Moscow To NATO: Do Not Extend Missile Shield

OSLO - Russia cautioned the U.S. and its NATO allies Aug. 8 against plans to extend an anti-missile shield into northern European seas.

On a visit to Norway, Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin deplored the lack of any firm guarantees from the alliance that American ships fitted with anti-missile technology would not be deployed in northern waters.

"The very fact of deploying U.S. military missile defense infrastructure in the Northern seas is a real provocation with regard to the process of nuclear disarmament", said Rogozin at a press conference.
"Why is no one giving guarantees that a U.S. fleet equipped with Aegis interceptor systems won't be deployed in the Northern seas?" he said.
"I'm sure that if there were no such plans in reality, then I would have been given a very definite negative answer. I didn't get any firm answer to this question," he said, adding that Russia had repeatedly asked the U.S. for answers.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed at a NATO summit in November to explore the possibility of cooperating on a system to protect Europe's population from the threat of ballistic missiles from countries such as Iran.
Fearing that the system would undermine its nuclear deterrent, Moscow has since been demanding a legally binding guarantee that the missile shield would not be aimed at Russia.
Rogozin also called on Norway's foreign affairs minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, to oppose the plan.
"The countries that are going to join in participating in these plans are going to share the responsibility like the initiators of that project," he said, warning Europe "not to hide behind the back of the United States."
Despite the lack of consensus, NATO adopted a plan to forge ahead with the shield in June.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is overseeing continuing talks between NATO defense ministers and Russia, said he was optimistic that a deal on guarantees could be reached in time for the next NATO summit hosted by the United States in May 2012.
The missile shield project will not be completed before 2018, NATO officials estimate.

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.

LCSs Sail Through Trials, Tackle Challenges

Launching and recovering small boats. Checking performance in high sea states. Testing firing procedures. Measuring fuel use to find the best speeds to operate the ships. Comparing simulated training with the real thing. Figuring out whether 40 people really can operate a state-of-the-art small combat ship. Fixing what doesn't work.

The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ships, including the Freedom, are being tested as the program is debated in Washington. (U.S. Navy)

That's just the beginning of the list of what the crews of the U.S. Navy's new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) have been up to over the past year or so. While the program's future continues to be debated in Washington, the Navy and its industrial partners are testing out the first two ships and their complex mission modules. Problems are identified and addressed, and if need be, fixes are made on the in-service ships and design changes drawn up for follow-on ships.

"All designs evolve," said Joe North, the director of Lockheed Martin's LCS program. "Nobody gets everything right the first time around."
In general, however, the Navy seems pleased with its first two LCSs, the Freedom (LCS 1), delivered by a contractor team headed by Lockheed Martin, and the Independence (LCS 2), from a General Dynamics-Austal USA effort.
"It's a good program, in good shape," Adm. Jonathan Greenert, soon to be the new chief of naval operations, said July 28. "Now we need to refine it."
A myriad of items and procedures need to be tested, validated, certified. The ships are filled with new fittings - a situation doubled because there are two unique LCS classes. Each ship introduces a new combat system, has a different propulsion plant, features different mission bay handling systems. New maintenance and support schemes are in place to help the tiny, 40-person core crews keep the ships running.
And tests and trials continue for a variety of vehicles and systems for the mission packages that are the LCS' reason for being.
The development and training efforts are being directed from Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Washington, and the LCS Squadron in San Diego. NAVSEA oversees design and development of the ships, their systems and the mission modules, while the LCSRon is in charge of training and fleet support.

LCS 1

The Freedom, first of the breed, is in a San Diego drydock undergoing a $20 million, four-month overhaul, or "availability." Fixes for several problems are being made on the ship, which will run final contract trials this fall.
A new impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) system is being fitted to the ship's four water jet tunnels to fix a corrosion problem that caused "minor pitting" in the tunnels, North said. Zinc anodes that were intended to prevent the corrosion problem are being removed, having deteriorated. The same modifications have been made to the Fort Worth (LCS 3) and future ships of the LCS 1 class.
"The ICCP will fix this from ever occurring again," North declared.
Capt. Robert Randall, commodore of the LCSRon in San Diego, said a new coating system will be applied to the water jet intake tunnels.
North noted that the Freedom did not suffer from corrosion on the water jet intakes, a problem that has been widely reported on the Independence, but the original fittings were labor-intensive and expensive. A new design built into the Fort Worth was chosen - a modification, he added, that saved "hundreds of hours" on installation costs.
Another fix will be made to the anchor fitting on the starboard bow. The original design allowed water to come into the anchor compartment when the ship ran at high speeds, causing corrosion. The anchor will be moved to the foredeck, with a new windlass based on the Navy's existing destroyer design.
While in drydock, the ship's hull is being cleaned. The Navy's decision to leave the aluminum superstructure unpainted has not changed, although Lockheed and the Navy are looking at ways to possibly "age" the aluminum.
The metal takes about eight years to fully oxidize, North explained, and will in time change to a dark gray color. No decision has yet been made.
The compressors that provide air to start the ship's gas turbines are being changed. The original compressors had reliability problems, and units similar to those used on the Navy's DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers have been installed beginning with LCS 3.
"We expect performance to be a hundred times better than what we saw," North said.
Another change incorporated into LCS 3 will be the addition of 43 metric tons of fuel to expand the ship's range. The Freedom might also get that change in an upcoming yard period.
A new type of water jet will be fitted to the ships beginning with LCS 5, North said, with a more efficient axial flow version of the Ka-Me-Wa water jets.
Changes also will be made on the Freedom to the seals on the aviation hangar's door to eliminate water leaks, and a new mezzanine to store helicopter gear is being built into the forward hangar.
Several changes have been made to the mission bay areas - the heart of the LCS. After the original handling system contractor filed for bankruptcy, a new vendor, Oldenburg, was contracted earlier this year to build the overhead cranes, launching systems, elevators and hatches.
"We overcomplicated" the original system, North admitted. "We probably got a little too complicated in how we thought we needed to do it, with special servo unloaders and stuff like that."
The new system, he said, simplifies the motor designs and controls. The overhead rail system remains, but it is being modified to permit continuous transfer between wet and dry mission bay zones.
The side door that was originally intended to allow the big Remote Minehunting Vehicle (RMV) to be launched and recovered will be smaller starting with LCS 5, North said - a change made because the Navy changed the specifications for the RMV. Since the vehicle now will be moved only through the aft doors, a smaller and lighter side door can be fitted.
One repair that won't be made on LCS 1 will be to the launch ramp in the stern, which was bowed after the big 11-meter rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) was stowed on it - contrary, North said, to the manufacturer's specs. Properly operated, the boat should be moved off the ramp for storage.
The ramp is "something we're going to live with" on the Freedom, North said.
But the seal between the ramp and the bottom of the stern doors is being changed. Lockheed and the Navy tried three different seal designs and found them all unsatisfactory.
"We had the whole thing redesigned for Three, and it's a backfit on One," North said.
The Navy is continuing to look for ways to reduce corrosion from the salt environment in the wet mission zone.
"We found that we had equipment mounted in that space that had corrosive material to it. It starts to rust, you've got to worry about it," North explained.
Changes already made or under consideration include moving various items out of the zone, switching to nonrusting composites, and the use of different coatings. The Naval Surface Warfare Center is examining several alternatives.
Permanent repairs to a 6-inch hull crack also will be made to the Freedom while in dry dock.
The Navy and Lockheed said the problem is not with the design, but is a workmanship issue in a particularly difficult area of the hull, in a chine area where different angles come together.
The rest of the chine area on the ship was X-rayed, North said, and no further problems were found.
Lockheed and its Marinette shipyard in Wisconsin have changed the way that area on the ship is built, he said.
"They said it was difficult. Now I know what it is, now we're going to do it different," North added.
The Freedom's aluminum superstructure also suffers from cracks, a condition predicted before the ship was finished in 2008.
At least 14 areas have been found with cracks, North said, and most of those were repaired before the current yard period - "none that we're worried about or are going to limit her in her operation," he said.
Changes have been made in the Fort Worth, North added, that should alleviate the problem.
The ballast tanks added to the Freedom's stern to improve the way the ship sits in the water are built into the hull starting with LCS 3.
"The door arrangement on those has been pushed back," said Capt. Jeff Reidel, NAVSEA's LCS program manager. "It's given some additional room in the bay."
More equipment might be added to the stern area, including a lightweight torpedo decoy system similar to the widely used Nixie system, and a towed variable depth sonar (VDS).
A VDS competition for the anti-submarine warfare module is expected to be take place beginning next year, said Capt. John Ailes, the Mission Module program manager for NAVSEA, with a down-select expected in 2014.
Another change that could be made to the ships is the removal of the fin stabilization system, which could eliminate as much as 28 tons of equipment. Sea tests will determine whether the fins stay or go, North and Reidel said.
Topside, the extra-high frequency satellite antennas originally fitted on LCS 1 have been replaced by super high frequency units, bringing the LCS 1 class into commonality with the LCS 2 design.
One of the more visible changes beginning with LCS 3 is the use of a smaller centerline post in the bridge windows. The wide, triangular metal in the middle of the Freedom's bridge was found to be a distraction. While the post is still necessary for structural reasons, it's been reduced on the Fort Worth and subsequent ships.
After some sea time, a 60-day maintenance period for the Freedom is scheduled to begin Jan. 30 at San Diego, NAVSEA said.
The Fort Worth (LCS 3), launched at Marinette in December, is expected to begin dock trials before the end of August, North said. Builder's sea trials are expected to take place in September on Lake Michigan, with Navy acceptance trials scheduled for November.
Lockheed and Marinette are shooting to deliver the ship in February, North said - six months ahead of the August 2012 contract date. Construction of the Milwaukee (LCS 5) is expected to begin in late summer, he added.

LCS 2

Less information is available on changes made to the Independence. Neither Austal USA, builder of the ship and the prime contractor for the third ship on, nor General Dynamics, which oversaw the first two ships of the LCS 2 class, responded to persistent requests to provide an expert to discuss the ship's current state.
The Navy, in general, also has not matched its public relations efforts on LCS 1 with similar news about the Independence, which has been operating out of the relatively obscure base at Mayport, Fla.
Reidel and Ailes, however, noted the ship has been conducting trials with the RMV and has fully demonstrated its mission bay handling systems, including the twin-boom extensible crane (TBEC) that launches and recovers vehicles out the stern.
"From a mission perspective on LCS 2, the platform has been completed, signed off, sold and operating," Reidel said. "The doors have been tested and operating. All the emergency recovery systems and the reliability fixes have been done and are operating."
The TBEC has been tested at sea, he said. "We were a little bit behind where we wanted to be, but we're in a situation right now where it's full steam ahead. Launch, handling and recovery will no longer hold up our integration testing with the mission packages."
The internal computer networks on both ships are "pretty stable," Reidel said. "The only area [where] we've made changes is some software in the combat systems side. From a network perspective, we've made no changes. Both systems are operating well."
At least for now, one change requested by the crew of the Independence will not be made - the installation of bridge wings to make it easier to navigate the ship in tight spaces.
"It's something we're looking at," Reidel acknowledged. Stealth concerns are not an issue, he explained, since there is no radar cross-section design requirement.
"It's a weight issue," he said, along with concerns about other impacts on the design.
Overall, Reidel said, the LCS effort is in good shape.
"I think that at this point, the program has put itself on pretty stable grounds," he observed.
Later this year, the Independence will shift to Panama City, Fla., to test mine warfare components. Before the end of the year, it is planned to sail through the Panama Canal to transfer to San Diego.
Austal USA is expected to launch the Coronado sometime this year, and began construction of the Jackson in early August.

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.

China’s J-10B fighter for Pakistan worries Indian air force

The recent official offer of the Chinese to raise a squadron of its home-grown advanced multi-role, all-weather fighter aircraft J-10B to Pakistan has worried Indian defence experts. 

Pakistan will be the only other country apart from China to have this sophisticated fighter aircraft.

Air Commodore (Retd) Jasjit Singh, director, New Delhi-based Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), told DNA: “India now not only faces the possibility of a two-front war but has to also deal with a two-front military modernisation programme with China supplying its latest weaponry to Pakistan.”

He said India faces a 10-year window of vulnerability as the Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) present squadron of 34 is way below the sanctioned strength of 39 squadrons. “It will take 10 years for the IAF to get back to its sanctioned strength of 39 squadrons. While Pakistan at present, with 24 squadrons, is raising its strength rapidly with China’s support,” said Singh, who is also the former director of Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis.

Former Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal PK Barbora, however, said China’s offering Pakistan a squadron of the J-10s may not threaten India’s air superiority. “China does not have a great record of producing a world-class aircraft. All they do is reverse engineer and manufacture aircraft. Secondly, by raising just one squadron Pakistan may not benefit much,”he said.

However, Pakistani media reports indicate that it is looking at raising two squadrons of the fourth generation aircraft to counter India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, which is still under development. Besides, according to US military and defence technology news website, Defense Update, the Chinese designed Joint Fighter (JF)-17 (commonly known as ‘Thunder’) is already under production in Pakistan and is actively being promoted for export in the world market.

Despite his optimism, Air Marshal Barbora warned that the slow pace of India’s defence indigenisation (read LCA Tejas, in particular) is a cause for worry. “We will be adding 300 more Su-30 MKIs; getting 126 medium multi role combat aircraft; and upgrading the Mirage 2000s, Jaguars and the MiG-29s. The same cannot be said of some pathetic status of indigenous programmes like the Light Combat Aircraft, which has been delayed for years now,” he says.

US Defense Department awards $42.3m contract for Pakistan F-16 upgrades

The US Defense Department has awarded Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company a $42.3 million contract to provide 10 additional upgrade kits for Pakistan’s F-16 aircrafts.

 
The contract has been awarded under the Foreign Military Sales programme.
Lockheed Martin will provide upgradation kits for the Pakistan F-16 A/B Block 15 Aircraft Enhanced Modernisation Programme.
Furthermore, the package includes 18 panel “simuspheres“, logistic support up to 21 months of which 12 months on-site and nine months on-call support will be provided.
Various related hardware and software systems are also included.
However, Pakistan had earlier ordered 50 JF-17 jets from China — Pakistan’s largest aircraft provider — which are due to be delivered in six months, said a statement from the Defense Ministry of Pakistan.
Earlier, in June 2010, US delivered the first batch of Block-52 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets to Pakistan.
Pakistan paid $1.4 billion for the jets and an additional $1.3 billion for the up gradation of its previous fleet of the fighter jets.
Back in Musharraf’s government, in January 2008, former US president George W. Bush scrapped nearly a $500 million deal to supply 18 F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin Co. to Pakistan.

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