Pakistan Air Force on track

Pakistan inducted the new Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 52+ fighters in their Air Force, while in the mean time the next two full-strength squadrons of Chengdu/Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17 Thunders are close to becoming fully functional.
According to the service, the 17 F-16 Block 52+ fighters were inducted into the 5th Squadron on March 11. The final aircraft of the 18-unit deal is still being tested in the USA and is scheduled to arrive some time next month.
The new batch of the aircraft features 12 single-seat C-model versions and six two-sweat F-16Ds. The air force also states that it is negotiating with the USA for additional Block 52+ fighters due to a point in the contract which contained an option for extra 18 aircraft.
The new F-16s are being powered by Pratt & Whitney F100-229 engines. One of the other systems implemented in the F16 is Northrop Grumman’s mechanically scanned APG-68(V)9 radar and ITT’s ALQ-211(V)9 advanced integrated defensive electronic warfare suite.
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency also offered a weapons package which included 500 Raytheon AIM-120C5 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, 200 short-range AIM-9M-8/9 Sidewinders, 1600 enhanced GBU-12/24 laser-guided bombs, 500 Boeing joint direct attack munitions and 700 BLU-109 penetrator bombs.
There is also a mid-life upgrade scheduled for the 34 F-16A/B Block 15 aircraft. Some of the fighters will be upgraded in Turkey, while others in Pakistan. The project is most likely to be completed by 2012.
Zeng Wen, vice-president of the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC) stated at Air Show China, that Pakistan had 50 firm orders for the JF-17, but in the end they could buy up to 200.
The JF-17s will be used to replace fighters like the Dassault Mirage III, Mirage 5, Nanchang A-5 and the Chengdu F-7. All A-5s will be decommissioned in early April.
China and Pakistan have been known to cooperate on the development of the JF-17. Pakistan began the assembling in 2009 and can implement Western avionics, radars and various other systems in the JF-17 by 2012.

Pakistan Navy foiled first-ever piracy attempt in Pak

Friday was a great day for the Pakistan Navy as they in cooperation with the multinational naval Combined Task Force, successfully stopped the first-ever piracy attempted in Pakistan’s territorial sea.The pirates attacked on the Philippine Commercial flag vessel MV FALCON TRADE-II which operates in the Southern extremity of the Pakistan Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
An official spokesperson of the Pakistan Navy stated that this was the first time a piracy attempt was reported and countered in EEZ of Pakistan.
A spokesman for Pakistan Navy said that this was the first time a piracy attempt was recorded and countered in EEZ of Pakistan.
Earlier, at the multi-national naval exercise Aman-11 from March 8 to March 12, the Pakistan Navy reported that it has adopted special measures in order to tackle the issue of piracy attacks against merchant vessels in the Indian Ocean as this has become a frequent threat near the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Pakistan.
The PN Spokesperson spoke further about the entire anti-piracy operation. On the 24th March, the PN intercepted communications of a pirates attack on a Philippine flag vessel with 20 personnel onboard. The PN immediately contacted the Pakistan Navy’s Ship Babur with embarked helicopter and Maritime Patrol Aircraft to acquire the position of the pirate boats.
Special Operating Force (SOF) onboard fast boats, specifically tuned for counter piracy operations were also sent to tackle the pirates. PNS Babur, in a close liaison with CTF-151 and the assistance of US Ship tasked by CTF-151, confined the pirates, who failed to enter the enclosed citadel boundary of the merchant ship.
Thanks to the fast action of the Pakistan Navy and CTF-151, the pirates were forced to abort the operation and flee. Currently the merchant vessel is safe and under control of its crew.
The PN said it continued to maintain a constant watch on its sea territories and it is ready to respond to any situation at sea.

Biden-Putin Talks Touch on Missile Defense

WASHINGTON - U.S. Vice President Biden and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on April 21 discussed Moscow's goal of joining the World Trade Organization and missile defense cooperation, the White House said.
Biden and Putin talked about "the Obama administration's commitment to terminate" the application to Russia of a Cold War-era U.S. law that blocks certain non-market economies that restrict emigration from joining the WTO.

They also discussed "next steps on missile defense cooperation" and "agreed on the importance of continuing momentum in relations between the United States and Russia," according to a White House statement.
"Vice President Biden underscored the continued need for cooperation between the United States and Russia on global security issues and pledged to continue to work with Russia on facilitating travel between our two countries," it said.
Moscow needs Washington to stop applying the so-called Jackson-Vanik law to Russia in order to gain U.S. "permanent normal trade relations" - and be cleared for WTO accession.
Russia is the last major economic power to lack WTO membership.
The conversation came a day after Putin needled the United States over its deficits and national debt and accused Washington of "behaving like a hooligan" by flooding world markets with devalued dollars.
"Look at their trade balance, look at the budget deficit, at the debt of the United States," Putin said in closing comments to his annual address to parliament.
"We have none of that - and, I hope, we never will," Putin said to a strong round of applause.

From Cyber Service to Product

Cybersecurity vendor Symantec is trying something new with its malware honey pots - selling them.
Like competitors McAfee and Sophos, the Mountain View, Calif., company has long owned and operated thousands of so-called honey pot PCs around the world. When one of these PCs is infected by a virus or probed by a hacker, the malware is captured and sent to a company lab, where analysts try to reverse-engineer it as the first step toward alerting government agencies, corporations or consumers.
In February, Symantec surprised its competitors by announcing that it would package up versions of its honey pot sensors and automated analytic tools and sell them to U.S. government agencies, NATO and major corporations.
These customers believe that keeping analysis in-house will keep the authors of malware in the dark as long as possible, allowing investigators the maximum time to track keystrokes, decipher tactics and ferret out motive and strategy. "When it's everyday kind of malware, [agencies and corporations] are still depending on us to do all the work for them," said Chet Wisniewski, senior security adviser for the cybersecurity firm Sophos, headquartered in Abingdon, England, and Burlington, Mass. "When it's something specific, that means that somebody was trying to get into their organization, they have a tendency to be a lot more cautious and to do a lot of that internally."
Symantec officials told reporters in February that the move would allow agencies to react more quickly to increasingly sophisticated, pinpoint malware attacks.
"We need to be able to give them a technology that they can house and own and operate sometimes in classified situations where they have access to all of the information that they need to move forward with their missions," said Joe Pasqua, vice president of research for Symantec.
Pasqua said the secret option is necessary for some customers. With the traditional approach of publishing a malware signature to help others spot the bad code, "the adversary will know, 'Aha. They've detected this exploit,'" he said. "If you're a government agency, you may not want to do that. You may want to protect some of the information you have."
It would be up to the customers to decide "what they want to keep public, what they want to keep private," he said.
But the company's competitors said Symantec's new approach wouldn't necessarily help customers.
Dave Marcus, director of security research for McAfee Labs, based in Santa Clara, Calif., said he understands the logic behind an agency's desire to have its own tools, but those tools are worthless in a vacuum, he said.
"If you're giving them tools to do their own analysis automatically, then what?" he said. "You can know what the threat is, you can know what the malware does, but unless you can write some content to protect against it, the analysis doesn't do a whole lot."
Wisniewski of Sophos said the products could be dangerous if they were leaked by a customer.
"The offensive cyber capabilities [of the U.S. military and intelligence community] could be tripped up by something like this," he said. "What happens if a foreign company or foreign government that we might want intelligence from captures our offensive techniques?" Symantec is "a well-respected vendor in the industry and all that, but at the same time, it seems like it's a complicated business to get into," Wisniewski said.
Symantec points out that the U.S. National Security Agency's Information Assurance Directorate is leading development of an anti-malware countermeasures standard, called the Security Content Automation Protocol. Agencies that find malware could draft their software responses to this standard. Baiting the Trap The core of the Symantec proposal is a product in its alpha development stage known internally as ScriptGenNet, or SGNet. It would consist of PC-sized honey pot computers programmed to look just like Web, mail or file transfer protocol (FTP) servers, attached to, say, the U.S. government's Nonclassified Internet Protocol Router Network, and the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network.
"We want to entice [malware users] to think that they are in a pristine network," said Rob Walters, senior director for Symantec Research Labs. "They can look around and go, 'Whoa, this has got some good stuff that I need.'" Software would scan incoming digital communications for evidence of computer language that is out of the norm - a possible indicator of malware. The system would automatically steer the digital conversation to a more powerful backend computer, which would continue the conversation using a more detailed simulation of the Web, mail or FTP server.
"It keeps that discussion going with the attacker. The attacker can't figure out that it's just a bait machine," Pasqua said.
All the while, the conversation would be automatically analyzed, and if malware were diagnosed, the code would be sent to another computer, called the Symantec Malware Analysis and Research Triage Harness.
Automation would be key.
"These government agencies don't want more data. They want more intelligence. You give them more data, and it's more stuff to swim around in," Pasqua said. "What they really want is to take these huge feeds of security information and whittle them down."
He said the security companies and government agencies have no choice but to automate. In a tactic called polymorphism, malware authors are using software to rapidly create new versions of their code so it cannot be easily picked up by security software.
"They want to keep us busy," Walters of Symantec said.

NATO Denies Reported Bomb Shortage in Libya

PARIS - Countries in the NATO-led air campaign have enough precision munitions and aircraft to attack ground targets and keep military pressure on the Libyan government forces, a senior alliance official and national defense officials said.

Above, French armement air-sol modulaire guided bombs. France and other NATO nations deny that their bomb stockpiles are running low. (Wikipedia)

Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, the chairman of NATO's military committee, denied that the air operation in Libya was running short of aircraft or munitions.

"Assets are important; the alliance welcomes any contributions, including strike assets, but there is no substantial lack," Di Paola said April 20. "Any added contribution is welcome, and there is no commander who does not ask. But beyond these alarmist rumors, there is no lack. The operation continues."
The remarks follow an April 15 Washington Post report that said Britain, France and other European countries were running low on stocks of laser-guided bombs.
Other officials from NATO and allied countries said there were enough smart bombs in inventories to maintain the operational pace.
"Military aircraft is an issue for the nations. The availability of military munitions is also dealt with by individual nations contributing to our operations. We have not had any report that they are limited or constrained in the execution of operations. So I think that there's no problem," said Brig. Gen. Mark van Uhm, chief of allied operations at Allied Command Operations.
French officials concurred.
"There is no shortage," French Air Force spokesman Maj. Eric Trihoreau said April 19. "We can maintain this level without a limit on time."
The spokesman for the French Joint Staff, Army Col. Thierry Burkhard, also denied there was a lack of precision guided weapons.
"There is no problem with munitions," Burkhard said. "Stocks are being consumed, but that has not constrained the conduct of operations."
A French industry executive said in any conflict there is a natural concern over the level of munitions, but in the present campaign, there appeared to be enough bombs. In the 1991 Gulf War, coalition countries bought bombs from partners as stocks ran low.
The French government last year ordered Paveway II and Enhanced Paveway II kits to adapt GBU 12 and 49 "dumb bombs" into guided weapons, an industry source said. Deliveries of the Raytheon-built kits were made before the Libya campaign started.
The Mirage 2000D, Super Etendard and Rafale are certified for the Paveway II, while the Rafale has not yet been certified for the improved version.
In February 2010, France ordered 680 armement air-sol modulaire (AASM) guided bombs from Sagem, following an initial order of 750. The AASM kit comes in three versions: GPS/INS, GPS/INS and infrared, and GPS/INS and laser.
In 2009, the government cut the total purchase of AASMs to 2,348 from a planned 3,000 units including 1,200 with laser guidance, according to a 2010 French parliamentary report cited by newsweekly Le Point. At a total budget of 846 million euros ($1.2 billion), that implied an average unit price of 350,000 euros for the AASM, the parliamentary report said.
French warplanes have fired about 10 MBDA Scalp EG air-launched cruise missiles against Libyan ground targets, Burkhard said.
Di Paola said NATO's air campaign was reaching its goals.
"We are preventing Gadhafi from using his full firepower, which is considerable. We are forcing him to use different tactics. In Misrata, it is terrible that he is using mortars and rockets, but with his full firepower it would be a disaster. What we are forcing him to use is less lethal than his heavy tanks and heavy guns," he said.
But di Paola did admit that NATO was less able to stop Gadhafi waging the battle on the streets.
"Rockets and mortars are easily moved and hidden. They are in the urban area in Misrata," he said. "How can we take out a pickup with a mortar in a courtyard of a building without destroying the building?"
NATO is not currently considering the use of ground troops, Di Paola said, but that does not rule out individual nations sending troops into Libya.
"NATO is not the international community. It is an instrument which has taken on part of the commitment, meaning the no-fly zone, the embargo and humanitarian protection. Single countries also have a responsibility to honor the U.N. resolution and bring the crisis to resolution," he said.
Di Paola, the former chief of staff of the Italian military, said that, in any case, any military campaign would not be enough to bring the conflict in Libya to an end.
"There is not only a military strategy; this effort has to be multipronged, including financial measures, meaning sanctions and diplomatic activity," he said. "This is not a conventional war, it's a campaign to sustain a political and economic effort."
A spokeswoman for the Royal Air Force said it had sufficient stocks of ammunition and shortages were "not an issue."
The RAF has used MBDA developed Dual Mode Brimstone and Storm Shadow missiles and Raytheon's Paveway IV and Enhanced Paveway 2 as its strike weapons in Libya. With the exception of Storm Shadow, the weapons are also regularly used against the Taliban in Afghanistan where the RAF also has jets deployed.
A senior British air force officer also denied Britain has a problem with its munitions stocks. He said as far as he was aware, Denmark was the only nation that had had a problem and it had its stocks topped up by the U.S. military.
Micheal Langberg, the head of information at the Danish Air Force's tactical command, said he didn't know whether its munitions - GBU49s and GBU31s - were Danish or American, but the Air Force is "not short of weapons." The Danish Defence Acquisition & Logistics Organisation responsible for buying precision guided munitions and other weapons was not immediately available.
-- Andrew Chuter in London, Julian Hale in Brussels and Tom Kington in Rome contributed to this report.

Iraqi Army Ready to Maintain Security: Maliki

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi army can maintain security, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said April 21 in talks with America's top military officer, the latest official to visit Baghdad ahead of an upcoming U.S. pullout.
Maliki's remarks to Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated those he made to John Boehner, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who visited Iraq last weekend.

"Prime Minister Maliki said the armed forces and the Iraqi security forces were able to take responsibility, and that they worked with professionalism," a statement from the premier's office said.
He added that Iraq would "continue to strengthen their combat capabilities while providing them with the latest equipment and weapons."
The U.S. military declined to comment on Mullen's trip when contacted by AFP.
Sandwiched between Boehner's and Mullen's trips was a visit by U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.
Fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Iraq, down from a peak of nearly 170,000 following the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.
All of those troops must withdraw from the country by the end of the year, according to the terms of a bilateral security pact.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on a surprise trip to Iraq on April 8 that American forces were prepared to stay in any role beyond the scheduled pullout, but time was running out for Baghdad to ask.
"My basic message to them is [for us to] just be present in some areas where they still need help. We are open to that possibility," he said. "But they have to ask, and time is running out in Washington."
A senior American military official also said last week that Iraqi leaders should not expect U.S. forces to return to help in a crisis after they have pulled out.

Fire Scout UAVs Deploy to CENTCOM

A U.S. Navy Fire Scout UAV system has been shipped to the Central Command (CENTCOM) operating area to support U.S. Army and coalition forces in Afghanistan, the Navy announced April 21.

A MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV is loaded aboard a C-17 transport on April 13 at NAS Patuxent River, Md. The Navy drones are being sent to Afghanistan to provide video surveillance. (Mikel Proulx / U.S. Navy)

The system, under development by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to operate from ships, will be land-based in CENTCOM for about a year. The Fire Scouts "will provide hundreds of hours of full motion video," NAVAIR said in a press release, in support of the Pentagon's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance task force.

A wide variety of UAVs have been deployed over Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in CENTCOM at least since 2003, performing high-, medium- and low-altitude missions ranging from surveillance to strike. Most of the drones are fixed-wing, while the Fire Scout is a small helicopter able to stay aloft more than eight hours, fly at altitudes up to about 17,000 feet and travel about 115 knots.
Each Fire Scout system consists of up to three MQ-8B aircraft, at least one ground control station and other hardware.
For the CENTCOM mission, three Fire Scouts are being used along with two ground control stations. NAVAIR employees traveled with the system to perform set-up, but the system will be operated in theater by Northrop Grumman contract personnel, NAVAIR said.
Two ground control stations were loaded on a U.S. Air Force C-5 transport at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and shipped out on April 8. A smaller C-17 transport flew out the three Fire Scout vehicles on April 13.
Fire Scouts have been deployed to sea twice, first on the frigate McInerney in 2009-2010, and currently on the frigate Halyburton.
Although the system is intended for use on other ships, the Navy plans to make it a centerpiece of the mission modules under development for the littoral combat ship (LCS). Trials were carried out last November on board the first LCS, the single-hull Freedom, and tests are now being carried out aboard the multihull LCS Independence.