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Daily News
by Gail Helmer
Jane's News Briefs
Friday, September 7, 2001Jane's Defence Weekly
Team MBT-LAW formed to chase UK contract Saab Bofors Dynamics of Sweden has formed a partnership called Team MBT-LAW UK, headed by Thales Air Defence (previously Shorts Missile Systems) in Northern Ireland, to compete for the potential £300 million ($433.9 million) British Army Next Generation Anti-Armour Weapon (NLAW) to meet Staff Requirement (Land) 4098.
USA fears 'secondary WMD proliferation'
The combination of technology diffusion, weak enforcement of export controls and new suppliers is making the task of impeding and predicting weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation increasingly difficult, US defence and intelligence officials say.
Budget crunch may hit Swedish air operations
The Swedish armed forces have been forced to cut back significantly on training and exercises because of a severe shortfall in the country's operations budget. As a result, senior officers have warned that the Swedish Air Force will have virtually no flying hours left by the end of October, effectively grounding most of the service for the final two months of the year.
New Zealand's LAV III purchase process rapped
A critical government report has found that a "dysfunctional" relationship between the New Zealand Army and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and New Zealand Defence Force seriously hindered New Zealand's decision to purchase 105 General Motors LAV III Light Armoured Vehicles.
Turbomeca signs deal with two Russian companies
French helicopter engine manufacturer Turbomeca last week announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian firms Kamov and NPO Saturn to supply the power plant for Kamov's new KA-226 helicopter.
USA approves MLRS sale to Egypt
The US Department of Defense (DoD) has approved a request from Egypt for 26 Lockheed Martin 227mm Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems (MLRSs) with Extended-Range ER-MLRS rockets.
Warsaw buys C-295s with offsets to revamp PZL
The Polish Ministry of Defence signed a $212 million contract with EADS-CASA on 28 August covering its acquisition of eight C-295M transport aircraft for delivery between mid-2003 and 2005, which will also revitalise Poland's PZL Warszawa Okecie.
Switzerland grounds Hornets for lack of spares
A spokesman from the Swiss Procurement Office has confirmed national media reports that the air force has grounded more than half its F/A-18 fighters because of a lack of spare parts. The 60% scheduled availability of aircraft has dropped to 45%.
Jane's Foreign Report
Israel's hit list
At least 30 hardline Palestinians have been killed so far ISRAEL's security service (Shin Bet) has had an enormous success with tracing and killing Palestinian military leaders from groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Since the beginning of the latest Palestinian Intifada (uprising), FOREIGN REPORT reckons about 30 leaders were found and killed by people associated with the security service. They were shot by snipers and undercover soldiers, hit by rockets fired from helicopter gunships and blown up by booby traps. Israel is going to carry on with this policy. In this grim trade of retaliation, its agents have displayed a high degree of professionalism.
Trouble over the Caspian Sea
IT LOOKED harmless enough, but not to the Iranians. On July 23rd an Iranian warship, supported by aircraft, challenged and threatened to bombard an Azeri survey vessel in a disputed part of the Caspian Sea. The unarmed vessel, chartered by an international consortium surveying a newly found oil deposit, sailed back to Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, hastily. The stakes are high in this most recent episode in the 'great game' for power and influence, oil and gas, and above all money, billions of dollars of it, beneath the Caspian. This is why Russia, another of the five countries bordering on the Caspian, is building up a naval force for the inland sea.
Russian rocket threat
NO, THIS is not a cold-war story about Russians threatening to fire rockets at the West. It is a report on what is happening to unwanted ex-Soviet rocket parts in Vodkinsk (Udmurtia). Who cares? Ask the citizens of Vodkinsk, where demonstrations and arrests are almost a daily occurrence. What is the problem?
Russia's population implosion
FAR AWAY from the public gaze, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been pondering one fundamental problem for his country: the disappearance of Russia's population. A plan, grandly entitled 'Conception of Demographic Policy of Russia for the Period to 2015', has been completed by the Russian government in order to halt the slide in the number of Russians. The report will land on President Putin's desk in the next few days. Putin will sign the plan by the end of 2001, and then it will become a 'handbook for action' for Russia's executive authorities. FOREIGN REPORT has been given access to the document. It does not make comfortable reading for a Russian political leader.
Second thoughts on Yugoslavia
SHOULD the West help federal Yugoslavia (comprising Serbia and Montenegro)? The question may seem academic following the Donors' Conference for Yugoslavia in late June, where the international community promised Belgrade some $1.33 billion to help finance economic recovery, and its continual protestations that it is fully behind the reformist government that replaced Slobodan Milosevic.
Slovakia marches backwards
Slovakia has in the past few years raised its status from something approaching an international pariah to that of one of the most eligible candidates for membership of both EU and Nato. The u-turn in Slovakia's fortunes followed the general election of 1998 when the hardline nationalist Vladimir Meciar's ruling Movement for Democratic Slovakia lost to Mikulas Dzurinda's four-party coalition, which won 93 deputies in the 150-member parliament. Now, incredibly, the government is on the verge of collapse. Why?
Jane's Intelligence Digest
Lebanon and terrorism
Recent US indictments for the arrest of 13 Saudi Arabians and a Lebanese for the June 1996 Al-Khobar bombing, and the allegations that the bombers were trained by Hizbullah, has again put Lebanon under American scrutiny for its links to terrorism.
Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst
Cycle of violence set to continue in Middle East
Eleven months old and the Palestinian Intifada still rages as intensely as ever, despite (or maybe thanks to) Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's determination to crush the uprising, using all available military means. Sharon's security measures have succeeded in destroying mostly vacant quarters of Palestinian security organs but also in making life much harder for Palestinians by dividing Palestinian territories into isolated enclaves. Most Palestinian cities are under siege. Israeli secret services have also eliminated a number of Palestinian activists.
Another Islamic phoenix waiting in the wings?
ISLAMIST-leaning parties in Turkey have a habit of bouncing back. It has happened four times to date, as each time the military flexed its muscles to purge the country of the 'twin evils' of (Kurdish) separatism and Islamism. Last June another Islamist party bit the dust and, true to form, yet another successor announced.
US aid to Egypt: small profits and slow returns
A variety of factors - the 'cold peace' with Israel, growing anti-Jewish sentiment, and declining freedom within Egypt - have led to growing tension between Washington and Cairo.
Police Review
Police boxes could boost public confidence in police, says ACPO
The reintroduction of police boxes could enhance the public's confidence in the police, ACPO said this week.
Training of Specials praised after BCU inspection
The training and deployment of Specials by a West Mercia basic command unit has been praised as an example of good practice by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Force may conduct its own trials of lower leg protection
Greater Manchester Police Federation is so impressed by trials of the lower leg protection being evaluated by the RUC for its riot control units it has urged its own force to consider conducting similar trials.
Jane's World Airlines
AMERICAN TRANS AIR TAKES DELIVERY OF FURTHER BOEING 737-800S AND ANNOUNCES NEW APPOINTMENTS
American Trans Air (ATA), the USA's llth largest passenger carrier, has taken delivery of two further Boeing 737-800s from Boeing as part of its re-fleeting plan which includes changing its entire aircraft inventory. ATA has taken delivery of six new Boeing 737-800s and two B757-300s since May this year, and anticipates the delivery of two aircraft per month from Boeing until the re-fleeting process is complete. The new fleet will consist of 40 737-800s and 10 757-300s.ATA has also announced that William F O'Donnell will be replacing Richard Meyer, Jr, as Vice President Human Resources. Meyer Jr will become Vice President of Labor Relations.
ANGEL AIRLINES SIGNS LEASE AGREEMENT FOR JETSTREAM 32S
Angel Airlines, a new regional airline based in Bucharest, Romania, has signed a lease agreement for five BAe Jetstream 32 aircraft from BAE SYSTEMS. This also includes the Material and Component Repair and Overhaul (MACRO) programme for which BAE SYSTEMS has provided the airline with a bonded warehouse of spares and also a native Romanian to oversee the programme. The first BAe Jetstream aircraft was delivered to the airline at the end of August and the remaining four will be accepted by December 2001.
CEBU PACIFIC FINALISES CONTRACT FOR TWO BOEING 757 AIRCRAFT
Cebu Pacific Air, based in the Philippines, has finalised a contract with Pegasus Aviation for the lease of two Boeing 757 aircraft. Delivery of the first of the two aircraft is expected to be during the third week of October and the second is scheduled for delivery in November, this year. The airline is yet to release the launch date of its regional operations but this is imminent. Cebu Pacific has been designated as the country's second flag carrier.
VARIG SELECTS MERCATOR REVENUE ACCOUNTING SYSTEM
Brazilian carrier, VARIG has revamped its IT systems as part of a reform of its cargo operations and has selected RAPID, the Cargo Revenue Accounting system. The system has been developed by Mercator, the wholly owned IT division of the Emirates Group. The contract includes customising RAPID software to meet VARIG's specific requirements.
VIRGIN BLUE REJECTS AIR NEW ZEALAND OFFER
Richard Branson has rejected a A$250 million offer from Air New Zealand for his Australian company, Virgin Blue. Branson instead wishes to increase investment into the airline expanding both its fleet and routes with Virgin Blue announcing new routes to Launceston, Tasmania and Darwin this week. The decision has been supported by a number of political leaders.
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