Italy Will Not Join Libya Bombardments

ROME - Italy insisted April 15 that its fighter jets would not take part in bombardments in Libya, saying that the country was doing enough to support the U.N. resolution to protect civilian lives.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told members of parliament at a cabinet meeting that Rome was "already doing enough" as part of the international coalition, government sources were cited on ANSA news agency as reporting.

"Bearing in mind our geographical position and colonial past, an engagement that goes beyond our current commitment would not make sense," he said.
Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa also ruled out a change of course for Italy, telling reporters at a press conference after the meeting that Italy had "already done a lot."
"We are not considering altering our contribution to military operations in Libya...we will carry on as we have done up to now. The government is united in thinking this is the correct line for Italy to take," he said.
Berlusconi said Italy's role was to "provide the maximum support with its air bases," seven of which have been put up for use by the coalition.
Italy has also taken part in air raids over Libya but only in order to neutralize Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's radar and defense systems.

Indonesia Seeks Offset Barter Over T-50 Jet Buy

SEOUL - Indonesia wants South Korea to buy four more of its locally built CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft in an offset barter deal over Indonesia's purchase of 16 T-50 trainer jets, according to government and industry sources here.
On April 12, the Seoul government announced that it won exclusive rights to negotiate the sale of the T-50 Golden Eagle, co-developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin of the United States, to Indonesia. The T-50 had competed with Russia's Yak-130 and the Czech-built L-159B.

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Jakarta notified Seoul of a plan to "treat KAI as the de facto preferred bidder" for its advanced trainer acquisition contest, according to a spokesperson for South Korea's presidential office Blue House.
"Both governments agreed in principle to sign a memorandum of understanding on the sale of the T-50 within the next nine months," he said.
In a news conference at the Ministry of National Defense, KAI Chief Executive Officer Kim Hong-kyung said the T-50 would be sold "much cheaper" than its original price tag of $20 million to $25 million.
"We asked our suppliers to lower the costs of manufacturing T-50 spare parts, and based on those efforts, we offered a per-unit price far lower than standard price," Kim said. He hinted that the total value of the trainer deal would be lower than the estimated $400 million, which is based on a per-unit price tag of $25 million.
"The final value of the trainer deal could be decided after negotiations," said Kim, expressing hope to conclude a final agreement within two months.
"Through negotiations, both sides will discuss a wide range of issues, such as the price, delivery timing, ground-based training equipment and systems, integrated logistics support and replacement parts," Kim noted.
Once a final contract is signed, the first delivery of T-50s will be made in 2013, he added.
The T-50 was defeated in competitions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore, where both countries selected Italy's M-346 trainer.
The single-engine T-50 features digital flight controls and a modern, ground-based training system. It is designed to have the maneuverability, endurance and systems to prepare pilots to fly next-generation fighters, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, the F-22 Raptor, the Rafale and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The jet has a top speed of Mach 1.4 and an operational range of 1,851 kilometers.
Other potential customers include the United States, Israel, Greece and Poland.
According to industry sources, Jakarta requested that Seoul purchase four CN-235 aircraft built by PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) in return for buying T-50s. The per-unit price of the CN-235 is known to be around $25 million. Seoul purchased four of the aircraft in 2008.
Indonesia also asked South Korea to write off $10 million in penalties over the former's delayed delivery of CN-235 planes under the 2008 deal that was worth $100 million. The first batch of two of the four planes had been scheduled to be delivered to the Korea Coast Guard in December and the remainder in April.
PT DI sent a document to the Coast Guard recently, saying delivery would be delayed for production problems, Coast Guard spokesman Koh Jae-young said.
In addition, Indonesia demands South Korea pay for the costs of integrated logistics support, according to sources.
"Indonesia is expected to offer to locally produce some of the 16 T-50s to be ordered, should a contract be signed," a source said. "How many aircraft Indonesia wants to produce locally could be a contentious issue during negotiations."
Seoul and Jakarta had a similar barter trade deal in 2001 when South Korea bought eight CN-235 transport planes in return for selling 12 KT-1 Woongbi basic trainers.
The CN-235 is a medium-range twin-turboprop airplane, jointly developed by Spain's CASA and PT DI, formerly known as IPTN. The plane is used for VIP transport, maritime patrols, airlifts and troop carrying.
South Korea has 20 CN-235s, 12 built in Spain and eight in Indonesia.
In a summit last December, President Lee Myung-bak and his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, agreed to jointly manufacture tanks, submarines and fighter jets.

Pentagon Seeks More Savings in Next JSF Order

The Pentagon is preparing to negotiate its next order of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft with Lockheed Martin, this time with a concerted effort to crank down the jet's price, according to the Air Force's top acquisition official.
The Defense Department will "focus on continuing to build the inertia on the program and production side and to continue to get the right price of the aircraft for both the Air Force and the Navy customers," David Van Buren, the Air Force's acting acquisition executive, said during an interview at the Pentagon.

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To that end, the Air Force has listed "a more affordable JSF" as its top acquisition priority, replacing the long-standing top priority of purchasing a new tanker. The service awarded the tanker contract to Boeing in February. Getting that program off and running is now the No. 2 priority.
The so-called low-rate initial production lot-5 (LRIP 5) includes the next batch of JSF aircraft requested in 2011. DoD's 2011 budget proposal requested 43 F-35 aircraft, however, Congress has indicated that it would not fund more than 32 jets. This factor prompted the Pentagon to request 32 JSF aircraft in 2012, according to DoD budget documents. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the 2011 budget this week.
Last year, the Pentagon converted its F-35 contract with Lockheed from cost plus incentive fee to fixed price. Those negotiations took about five months before a deal was reached in September.
"My sense is that it would be a shorter period of time than [LRIP] 4, because [LRIP] 4 was a conversion of the proposal that came in as a [cost plus incentive fee contract] that we converted to a fixed-price-type contract, basically, at the table as we evolved through that negotiation process," Van Buren said.
While a proposal for the multiservice jets has not been written, officials are looking at the upcoming negotiations as a continuation of the last round of talks.
"I think that is just a building block of what we did from LRIP 4, where we converted to a fixed-price-type contract, which I think was very important," Van Buren said. "This will just be a continuation of that endeavor."
Pentagon officials have yet to receive a finalized proposal for the LRIP 5 jets, but expect the negotiations to commence this year.
Over the years, the F-35 has encountered numerous setback and issues that have prompted cost projections to soar. Last year, DoD warned that the program, which includes more than 2,400 U.S. jets and an expected 700-plus international order, could top $380 billion.
Industry and defense officials have committed to lowering that price and last year's signing of a fixed-price contract with Lockheed was considered an initial step. The Pentagon's 2012 budget proposal reflects a restructuring of JSF development and production.
In recent months, the JSF program has exceeded flight testing goals, with a few speed bumps along the way.

U.S. Cost of Libya War at $608 Million: Pentagon

WASHINGTON - The cost of the air war in Libya for the U.S. military has reached $608 million, a U.S. defense official said April 11.
The cost estimate covers the period from the start of international air strikes in Libya on March 19 to April 4, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

U.S. officials previously had said the operation had cost $550 million through March 28.
The Pentagon has estimated the air campaign will cost the United States about $40 million a month, even after NATO allies took the lead in the U.N.-mandated operation designed to protect civilians against Moammar Gadhafi's forces.
For the U.S. Air Force alone, the war costs about $4 million a day, the top civilian in the service told reporters last week. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said he expected that figure to come down with European allies carrying out bombing raids while U.S. aircraft play a support role.

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South Africa Exporting Arms to Repressive Regimes: Report

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has exported millions of dollars' worth of arms to some of the world's most repressive regimes, a weekly newspaper said Sunday, citing a classified government weapons report.
Africa's largest arms exporter has sold weapons to five of the 10 least democratic states on the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index and 10 of the 25 worst performers on the Global Peace Index, which ranks nations by their peacefulness, according to The Sunday Independent.

The paper cites Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burundi, China, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen as countries with questionable democracy and human rights records that have received South African weapons.
The government last year approved the sale of 35 billion rand ($5.3 billion, 3.6 billion euros) in arms to 78 countries, the Independent said, citing the annual report of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, which officials have kept under wraps.
Of that total, the paper identified more than one billion rand in sales to repressive regimes.
South Africa's arms sales have been under the spotlight since opposition politicians accused the government of selling weapons to Libya, which they said leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces may now be using against civilians in the country's deepening conflict.
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, who chairs the arms control committee, told parliament South Africa had exported 81 million rand ($12 million, eight million euros) in weapons to Libya from 2003 to 2009, but said at the time there was no indication the arms would be used on civilians.
South Africa's arms control act requires the committee to vet exports by the country's $2.6-billion defense industry to ensure they will not be used for anything but "legitimate defense and security needs".
South Africa developed a home-grown defense industry during the apartheid era, when the white-minority regime was under a U.N. arms embargo.
The industry lost much of its government funding after the first democratic elections in 1994, turning to overseas sales to fill the gap.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, South Africa was the world's 15th largest arms exporter from 2006 to 2010.

Arab League To Ask U.N. for No-Fly Zone in Gaza: Chief

CAIRO - Arab League chief Amr Mussa said April 10 the organization will ask the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza, which Israel has pounded with air strikes in response to rocket fire.
Mussa told an emergency meeting of Arab League ambassadors that "the Arab bloc in the United Nations has been directed to ask for the convention of the Security Council to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and impose a no-fly zone."

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Israeli and Palestinian officials were floating a ceasefire on April 10 to end fighting in the coastal strip where Israeli air strikes have killed at least 18 people since April 7.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of an even stronger response if more rockets are fired from the Palestinian territory controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.
The flare-up came after an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an Israeli school bus on April 7, wounding two people, one of them critically.
Even if Arab representatives at the United Nations succeed in convening a Security Council meeting, the United States, a close ally of Israel, is likely to veto it.
The Arab League request for a no-fly zone over Gaza may have been inspired by a U.N.-sanctioned aerial blockade for Libya to halt forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi harming civilians.
Arab League backing for that no-fly zone was seen as crucially important by the United States when it pressed for a U.N. resolution that authorized it and other countries to keep Libyan planes grounded.

NATO Strikes 25 Libyan Tanks Near Ajdabiya, Misrata: General

BRUSSELS - NATO warplanes destroyed 11 regime tanks on the road to the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya and another 14 tanks near Misrata in the west on April 10, the operation's commander said.
"The situation in Ajdabiya, and Misratah in particular, is desperate for those Libyans who are being brutally shelled by the (Moammar Gadhafi) regime," said Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, the NATO operation's commander.

"To help protect these civilians we continue to strike these forces hard, with 11 tanks destroyed today as they approached Ajdabiya, and 14 tanks destroyed earlier this morning in the outskirts of Misrata," he said.
A NATO official told AFP earlier that the air strikes would continue throughout the day and evening.
"Clearly the situation in Ajdabiya is desperate and Gadhafi forces are attacking the town with heavy weapons," the official said.
NATO has also been hitting ammunition bunkers and lines of communication to cut off Gadhafi forces from their supplies, the alliance said.
"We are hitting the regime logistics facilities as well as their heavy weapons because we know Gadhafi is finding it hard to sustain his attacks on civilians," Bouchard said in a statement from his headquarters in Naples, Italy.
"One recent strike cratered the road leading to Ajdabiya, west of Brega, where his fuel and ammunition is being moved forward on large trucks. Further west we hit two more storage bunkers where the ammunition is coming from," the Canadian general said.
Loud explosions rocked the battleground town of Ajdabiya for a second day April 10, as rebel fighters advanced cautiously after suffering a major reverse at the hands of loyalists.
Meanwhile, rebels said regime forces killed at least 11 people over the weekend in Misrata, besieged by Gadhafi's forces for more than a month.
Prior to airstrikes on April 10, NATO had already taken out 15 tanks near Misrata on April 8 and 9, bringing to 29 the total number of tanks destroyed around Libya's third largest city in the past three days.
Western strikes against Gadhafi forces began on March 19 under a U.N. mandate to protect the population after Gadhafi unleashed his security forces to violently put down pro-democracy protests.
The United States handed control of the operation to NATO on March 31.
Libyan rebels have criticized NATO in recent days, accusing the alliance of failing to protect the population in Misrata.
But NATO says it is picking up the pace of air strikes.
NATO has accused Gadhafi forces were trying to thwart NATO strikes by using women and children as human shields.
"We have observed horrific examples of regime forces deliberately placing their weapons systems close to civilians, their homes and even their places of worship," Bouchard said on April 9.
"Troops have also been observed hiding behind women and children. This type of behavior violates the principles of international law and will not be tolerated," he said.