5,000 Surface-to-Air Missiles Secured in Libya

SIDI BIN NUR, Libya - A top U.S. official said Dec. 11 that a team of U.S. and Libyan bomb-disposal specialists has secured about 5,000 surface-to-air missiles stockpiled during the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

"We have identified, disbanded and secured more than 5,000 MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense Systems), while thousands more have been destroyed during NATO bombing," Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs told a group of reporters.

Dozens of these missiles were detonated in the sea, off the coast of Sidi Bin Nur village, east of Tripoli, as Shapiro, one a one-day visit to Libya, witnessed the event from the shore.

A joint U.S. and Libyan team of bomb-disposal experts has been working for several months now to find these missing missiles which are seen as potential threat to civil aviation. Gadhafi had a stockpile of 20,000 shoulder-fired missiles before the revolt against him broke out in February.

"We are working side by side with the TNC to reduce the threat of these loose weapons," Shapiro said after talks in Tripoli with officials from the ruling National Transitional Council, the interior and defense ministries.

There is a "serious concern about the threat posed by MANPADS ... about the potential threat MANPADS can pose to civil aviation. However our efforts witht he NTC to reduce these threats are already paying off."

Shapiro said contractors on the ground were still in the process of assessing how many missiles are still missing. Libya, under Gadhafi, was reportedly the country with the biggest stock of MANPADS outside of nations that produce these weapons.

The missiles, mainlySAM-7, were acquired in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shapiro said the United States has already spent $6 million in its efforts to secure these weapons.

NATO Denies Iraq Report of Withdrawal: Official

BRUSSELS - NATO denied an assertion by Iraq's national security advisor on Dec. 11 that it had decided to withdraw its mission there at the end of the year after Baghdad refused to grant it legal immunity.

"There hasn't been a decision yet," an official at NATO headquarters in Brussels said, while acknowledging that the question of the mission's legal standing was an issue.

"When they ask us to extend the mission, we need to see that the same legal framework will extend as well," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"We remain hopeful that a solution will be found and that we'll be able to say yes to the Iraqi request to extend our mission, based on the legal framework that we (have) had since 2009," the official added.

The official was responding to remarks earlier on Dec. 11 by Iraq's National Security Adviser Falah al-Fayadh who said the decision had already been taken, because Baghdad had refused to grant the force legal immunity.

The failure to agree on immunity from prosecution closely mirrors Iraq's refusal to grant U.S. soldiers similar protections earlier this year.

That sank a potential deal between the two countries to keep U.S. soldiers in the country beyond the end of the year.

Pakistan upgrades air defence system near Afghan border

Pakistan has upgraded its air defence system on the Afghan border to make it capable of shooting down aircraft, after Nato strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, a security official told AFP on Friday.

“Now we have a fully equipped air defence system on the Afghan border. It has the capability to trace and detect any aircraft,” the official in the northwestern city of Peshawar told AFP by telephone.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the step had been taken to avert air incursions from Afghanistan and to respond to any future air strikes.
“The system has also been upgraded to immediately respond after detecting any aircraft or helicopter and to shoot it down,” he added.
Pakistan shut its border to Nato supply convoys on November 26, the same day as 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 as a hub in the covert CIA drone war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan’s border area with Afghanistan.

Lockheed: Pentagon Order for F-35s Undefinitized

Lockheed Martin has signed an undefinitized contract that establishes a price ceiling for the fifth low rate production lot for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, company officials clarified late on Dec. 10.

THE PENTAGON AWARDED Lockheed Martin an undefinitized contract to produce 30 more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. (Lockheed Martin)

The Pentagon announced earlier on Dec. 10 that it had awarded Lockheed Martin a $4 billion contract to build 30 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.

"Lockheed Martin has signed an undefinitized contract that establishes the funding for Lot 5 up to the level announced by the DoD today," said Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Laurie Quincy in an email. "The final Lot 5 contract amount will not be known until we have a definitized contract sometime in 2012."

She said in a statement that the award is welcome news for the company and its F-35 suppliers.

"This … will help ensure we continue to meet production schedules outlined by the program," Quincy wrote. "This is an important first step in paving the way for full LRIP 5 production contract negotiations with our government customer."

The fixed-price-incentive contract calls for 21 F-35A conventional take off and landing (CTOL) for the Air Force, three F-35B short-take off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft for the Marines, and six F-35C carrier variants for the Navy.

Broken down by service, two-thirds of the value of the contract - $2.65 billion - is for the Air Force; $937 million, or 23 percent, for the Navy; and $426 million, or nearly 11 percent, for the Marine Corps.

The contract also provides for "associated ancillary mission equipment and flight test instrumentation" for the planes, and flight test instrumentation for the United Kingdom.

The contract was awarded through the Naval Air Systems Command.

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.

US plays down new Pak air-defence system

WASHINGTON: US Department of Defence has said that the new air-defene system installed by Pakistan was of no consequence for America as it posed no danger to their forces deployed in Afghanistan, Geo News reported. A briefing by Pentagon also stressed that to avoid another Mohmand attack better coordination was the way to go not an air-defence system, adding such tactical decisions were Pakistan’s internal affairs. The briefing added that warmer Pakistan-US ties were in the broader interest of both strategic partners in war on terror. Pentagon officials also adamantly maintained that Nato’s attack in Mohmand was involuntary.

Dempsey: DoD's F-35 Buy May Be Stretched Out

The Pentagon's purchase of F-35 Lightning II combat jets may have to be stretched out, the top U.S. uniformed official said.

AN F-35B LIGHTNING II fighter lands during a test flight. U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, voiced support for the F-35 program. (Lockheed Martin)

"We are committed, that is to say, the U.S. military, to the development of the fifth-generation fighter, clearly," said Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking at a Dec. 9 Atlantic Council event in Washington. "There are some fact-of-life changes that we'll probably have to make based on the ability to procure it on timelines that we'd like to have."

George Little, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said Dec. 8 that no decisions have been made yet on the F-35. He reiterated Panetta's strong support for the tri-service program.

"He believes that the F-35 program is important to pursue," Little said. "That it will give us capabilities that we need to maintain our edge in certain areas."

Dempsey said the F-35 is threatened from a different direction: Europe's financial troubles might undercut those partners on the eastern side of the Atlantic.

"When I mentioned earlier about our exposure to a potential problem in the euro zone, that's one of the issues that I was alluding to, their ability to continue to partner with us in that joint venture," Dempsey said.

"But it will clearly put them at risk if all the economic predictions about a potential collapse were to occur - inflation, devaluation," the general said. "Then … they would have to make some national decisions about reallocation of resources that could potentially affect the JSF."

Dempsey's comments came shortly after a report was delivered to the office of Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acting procurement chief, calling for production of the aircraft to be slowed down while 13 test issues are resolved.

The report also declared the Lightning II's design fundamentally sound.

"There may be issues regarding the F-35 program," Little said. "Any large weapons program generally has issues from time to time. And we are aware of certain issues with the F-35 program. But we believe it's important to continue to invest in the program."

Panetta postponed a planned Dec. 9 visit to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., where the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' F-35 variants are being tested.

A senior Defense Department official said the Marines had hoped to convince the secretary to take the F-35B short-take-off/vertical-landing variant off the two-year "probation" that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates had slapped on it.

During the taping of "This Week in Defense News" on Dec. 8, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, said his service would do everything it can to protect the F-35, the Long Range Strike bomber and the KC-46 tanker program.

"There are three programs which we will sustain, and that is the F-35 at an appropriate level, the new bomber will certainly begin development, and then we will bring the tanker on," Schwartz said.

The Air Force would "do less of other things in order to protect those programs," he said.