New Russian Coast Guard Corvettes
February 18, 2006
The Russian navy is designing and building a new class of coastal defense corvettes. Forty of the new ships will be ordered, with ten assigned to each of the main fleets (Atlantic, Pacific, Baltic and Black Sea). The ships will displace 3,000 tons and the first of them will be ready for service within a year. The main job of the new ships will be searching for and destroying submarines. They will be able to stay at sea about ten days at a time. This is the first major buy of surface ships for the Russian navy since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsurf ... 60218.aspxChina and the Illegal F-16 EngineFebruary 16, 2006
Last week, U.S. authorities charged two foreigners with attempting to export military equipment to China. Ko-Suen Moo, a Taiwanese man, was arrested last November. His partner, Frenchman Maurice Serge Voros, is still at large. The two were trying to export an F-16 engine, forty engines for the UH-60 helicopter, plus cruise missiles and other items, to China. It was not revealed exactly how far along this plot was. China has denied any connection with the two men. However, much military equipment has made its way to China. And China has, in the past, been prepared to pay well for any foreign military equipment that can be gotten into China. The Chinese are usually more successful at getting, literally, bits and pieces of engines out of the country. China prefers to use many spies, to go after many different pieces of military equipment. The complete plans for an engine, for example, can be moved out of the country via the Internet, or a memory stick. Small components can be hidden in a cargo container full of more mundane (and legal-to-export) goods. While getting a complete F-16 engine is spectacular, it's an effort that is more likely to fail. Getting it out in pieces is more likely to happen, and not be noticed.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htinte ... 60216.aspxBoeing Israel Aircraft Industries Capture Short Range BMD Contractby Staff Writers
St Louis MO (SPX) Feb 16, 2006
Boeing and Israel Aircraft Industries have agreed to pursue the new Israeli Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense Program. Through this agreement, the two companies will partner to potentially provide the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) with a robust, all-weather defense capability against short-range ballistic missiles and long-range artillery rockets.
"This is an opportunity to build on the exceptional partnership that Boeing and IAI have established through the co-production of the successful Arrow II interceptor," said Debra Rub-Zenko, vice president for Boeing Integrated Missile Defense. "It is our privilege to join forces once again with IAI to provide leading edge technology to rapidly and effectively address threats as they evolve."
Boeing and IAI currently partner on co-production of the Arrow II interceptor, an element of the anti-ballistic missile defense system that was jointly developed by the United States and Israel and is deployed and operational in Israel today.
Yair Ramati, IAI/MLM's general manager, said, "I am convinced that the combination of technical ingenuity, drive for low life-cycle cost and proven working relationship between IAI and Boeing will provide the best all-around value for the defense of Israel's population against these threats."
IMDO will select an Israeli-U.S. industry team in March 2006 to complete the risk reduction phase of the SRBMD program. Full-scale development and production phases of the program will follow as a cooperative initiative between the IMDO and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Boeing_ ... tract.htmlPak lodges strong protest with India over violation of airspaceFriday February 17, 2006 (0453 PST)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with the government of India through their High Commission in Islamabad for violation of its airspace and Exclusive Economic Zone by an Indian maritime aircraft and two coast Guard Fast Patrol Crafts on February 13.
This proactive action by the Indian maritime aircraft is in contravention of the Pakistan-India Agreement on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Maneuvers and Troops Movement of April 16 1991 as well as neighborly relations and good seamanship practices, said a foreign office statement issued here on Thursday.
Indian Dornier maritime aircraft made a number of low altitude passes over MSS Vehdar a vessel of the Pakistan Amritime Security Agency which was engaged in patrolling and apprehending/clearing Indian fishing boats involved in poaching well inside Pakistan;s Exclusive Economic Zone at position 2329N 6735E at 0300 hrs on February 13 2006.
The aircraft again made repeated low altitude passes at about 1530 hrs in approximately the same area. Thereafter, around 1645 hrs two Indian Coast Guard Fast Crafts approached MSS Vehdat at 03 Nautical Miles in a proactive posture with ammner armament pointing towards the Pakistani vessel. These Indian Fast Patrol Craft remained in the vicinity of the Pakistani vessel.
These Indian Fast Patrol Craft remained in the vicinity of the Pakistani vessel for approximately two hours befoe clearing away. A similar demarche about these violations was made by the Pakistan High Commission with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in new Delhi.
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=134451C-130 cost issue raised in SenateBy DAVE MONTGOMERY
Star-Telegram Washington Bureau
STAR-TELEGRAM ARCHIVES/RON T. ENNIS
Sen. John McCain of Arizona says Lockheed Martin's C-130J program has been developed under a contract that prevents the government from scrutinizing cost reports.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain on Wednesday said there was "an emerging scandal" in defense procurement and promised to block the nomination of a high-ranking defense official until he gets answers in a contract dispute involving Lockheed Martin's C-130J transport.
The accusations by the Arizona Republican, considered a leading, if unannounced, contender in the 2008 presidential race, injected a burst of drama into what was expected to be a relatively tame confirmation hearing for four defense nominees before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
McCain told Michael Dominguez, President Bush's nominee to become deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, that he would not allow the nomination to move forward until the committee fully investigates the Air Force's handling of the C-130J transport contract.
McCain, who is chairman of a key armed services subcommittee on military aviation programs, complained last year that the C-130J program was developed under a "commercial" contract that prevented the government from scrutinizing the defense contractor's cost reports.
McCain said that Dominguez, while serving as acting Air Force secretary, assured him that the program would be restructured as a military contract to allow greater scrutiny. Air Force and Lockheed Martin officials say the restructuring is under way, but McCain said Wednesday that there has been no apparent movement.
"Mr. Dominguez, I'm sure you're a good man. I'm sure you're a decent person," he said. "But we have got to get this cleared up. We have got to get the C-130J cleared up."
The $4.15 billion contract, which calls for 62 aircraft for the Air Force and Marines, is a mainstay for Lockheed Martin's aeronautics company, which is based in Fort Worth. The planes are built at a plant in Marietta, Ga., employing 1,800 workers.
"Air Force contracting officers and their leadership should never have acquired the C-130 J using the commercial ... acquisition strategy, but they did," McCain said. "It was done for 10 years."
McCain said he and his staff "intend to pursue this issue until it is completely resolved and Lockheed Martin is held accountable for whatever part they played in this ... disgraceful performance." He also complained that Robert Stevens, Lockheed Martin's chairman, chief executive and president, had not provided information McCain had requested on the contract, despite his earlier assurances.
Tom Jurkowsky, corporate spokesman for the defense giant, which is based in Bethesda, Md., said Lockheed Martin acted properly in executing the program under a commercial contract in the early 1990s. The arrangement, he said, was permitted under legislation designed to save taxpayers' money by allowing defense contractors to carry out "dual use" programs for both military and commercial development.
Lockheed Martin invested $1.4 billion in research and development, but commercial expectations never materialized, he said.
"We're a government contractor who prides ourselves on being forthright and transparent," Jurkowsky said. "We have a reputation to preserve. ... We've done everything we've been asked to."
McCain, whose office was instrumental in exposing a tanker-procurement scandal involving Boeing, said the defense department's acquisition system "is badly broken" and complained that defense contractors operate as a virtual monopoly, free of serious competition or government scrutiny. Several major procurement programs are behind schedule and overpriced, he said.
Also appearing before the committee was Pete Geren, a former Fort Worth congressman nominated to become undersecretary of the Army. Geren is now a special assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13886384.htmStealth jets bound for 'boneyard'The black jets that revolutionized air warfare with their radar-evading technology and ability to drop precision-guided bombs at night are to be discarded in 2008, 20 years after the Air Force acknowledged the stealth fighters' existence, officials said.
Capt. Michelle Lai, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said Wednesday that "right now the overall plan is being worked out," but most if not all of the nation's 52 F-117A Nighthawks are expected to go to "the boneyard": Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Ariz., where rows upon rows of scrapped planes cover acres of desert.
The Nighthawks are priced at $45 million apiece, not counting costs for research and development, according to an Air Force fact sheet.
Some of the stealth jets could be sold to U.S. allies, Lai said. "But I wouldn't say that's the plan," she added.
"I think they'll probably put at least one in a museum," she said. "But are the first ones going to the museums or the yard? All those details are still being worked out."
Fifty of the Nighthawks are based in the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M. The other two are assigned to test squadrons, including one in a tenant unit at Nellis Air Force Base. That plane, tail No. 835, belongs to the 53rd Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
The reason for pushing up the retirement date from 2011 to 2008 as called for in the Bush administration's proposed budget is because the F-117A has gotten too expensive and difficult to maintain, officials said.
Better replacements are available: the F-22A Raptor stealth attack jet and the unmanned Global Hawk high-altitude reconnaissance plane, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley told the Review-Journal on Friday during a visit to Nellis.
Tom Fuller, spokesman for the Nighthawks wing at Holloman, said that the F-117 is old.
"This is a good time for the Air Force to start investing in the future ... and not spending taxpayers' dollars because its time may have passed," he said.
"The aircraft was made with off-the-shelf parts: the landing gear from an F-15, the engines are from F-18s, and the controls F-16 and on and on. Some of those parts might not even be manufactured now because some of those aircraft have been retired from the fleet," Fuller said.
Moseley said, "The F-22 can carry eight bombs, eight small-diameter bombs or pair of big bombs plus the missiles. The 117 can still only carry two bombs." And, he added, "it has a very labor-intensive maintenance package on it."
"It is still a good airplane right now. But when you look 10 years from now or 15 years from now when you have F-22s and Joint Strike Fighters that have the same, low-observable characteristics and can carry more than two internal weapons, it's time to start looking at a transition," Moseley said.
His trip coincided with a Red Flag air combat training exercise at Nellis that runs through Saturday. Eight F-117A Nighthawks from the 9th Fighter Squadron at Holloman are participating in the exercise.
The return of the Nighthawks to Nevada marked a return to their roots. Much of the testing and development of the nation's first stealth aircraft took place at a classified installation, known as Area 51 along the dry Groom Lake bed three decades ago, sources who worked there have said. The first war-fighting F-117s were based at the Tonopah Test Range.
News that the F-117A was destined for retirement in the next two years surprised and disappointed Clark County Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton.
As an Air Force spokesman in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Shelton played a role in lifting the veil of secrecy about the program when the Nighthawks were based at the Tonopah range.
"I'm a little set back," Shelton said Wednesday. "I had no idea they were looking at retirement. I thought it would stay around for many, many years kind of like the old B-52s did."
The B-52's first flight was in April 1952, and an upgraded version of it is expected to continue to be used by the Air Force beyond the year 2030, according to the Air Force's Web site.
The Lockheed F-117A was developed under a tightly guarded program in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was designed to bomb targets without detection by enemy radar systems, which is why the planes were tested at Groom Lake, 90 miles north of Las Vegas and 35 miles west of Alamo, sources close to the project have said.
The F-117 fighter-attack jet made its first flight on June 18, 1981. After the stealth program was declassified in November 1988, the first warplanes were deployed in combat over Panama in December 1989. It blazed the trail for today's more advanced stealth aircraft, the B-2 Spirit bomber and the F-22A Raptor.
Shelton was the F-117s' public information officer between 1989 and 1992, assigned first to the 4450th Tactical Group and later the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing.
"I was one of those people basically hired to bring it out. ... It was in the 'black' world in the late-1979 time frame to when the Air Force first acknowledged it in November 1988," he said.
He remembered when the first F-117A was put out for public display at Nellis.
"Prior to April 21, 1990, nobody could get close to those airplanes. We had it cordoned off with a 50-foot cord and had a mini-open house at Nellis. We had about 350 media types from around the world in addition to tens of thousands of people from the Las Vegas area," Shelton said. "For some, it was probably the ugliest airplane that anybody had ever seen."
In the Persian Gulf War in 1991, 36 F-117As bolstered the allied effort against Iraq by bombing targets in Baghdad, Iraq.
The original stealth fighter wing at Tonopah on the Nellis range was relocated to Holloman after the Persian Gulf War. The first plane arrived at Holloman in May 1992.
Fifty-nine production models were made with the last rolling off the line at Lockheed's Palmdale, Calif., plant on July 12, 1990. Seven were destroyed in crashes, including one that was lost in combat over Yugoslavia on March 27, 1999, in the Kosovo war effort.
Fuller, spokesman for the Nighthawks wing at Holloman, said a pair of F-117As led the charge at the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003.
"The president authorized the mission. Two flew in unescorted over Baghdad and dropped two bombs per aircraft," he said, describing the attack on Dora Farms, where intelligence sources thought Iraq leader Saddam Hussein was hiding.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/ ... 07352.htmlPrototype Global Hawk flies home after 4,000 combat hours
by Tech. Sgt. Andrew Leonhard
380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
2/14/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- A high-flying prototype “Airman” is heading home after being deployed more than four years and flying 4,245 hours supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and the Combined Task Force-Horn of Africa.
Global Hawk Air Vehicle No. 3 began its journey back home at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Feb. 10, and is expected to land there Feb. 16.
This unmanned aerial vehicle, AV-3, first deployed as a prototype during the build-up for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2002. It returned to Edwards for a couple of months and then was recalled by U.S. Central Command to help in the fight against terrorism.
Production Global Hawks arrived in theater in January and pilots and operators consider them to be remarkable aircraft.
“To know it was a technology demonstrator and then to (see) it sent into war is amazing,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Buckner, 12th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron director of operations. He was at the controls the day the AV-3 began its trip back to the United States. According to Colonel Buckner, the airframe had a “charmed life” with 18 lives, doubling that of a cat.
“There were a few times we could’ve lost the aircraft,” Colonel Buckner said. Once there was a lucky bump on the taxiway that caused its wing to be raised over a sign it would have otherwise sideswiped. It also survived an engine failure.
That charmed life meant a lot of extra airtime surveying large geographic areas with pinpoint accuracy, giving military decision-makers the most current information about enemy locations.
The AV-3 flew two-thirds of the Global Hawk missions for Operation Enduring Freedom and nearly all the combat missions. AV-3 was considered a workhorse and has created a high benchmark for other Global Hawks to reach.
“Global Hawks are in huge demand by combatant commanders,” Colonel Buckner said. “We’re able to respond and be flexible for the users on the ground.”
During a typical mission, the aircraft can fly 1,200 miles to an area of interest and remain on station for 24 hours. Its cloud-penetrating sensors can image an area the size of Illinois (40,000 nautical square miles) in 24 hours. Through satellite and ground systems, the imagery can be relayed in near real-time to battlefield commanders.
With production aircraft available, Lt. Col. Martin Fass, 12th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron commander, knows demand for its services will increase. Colonel Fass said that AV-3 brought an unprecedented combination of abilities to the fight and he expects more to come as the system matures.
“That is the reliability and the technology advantage Global Hawk brings each and every time,” Colonel Fass said. “This is the only aircraft in the world that can loiter over a target area for 24 hours while responding to dynamic re-taskings. Our reachback concept allows aircrews to ’fly’ from home station, reducing our overseas footprint, deployment tempo and risk to the crews.”
“AV-3’s contribution to the global war on terrorism is a lasting testament to the skills and dedication of those who conceived, developed and operated this remarkable system,” Colonel Fass said.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123016267Sea King chopper set to be replaced
Jonathan Porter and Sid Marris
February 16, 2006
THE troubled, ageing Sea King helicopter may be replaced earlier than planned in the wake of the crash on the Indonesian island of Nias that claimed nine Defence Force lives and injured two others last year.
On the same day the inquiry into the crash heard that no pilot could have rescued the plummeting craft after a critical bolt dislodged, the Senate was told the navy would make recommendations on a new machine later this year.
Head of the defence capability development group Lieutenant General David Hurley said a Sea King replacement was part of a larger program to upgrade the defence helicopter fleet.
"We are not to that point to give advice to government yet, but it will be done this year," he told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra.
A replacement for the Sea King was envisaged over the next 10 years as part of the 2003 Defence Capability Plan, but will now be accelerated.
Defence Force chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston would not be drawn on when the replacement would happen when asked in Senate estimates hearings yesterday.
But a Defence spokeswoman last night confirmed a decision would be made on the replacement craft this year.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said the European MRH-90, of which a dozen have been ordered for the army, would be one suitable option.
At the inquiry in Sydney into the crash of a Sea King at Nias in January last year, following the Boxing Day Tsunami, one of the nation's top naval aviation test flyers ruled out pilot error as the cause of the crash, which killed nine defence personnel, saying the tragedy was "inevitable" after a 5cm bolt came loose.
The pilots of doomed Sea King helicopter Shark 02 had less than three seconds to save the aircraft, said Tony Baker, who has more than 2000 hours flying helicopters for the Australian, US and Royal navies.
Mr Baker said the crew could "not have averted the inevitable crash".
Crash investigators believe Shark 02 went down because either a defective slit pin was fixed to the bolt, or no split pin was in place at all.
The bolt joined two components in the "broom cupboard" behind the pilots' seats, so-called because it houses a succession of rotor control rods.
Mr Baker said once the bolt had worked loose the control rod would have slipped "under gravity", activating a servomechanism that pitched the helicopter into a nosedive.
"Once that happened there was no way to recover the aircraft because the pilots had no fore and aft control," Mr Baker told the inquiry.
"There is no doubt in my mind that that bolt is most likely the cause (of the crash)."
Mr Baker said the pilots' first reaction would have been to pull back on the joystick. The next would have been to feed more power if any were available to the rotors, or apply collective pitch to the rotors to create more lift.
But with the chopper's nose facing the ground, such an action would "not affect the outcome", he said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/co ... 02,00.htmlRussia to reinforce Kyrgyz baseKANT (Kyrgyzstan), February 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia plans to reinforce its airbase in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, the air force commander said Wednesday. "The base will be doubled in terms of personnel and aircraft within a year," General Vladimir Mikhailov said.
He promised to improve living conditions for personnel at the Kant base, about 20 miles west of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
One of the main tasks for the Russian contingent this year will be training Kyrgyz pilots using Russian L-39 Albatros jet trainers, Mikhailov said, adding that he would discuss these issues at a meeting with the Kyrgyz defense minister Thursday.
The Kant airbase was established in October 2003 to enable Russian jets to provide close air support for ground units of member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan).
Last year, Kyrgyzstan said it was planning to make changes to an agreement on the status of the U.S. Manas airbase located at Bishkek's main airport. It was created in 2001 to support refueling and cargo missions for U.S.-led anti-terrorist operations in neighboring Afghanistan. It is currently the only U.S. base in former Soviet Central Asia, following the expulsion of American troops from Uzbekistan.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060215/43562148.html Cumprimentos..
