Dubai Airshow:JF 17 to make Gulf Debut

PARIS - Pakistan is looking to steal the thunder with its JF-17 fighter jet, due to fly at the Dubai Airshow, opening Nov. 13.
The JF-17 Thunder, a single-engine, multirole combat aircraft, is co-developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China, where it is dubbed the FC-1 Fierce Dragon.
With a price tag of $20 million to $25 million per unit, the JF-17 is a low-cost plane poles away from Western-built fighters such as the F-15, F-16, F/A-18 and Rafale, also to be displayed.
Dubai will be the JF-17's fourth air show, after a static display at Farnborough, and flights at the Izmir show in Turkey and Zhuhai in China.
Pakistan also is showing off its Super Mushshak basic trainer, flown by the Saudi and Pakistan air forces, and its Karakoram-8 light trainer jet.
Alenia will field its M346 trainer jet, which previously won a UAE competition for a lead-in fighter trainer only to see the deal called off and a new tender set.
The U.S. is fielding the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft alongside the conventional AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopter.
In the expanding market for spy planes, L-3 Communications will display its modified King Air 350ER turboprop, pitched at foreign clients as an intelligence, surveillance and recon asset.
At the large end of the spectrum, a Boeing 737 airborne early warning and control system plane from the Turkish Air Force will be at the show.
Dubai will host the 12th edition of the air show, which has booked up to 1,000 exhibitors from 50 countries, a 12 percent increase over 2009, the organizers said. More than 55,000 trade visitors are expected.

Dubai Show May Include 1,000 Exhibitors................. JF-17 To Make Gulf Debut

PARIS - Pakistan is looking to steal the thunder with its JF-17 fighter jet, due to fly at the Dubai Airshow, opening Nov. 13.
The JF-17 Thunder, a single-engine, multirole combat aircraft, is co-developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China, where it is dubbed the FC-1 Fierce Dragon.
With a price tag of $20 million to $25 million per unit, the JF-17 is a low-cost plane poles away from Western-built fighters such as the F-15, F-16, F/A-18 and Rafale, also to be displayed.
Dubai will be the JF-17's fourth air show, after a static display at Farnborough, and flights at the Izmir show in Turkey and Zhuhai in China.
Pakistan also is showing off its Super Mushshak basic trainer, flown by the Saudi and Pakistan air forces, and its Karakoram-8 light trainer jet.
Alenia will field its M346 trainer jet, which previously won a UAE competition for a lead-in fighter trainer only to see the deal called off and a new tender set.
The U.S. is fielding the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft alongside the conventional AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopter.
In the expanding market for spy planes, L-3 Communications will display its modified King Air 350ER turboprop, pitched at foreign clients as an intelligence, surveillance and recon asset.
At the large end of the spectrum, a Boeing 737 airborne early warning and control system plane from the Turkish Air Force will be at the show.
Dubai will host the 12th edition of the air show, which has booked up to 1,000 exhibitors from 50 countries, a 12 percent increase over 2009, the organizers said. More than 55,000 trade visitors are expected.

Pakistan Rebuts Report on Movement of Nukes

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Nov. 6 angrily rejected a report that it had been moving its nuclear weapons in unsafe conditions, saying nobody should underestimate its capability to defend itself.
Two U.S. magazines reported Nov. 4 that Pakistan has begun moving its nuclear weapons in low-security vans on congested roads to hide them from U.S. spy agencies, making the weapons more vulnerable to theft by Islamist militants.

The Atlantic and the National Journal, in a joint report citing unnamed sources, wrote that the U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden on May 2 at his Pakistani compound reinforced Islamabad's longstanding fears that Washington could try to dismantle the country's nuclear arsenal.
But in a statement, Pakistan's foreign ministry said the report was "pure fiction, baseless and motivated. It is part of a deliberate propaganda campaign meant to mislead opinion."
Pakistan has consistently rejected concerns over the safety of its nuclear arsenal and alluded to a smear campaign.
"The surfacing of such campaigns is not something new. It is orchestrated by quarters that are inimical to Pakistan," said the statement.
The ministry said Pakistan was capable of defending itself.
"No one should underestimate Pakistan's will and capability to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests."
After the bin Laden raid, the head of the Strategic Plans Divisions (SPD), which is charged with safeguarding Pakistan's atomic weapons, was ordered to take action to keep the location of nuclear weapons and components hidden from the United States, the report said.
Khalid Kidwai, the retired general who leads the SPD, expanded his agency's efforts to disperse components and sensitive materials to different facilities, it said.
But instead of transporting the nuclear parts in armored, well-defended convoys, the atomic bombs "capable of destroying entire cities are transported in delivery vans on congested and dangerous roads," according to the report.
The pace of the dispersal movements has increased, raising concerns at the Pentagon, it said.
The article, based on dozens of interviews, said the U.S. military has long had a contingency plan in place to disable Pakistan's nuclear weapons in the event of a coup or other worst-case scenario.

Chinese Cyber-Espionage Growing: U.S. Report

TAIPEI - A new U.S. intelligence report declares the most active and persistent perpetrator of economic espionage is China.
The report, issued by the U.S. Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX), draws on the inputs and reporting from more than a dozen U.S. law enforcement and intelligence collection bodies, including the CIA, FBI, DIA and NSA.

China views economic espionage as an "essential tool in achieving national security and economic prosperity," the report said.
The report - "Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace: Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2009-2011" - indicates the U.S. intelligence community judges the use of cyber tools is now a greater threat than more traditional espionage methods.
A recent Chinese espionage case in the U.S. contrasts the shift from traditional espionage tradecraft to today's cyber espionage techniques. Dongfan Chung, a former Boeing and Rockwell engineer who had worked on the B-1 bomber and space shuttle, was sentenced by a U.S. Federal Court in 2010 to 15 years for having 250,000 pages of sensitive documents in his home.
"This is suggestive of the volume of information Chung could have passed to his handlers between 1979 to 2006," the report said.
The logistics of handling the physical volume of so many documents, equal to "four 4-drawer filing cabinets," are staggering. However, according to the report, today the information could have easily fit onto a compact disc or transferred via e-mail. "Cyberspace makes possible the near instantaneous transfer of enormous quantities of economic and other information."
The costs of cyber espionage on commercial U.S. business are high.
■ Between 2008 and 2009 an employee of Valspar Corporation, David Yen Lee, downloaded proprietary paint formulas valued at $20 million with the intent of selling it to China.
■ Meng Hong, a Dupont Corporation research chemist, downloaded proprietary information on organic light-emitting diodes in 2009 with the intent of transferring the data to a Chinese university.
■ Yu Xiang Dong, a product engineer with Ford Motor Company, copied 4,000 Ford documents onto an external hard drive in 2009 with the intent of transferring the data to an automotive company in China.
China's intelligence services seek to "exploit" Chinese citizens or persons with family ties to China to recruit. Of the seven cases that were adjudicated under the Economic Espionage Act in 2010, six involved a link to China.
U.S. corporations and cyber security specialists have reported an "onslaught" of computer network intrusions originating from China. "Some of these reports have alleged a Chinese corporate or government sponsor of the activity," but the U.S. intelligence community has not been able to confirm these reports.
In a study released in February, McAfee attributed an intrusion attempt they labeled "Night Dragon" to a Chinese Internet Protocol (IP) address and indicated the intruders stole data from the computer systems of petrochemical companies.
In January 2010, VeriSign iDefense identified the Chinese government as the sponsor of intrusions into Google's networks.
MANDIANT, a cyber security company, reported in 2010 that information was pilfered from the corporate networks of a U.S. Fortune 500 company during business negotiations in which the company was looking to acquire a Chinese firm.
The report states that China is driven by its longstanding policy of "catching up fast and surpassing" the Western powers. "An emblematic program in this drive is Project 863, which provides funding and guidance for efforts to clandestinely acquire U.S. technology and sensitive economic information." Project 863 lists the development of "key technologies for the construction of China's information infrastructure."
In terms of military technology, China is focusing on two areas: marine systems designed to jump-start the development of a blue-water navy, and aerospace systems that will allow China's air force to develop air supremacy.
The U.S. is not the only victim of Chinese cyber espionage, according to the report. South Korea claims that in 2008 the country lost $82 billion in proprietary information from Chinese and other hackers. Japan's Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry (METI) conducted a survey of 625 manufacturing firms in 2007 and found that more than 35 percent reported some form of technology loss and more than 60 percent of those leaks involved China.
Since late 2010, hackers have accessed more than 150 computers at France's Finance Ministry, exfiltrating and redirecting documents relating to the French G20 presidency to Chinese sites.
The British Security Service's Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure warned hundreds of business leaders in 2010 of Chinese economic espionage practices, including the giving of gifts of cameras and memory sticks equipped with cyber implants at trade fairs and exhibitions.
German officials also noted that business travelers' laptops are often stolen during trips to China. "The Germans in 2009 highlighted an insider case in which a Chinese citizen downloaded highly sensitive product data from the unidentified German company where he worked to 170 CDs," the report says.
China always denies reports of being involved in cyber espionage and often responds with counteraccusations.

No. 2 in NATO Afghanistan Training Program Sacked

KABUL - A United States general working with NATO's training mission in Afghanistan has been fired after accusing President Hamid Karzai and his corruption-plagued administration of being out of touch and ungrateful for American support.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller, deputy commander of NATO's mission to train and equip Afghan forces, was dismissed after making "inappropriate public comments," the NATO-led international force said late Nov. 4.

Fuller's comments made public some of the frustrations expressed privately by U.S. and other foreign military officers and diplomats about working with Karzai and his government.
In an interview published by news website Politico on Nov. 3, Fuller said Afghan leaders did not fully recognize the human and financial cost borne by the United States in Afghanistan and were "isolated from reality."
He also directly criticized Karzai after the president said last month that Afghanistan would support Pakistan if Islamabad ever went to war with the United States.
"Why don't you just poke me in the eye with a needle?" Fuller said of Karzai's comments.
"You've got to be kidding me... I'm sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you're telling me, 'I don't really care?' " He added: "When they are going to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that's more articulate in public."
U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the remarks did not reflect the state of the international force's relationship with Karzai's administration.
"These unfortunate comments are neither indicative of our current solid relationship with the government of Afghanistan, its leadership, or our joint commitment to prevail here in Afghanistan," Allen said in a statement.
"The Afghan people are an honorable people and comments such as these will not keep us from accomplishing our most critical and shared mission - bringing about a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan."
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta fully backed the decision to dismiss Fuller with immediate effect, spokesman U.S. Navy Capt. John Kirby said.
A spokesman for ISAF in Kabul, U.S. Navy Lt. Gregory Keeley, said it did not have any information on whether Fuller would be leaving the military or redeploy to another role.
Last year, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then commander of international troops in Afghanistan, was dismissed by President Obama over comments made by him and his aides about senior political leaders to Rolling Stone magazine.
NATO's mission to train and equip the Afghan army and police to take increasing control of security after foreign combat troops leave in 2014 is seen as one of the most important parts of the military effort in Afghanistan.
Afghan security force numbers have increased significantly in recent years, growing from around 190,000 in late 2009 to about 305,000 today. That figure is due to rise to 352,000 by November next year.
But problems persist, including poor literacy and questions over issues such as cronyism.
News of Fuller's sacking emerged as U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger on Nov. 5 took overall command of NATO's training mission in Afghanistan from U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who has completed a two-year tour of duty.
Elsewhere in the interview, Fuller used an unusual analogy to illustrate how he had to tell Afghan officials why they could not have equipment like F-16 fighter jets and tanks.
"You can teach a man how to fish, or you can give them a fish," said Fuller.
"Were giving them fish while they're learning and they want more fish! [They say] I like swordfish, how come you're giving me cod? Guess what? Cod's on the menu today."
He added that one unidentified Afghan figure had told him he only wanted tanks so he could use them in parades.

India Unseals MMRCA Bids from Dassault, EADS

NEW DELHI - The Indian defense ministry unsealed bids by the final two competitors in the $10 billion Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition, but a final decision is up to two months away.

Top, a German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon performs a flight demonstration during Aero India 2009. Bottom, a French Air Force Dassault Rafale performs at Aero India 2011. Eurofighter and Dassault are both competing in India’s MMRCA competition. (File photos / Agence France-Presse)

The bids will be evaluated for lowest life-cycle cost.

"The lowest bidder will be announced after six to eight weeks," ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said.
The acquisition process is being kept secret to ensure transparency, said another ministry official.
Officials from neither Dassault, which is offering the Rafale, nor EADS, which is offering the Eurofighter, were available for comment.

EU, U.S. Conduct Cyber Attack Exercise

BRUSSELS - The EU and U.S. carried out their first joint exercise to test responses to cyber incidents, including cyber attacks, here Nov. 3 as experts simulated how authorities on both sides of the Atlantic would cooperate in response to attacks.
Sony PlayStation, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, European Commission and European External Action Service have all been subject to cyber attacks in recent months.

Two hypothetical scenarios were tested during "Cyber Atlantic 2011": an attack that attempts to extract and publish sensitive online information from the EU's national cybersecurity agencies, and an attack on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems in EU power-generation equipment.
Cyber Atlantic 2011 grew out of an EU-U.S. Working Group on Cybersecurity and Cyber Crime, which was established in November 2010 to tackle new threats to global networks. The initial findings of the exercise will be taken into account in the working group's report, which will be presented to the EU-U.S. summit later this year.
EU and U.S. leaders agreed to set up the working group at their summit in Lisbon, Portugal, last November. Four expert subgroups have been established to deal with four different subject areas: cyber incident management; public-private partnerships; awareness raising; and cyber crime.
"Recent high-profile cyber attacks show that global threats need global action. Today's exercise provides valuable lessons for specialists on both sides of the Atlantic," EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a Nov. 3 press release