Current Events in Mideast-Africa

From DefenseNews Posted 10/15/07 20:16 India Working on Sea-Based Nuclear Missiles By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI NEW DELHI — India is drawing closer to a sea-based nuclear strike capacity. The hull of its homegrown nuclear-powered submarine, the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), is under construction by the Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shipyard and is slated for sea trials in 2009, Indian Navy sources said. Land-based tests of some systems are already completed. The classified program is being run by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with help from Russia. India also is buying two Russian nuclear-powered subs. The DRDO is developin…

Israel and Iran: A Dangerous Rivalry (pdf)

Would these "countries" include Hamas, one wonders ? From DefenseNews Iran Says It Will Share Nuclear Technology By REUTERS, TEHRAN Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with other countries, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said after talks on April 25 with the visiting Sudanese president, state television reported. Iran is embroiled in a nuclear standoff with the West, which fears Tehran is secretly developing atomic weapons which could be transferred to terrorist groups or spark an arms race in the Middle East. Iran insists it only wants nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, such as producing electricity. "The nuclear strength of the Ir…

Navy favours F-35 fighters, not F-18: Naval Chief July 11, 2005 02:45:00 PM .KOLKATA CAL6 Press Trust of India Kolkata, Jul 11 (PTI) Indian Navy is willing to procure F-35 advanced fighters from US, but it is not interested in F-18 fighter planes as they are not "compatible" with the aircraft carriers of the naval force, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash said here today. "Yes. Given an offer, we will be much interested in having the F-35 fighters," Admiral Prakash told reporters when asked if the Navy would be willing to procure the advanced fighters from the US. He was speaking to reporters after the commissioning of warship INS Beas at the Garden…

U.N. OKs foreign ships to fight Somali pirates By John Heilprin - The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Jun 3, 2008 7:50:07 EDT UNITED NATIONS — Foreign ships gained authorization Monday to enter Somali waters when fighting piracy and armed robbery — rampant problems along the African nation’s lawless coast. The U.N. Security Council’s 15 members unanimously adopted a resolution intended to combat the attacks and hijacking of vessels along the country’s 1,880-mile coastline, the continent’s longest. More than a dozen pirate attacks have occurred this year alone, creating concerns for shipping along routes that connect the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea. Tw…

Find it here. Harriers Complete Combat Runs in Afghanistan Marine Corps News | Capt. David E. Nevers | September 25, 2006 Aboard USS Iwo Jima - The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s AV-8B Harriers flew the last of 136 combat missions over the skies of Afghanistan Sept. 21, ending a short but productive stint in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Using just four of its jump jets per day, the MEU’s Harrier detachment dropped a total of 17 precision-guided bombs over 13 days on behalf of NATO forces battling a resurgent Taliban in southern Afghanistan. With the MEU and the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group positioned in the Arabian Sea, and with NATO…

Here's some scary scenario fodder. India fighting a nuclear war on two fronts. After Testing China-Specific Missile, India Eyes ICBMs By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NEW DELHI DefenseNews Buoyed by the successful test of a missile that can hit China, India says it can extend its nuclear range beyond Asia, but experts say it is unlikely to take such a step for fear of upsetting the West. The launch on April 12 of the intermediate-range Agni-III missile capped New Delhi’s drive to produce a device capable of striking targets 3,500 kilometers (2,170 miles) inside China, which has an unresolved border dispute with India. The government’s Defence Research and Devel…

From Reuters [excerpt]

From DefenseNews Israel To Clear Future Arms Deals With U.S. After China Row By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, JERUSALEM Israel was set June 27 to sign an agreement to clear future defense deals with Washington after a spat over an arms contract with China which could leave it with a multi-million dollar compensation bill. Defense ministry spokeswoman Rachel Ashkenazi said negotiations “to reach an understanding with the United States are at an advanced stage” after Israel effectively apologized to Washington over a controversial drones deal. The Haaretz newspaper said the agreement will mean Israel having to renege on the agreement to upgrade Harpy Killer drones …

BBC News Does anyone know the identity of the ship?

From Navy Times Revolutionary Guards take charge of Hormuz The Associated Press Posted : Thursday Sep 18, 2008 15:59:21 EDT TEHRAN, Iran — Iran announced Tuesday that it has put the elite Revolutionary Guards in charge of defending the country’s territorial Persian Gulf waters in what appeared to be a hardening of its stance in the vital oil route. U.S. commanders in the Gulf have in the past said they find Guards ships more confrontational than the regular Iranian navy, which until the new order was responsible for Iranian defenses in the gulf. Iran has warned repeatedly that it will close the narrow Hormuz Strait at the mouth of the gulf if the United …

SA’s new generation of submarines Jonathan Katzenellenbogen BusinessDay.SA THE first of three of SA’s S101 new-generation German-made submarines will sail into Simonstown this morning, marking one of the final steps in the creation of the country’s new navy. Four frigates — general-purpose warships which can be armed with guided missiles — have already been delivered and two more submarines will be in service within about two years. Claims of irregularities in parts of the contract for the frigates, the lack of transparency in the industrial offset programme, the fact that it is very unlikely that the fleet will be used in peacekeeping, and just its sheer cost …

As if there was any doubt ... From RIA Novosti Ahmadinejad links Iran's nuclear program to Israel MOSCOW, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - Iran will move forward with its nuclear program as long as Israel possesses nuclear weapons, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying on Tuesday. Ahmadenijad's comment came during a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "When an illegal regime possesses nuclear weapons, the other countries' rights for peaceful nuclear energy cannot be denied," he said. Israel does not admit having nuclear weapons. Four UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran on Sunday…

From Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report - Move and Countermove: Ahmadinejad and Bush Duel GEOPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT 08.29.2007 Dr. George Friedman Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Aug. 28 that U.S. power in Iraq is rapidly being destroyed. Then he said that Iran, with the help of regional friends and the Iraqi nation, is ready to fill the vacuum. Ahmadinejad specifically reached out to Saudi Arabia, saying the Saudis and Iranians could collaborate in managing Iraq. Later in the day, U.S. President George W. Bush responded, saying, "I want our fellow citizens to consider what would happen if these forces of radicalism and extremism are al…

This article is 10 days old, but I think its particularly interesting now that we've had some time to observe the events in Iran. From Stratfor Western Misconceptions Meet Iranian Reality June 15, 2009 By George Friedman In 1979, when we were still young and starry-eyed, a revolution took place in Iran. When I asked experts what would happen, they divided into two camps. The first group of Iran experts argued that the Shah of Iran would certainly survive, that the unrest was simply a cyclical event readily manageable by his security, and that the Iranian people were united behind the Iranian monarch’s modernization program. These experts developed this v…

From Air Force Times Israeli jets come close to firing on airliner Staff reports Posted : Wednesday Apr 11, 2007 16:57:10 EDT Israel air force fighter planes scrambled Wednesday to intercept a U.S. airliner after it lost communications with air controllers, security officials said. The Continental passenger plane was flying in from the U.S. when it lost contact. Following anti-terror procedures, two Israeli warplanes intercepted the plane and guided it back over the Mediterranean Sea until communications were restored, Channel 10 TV reported. When it was determined that there were no problems on board and the pilot was in control, the plane was allowed t…

From Defence Talk France may lose Morocco jet deal to US-paper Reuters | Sep 21, 2007 French corporate and combat jet maker Dassault Aviation may lose out on a deal to sell some Rafale fighter planes to Morocco, French newspaper La Tribune reported. In an article due to be published on Friday, La Tribune said the Moroccan government was set to accept a rival offer to buy F-16 fighter planes made by U.S. company Lockheed Martin Corp. La Tribune, citing its own sources, said Lockheed had offered Morocco 36 F-16 planes for less than $2 billion, while France had offered 18 Rafale planes for 2.3 billion euros ($3.22 billion). Officials at Dassault Aviation…

The Aviationist

New RSA submarine launched in Germany Johannesburg, South Africa Mail & Guardian 04 May 2005 01:00 advertisementSouth Africa's second of three Type 209 submarines was launched in Emden in northern Germany on Wednesday. The boat was christened "S102". Speaking during the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Defence Mluleki George said the naming and launching of any vessel is a significant occasion, as it only happens once in its lifetime. "The ceremony of today represents but one of the milestones in the life of the vessel, of which there will be many. "She still has to be completely fitted out, trials and tests carried out, and some fine-tun…

An Intensifying US Campaign Against Iran Amid US charges of Iran's hand in Iraq's instability, some counsel caution. By Scott Peterson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor ISTANBUL, TURKEY -- Somalia, 1993: During the darkest days of the American military intervention, when US troops were taking casualties from drug-addled gunmen wearing flip-flops, US officials pointed to a familiar nemesis. It was Iran, warned Madeleine Albright, then-US envoy to the United Nations, that had forged a "tactical alliance" with a Somali warlord and "terrorists" in Sudan. Intelligence sources for the first time spoke of smuggled Iranian weapons. In Mogadishu, journ…