Main
News
Departments
Downloads
Links
Forums
Shop
Auctions
Contact Us
Page 1 Daily News
by Gail Helmer
Thursday, May 3, 2001
Jane's News Briefs
Jane's Defence Weekly
Turkey cancels Super Stallion deal
Turkey's Ministry of Defence has cancelled a $350 million contract with Sikorsky of the USA for the procurement of eight S-80E Super Stallion heavy-lift helicopters as a result of the economic crises that have beset Turkey since December. Noisy propellers spell more repair work on French aircraft carrier The French Navy was due officially to return the new aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to service in the Mediterranean fleet in the first week of May despite yet another problem that will force the ship to put into port in mid-year for fresh repairs to its propellers.
JASSM scores hit with live warhead flight test
Lockheed Martin's AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM) successfully completed its second developmental test flight last week, destroying a ground target in the first end-to-end mission featuring the missile's 450kg penetrating warhead.
Australian maritime missions await Global Hawk UAV
With its arrival at Royal Australian Air Force Base Edinburgh in South Australia on 23 April, the RQ-4A Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) successfully completed its longest continuous flight to date.
USAF develops cruise missile tracking vehicle
The US Air Force (USAF) expects to begin in the near future a four-year advanced concept technology demonstration of a mobile command-and-control vehicle that will improve near-term capabilities to protect the USA from cruise missile attack.
France selects Eagle-1 UAV
France has selected the Israeli-European Eagle-1 unmanned air vehicle (UAV) over the USA's General Atomics' (in co-operation with Sagem as its local French partner) Predator as its next-generation medium-altitude long-endurance UAV.
Tornado GR4 receives operational clearance
The UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the Royal Air Force's upgraded Tornado GR4 has been cleared for full operational service following the type's 10 April receipt of a Military Aircraft Release document.
Germany's Taurus missile navigates captive flight test
The Taurus KEPD 350 long-range air-to-surface missile has been successfully tested for the first time using the weapon's image-assisted navigation system.
Jane's Defence Upgrades
Scorpion upgrade of Su 25 flies in Tbilisi
The Scorpion upgrade of the Sukhoi Su-25 'Frogfoot-A, developed by Elbit Systems of Israel in collaboration with Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing (TAM) of Georgia, made its official first flight from TAM's Tbilisi airfield on 18 April 2001 in the presence of Georgia's President Eduard Shevardnadze.
In-harbour defences for DDG-51s
The US Navy is planning to retrofit the General Dynamics Mk 46 Mod 1 30mm weapons station to its Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers. The attack on the USS Cole has increased the emphasis on upgrading ship self-defence capability to close-in terrorist attacks. While no decision on the retrofit programme has been made, the USN is reportedly in favour of the retrofit and is trying to insert funding into current budgeting.
Germany receives first Leopard 2A6
The first Leopard 2A6 main battle tank was handed over to the German Army last month at the Krauss- Maffei Wegmann facility in Munich. This upgrade introduces the long-barrelled smoothbore 120mm L55 tank gun in place of the existing L44 gun.
Elbit upgrades Argentina's Pampas
Elbit Systems of Israel, working with Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina SA, is to upgrade the avionics of Argentina's fleet of FMA IA 63 Pampa trainers, together with an unspecified number of new build Pampas.
The JDU interview
JDU's Scott Gourley talks to Major General John Caldwell Jr, Commanding General of the US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command about the viability of the US Army's critical 'legacy force' systems. US Army planners are working to define specific 'Recapitalisation' packages for 21 identified systems.
Upgrade Overview: USAF moves B-1B upgrades back on course.
Despite its successful use over Kosovo in 1999, the US Air Force has had problems keeping its 93-strong fleet of Boeing (formerly Rockwell) B-1B Lancer bombers viable. Shortfalls in spare parts and mission capability led to the USAF requesting, in 2000 an additional US$400 million in operations and maintenance funds for the B-1B. David C Isby reports on the moves to bring these upgrades back on course.
Jane's Foreign Report
A modest proposal. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan offer a framework for peace
AS FOREIGN REPORT went to press this week, the best hope for peace in the Middle East lay in a brief proposal on two sheets of paper prepared by two men who had much to lose if the situation slipped out of control: Egypt's President Husni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah. Peace would be achieved if they could convince two Israelis that their framework for peace was most likely to work.
Jordan after Hussein
KING HUSSEIN of Jordan was a hard act to follow: moderate, statesman-like and widely respected; he was a force for sanity and peace in one of the most tortured parts of the world. Had he been alive now, he might well have succeeded in cooling off the Intifada and bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the negotiating table. Two years on the Hashemite throne is not enough time to establish himself as a worthy successor. But King Abdullah II's performance, as he begins his third year as Jordan's leader, has been excellent. His kindness, charm and modesty have already won him many friends and supporters.
Ukraine alters Europe's balance
UKRAINE'S parliament voted on April 26th to remove from office the country's eighth prime minister in ten years. Viktor Yushchenko was Ukraine's first head of government genuinely committed to reform. His support for transparent privatisation and reform of the controversial energy sector had angered the 'oligarchs', who are the main base of political support for President Leonid Kuchma. Their communist allies were hostile to Yushchenko because of his pro-western views. What next?
An odd alliance
ARE the United States and Iran co-operating through intermediaries like India and Russia to counter Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban regime and to stop its export of heroin? Apparently so, according to senior security and diplomatic sources in Delhi. They claim India and the United States are part of an understanding, possibly not written, between Iran and Russia, with covert American help. FOREIGN REPORT has learned what may be involved.
Russia's nuclear U-turn
RUSSIA's State Duma (parliament) on April 18th gave a surprise second reading to three bills which will permit the import of spent nuclear fuel. The reading had earlier been postponed indefinitely following the dismissal of the minister for nuclear energy, Yevgeny Adamov. All three bills are now cleared for a third reading - normally just a formality - to take place in two weeks. FOREIGN REPORT has learned what is at stake.
Threat to Russian media
PRESS freedom in Russia is being steadily curtailed. Apart from being a setback for the Russian people, this development will raise questions about any improvements in East-West relations. The civil liberty situation in Russia is likely to be debated in various international organisations such as the Council of Europe. Russia, though, is likely to object to interference in its internal affairs. The result: instead of a growing closeness between democratic Russia and the West, the two may move farther apart. FOREIGN REPORT describes what is happening.
Trouble in Vietnam's hill country
IN LATE March, 24 people crossed over the border from central Vietnam into Cambodia. Normally, such movements go unnoticed. On this occasion, however, the Cambodian authorities arrested all 24. Their reason: Vietnam's claim that they were members of the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races, better known by its French acronym, Fulro. The group, comprising Vietnam's hill tribes, was set up by the CIA towards the end of Vietnam. As in Laos, the American government hoped the tribesmen would harass the communist regimes in Indochina after it withdrew from Vietnam.
Jane's Intelligence Digest
Indian security shake up
A proposal to revamp India's armed forces and its intelligence services could be the most radical since the country achieved independence 54 years ago. Scrutiny of the current security establishment follows the infiltration of Pakistani troops and Islamic mercenaries into the mountainous region in the northern, disputed state of Kashmir in May 1999. Jane's Intelligence Digest's India analyst reports from Delhi.
Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst
Main
Palestinians have lost too much to stop fighting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is no longer on his honeymoon. After a very public mistake in which his armed forces invaded three areas of the Gaza Strip under Palestinian Authority control and then beat a hasty retreat following United States condemnation, Sharon's favour inside and outside Israel has waned.
Special Report
The two faces of Tunisia Tunisia, by local standards, is doing well. That is if you go by International Monetary Fund judgments of a country posting "strong economic performance - attributable to a combination of prudent macroeconomic policies". A country which, by all accounts, seems to be functioning efficiently, developing and distributing its wealth.
Africa
The Crown, the Islamists and the Makhzen The past month has seen an acceleration of efforts from the Moroccan government to put pressure on the country's Islamists. The principal target of the crackdown is the country's largest group, Justice and Charity ('al-'Adl wa al-Ihsan'). In a campaign which has increased in intensity over the last few months, the government in mid-April blocked electronic access to the group's two websites and seized over eight thousand copies of its weekly newspaper al-Futûwa ('Youth'). The present measures are intended to put the squeeze on the group to bring it to revise its position towards the Moroccan institutions.
East Mediterranean
Sectarian splits mark Lebanese civil war anniversary April 13 marked the 26th anniversary of the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war, which ended with the signing of the Taif Accord in 1990. For many Lebanese, however, nothing much seems to have changed. Sectarian differences remain as sharp as they were when the civil war erupted in 1975, and the polarised political parties which fuelled the war remain active in the Lebanese political arena, including those outlawed by the Beirut government such as the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF). Some such groups still possess light weapons, causing anxiety among the Lebanese for whom the memory of war is still fresh in their minds. Disagreement over power sharing among Lebanon's many religious sects has marked this country's history since the mid nineteenth century, causing at least two civil wars between 1860 and 1960.
The Gulf
Charges primed in Iran for the coming battle An alarming brinkmanship is taking place in Iran. On June 8 the country is going to the polls, but as IAA went to press neither the conservative nor the reformist wings of the government have officially declared their candidates for the contest. All the more perplexing, since these elections will decide the fate not only of the vilayet-i faqih, ('the system of rule by Muslim jurisprudent') but, if the more pessimistic-minded in Iran are to be believed, possibly of the country itself. Such is the level of tension manifesting itself in the run-up.
Asia
Kashmiri ceasefire fails to yield peace The six-month old ceasefire in northern India's disputed Kashmir state, in place until May 30th, remains so only in name as the security forces have recently been directed to resume offensive operations against Islamic insurgents fighting the 12-year old civil war for an independent homeland, to try and regain the fast eroding initiative.
International
Domestic pressure on Bush to prioritise Sudanese war Pressure is growing in Washington, on the part of both liberals and conservatives, to move the issue of suffering in Sudan to the top of the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda. In February, more than 40 activists - including evangelical Christians, a rabbi, a black radio talk show host and aides to conservative senators - met in a congressional hearing room and called for US intervention to help Sudan's largely Christian south in its civil war with an Islamic government in the north.
Jane's Intelligence Watch Report
and Jane's Terrorism Watch Report
---Pakistan - Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
- The Indian newspaper The Pioneer on 26 April reported that Pakistan's military leader Gen. Parvez Musharraf is increasingly relying on the ISI to retain his hold on the country. Realizing the importance of keeping the ISI on his side, Musharraf recently promoted ISI chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Akram to lieutenant general. Also, he carried out a major reshuffle in the ISI and the Army by promoting at least six major generals to lieutenant generals, bypassing others in seniority who have been relegated to less important positions. According to the newspaper, the ISI is 200,000 strong and hosts a vast network of informers in the Indian subcontinent and some Islamic countries.
Russia - Federal Security Service [Federalnaia Sluzhba Besopasnosti(FSB)]
- FSB Academy Chief Lt. Gen. Valentin Vlasov in an interview with Moscow's Rossiyskaya Gazeta in its 25 April issue said that the academy has 10 faculties and 50 chairs employing 40 academicians and more than 1,090 doctors of sciences for the training of counterintelligence officers. The training lasts five years and for six years at the extension department and five and a half years at the Cryptography Institute. Up to 40 languages are offered for study. Academy graduates as a rule are appointed to work in the same regions from which they came to study. The FSB Academy celebrated its 80 th anniversary on 27 April.
China - Xinjiang Province - Uighur Muslim Separatists
- Police in the northwestern city of Kashgar, some 2,100 miles (3,360 km) west of Beijing, near the country's border with Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, have arrested 25 alleged separatists, the Xinjiang Daily newspaper reported on 27 April. The group, led by a man identified as Abuduai Nisemaiti, was charged with buying weapons, including nine handguns and a hunting rifle. The group also received some US$16,000 from supporters and called for creation of an independent state in Xinjiang province.
Colombia - United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia [Autodefensas Unidos de Colombia (AUC)]
Military forces have cracked down on the rightist AUC paramilitary group, killing three of its members and capturing another 58, AP reported on 30 April. According to Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez, the operation, during which Colombian marines clashed with AUC forces at least six times, "practically dismantled" an entire front of the group. It brought the number of AUC troops captured since the beginning of the year to 320, equal to the number seized through all of 2000. Officials said some of those killed and captured are responsible for massacring up to 40 civilians in Cauca state in April.
Mexico - Zapatista National Liberation Movement [Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN)]
The EZLN has broken off all contacts and negotiations with the Mexican government, AP reported on 1 April. According to the group's leader, Subcomandante Marcos, an amended version of the Indian rights bill it demanded, which both houses of Congress passed, has failed to meet its expectations. "With this reform, federal legislators and the Fox government close the door to dialogue and peace," reads an EZLN communiqué. The Zapatista rebels originally demanded regional autonomy for Indian areas and a local government based on councils of elders and village assemblies. The amendments give Indians preference, but not sole rights, over resources. They also protect private land holdings and require state legislatures to enact local assembly decisions.
United Kingdom - Kashmir
Hackers calling themselves "Silverlords for the freedom of Kashmir" have broken into an internal BBC Monitoring website that links company staff overseas with the main headquarters at Caversham, BBC reported on 1 May. A message in support of Kashmiri separatists was placed on the page, which can only be accessed from inside the company but shares its server with public BBC Monitoring pages. According to a company representative, the incident "did not affect content aimed at clients of the Monitoring Service or any other part of BBC Online."
© 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, Inc. All Rights Reserved.