Indian Firms Push for More Flexibility in JVs

BANGALORE - Indian defense companies want the country's Defence Ministry to allow foreign companies to own more than 26 percent of joint ventures with domestic firms. They say this limitation is straining existing arrangements and undermining efforts to forge new ones.
But ministry officials are holding firm.

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In 2008, state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and Rafael of Israel declared their intention to create a joint venture to develop missile electronics. The deal was meant to help Rafael meet its offset requirements for exports to India.
Now, Rafael may pull out unless it can own more 26 percent of the venture, said H.N. Ramakrishna, BEL's marketing director.
Lova Drori, Rafael's executive vice president for marketing, said Rafael would prefer to tie up with a non-state-owned company so that BEL does not obtain more than 50 percent ownership.
The Defence Ministry has refused a request to ease the limit, ministry sources said.
An executive with the domestic industries lobbying agency, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), said that without an increase in the limit, no major overseas defense company would be likely to tie up with Indian entities in defense. The executive said that even India's Commerce Ministry favors increasing the limit to more than 50 percent.
A senior Commerce Ministry said that the ministry wants to raise the current limit.
One Defence Ministry official noted that the ministry sometimes grants waivers to the 26 percent limit. He cited the effort by Rafael and the ministry's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile, in which Rafael received a 50 percent stake.
The official also cited the Indo-Russian development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), in which Russia received a 50 percent stake.
But some deals do not receive such waivers.
In 2009, India's domestic automobile giant, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., part of the $6.3 billion Mahindra Group, formed a joint venture with Britain's BAE Systems, which accepted a 26 percent stake, Defence Ministry sources said.
Last year, the Indian government rejected a plan by EADS and Indian engineering giant Larsen & Toubro to manufacture electronic warfare systems, radar instruments and avionics. EADS was to receive 49 percent equity. The companies are drafting a new plan.

KMW To Repair Mercedes-Benz Trucks

BONN - Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Daimler AG signed a service framework contract Feb. 21 for the maintenance and repair of Mercedes-Benz trucks and G-type SUVs on international deployments by the German military and its allies.
The Munich-based company is to provide technical support for all Daimler military vehicles deployed on international missions carried out by NATO, the EU and the United Nations.

KMW already maintains and repairs armored wheeled and tracked vehicles in crisis regions. For this, it has a network of its own service personnel and repair facilities at allied camps in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
In addition to providing experts and workshops in the field, KMW's service in deployment regions includes a worldwide logistics system for spare parts. Also, technical specialists from the Munich service center can be directly connected to the field via satellite and the company's own telemaintenance system.

Libya protests: Gaddafi battles to control west

Libyan ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi is battling to retain control of Tripoli and areas in western Libya as protesters consolidated gains in the east and foreigners continued to flee.

Much of the capital is deserted as pro-Gaddafi gunmen roam the streets, with reports of uprisings in western towns such as Misurata, Sabratha and Zawiya.
Masses of protesters have been celebrating success in eastern towns.
Thousands of foreigners continue to leave, with chaos at Tripoli airport.
At least 300 people have died in the country's uprising.
'Many deaths' An eyewitness in Tripoli said that the city was virtually closed, with many people hoping protesters and defecting soldiers would arrive from the east to help them.
A text message had been sent out by government officials telling civil servants and other workers to return to their jobs but many people are too scared to go on to the streets.

At the scene

An eyewitness Tripoli

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There are mounting accounts of what appears to be killings by paramilitary troops and bodies being immediately dumped in their trucks or cars, as well as all the evidence of shooting being cleared, bullet shells being picked up and blood washed down with water in the street.
There was one such case reported in front of the state television headquarters. Four people were killed there and one of them was shot at point blank range.
All banks and shops remain closed. There was a text message that was sent out on Wednesday morning to users of state mobile phone networks telling everyone, civil servants and private workers, to go back to work.
But all foreign companies have halted operations and the people here don't understand how they can be expected to go to work because of the dangers of travel.

One Tripoli resident said: "I hope residents don't go to work - this can be our way of a peaceful protest - we will all stay at home indefinitely."

There were reports of gunmen opening fire on Tuesday morning on a queue of people at a bread shop in the Fashloum district, where there has been a heavy military crackdown, with three people killed.
Two naval gunships are reported to have been deployed facing the city.
A Tripoli citizen told BBC Arabic that the only people on the streets were police, soldiers and African mercenaries but that the opposition was in touch with cities in the east that had fallen to protesters and a march was planned for the capital on Thursday.
Another Tripoli resident said: "Anti-government protesters have disappeared. The streets are quiet. There are many, many deaths."
The resident also said doctors were reporting gunmen shooting people in hospitals.
Information from Libya is currently difficult to verify and reports cannot often be independently confirmed.
The BBC's Paul Danahar on the Tunisian border says unconfirmed reports suggest several towns between the border and Tripoli have seen anti-government protests but the roads in between are held by people loyal to Col Gaddafi.
Troops are said to have been sent to Sabratha after demonstrators burned government buildings, according to the Quryna news website.
The pre-Gaddafi Libyan flag was also reportedly raised in Zawiya, 50km (30 miles) west of Tripoli while other unconfirmed reports said protesters had seized control of Misurata, 200km east of Tripoli, after days of fighting.
One Tunisian man who crossed from Libya told our correspondent there was no law in the country and added: "God help them".

Pirates could face trial in US over American deaths

Jean and Scott Adam were described as adventurers who also distributed bibles at ports of call

A group of 15 suspected pirates captured after the killing of four Americans on a hijacked yacht off Somalia could be sent to the US to face trial, the US military says.

The group is being held aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
In the past year, at least six accused Somali pirates have been convicted in US courts.
US agencies are investigating the killings on Tuesday of Phyllis Macay, Bob Riggle, Jean and Scott Adam.
The US military, FBI and Justice Department are working on the next steps for their suspected killers, said Bob Prucha, a spokesman for US Central Command in Florida.
The four Americans were aboard the S/V Quest, the Adams' 58-foot ship, when they were hijacked on Friday in the waters off Oman.
Gunshot wounds A convoy of Navy ships, including the Enterprise, sped to their rescue.
According to the US military, two pirates came aboard a US Navy ship to negotiate the release of the hostages. A rocket-propelled grenade later launched toward the US Navy ships, missing, and the Navy sailors heard gunfire from the Quest.
A team of Navy Seal special forces sailors then boarded the Quest and found the four Americans dying from gunshot wounds.
They regained control of the yacht, killing two pirates in the process and capturing an additional 13 pirates, and found the bodies of two pirates who were already dead, the US Navy said.
But the BBC's Will Ross in Nairobi says the pirates' telling of the encounter differs from the US Navy's. The pirates report the US warship attacked first, killing two pirates, and the hostages were killed in retaliation.
In November, five young Somali men were convicted of piracy in an April attack on a US Navy ship they mistook for a merchant vessel. One has been sentenced to 30 years in prison and the others face a possible life sentence.
And last week, a Somali man who pleaded guilty to the April 2009 pirate attack on a US-flagged merchant ship was sentenced to more than 33 years in prison.

Pakistan To Get Paveway Training Rounds

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will be getting new Paveway II enhanced laser-guided training bombs from Lockheed Martin under the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency's Foreign Military Sales program.
According to a Feb. 22 DSCA announcement, Pakistan will receive 300 Paveway IIs, along with 74 wooden containers and 23 replacement-in-kind wooden containers, for $866,850.

Also, Malaysia will receive 60 Paveway II bombs, along with 15 wooden containers, for $173,370, the announcement said.
The bombs will be produced at Lockheed's plant in Archbald, Pa., and the order is expected to be completed in June 2013. The U.S. Navy's Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., will oversee the contract.
Pakistan has been buying large amounts of U.S. bombs and kits in response to the Taliban insurgency in the tribal areas of the country's northwest. In 2010, the U.S. delivered to Pakistan 1,000 MK-82 500-pound bombs, and 700 GBU-12 and 300 GBU-10 Paveway laser-guided bomb kits produced by Lockheed and Raytheon.
However, a Pakistan military spokesman, Brigadier S. Azmat Ali, said the DSCA announcement does not mean the deal had been finalized.
"It will take some time," he said. "This is a cycle that keeps on going. We've been requesting them for some time. Sometimes they provide them, sometimes they do not."
Other munitions that Pakistan has acquired via the Pentagon's FMS program include TOW anti-tank guided missiles for its fleet of AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters. The TOW missiles been heavily used in counterinsurgency operations.
Ali said operations are "limited at present," as there has been a quiet period on Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan, but that avenues for the munitions' replacement are ongoing.
When asked if there is a timeframe for this, he said there is "no immediate scope; definitely not in the near future."

AUSA: O'Neill Wants Focus on Dismounted Operations

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla - U.S. Army acquisition chief Malcolm O'Neill signaled a new direction for Army weapon development, indicating he wants industry to focus more on soldier technologies.
An infantryman is relatively safe until he dismounts and "that's where I think we should focus," when he is fighting one-on-one in combat, O'Neill said at a conference here hosted by the Association of the United States Army.

The retired Army three-star said he's trying to get money diverted from other areas so that it can be invested into soldier technologies.
He also said he selected Marilyn Freeman as new deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology because of her background in soldier systems and her previous role as director of the Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center.
O'Neill said he wants to see the U.S. defense giants get involved.
"How many U.S. aerospace companies looked at improving the rifle? How come none of the big guys have thought about body armor?" he asked.
There's no reason why Lockheed Martin and the other big defense companies shouldn't focus on the soldier, said O'Neill, who worked at Lockheed Martin before returning to government service.
"We should get some real big players, revenue-wise, into the soldier business," he said. "I don't know how much profits you're going to make."
But the Army needs 1.2 million of whatever it buys for the soldier; "that's a lot of money," he said.
O'Neill wants dismounted soldiers to have the same decisive edge on the battlefield as the Air Force does in the skies and the Navy on the sea.
"Nobody wants to mess with the U.S. Air Force and no one wants to mess with the U.S. Navy," O'Neill said.
He highlighted the Air Force's fighter jets and the Navy's super carriers as assets that give those services a "decisive advantage."
One of O'Neill's listed priorities is to "reinvent S&T around the soldier."
His comments echo those of retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, who has been an outspoken advocate of improving soldier capabilities.
In an October article in Armed Forces Journal, "Small Unit Dominance," Scales argued, "We must challenge the research-and-development communities to focus on the task of small-unit dominance by creating a national effort to that end."

Better Ties For Norway, Russia Cause NATO Strains

Helsinki - Norway's government and military have reaffirmed their shared ambition to deepen the NATO-aligned country's political relationship and defense cooperation with neighbor Russia following high-level talks Feb. 16 in Oslo.
But the intensifying nature of Norway's military cooperation with Russia is causing something of a rift within NATO, according to a new batch of WikiLeaks documents accessed by Norwegian media groups Aftenposten and Bergens Tidende, and published Feb. 13.

Reports published by Aftenposten, and based on cables and memos from U.S. government and military sources, suggest that two camps have developed within NATO on the sensitive issue of how to organize a long-term defense and security strategy in Europe.
According to Aftenposten and Bergens Tidende, the U.S. documents refer to the emergence of a so-called pro-Russian "gang of five" headed by France and Germany, and which includes Norway, the Netherlands and Spain. This grouping is frequently supported by Portugal on key policy areas dealing with Russia, the memos claim.
This five-nation grouping, claims Aftenposten, is at odds with the U.S.-led camp, which remains distrustful of improving bilateral relations between NATO countries, such as Norway and Germany, with Russia. The U.S. camp, according to the memos reviewed, includes the Baltic states, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.
The Norwegian government has made no secret of its strategic intention to use improved political and military relations with Russia as a tool to support lasting defense and security measures in the High North and Arctic Ocean.
The reinforcement of bilateral relations between Norway and Russia were high on the agenda when Gen. Nikolay Makarov, the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian federation, paid a two-day visit to Norway on Feb. 15. The visit included separate meetings with the chief of Norway's defense, Gen. Harald Sunde, and Grete Faremo, Norway's defense minister.
"We discussed current and future prospects for cooperation between the Norwegian and Russian militaries, as well as political developments in the Arctic and other issues, including cooperation in Afghanistan; all issues of common interest to our two countries," Faremo said.
Norway's military command is preparing to take part in the POMOR 2011 joint naval exercises with Russia in May. These will involve special forces units, helicopters and fighter jets.
"Norway and Russia have good bilateral relations," Faremo said. "We share the same challenges in the High North. It is in the interest of both countries to cooperate closely and to keep the area stable. This also includes protecting the environment, managing a sustainable fishing industry and taking care of other natural resources."
Norway's goodwill strategy resulted in an historic maritime delimitation treaty with Russia, which was approved by the Norwegian parliament on Feb. 8. The treaty, which was under negotiation for 40 years, establishes the maritime boundary between Norway and Russia in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.