French Senate's Call: Buy Reaper, Not Heron UAV

PARIS - A left-led French Senate has adopted a budgetary amendment calling for procurement of the General Atomics Reaper UAV while safeguarding funds for development of a new-generation combat drone planned as a common project with Britain, the upper house said in a statement.

The amendment seeks to reverse a government decision to acquire the Heron TP drone from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), partnered with Dassault Aviation.

"The Senate wanted, in the general interest, to separate the operational needs of the Armed Forces from the industrial policy considerations," the amendment text said. "With this in mind, the Senators wanted, in the short term, to put priority on the safety of our troops by giving them the best equipment at the best price, in this case, the Reaper from General Atomics, while allowing, in the medium term, the emergence of an industrial sector by setting aside a larger amount of funds for French and European companies than that envisaged in the government's industrial plan."

The amendment, adopted Nov. 29 by a Socialist-led Senate, seeks to cut the amount for UAV acquisition in the draft 2012 defense budget law from 318 million euros ($423.8 million) to 209 million.

The 209 million euros is the amount General Atomics proposed in May for a non-French modified package consisting of seven air vehicles, two ground stations and maintenance for 10 years.

Under the Reaper offer, EADS would modify the U.S.-built UAV at a cost of 40 percent of the acquisition, or 88 million euros, bringing the total value of the package to 297 million euros, the amendment said.

That compares with an offer made by Dassault and IAI, also in May, for a package of seven modified Heron TP UAVs for 320 million euros. Modifications by Dassault, mainly adapting the satellite communications and integrating extra sensors, would bring the total amount to 370 million euros, the amendment said.

The Dassault-IAI deal also included two ground stations and 10 years' maintenance, the amendment said.

The senators debated the amendment until 4 a.m., a parliamentary official said.

"It was Homeric," the official said.

But senators of both right and left voted in favor of the amendment, which pushes the government to buy the American Reaper UAV, which can be armed.

The U.S. Air Force's selection of Boeing over Airbus for its KC-X tanker program made it extremely difficult for French senators to call for the purchase of a U.S. system, the official said. But the lack of operational and industrial sense in the French government's decision to buy the Israeli drone meant the Senate adopted the amendment, he said.

Besides the cut in procurement funding, the amendment called for the move of 80 million euros into technology studies for the future Anglo-French drone, and 29 million euros for upgrades to the current Harfang medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV operating in Afghanistan.

The 80 million euros for research studies would benefit Dassault and/or EADS for work on the planned Anglo-French program, rather than IAI, the amendment said.

Although the amendment does not specify the money should go to the unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) project in the Lancaster House Treaty, that was the intention, the parliamentary official said.

The amendment pointed up concern over the lack of competition in the government's pick of the Heron TP.

"This decision to choose the Heron TP drone, with a tender, is difficult to understand: it is financially disadvantageous, militarily debatable and industrially hazardous," the amendment said.

Defense Minister Gérard Longuet told the Senate's foreign affairs and defense committee that the Heron TP was 30 percent more expensive and 20 percent less effective than the Reaper, the amendment said.

Dassault was not available for comment.

A bipartisan group from the Senate foreign affairs and defense committee drafted the amendment, which will go to a joint committee of seven senators and seven members of parliament from the National Assembly for review.

It is unlikely the joint committee will agree on the same text, and the lower house, the National Assembly, will probably carry the day, the parliamentary official said.

The Senate and National Assembly defense committees put the safety of service personnel above any political concerns, an industry source said.

India To Develop AIP Technology for Subs

NEW DELHI - Even as the Indian Navy has announced that it is floating a global tender to procure six air independent propulsion (AIP) submarines for $11 billion, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony told the parliament Nov. 28 that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing such technology itself.
"The DRDO proposes to develop a technology to reduce vulnerability of the submarines available with the Indian Navy. The Naval Material Research Laboratory (NMRL), Ambernath, under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is progressing a technology demonstration project, 'Development of Land-based Prototype for Air Independent Propulsion (AIP),' for submarine propulsion," Antony told the parliament in a written reply, according to an Indian Defence Ministry statement.

The system is likely to be demonstrated by 2015, adds the release.
Last year, the Defence Ministry cleared the plan to procure six conventional submarines with AIP technology, and the request for proposals is likely to be floated by the end of the year or early 2012.
In 2004, India contracted the licensed production of six Scorpene conventional submarines for about $3.9 billion, but the production has been delayed by almost two years.
Under the proposal, six submarines are to be procured, of which three are likely to be built at the state-owned Mazagon Docks in Mumbai; one built at the state-owned Hindustan Shipyard in Visakhapatnam, with the help of a foreign collaborator; and two purchased directly from the overseas vendor.
The six submarines are being procured under the Navy's Project-75, and the subs will be equipped with stealth, land-attack capability and the ability to incorporate future technologies, such as AIP systems, to boost their operational capabilities.
The RfP is likely to be issued to French company DCNS, Germany's HDW and Russia's Amur Design Bureau.

French, Germans Should Team on UAV: German Minister

PARIS - Germany's junior defense minister is calling for France and Germany to cooperate on a common UAV program rather than pursue competing projects, business daily La Tribune reported Nov. 28.
Asked in an interview on what programs France and Germany should collaborate, Stéphane Beelemans said: "Drones, for example. The projects being studied in France and Germany reflect a split from the past.

"And I say it clearly in France and Germany to our companies. I don't believe in two projects of this scale at the European level. And I find it hard to believe there is the political will to realize two competing projects. There is enough political will to do a common project," he said, according to the paper.
There was no sense in having two different kinds of equipment, for reasons of interoperability, maintenance, use and budgets, he said.
The competing projects are the next-generation medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) Talarion advanced UAV, proposed by EADS to France, Germany and Spain; and the Telemos air vehicle from BAE Systems and Dassault, pitched to Britain and France.
EADS seeks a place at the top table in the Telemos project alongside BAE and Dassault, but Dassault will only consider a junior subcontractor role for the pan-European company, retaining leadership firmly in the hands of the Anglo-French team.
France, Germany and Spain paid for a 60 million euro ($79.5 million) risk-reduction study for the advanced UAV, but EADS has been unable to convert that into a development and production contract.
Work on a next-generation MALE drone is seen as vital to maintaining a design engineering capability in Europe's military aircraft sector in the absence of development for a manned jet fighter.
The Anglo-French military cooperation treaty calls for joint work on a new-generation MALE surveillance UAV, and collaboration on an unmanned combat aerial vehicle.

Pakistan Blockade Raises NATO Supply Questions

KABUL, Afghanistan - Supplies for NATO in Afghanistan have been hit by a Pakistani blockade enforced after a cross-border strike killed 24 of its troops, but it remains unclear how seriously coalition forces will suffer.
There are around 140,000 foreign troops in landlocked Afghanistan who rely on fuel, food and equipment brought in from outside.

Nearly half of all cargo bound for foreign troops routes through Pakistan, which closed the border to NATO traffic on Nov. 26. But the coalition force insists its fight against the Taliban will not be affected.
"ISAF uses a vast supply and distribution network to ensure coalition forces remain well-stocked in order to carry out their assigned mission across Afghanistan," said Lt. Gregory Keeley, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.
Some 48 percent of all coalition cargo usually passes through two points on the Pakistan border, while for U.S. forces, who provide around 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, the figure is around 30 percent, he said.
ISAF and the U.S. have been building up alternative supply routes through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan from the north of Afghanistan as relations between Washington and Islamabad have deteriorated this year.
The so-called Northern Distribution Network has been built up to address concerns about over-reliance on Pakistani supply lines amid what was a growing U.S. troop commitment in Afghanistan.
The northern route accounts for 52 percent of coalition cargo transport and 40 percent for the U.S., which also receives around 30 percent of its supplies by air, Keely said.
But U.S. officials admit that the Pakistan route is cheaper and shorter.
John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News that U.S. forces also keep stockpiles in case supply lines are choked as in the past.
"This is not the first time, our forces do have stockpiles on the Afghan side of the border," he said. "It is obviously something that needs to be corrected but there is no immediate concern."
Keeley would not discuss how long stockpiles would tide foreign troops over, calling it an "operational issue."
The last time the Pakistani border was closed to foreign military supplies was in September last year for 10 days following a previous NATO strike that killed up to three Pakistani soldiers.
The deadliest such incident prior to the Nov. 26 strike came in June 2008 when another NATO strike killed 11 Pakistani soldiers.
Some warn that ISAF will need to take swift action to address Nov. 26's murky incident to ensure that supplies are not disrupted in the longer-term.
"Even a closure lasting more than a week should not impact operations on the ground, especially now that stockpiles have been established and the alternative Northern Distribution Network has been significantly expanded," intelligence analysts Stratfor wrote in assessment of the situation.
"But Washington is not yet completely free of its reliance on supplies moved through Pakistan and so will need to find a way to resume the flow."
Retired U.S. Gen. Barry McCaffrey told NBC News that he believed the coalition effort in Afghanistan was "one step short of a strategic crisis."
"I do not believe we can continue operations at this rate," he said. "So we've got to talk to them, we've got to pay them, we've got to apologize for this strike. We have no option, literally."

Russia To Send Warships to Syria in 2012: Report

MOSCOW - Russia will send a flotilla of warships led by its only aircraft carrier to its naval base in Syria for a port call next year amid tensions with the West over the Syrian crisis, a report said Nov. 28.
The ships, headed by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, will dock at the little-utilized Russian base in the Syrian port of Tartus in spring 2012, the Izvestia daily said, quoting the Russian navy.

The Tartus base, a strategic asset for Moscow dating back to Soviet times, is rarely used by Russian vessels. Currently no Russian ship is based there, but civilian and military personnel are present.
A naval spokesman confirmed the plan to send the ships but insisted it had nothing to do with the deadly violence in Syria between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition.
"The call of the Russian ships in Tartus should not be seen as a gesture towards what is going on in Syria," the spokesman told the paper, adding the Admiral Kuznetsov would also visit Beirut, Genoa and Cyprus.
"This was planned already in 2010 when there were no such events there. There has been active preparation and there is no need to cancel this," added the spokesman.
Russia and the West have become deeply split over the situation in Syria, with Moscow insisting that sanctions and pressure against the Assad regime are not the way to solve the crisis.
Izvestia said the Admiral Kuznetsov - Russia's only operational aircraft carrier - would head down from the Russian Far North in December, keeping west of Europe and heading into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar. It would also carry around a dozen aircraft.
It said the Admiral Kuznetsov would not be able to dock in Tartus itself due to the size of the vessel but anchor outside and be supplied by the smaller ships accompanying it. The ship has visited Tartus before in 1995 and 2007.

NATO Scrambles to Contain Pakistan Fallout

BRU.S.SELS - NATO moved Nov. 27 to contain the damage from the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers, seeking to soothe Islamabad's rage against the U.S. and its military allies in Afghanistan over the airstrike.

Pakistani protesters burn U.S. and NATO flags during a protest in Multan on Nov. 27. (S.S Mirza / AFP)

Alliance Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stopped short of issuing a full apology to Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gilani for the "tragic, unintended" killings, which he deemed "regrettable".

Against a backdrop of longstanding pressure on Pakistan to step up the fight against "terrorists" hiding out in the border region with Afghanistan, Rasmussen's statement followed a flurry of overnight diplomacy.
He had initially left the issue Nov. 26 in the hands of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting the U.S.-led war and which includes non-NATO allies, letting the commander on the ground deal with the immediate fallout.
But as Pakistan's anger mounted in the hours following the strike early Nov. 26 and Islamabad ordered a full-scale review of its frosty alliance with Washington and the military bloc, NATO headquarters decided to react.
An official said allies had sought to ascertain "exactly what was meant" by Pakistan's public position and to prevent lasting damage from the suspension of supply lines for Afghanistan and an order for U.S. troops to leave a secretive air base in Pakistan.
Pakistan represents a vital life-line for 130,000 foreign troops, mostly American, fighting in landlocked Afghanistan, and Rasmussen joined U.S. efforts in a scramble to salvage cooperation.
"I have written to the Prime Minister of Pakistan to make it clear that the deaths of Pakistani personnel are as unacceptable and deplorable as the deaths of Afghan and international personnel," Rasmussen said in a statement, deeming the strike "a tragic unintended incident."
Pakistan says two border posts were fired upon "unprovoked" in the early hours of Nov. 26 in Pakistan's tribal Mohmand district, and on Nov. 27 conveyed its "rage" to the United States.
An ISAF investigation into the incident is likely to ask whether Afghan and American troops on the Afghan side of the border were fired upon first - whether by insurgents or Pakistani military.
"I fully support the ISAF investigation which is currently underway," Rasmussen said of the International Security Assistance Force fighting the war and which includes non-NATO allies.
"We will determine what happened, and draw the right lessons," Rasmussen added.
The U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan has admitted it is "highly likely" that the force's aircraft caused the deaths before dawn on Saturday.
As the first funerals took place Nov. 27 for the dead Pakistani soldiers, NATO was trying to reopen the Pakistani-Afghan border after Islamabad on Nov. 26 held up convoys at two key crossings.
It is not the first time Pakistan shut the main land route in, after a 10-day closure in September 2010 following the deaths of three troops then.
The border was reopened after the United States formally apologized.
Pakistan, battling its own Taliban insurgency in the northwest, is dependent on billions of dollars in U.S. aid.
Relations between Pakistan and the United States have been in crisis since American troops killed Osama bin Laden in May this year near the capital without prior warning and after a CIA contractor killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January.

Half of Afghanistan Switching to Local Control

KABUL - More than half of Afghanistan will soon be under the control of local forces after President Hamid Karzai announced Nov. 27 that the second wave of a process which should see all NATO combat forces leave by 2014.
Karzai's office said that six provinces, seven cities and dozens of districts - including three in Helmand, among Afghanistan's most dangerous areas - will pass from foreign to local control.

The exact date for the transition process to start has not been decided but the long-awaited announcement is another step towards the withdrawal of most of the 140,000 mainly U.S. foreign troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The second tranche of places which will transition is significantly larger than the first, which included seven areas and has been heralded as a success by officials.
It notably includes Nawa, Nad Ali and Marjah in Helmand, once seen as hotbeds of the insurgency but which NATO-led international forces now claim to have brought under control.
After a decade-long war which continues to rage across Afghanistan, particularly in the south and southeast, places which have already transitioned to Afghan control have faced continuing violence along with other parts.
"With today's decision by the president, over half the country's population would now be covered by the transition process," said a statement from Karzai's office which listed the places to be handed over.
The provinces being transferred in their entirety to local control in the second phase are Balkh, Daikundi, Kabul, Takhar, Samangan and Nimroz.
The cities being handed over are Jalalabad, Ghazni city, Maydan Shahr, Faizabad, Chaghcharan, Shibirghan and Qalay-I-Naw.
Jalalabad is one of Afghanistan's main cities, close to the border with Pakistan.
The statement listed over 40 districts around the country which would also transition in provinces including Badakhshan, Wardak and Nangarhar.
Karzai endorsed the locations proposed by a commission set up to oversee the transition, the statement said.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the move, saying it showed the transition process was "firmly on track."
"It is driven by the determination of the Afghan people and sustained by the courage of the Afghan National Security Forces and of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force)," he said in a statement.
"We will keep our commitment to training and supporting the Afghan security forces throughout the transition process, and beyond."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the handover of Nad Ali, which is in Britain's area of operation in Helmand.
"This announcement marks continued progress in the process of phased transition from an international to an Afghan security lead," he said.
"Circumstances remain challenging but steady and positive progress is being made."
Britain has the second-largest troop presence in the country at around 9,500.
Foreign forces are in Afghanistan helping the Western-backed government fight a bloody, Taliban-led insurgency which flared up following a U.S.-led invasion shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
But amid a rising death toll, troubled domestic economies and the unpopularity of the Afghan war in many Western countries, troop withdrawals are now getting under way.
President Barack Obama has vowed to bring home 33,000 U.S. forces by September next year.
While Western officials in Kabul praise the transition process so far, they acknowledge that challenges remain including Afghan government corruption, a weak state and lack of a properly functioning justice system.