Sino-Pakistani Special Forces Exercise Begins

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army on Nov. 14 announced the fourth in the series of joint Sino-Pakistani 'YOUYI/FRIENDSHIP' special forces exercises had commenced near the city of Jhelum, not far from here.
According to the military press release, YOUYI-IV is a brigade level exercise spread over two weeks that is "aimed at sharing mutual exchange of experience and information through a comprehensive training programme in real time."
Pakistani special forces have been heavily committed, and have gained considerable experience, in the war against the Taliban, as displayed during operations in Swat in May 2009 and South Waziristan in October 2009. They also have operated continuously with units such as the Special Operations Task Force, which has been used to hunt down high-profile targets in the country's Tribal Areas.
Recently, Pakistani special forces have undertaken a number of training exercises with other foreign counterparts. A weeklong Pakistani-Turkish exercise, ATTATURK-VII-2011, which took place at Cherat, the home of Pakistan's Special Service Group, concluded Sept. 29.
A three-week bilateral exercise with the Saudi army, AL-SAMSAAM-IV-2011, concluded in mid-October.
The Chinese special forces have not had much operational experience recently. When asked just what each party could offer the other, Brian Cloughley, a military analyst and former Australian defense attaché to Islamabad, said YOUYI-IV is "a normal training exercise between two nations with strong military links.
"There are always professional advantages in contacts of this sort, and each participant generally gets an equal amount of benefit."
He added, "exchange of information concerning tactical techniques is best effected in discussions and instructional periods rather than out in the field where, no matter how attentive people are to what's going on, there will always be things missed, simply because of the speed of activity."
He did not discount the value of the exercise, however, "because those involved will always get something out of it, sometimes a great deal."
The exercise commenced on the same day the South Asian News Agency reported that China and India are planning to revive their joint military exercises in 2012, after resuming their bilateral military exchanges four months ago.
Planning for the exercise will be laid out during the next round of annual defense consultative talks in mid-December.
The Sino-Indian exchange will be resumed after a four-year break due to a dispute in 2010, when China refused to issue a visa for Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, then-Northern Army commander of troops in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

UAE Received Information on F/A-18, F-15

DUBAI - Boeing provided information earlier this year on its F/A-18 and F-15 combat aircraft to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of the gulf state's "open fighter competition," said Dennis Muilenburg, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
The data on the two fighter jets was supplied at the same time that Boeing supported government-to-government talks under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales regime, Muilenburg said.

"We're honored to have two great fighters to compete," Muilenburg told journalists at the Dubai Airshow here. "We've got hot production lines for both aircraft."
Boeing could provide cost and delivery certainty, and also ensure post-delivery logistical support for both aircraft, he said.
The Eurofighter consortium, meanwhile, confirmed in a statement that the U.K. responded to a UAE request for a briefing on the Typhoon fighter.
"The briefing took place on 17th October 2011," the statement said.
The U.K. then received a request for proposals for the supply of the Typhoon for the UAE Air Force.
"We are working hard to deliver a response," Eurofighter said.
The request for a Eurofighter bid came as a blow to the French government and industry, which have been hoping for a UAE contract for Dassault's Rafale fighter before the end of the year.
Lockheed Martin also has responded to the UAE's request for information on its F-16, which the U.S. company sees as a bridge to selling the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to the gulf state.
Boeing hopes that moves aimed at boosting local UAE industry will help its fighter bid.
Boeing and Mubadala Aerospace, a unit of the Mubadala state-owned holding company, announced Nov. 14 they had agreed to two deals under a 2009 framework agreement to develop the UAE's civil and military aerospace industry.
Under the first deal, Boeing will establish local company Strata Manufacturing as a composite aerostructures supplier. Strata will be able to qualify as a tier 1 supplier to Boeing if it meets performance and competitiveness targets set in a so-called "strategic roadmap."
Secondly, the Advanced Military Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Center, a Mubadala Aerospace company, will work under a strategic agreement with Boeing Defense, Space & Security to provide support for military aircraft in the UAE, including Boeing-built Apache and Chinook helicopters and C-17 airlifters.
Boeing sees interest in the F/A-18 and F-15 in the gulf region, including Kuwait and Qatar.
A sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia is under government-to-government discussion, after having sparked protest from Israel.

India, China Seek To End Border Dispute: Antony

NEW DELHI - India and China are working on a new mechanism to resolve their longtime boundary dispute, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of Foundation Day activities at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) here Nov. 11, Antony said a new mechanism to help resolve the boundary dispute between the two countries will be finalized by the end of the year.

The border between India and China is the longest contested boundary in the world. China claims 92,000 square kilometers of Indian territory.
The border is currently defined by a 4,056-kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC), which is marked neither on the ground nor on mutually accepted maps. Efforts to establish a recognized LAC have made little headway since the mid-1980s.
The two countries have been building up their militaries in light of perceived future threats. The two countries fought a brief war in 1962 over the boundary.
On Nov. 10, the Chinese media criticized Indian media reports of an Indian military buildup. The People's Daily, the official newspaper of China, reported that Beijing had taken note of the Indian Defence Ministry's proposal to raise about 100,000 troops.
Both India and China are bolstering their arsenals and building infrastructure at their common border.
China spends about $70 billion on weapons and equipment each year, while India has an annual defense budget of about $30 billion.

Pakistan Air Force Jet Crashes; Pilot Killed

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani air force jet crashed during a training flight on Nov. 14 in northern Pakistan, killing the pilot, the air force said.
The crash took place near the garrison town of Attock, 40 miles northwest of Islamabad.

The jet "crashed due to technical malfunction near Attock. The pilot was fatally injured," an air force statement said, not specifying the type of aircraft.
No loss of civilian life or property was reported on the ground, it said, adding that an inquiry had been ordered to determine the cause of the crash.
Pakistan's air force has a fleet of Chinese aircraft, including F-7PGs and A-5s, plus U.S.-built F-16s and French Mirages. It recently acquired medium-tech JF-17 or Thunder jets, manufactured jointly by China and Pakistan.

Lockheed To Demo Command System in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Lockheed Martin was due this week to give a demonstration of its command-and-control product pitched in the United Arab Emirates' two-horse tender for an integrated air and missile defense system, a company executive said.
Lockheed Martin was very confident it could "meet or exceed the requirements for the system," Dennis Cavin, vice president of international air and missile defense, said Nov. 13 at the Dubai Airshow.

The U.S –based company and ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS) are competing for an estimated $1 billion contract under the United Arab Emirates' extended air defense ground environment-transformation program.
Lockheed expects the Emirati authorities to carefully analyze and evaluate the competing offers and select the supplier, Cavin said. A selection decision is understood to be close, he said.
Lockheed also soon expects the country's reduced order for its Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile, Cavin said.
The decisions for the air and missile defense system and the THAAD procurement were not related, but Cavin said that the two Lockheed weapon systems, THAAD and PAC-3, being bought by the United Arab Emirates should be plugged into a command-and-control system offered by the same company.
The initial THAAD buy was valued at $6.95 billion when announced in 2008, but the United Arab Emirates has cut the number of units - and, therefore, the sale's value - by about one third.
TRS, a joint venture between Thales and Raytheon, has made several demonstrations of its product in recent weeks to Emirati officials as part of the tender process, a company executive said.
All technical information has been presented to the United Arab Emirates, and a selection could be made any time, the executive said.
TRS has a presentation display of its SkyView air C4I product on its stand at the exhibition. The display shows a map of France and a host of information tracks and symbols of the air environment with potential for tracking aircraft and missiles in the airspace.
The system features include mission planning and execution, as well as fusing of information from a variety of sources.
The down selection to Lockheed and TRS eliminated Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Saab, industry sources said.
"We respect the customer's decision making process," Dennis Muilenburg, president and chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said.

U.S. To Buy Decommissioned British Harrier Jets

WASHINGTON and LONDON - Britain has agreed to sell all of its 74 decommissioned Harrier jump jets, along with engines and spare parts, to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps - a move expected to help the Marines operate Harriers into the mid-2020s and provide extra planes to replace aging two-seat F-18D Hornet strike fighters.

A Harrier GR9 takes off for the last time in November 2010 from the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are buying 74 decommissioned British Harrier jump jets. (U.K. Ministry of Defence)

Rear Adm. Mark Heinrich, chief of the U.S. Navy's Supply Corps, confirmed the two-part deal Nov. 10 during a conference in New York sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in association with Defense News.

Heinrich negotiated the $50 million purchase of all Harrier spare parts, while Rear Adm. Donald Gaddis, the U.S. Navy's program executive officer for tactical aircraft, is overseeing discussions to buy the Harrier aircraft and their Rolls-Royce engines, Heinrich said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence in London confirmed the Disposal Services Agency was in talks with the U.S. Navy for the sale of the Harriers. The deal had yet to be concluded, he said Nov. 11.
Britain retired its joint force of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Harrier aircraft late last year in one of the most controversial moves of the defense reductions, which also cut the aircraft carriers that operated the jets, other warships, maritime patrol planes and personnel.
Most of the retired Harriers are stored at the Royal Air Force base at Cottesmore, England.
They have been undergoing minimum fleet maintenance, including anti-deterioration measures, in order to keep them airworthy, Heinrich said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Systems Command declined Nov. 11 to comment on the deal, deferring to the British military.
An MoD source said Nov. 11 that he thought both deals could be signed in the next week or two. The MoD source confirmed that the entire fleet of 74 Harrier aircraft was involved in the sale.
Heinrich noted that payment details were the only outstanding issue on the parts deal discussions, and he said the purchase will give the U.S. Marines a relatively economical way to get their hands on key components to keep the Harrier fleet running.

Similar Aircraft

While it is unusual for the U.S. to buy used foreign military aircraft for operation, integration of the British planes into Marine Corps squadrons shouldn't be a major problem, one expert said.
"I don't think it will be costly to rip out the Brit systems" and replace them with Marine gear, said Lon Nordeen, author of several books on the Harrier.
Nordeen noted that the British GR 9 and 9As are similar in configuration to the Marines' AV-8B night attack version, which make up about a third of U.S. Harriers. The British planes also are night planes dedicated to air-ground attack, he said, and while both types carry Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) sensors, neither is fitted with a multimode radar such as the APG-65 carried by U.S. AV-8B+ models.
The absence of the big radar, Nordeen said, makes the GR 9A and AV-8Bs "a better-performing plane. Weighing less, it's more of a hot rod."
British GR 9s, although upgraded with improved avionics and weapons, are powered by the Rolls-Royce Mark 105 Pegasus engine. GR 9As have the more powerful Mark 107, similar to the Rolls-Royce F402-RR-408s that power Marine AV-8Bs.
British and U.S. Harrier II aircraft had a high degree of commonality from their origin. The planes were developed and built in a joint arrangement between British Aerospace - now BAE Systems - and McDonnell Douglas, now a division of Boeing. While each company built its own wings, all forward sections of the British and American Harrier IIs were built by McDonnell in St. Louis, Mo., while British Aerospace built the fuselage sections aft of the cockpit.
"All the planes have to fit together," Nordeen said.
The Harrier IIs, built between 1980 and 1995, "are still quite serviceable," he said. "The aircraft are not that far apart. We're taking advantage of all the money the Brits have spent on them. It's like we're buying a car with maybe 15,000 miles on it."
Operationally, Nordeen said, "these are very good platforms. They need upgrades, but on bombing missions they have the ability to incorporate the Litening II targeting pod [used by U.S. aircraft]. They're good platforms. And we've already got trained pilots."
Marine Corps Harriers are to be phased out by 2025, when replacement by new F-35B Joint Strike Fighters should be complete.
Nordeen, however, said he expects the British Harriers to be used initially to replace two-seat Marine F-18D Hornet fighters now operated in the night attack role.
"The F-18Ds are more worn out than the Harriers," Nordeen said. "Most of the conversions [of ex-British aircraft] early on will be to replace 18Ds and not Harriers." He noted the first Marine F-35B squadron already is slated to replace an F-18D unit.
Nordeen applauded the move.
"I would see this as a good bargain to extend the operational utility of the Harrier II fleet, no matter what," he said.

UAE Also Eyeing Typhoon in Combat Aircraft Competition

DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has asked Britain to bid the Eurofighter Typhoon for its combat aircraft fleet competition, a British government spokesman said, dealing a blow to French efforts to sell the Rafale to the Gulf state.
"We have received the request for proposal for the Eurofighter Typhoon," an official from the U.K. Defense & Security Organization said Nov. 13 on the opening day of the Dubai Airshow. "We're working on it."

No figures were immediately available for the British bid.
The U.K. Minister for International Security Strategy, Gerald Howarth, was attending the exhibition as part of London's official support to place the Eurofighter in the UAE.
The British Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Stephen Dalton, was also in Dubai, flying the flag for the Royal Air Force, which flew two Eurofighters to the show. A Eurofighter was scheduled to fly in the daily display, as was the Rafale.
Dassault Aviation declined comment.
French Air Force officers heard of the Eurofighter news on Nov. 11, through a London embassy attaché.
The UAE has been in talks with France since 2008 on a sale of 60 upgraded Rafales, but the negotiations suffered political upsets along the way and Gulf officials saw the initial $10 billion tag as excessive.
On the Rafale talks, French defense minister Gérard Longuet told journalists here "the final stage has been well engaged and a flick of the eyebrows could mean hundreds of millions of euros either way."
Each side was defending its interests, but the talks were essentially between the Rafale commercial team and the UAE, he said.
The UAE's request for a Eurofighter bid was a case of "livening up the procedure," Longuet said, adding he still expected the UAE would order the Rafale in December when the Gulf state celebrated its 40th anniversary of founding.
An important price element was the Rafale's multirole capability, which meant the same crew could perform air combat, reconnaissance and close air support missions, Longuet said. For a country with a small population, that was a big saving in crew costs.
On the UAE's Mirage 2000-9 fleet, any decision in an "innovative solution" was a decision at the state level as part of a strategic relationship, above that of the ministry or manufacturer, he said.
Some Mirage 2000-9 units were aging, others were more recent, he said.
In the official opening of the show, UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid Al-Makhtum made the briefest of visits at the Rafale stand in his tour of the exhibition.
Lockheed Martin has been in talks with the UAE on F-16 upgrades, mainly communications, to allow the U.S.-built fighters to talk to the F-35, F-16 business development executive William Henry said here.
In an upgrade that took units out of service, Lockheed offered sales of new F-16s to allow operators to maintain force levels, he said.
Lockheed also has talked to the UAE about sales of the F-35, Henry said.
"As air forces look to the future, the F-35 is going to be a key element of their force planning," he said.
Lockheed sees potential sales of 50 to 100 F-16s around the world, Henry said. On top of 18 F-16s ordered by Iraq, 52 units are on the backlog.
Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Naser Al Alawi, deputy commander of the UAE Air Force and Air Defense, told an air chiefs conference Nov. 12 that, in a new generation combat aircraft, the air force was looking for network capability, open architecture and interoperability.
A future weapon system would be versatile, multirole, and capable of handing modular sensors and payloads, Al Alawi said.
Other elements of the future aircraft would include upgradeable and expandable hardware and software, and the plane would be fast, agile and easily serviceable, he said.
The systems should also draw on dual use military-civil technology and offer versatility.
MBDA Chief Executive Antoine Bouvier said the European missile company has not received a request from Eurofighter or the UAE to work on an offer of weapons for the Typhoon.
The UAE Air Force flew its F-16 and Mirage 2000-9 fighters in the NATO-led coalition operation over Libya. Qatar also flew alongside with French missions.
That deployment yielded many "firsts," including the UAE's first time flying as a non-NATO member in a coalition air campaign, Al Alawi said.
Among the lessons learned from Libya were the need for integration of non-NATO elements into the alliance procedures, need for a well thought out communications plan among partner nations and the importance of exchange liaison officers, Al Alawi said.
The UAE is still in talks with the French government and industry for the Rafale, a Gulf source said.
UAE foreign minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan recently held a first meeting with his counterpart Alain Juppé, who has been tasked by president Nicolas Sarokzy to lead the export drive for the Rafale.
The request for a Eurofighter bid is the latest setback for France's Rafale foreign sale campaign. UAE officials asked Lockheed for information on the F-16s, on which the Gulf state has invested in co-development on its Block 60 version.
The U.S government was also out in force at the show, displaying the V22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for the first time here, as well the F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighters. The Apache attack helicopter was also at the show.
Bilateral ties between France and the UAE were back to normal after a hitting a low patch last year, when the Gulf state viewed the Paris government as ignoring its concerns.