Current Events in Mideast-Africa

From Defence Talk Algeria to acquire six modern Sukhoi-30 jet fighters Xinhua News Agency | Oct 5, 2007 Algeria will acquire, in the next few weeks, six Russian-made Sukhoi-30 jet fighters, local media reported Wednesday. The six Sukhoi aircrafts are part of a comprehensive purchase order of Russian arms by Algeria concluded in 2006, worth nearly 4 billion U.S. dollars. This order also includes Mig jet fighters, anti-air missiles and T-90 tanks, according to the Algerian daily newspaper "El Watan." The high prices of oil have enabled Algeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to finance the professionalization of its armed for…

From Jane's Israel braces for Syrian response By Alon Ben-David 05 October 2007 Israel is preparing for a Syrian response to the 6 September raid in northeast Syria, after both countries confirmed that the attack took place. Israeli intelligence agencies are mostly concerned that the Syrian response will be in the form of a terror attack on an Israeli target around the world. Israeli official delegations worldwide and airlines were ordered to increase precautions, recalling the Syrian attempt to bomb an El-Al flight from London to Tel Aviv in 1986. "I believe that the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad would rather act through proxies, such as terrorist or…

From DefenseNews Posted 09/27/07 14:15 Israel again scrambles warplanes over ‘false alert’ By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, JERUSALEM Israeli fighter pilots scrambled warplanes on Sept. 27 for the third time in a week after concern was raised about activity over Syrian airspace, a military official said. The alarm was raised after assault helicopters were spotted on Israeli radar before eventually landing. ”This was a routine measure,” the official said. “The planes returned to base after it was determined the flight did not have aggressive intentions.” Last Saturday, an alert was sparked after a blip from an aircraft over Syria disappeared from radar screens, public…

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…

From DefenseNews Posted 09/17/07 11:40 Saudis Sign $8.9B Eurofighter Deal By ANDREW CHUTER, LONDON The Saudi government has signed a deal with Britain to purchase Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, the largest single export order ever landed by the British defense industry. A contract covering the delivery of 72 Typhoons was signed Aug 29. Cost of the aircraft was put at 4.43 billon pounds ($8.9 billion), the Saudi Press Agency reported Sept. 17. A British Ministry of Defence statement confirmed the deal: “This new defence cooperation programme, known as ‘Project Salam,’ builds on a long and successful relationship between the Governments and their armed forces. Th…

Army records first UAV kills kosborn@defensenews.com - kosborn@defensenews.com Posted : Saturday Sep 15, 2007 7:58:53 EDT When Army scouts in Iraq spotted two men planting a roadside bomb Sept. 1, they called in a nearby Hunter unmanned aircraft, which dropped a laser-guided bomb and killed the two men. “We had the first confirmed use of an Army weaponized UAV,” said Col. Don Hazelwood, project manager for Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. The Army is mounting precision-guided weapons on hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hazelwood said. The MQ-5B Hunter will carry the laser-guided GBU-44/B Viper Strik…

IAF Jaguars ‘sink’ USS Nimitz, F-18s return the favour to INS Viraat Manu Pubby IndianExpress Posted online: Saturday, September 08, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email Malabar Exercise: From tracking nuclear submarines to managing 200 aircraft and taking on deep-sea terror threat, five Navies cover sweeping range of maritime operations ON BOARD USS Kitty Hawk (150 miles west of Port Blair), September 7: As the small green dots approached closer on the radar screen, the Indian officer sitting deep inside USS Nimitz knew it was too late to save the ship. Jaguar maritime fighters of the Indian Air Force (IAF), operating from the Car Nicobar air base, had managed to come…

Israeli Jets In 'Iran-Attack Drill' Over Syria By Post Wire Services JERUSALEM - Israeli warplanes may have been testing air routes for a possible attack against Iran when they were fired on by Syrian forces, experts said yesterday. The official Syrian Arab News Agency Thursday quoted a military official as saying that Israeli jets broke the sound barrier flying over northern Syria earlier in the day, then "dropped munitions" onto deserted areas after being shot at by Syria's air defenses. Israel's air force may have been testing an air path to Iran, in case it decides to carry out an attack against that country's nuclear facilities, analysts said. The…

From DefenseNews Posted 09/07/07 09:48 Report: BAE to Seal $40B Eurofighter Deal With Saudis Next Week AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LONDON British defense firm BAE Systems will next week clinch a 20-billion-pound ($40.4 billion) deal to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia, a report said Sept. 7. "It is understood that the British government sent the Typhoon contract to King Abdullah two days ago," The Times newspaper in London wrote. "The king is expected to sign the contract next week, sealing one of the largest export orders ever won by the UK.” A spokeswoman for BAE told the newspaper, "This is a government-to-government negotiation and we are unabl…

From DefenseNews Posted 09/06/07 08:14 India to Launch BrahMos From Russian Sub By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI, NEW DELHI India’s supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, built jointly with Russia, is ready to be launched from a submarine, Defence Minister A.K. Anthony reportedly told the Indian Parliament on Sept. 5. Currently, the Indian navy’s submarines do not have the capability to launch BrahMos missiles. Sources in the Indian Defence Ministry said the BrahMos will be tested on an unspecified Russian submarine later this year. Versions of the BrahMos have been developed for the Indian army, navy and air force. The air version will be integrated on IL-38 maritime surveil…

From BBC News Taleban 'getting Chinese weapons' By Paul Danahar BBC Asia bureau chief, Beijing Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan. The BBC has been told that on several occasions Chinese arms have been recovered after attacks on British and American troops by Afghan insurgents. The authorities in Beijing have promised to carry out an investigation. This appears to be the first time Britain has asked China how its arms are ending up with the Taleban. Boasting At a meeting held recently at the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, a British …

Indian communists protest U.S. naval exercises By Ashok Sharma - The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Sep 4, 2007 7:19:35 EDT NEW DELHI — Dozens of communists chanted anti-U.S. slogans as they left an eastern Indian city Tuesday for the site of a naval exercise involving India, the U.S. and three other countries, a party official said. “The fight against imperialism will continue,” about 80 party workers in Calcutta shouted as they boarded buses for Vishakhapatnam, a southern port city near the venue of the exercise, set to begin hours later. Twenty-five warships from India, the U.S., Australia, Japan and Singapore are participating in the four-day drill…

From Flight International DATE:30/08/07 SOURCE:Flightglobal.com Israel sets F-35 Joint Strike Fighter specifications By Arie Egozi The Israeli air force has completed a review of its design requirements for a national variant of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with Tel Aviv expecting to make a decision to buy up to 100 of the US aircraft under a multi-year procurement. Details of the air force's unique requirements remain classified, but are known to include a locally built electronic-warfare suite and a new internally carried bomb to be developed by Israel Military Industries. The general staff of the Israeli defence forces will soon de…

Building A Modern Arsenal In India By Heather Timmons and Somini Sengupta NEW DELHI, Aug. 30 — India is developing a military appetite to match its growing economic power. Over the next five years, military analysts expect the country to spend as much as $40 billion on weapons procurement alone, more than its entire annual armaments budget today — upgrading systems as diverse as jet fighters, artillery, submarines and tanks in its largely Soviet-era arsenal. As a result, India will become one of the largest military markets in the world. For American contractors, which had been shut out of India for decades, the surge in demand comes just as relations betw…

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…

French Leader Raises Possibility Of Force In Iran By Elaine Sciolino PARIS, Aug. 27 — In his first major foreign policy speech as president, Nicolas Sarkozy of France said Monday that Iran could be attacked militarily if it did not live up to its international obligations to curb its nuclear program. Addressing France’s ambassadorial corps, Mr. Sarkozy stressed that such an outcome would be a disaster. He did not say France would ever participate in military action against Iran or even tacitly support such an approach. But the mere fact that he raised the specter of the use of force is likely to be perceived both by Iran as a warning of the consequences if…

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…

I wonder why? I thought that they already field the Arrow SAM which is claimed to be similarly capable.

Iranian Unit To Be Labeled 'Terrorist' U.S. Moving Against Revolutionary Guard By Robin Wright, Washington Post Staff Writer The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances. The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the s…

From DefenseNews Posted 08/14/07 16:14 Iran President Denies Arming Taliban in Afghanistan By REUTERS, KABUL Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied on August 14 U.S. accusations his country was arming Taliban insurgents in neighboring Afghanistan. U.S. officials say Iranian weapons are entering Afghanistan on such a scale it is hard to believe Tehran is not aware of the shipments. High-powered roadside bombs, which Washington says Iran sends to Iraq, have also begun to appear in Afghanistan. Asked about the accusations, Ahmadinejad told a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul: “I strongly doubt that, there is no truth in it... even in Iraq such cl…