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

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

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

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

Mullen: US to continue anti-piracy efforts

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

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

Pakistan, China to Hold Joint Military Exercises in 2011

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

Afghanistan Seeks U.S. Help Post-2014

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

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

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

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

Russia Outlines 10-Year $640B Buying Plans

MOSCOW - Russian officials have revealed a few details about Moscow's $640 billion effort to bring 80 percent of the military's arsenal up to modern standards by 2020.
The defense ministry will buy about 600 airplanes and more than 1,000 helicopters, Vladimir Popovkin, the first deputy defense minister in charge of arms procurement, told reporters Feb. 24. About 100 helicopters will be purchased this year, Popovkin said.

The Navy should receive about 100 new vessels, including 35 corvettes, 15 frigates and 20 submarines. Of the submarines, eight should be of the nuclear Borei class, carrying Bulava multiwarhead naval intercontinental ballistic missiles that the ministry plans to commission later this year after additional tests.
The ministry will fund the development of a new liquid-fuel heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, to replace aging RS-18 Stilleto (SS-19 NATO codename) and RS-20 Satan (SS-18 NATO codename), Popovkin said. Such missiles can carry up to 10 warheads, he said, while solid fuel missiles, such as Topol, can carry maximum three warheads.
Russia will buy 10 batteries of the advanced S-500 anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense missiles, expected to be put in service in 2014, as well as 56 S-400 missile batteries.
Ten percent of the money, or about $64 billion, will be spent on developing new weaponry, Popovkin sai. This means nearly tripling annual spending on the research and design, he said.
The program envisages the procurement of two Mistral aircraft carriers, in addition to the two that Russia is buying from France, as well as Iveco light multirole vehicles from Italy. The military does not plan massive procurement of the foreign-made weapons, though small batches of drones, sniper guns and French-made Felin infantry combat suits will be bought by the Russian Armed Forces, Popovich said.
Seventy percent of the money under the program is supposed to be spent after 2015, he said.
The government will lend $24 billion to defense companies to help them prepare for bigger contracts after 2015.

AUSA: Protecting End Strength Runs Risks, Says Chiarelli

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The U.S. Army needs to maintain a force that it can afford to equip, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, said here at a conference hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.
"I believe we've got to have a balance in our equipment accounts and our personnel accounts to make sure that we have an Army that we need, but that Army must be well-equipped," Chiarelli told the audience Feb. 23.

The Army's active force is at 570,000, which includes 22,000 soldiers allowed under a temporary end strength increase.
The Army will reduce the force back to 547,000 over an 18-month period that begins in the middle of 2012.
"That is all enlisted soldiers; it is not officers," Chiarelli said. "Some of it will be done through attrition; some of it will be done through quality points."
In January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the Army would cut an additional 27,000 soldiers from the force beginning in 2015.
Chiarelli said that for this drawdown, Gates laid out three assumptions: The Army leaves Iraq, there is a significant drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan between now and 2014, and there are no additional contingencies requiring a large number of ground forces.
"I would add a fourth, and that fourth is that we have the right access we need to the reserve components," Chiarelli said. "We absolutely have to have an operationalized reserve."
That means Reserve forces that deploy for a year and are at home for four to five years in between, Chiarelli said.
"If all of those assumptions prove to be correct, I think it is prudent at this time to do the planning, and [Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey] calls it 'reversible planning' and I like that term, to take the force down to 520,000," Chiarelli said.
Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, deputy chief of staff for personnel (G-1), is leading that planning and conducting the analysis to figure out how best to reduce the force.
If those four assumptions do not come true, Casey feels very strongly that he can go back to Gates and discuss the reduction of 27,000 troops, Chiarelli said.
However, Casey's term as chief comes to an end this spring, and it's unlikely Gates will still be the defense secretary when these decisions will have to be made.
In the past, the Army has done whatever it can to protect end strength, including robbing equipment accounts, Chiarelli said.
"I happen to believe that there are certain folks who feel the Army's end strength should be such, and if we were to protect that strength at the cost of equipping accounts, in the end we'd end up with a much smaller Army, poorly equipped," he said.
The reason, he said, is because someone could always come in after the Army robs its equipment accounts to protect its size and cut force structure anyway.
In addition to keeping personnel and equipment accounts in relative balance, the Army needs to stop the yearly increase in costs in its personnel accounts, Chiarelli said.
Right now, those accounts grow at a rate of 1.4 percent a year, Chiarelli noted, saying that is a "significant" number across the multiyear spending plan.

U.S. Air Force Tanker Award Expected Feb. 24

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Defense Department is expected to announce Feb. 24 the winner of a $35 billion Air Force aerial refueling tanker contract fought over by Boeing and European rival EADS for nearly a decade.
Congressional aides told AFP the award of one of the biggest procurement contracts in U.S. history would come Feb. 24.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter.
The Defense Department is seeking to replace 179 tankers in an aging U.S. Air Force fleet of Boeing KC-135s that date back to the 1950s.
In the high-stakes, politically charged battle, U.S. aerospace giant Boeing and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, parent of France-based Airbus, delivered their final bids by last Friday's deadline.
EADS is looking like the favorite to land the contract, said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute think-tank based just outside the U.S. capital.
"Judging from the frequency with which Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter has been talking up the notion of a 'globalized' defense market recently, European aerospace giant EADS is the winner," Thompson said in an online blog.
Thompson said the Air Force would announce the winner Feb. 24 after the financial markets close.
The first time the contract was awarded, it went to Boeing, but it was subsequently canceled amid a Pentagon procurement scandal.
EADS won the contract in 2008 along with U.S. partner Northrop Grumman, but the decision was withdrawn after the Government Accountability Office upheld Boeing's objections that the process was flawed.
EADS is now competing without a main partner, but with support from a number of U.S. equipment makers.
EADS North America chairman Ralph Crosby said last week the firm had lowered the price of its final bid to a "very competitive price proposal."
Boeing's chief executive Jim McNerney earlier described his firm's bid as an "aggressive" attempt to beat its "subsidized" European rival.
This third attempt is marked by fierce lobbying from lawmakers seeking jobs in their states - for Boeing, in Washington state and Kansas; for Airbus, in Alabama - with the added dimension of a long-running trade dispute between the United States and the European Union at the World Trade Organization over public subsidies for Boeing and Airbus.
The Defense Department insists the winner will be decided on the merits of its bid.
Thompson cautioned that the Pentagon announcement may not close the book on the matter.
"Boeing could challenge the rating methodology and several other facets of the selection process, but since price is the key discriminator in the outcome, it is more likely to pursue a political strategy focusing on EADS use of prohibited trade subsidies in developing and marketing its planes," he said.
The rivals are offering militarized versions of their commercial aircraft and promising the contract would add tens of thousands of jobs to the post-recession U.S. economy still struggling with high unemployment.
The EADS KC-45 is based on the long-haul Airbus 330. EADS says it has 31 percent more capacity and a longer range than Boeing's offer, the KC-767.
It would be assembled in Mobile, Alabama, where EADS expects to produce at least 12 aircraft a year and says the program would create 48,000 jobs.
Representatives of Mobile area organizations, including city and county officials, plan to gather at the Mobile Convention Center to await the expected announcement and have scheduled a news conference, county official Peter Albrecht told AFP.
Boeing spokespersons were not immediately available to comment on the looming announcement.
Boeing is proposing the KC-767, or NewGen Tanker, built around its long-haul 767 plane. The bigger Boeing plane would be assembled in Everett, Washington, and equipped in Wichita, Kansas. Boeing says a win would provide 50,000 jobs.