deliberate attack."

But the incident has rocked Washington's alliance with its counter terrorism ally Islamabad, though officials say neither country can afford a complete break in relations.

U.S. officials and intelligence analysts have said the covert drone war would not be affected by the closure of the base as Washington could fly Predator and Reaper drones out of air fields in neighboring Afghanistan. But the Shamsi air base was supposed to be particularly useful for flights hampered by poor weather conditions.

Islamabad has tacitly consented to the covert U.S. drone campaign, which many Pakistanis see as a violation of their country's sovereignty.

Nearly half of all cargo bound for NATO-led forces runs through Pakistan. Roughly 140,000 foreign troops, including about 97,000 Americans, rely on supplies from outside Afghanistan for the decade-long war effort.

Pakistan has shut off the border over previous incidents, partly to allay popular outrage, but the latest closure had entered a third week.

Islamabad has so far refused to take part in a U.S. investigation into the deadly November air strikes, and decided to boycott the Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan earlier this month.

Iran's Boasts Over Drone Reveal Inconsistencies

TEHRAN - Iran's boast it downed a highly sophisticated U.S. drone has handed the Islamic republic a propaganda coup while revealing numerous inconsistencies in both Iranian and U.S. accounts of the incident.

A STILL IMAGE taken from the Iranian state-run Press TV shows what Iranian officials claim is the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone that crashed in Iran on Dec. 4. (Ho / Press TV via AFP)

Leading Iranian newspapers on Dec. 10 gave front-page prominence to the story, displaying photos of what was said to be the remarkably intact RQ-170 Sentinel drone in Iran's possession.

One daily, Vatanemrooz, bragged that "Satan's eye has been gouged out," repeating the characterisation of the United States as the "Great Satan."

The ebullient media coverage, which began on Dec. 8 with state television images of the alleged drone, eclipsed other reports, including on the threat of more sanctions on Iran and the fallout from last month's storming of the British embassy in Tehran.

The deputy chief of Iran's armed forces, Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as warning that "the U.S. government will have to pay a high price for its unacceptable actions."

He added: "Our defensive actions will not be limited to our geographical borders."

Iran has sent a letter of protest to the United Nations, saying the drone's flight was part of months of "covert actions by the American government" against it.

It also summoned the Swiss ambassador, who handles U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of U.S.-Iran diplomatic relations, and the Afghan ambassador to lodge formal protests and demand explanations.

A letter given to the Afghan ambassador said that Iran's airspace had been violated from his country and stressed "Afghanistan's responsibilities as a good neighbor," IRNA reported.

Information given by Iranian and U.S. officials in their respective countries' media since Tehran announced Dec. 4 it had captured the drone has raised several inconsistencies over the affair.

The Iranian military's joint chiefs of staff initially said its air defenses managed to "shoot down" the drone as it "briefly violated" Iran's eastern airspace.

Yet Mohammad Khazaee, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, said in his letter of protest that the drone flew "deep inside" Iran, close to the eastern desert town of Tabas, according to Iranian media.

"After reaching the northern part of Tabas area - 150 miles deep inside Iranian territory - the aircraft was confronted by the timely response of the Islamic republic's armed forces," his letter read.

And Iranian military officials were now saying the drone - displaying little damage in state media images - had not been shot down as first asserted, but rather had its controls hacked by a Revolutionary Guards cyber warfare unit.

U.S. officials have also added to some of the mystery surrounding the incident.

Although none has spoken on the record, several told U.S. media anonymously the drone had been on a CIA mission over Iran - and not on a U.S. military flight over western Afghanistan, as the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force initially tried to suggest.

The officials were skeptical of Iran's claims that it had broken through encryption technology to seize control of the aircraft, hypothesizing that the drone suffered a malfunction.

But none was able to explain how the drone - programmed to either automatically return to its base in Afghanistan or possibly even self-destruct - was recovered by the Iranians.

Pakistan Warns of 'Detrimental Response' to Attacks

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani warned Dec. 9 the U.S. and its NATO allies that any future cross-border attack would meet with a "detrimental response".

U.S.-Pakistani relations plunged to a new low last month after a cross-border NATO air strike which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Gilani made the comments while meeting army chief of staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the prime minister's secretariat said in a statement.

"The democratic government would not allow similar attack on the country's sovereignty and any attempt in future will definitely meet the detrimental response," the statement quoted Gilani as saying.

Pakistani security officials earlier said they had upgraded the air defense system on the Afghan border to make it capable of shooting down aircraft.

Kayani informed the prime minister of the steps taken on the western boarders to revamp defense capabilities aimed at effectively countering any future incursion into Pakistani territory.

"The government and the people of Pakistan were ready to provide the armed forces all the necessary resources to bolster its defense and professional capabilities," Gilani said.

Pakistan shut its border to NATO supply convoys on Nov. 26, hours after the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

The government also ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base in the southwest, widely reported to be a hub in the covert CIA drone war against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan.

The Nov. 26 attack brought the fragile Pakistani-U.S. alliance to a fresh low, already reeling from a covert American raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden near the Pakistani capital on May 2.