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Page 1 Daily News
by Gail Helmer
Friday, March 2, 2001
Jane's Defence Weekly
Iraqi air defences under strain
According to senior US defence officials, Iraq has "attempted unique indigenous efforts" to maintain and upgrade its air defences since the 1990-91 Gulf War. Baghdad has utilised "substantial stocks" of equipment accumulated during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the official explained, but now is attempting "to modify ground forces equipment to augment its dwindling air-defence equipment".
February.
Greece considers final bids for $1.4b MBT competitionng
Jane's Defence Weekly has obtained details of the Best and Final Offers for the projected $1.4 billion project to acquire new main battle tanks for the Hellenic Army. These were submitted to the General Directorate of Armaments of the Hellenic Ministry of Defence last month (JDW 24 January)
Norway continues with force cuts
Norway continues with force cuts
Norway's Labour government has launched a plan for further drastic defence cuts to be implemented in the 2002-05 period. It proposes cutting the army field force from six to less than three brigades, disbanding the fast-attack craft force and reducing the Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter fleet to 48 operational aircraft.
Russia shifts missile defence positionk
Russia has shifted from a proposed boost-phase missile defence system to one that would employ short- and medium-range interceptors fired from mobile launchers in its campaign to convince European allies to consider alternatives to a US-proposed continental anti-missile shield that Washington says could be extended to Europe..
UK awards LIMAWS-R contracts
The UK Defence Procurement Agency has awarded parallel risk-reduction/simulation contracts worth £1.7 million ($2.5 million) to two UK consortia for the Lightweight Mobile Artillery Weapon System (Rocket Platform)
US Army to study low-cost cruise defence interceptor
The US Army Space and Missile Defense Command is preparing to launch an in-depth analysis of a Low-Cost Cruise Missile Defence interceptor. The project has been conceived by the US Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency to counter unsophisticated cruise missiles and reduce the cost per kill of attacking them.
IAI displays Peak-17 weapons upgrade
Israel Aircraft Industries flew its proposed 'Peak-17' upgrade of the Mil Mi-8/-17 (NATO reporting name: 'Hip') transport helicopter during the 7-11 February Aero India 2001 exhibition near Bangalore.
Delhi refutes US anger over Russia's uranium delivery
India has dismissed as "baseless" Washington's objections to Russia supplying it with 58 tonnes of low-enriched uranium for the Tarapur atomic power station near the western port city of Bombay (Jane's Defence Weekly 18 October 2000)
Future of Osprey is thrown into doubt again
The future of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft is in doubt following the release of several reports critical of the V-22 programme and what appears to be waning support among civilian defence officials.
Netherlands army orders Leopard upgrade
The Royal Netherlands Army has ordered the upgrade of 180 Leopard 2A5 main battle tanks (MBTs) to 2A6 configuration.
Jane's Foreign Report
Will Sharon spring a surprise?
ARIEL SHARON, the newly elected Israeli premier, was well known as a general for making unpredictable moves. He was an advocate of what is known in military jargon as the 'vertical detour' - a surprise attack on an unexpected area, at which the Israeli Army became adept. Sharon, a brilliant general, used the vertical detour in the 1973 war with Egypt. He infiltrated his armoured division through the 'stitch' between two Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez canal and stopped less than 60 miles (100kms) from Cairo. FOREIGN REPORT has learnt of one surprise move that Sharon might take as prime minister.
Should I invest in India?
PROJECTIONS of the Indian economy are bleak. Military purchases have registered an exponential increase and are expected to rise in the upcoming financial year with the import of fighter jets, aircraft carriers and submarines worth billions of dollars. India has also embarked on a hugely expensive missile development programme as part of its minimum nuclear deterrence, which will mop up large amounts of money. Total defence expenditure, which increased by 28% last year is expected to grow by over 20% this year.
Should I invest in Nigeria?
President Olusegun Obasanjo's chances of winning the next presidential election in 2003 will depend on his ability to rebuild a country of declining institutions and wrecked infrastructure. It is a job that will take years. He has been lucky. For much of the year 2000 the oil price has been over $30 per barrel, which has made it possible for the country to build up substantial external reserves, put at nearly $9 billion by the year's end. Development in the gas sector will, in the longer term, also bring in more money, although there are many who warn of a continuing dangerous dependence on revenue from energy.
Freedom, Syrian-style
A RUDE CARTOON is being used by the conservative old guard of the regime in Syria to try to persuade the young, reformist president, Bashar al-Assad, of the error of his ways. The cartoon was sent by e-mail to the wife of an Aleppo businessman by a friend in neighbouring Lebanon, where Syria maintains 40,000 troops and remains the final arbiter of national affairs. It showed Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, locked in what one diplomatic source described as "an unflattering position". Pressed, he agreed that this position was "sexual".
Help Serbia?
THE first thing a visitor to Belgrade notices is how run down the place looks, how little it resembles 'Beograd', the 'white city'. Even in Republic Square or Srpskih Vladara, the main boulevard, garish kiosks and the inevitable McDonalds provide the only colour; elsewhere, soot-grey buildings recall the years of neglect that relegated this once proud capital city to the status of a Balkan has-been. The fact that so few of the buildings damaged almost two years ago in Nato's three-month bombing campaign have yet to be repaired, or pulled down, reinforces the feeling that time has stood still.
Jane's Intelligence Review
New rivals protect old guard
Deals negotiated by opposition leaders to ensure a peaceful end to Slobodan Milosevic's rule in Belgrade have left the old guard entrenched. Zoran Kusovac investigates who owes allegiance to who in the new Serbia.
Prospects for rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula
James Foley examines the ambiguous strategies and tangled interests that influence progress towards better relations between North and South Korea.
Musharraf's dilemma
The military took power in Pakistan to address the urgent social and economic problems facing the country. However, the rise of Islamist influence is threatening to derail his reforms. Anthony Davis reports.
Sea Tiger success threatens the spread of copycat tactics
Three maritime suicide attacks at the end of last year suggest that tactics developed by the LTTE may be spreading among insurgent and terrorist groups. Rohan Gunaratna reports.
The effects of NMD on Chinese strategy
The deployment of a National Missile Defense system by the USA is likely to make China's nuclear modernisation more unpredictable, argues Li Bin.
Computer viruses: e-biological warfare
Computer viruses are becoming increasingly sophisticated and their initiators more calculating. Due to the growth of e-commerce the environment in which they thrive is also becoming more fertile. Izhar Lev and Michael Knights report.
Light arms trading in SE Asia
The illegal light weapons trade in Southeast Asia is undermining democracy, contributing to an upsurge in political and criminal violence and inhibiting economic development, argues Peter Chalk.
Criminalisation of the DPRK
It is increasingly clear that not only are key figures within the North Korean regime involved in transnational organised crime, but that the state itself has criminalised itself as a matter of policy. Dr Mark Galeotti considers the implications.
Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst
LEADER
Kosovo: an example of things to come?
WITH THE recent murder of at least ten Serbian civilians visiting the graves of their relatives in Kosovo and the mine-related explosion that subsequently killed three Serbian policemen, we may be witnessing a watershed in the violent evolution of this de facto independent region of former Yugoslavia. There exists a distinct possibility that the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Buhanovac (UCPMB) extremists most likely responsible for the attacks are announcing through them the initiation of a new type of terrorist campaign rel
SPECIAL REPORT
Creeping democracy in the Gulf?
IN A MOVE that would seem to add flesh to the argument of a 'younger generation' of statesmen leading the Arab world into a new age befitting the culture of the developed world, the Emir of Bahrain, two years after his father's death, has presided over a referendum to transform political life in the small island state.
AFRICA
Libya's potential arsenal
LIBYA is in the news again. Following the conclusion of the Lockerbie bomb trial in the Netherlands, questions are once more being asked by several intelligence agencies about Libya's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes. In a landmark statement on February 7, CIA Director George Tenet said that Libya was among several countries that were being supplied with ballistic missile technology by Russia.
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN
Syria and Iraq strengthen rapprochement
AFTER THE US and British air strikes against Iraq on 16 February and Saddam's threats of revenge, Israel's deputy defence minister, Ephraim Sneh, postulated on the possibility of a new axis between Iraq, Syria and Iran. While many in the region view that with considerable scepticism, the pace of rapprochement between Iraq and Syria, that began modestly enough in 1997 with the reopening of their common border after a 17-year break, has accelerated in recent months.
THE GULF
Iran's weapons of mass destruction
In a sharp rebuke in December Iran warned that it will not stand idly by if the Jewish State were to attack Syria or Lebanon. Quoting Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani in an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan the Iranian defence minister said that "Iran would retaliate in an astounding and unexpected" manner, though he didn't say what form the retaliation might take. This follows Israeli threats that it would take action against Damascus if violence along the Lebanese-Israeli border continues.
ASIA
Will Indonesia break-up?
East Timor will be the first new nation of the 21st century, but by no means the last. Arguing that the independence of East Timor will empower multiple secessionist and sectarian movements, several Asian intelligence and security agencies assess that Indonesia will disintegrate in the immediate future.
Kashmir and internal tensions in Pakistan
PAKISTAN-BASED Islamic groups have served notice on the country's military regime for banning the public collection of funds for jihad (Muslim holy war) and publicly displaying arms. Calling them "stooges of the US" militant leaders like Professor Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed, who heads the Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LeT or 'Army of the Pure'), have announced that the collection of funds for jihad would continue, adding that he did not think the Pakistani government was even capable of enforcing the ban.
INTERNATIONAL
Ultra-Orthodox movement in US fuels extremism In January, the FBI raided a community centre in Brooklyn, New York run by followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the American-born Israeli politician assassinated in 1990, whose movement is designated as a foreign terrorist group by the State Department.
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