Current Events in Mideast-Africa

4,817 Targets: How Six Months Of Airstrikes Have Hurt ISIL (Or Not) (Breaking Defense)

From Defence Talk Iraq Warns Turkey Against Any Military Incursions Reuters Fri, 7 Jul 2006, 00:49 Iraq warned neighboring Turkey on July 6 to refrain from any military incursions into its northern border region to fight Kurdish guerrillas based there. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, on a visit to Athens, noted no Turkish incursions had taken place so far. "But if this does happen in the future, then our position will be different," he said after meeting Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyanni. "Iraq will demand its borders are not violated and that no country is involved in its domestic matters." Ankara has kept around 1,500 special operations for…

From ARES After Georgia: Russia Takes Over Syria's Tartus Port Posted by David Eshel at 8/21/2008 9:32 AM CDT Moscow is flexing it's muscles again in the eastern Mediterranean and aims to reactivate old cold war naval installations with it's allies Syria. President Bashar Assad is on his way to the Kremlin to finalize what looks to become a high profile feature. With not a moment to lose, the Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is under orders to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open to a Russian base in the area. The “Admiral Kuznetsov”, part of …

Secret State Department cable: Chemical weapons used in Syria (Foreign Policy, The Cable blog)

France confirms sale of Rafale to Egypt (Defense Update)

BBC News

Country: Libya 2010 Air Assets: Air Force 18,000 personnel Flying hours 85 hrs/year FORCES BY ROLE & EQUIPMENT BY TYPE (many non-operational, many ac in store) AIRCRAFT 590 combat capable BMR (6): 1 sqn with: 6 Tu-22B Blinder-A FTR (200): 9+ sqn with: 15 Mirage F-1ED 65 MiG-25P/PB/PDS/M Foxbat-A/B/D/E (storage) 75 MiG-23ML/MS Flogger-B 45 MiG-21bis Fishbed-N MiG-25U Foxbat FGA 134: 7 sqn with: 11 Su-24MK Fencer-D 14 Mirage F-1AD 40 MiG-23BN Flogger-H 45 Su-22M-2 Fitter-J 8 Su-22UM-3K Fitter-G MiG-23UB Flogger-C* 16 Soko J-21E Jastreb (Light Ground Attack) Recce 2 sqn with: 30 MiG-25R/RE Foxbat-B/D Mirage 5D…

Looks like maybe a Yakhont storage site got hit. Syria naval base blast points to Israeli raid (Reuters, via Yahoo)

BBC News story Many of these guys fought for Gaddafi and took home some of his weapons...

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…

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (aka the Iran nuke deal)

From Flight International DATE: 29/11/07 SOURCE: Flightglobal.com India to extend Sea Harrier by 15 years By Radhakrishna Rao The Indian navy is to go ahead with a "limited upgrade" of its carrier-borne BAE Systems Sea Harrier fighters. This is to be completed in 2008 and will extend their lives by 15 years. The upgrade, to be performed by Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics, will include more advanced sensors, radars and avionics. According to defence minister A K Antony, half of India's Harrier fleet has been lost in accidents.

Little boys and their toys I tell ya. http://thenextweb.com/me/2012/01/18/everyt...acker-struggle/?

Two old foes unite against Tehran (Sunday Times)

From http://www.defensenews.com Israeli Air Force Training for Long-Range Bombing Missions By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, JERUSALEM The Israeli air force is training its crews for long-range bombing missions, the wing commander of an F-16I fighter-bomber group said Feb. 28. “Israel and the air force have understood for a fairly long time now that the threats that surround us are constantly growing and that’s why steps have been taken to extend our range of action,” the officer, identified only as Wing Commander D., told Israel’s privately run second television channel. “That is to say that we are training for medium- and long-range missions.” The televisio…

From Navy Times NATO planning new anti-piracy mission The Associated Press Posted : Thursday Feb 19, 2009 11:38:49 EST KRAKOW, Poland — NATO is planning to deploy a new naval flotilla in the coming months to combat piracy off Somalia, a spokesman for the alliance said Thursday. “Based on discussions, you can expect to see another NATO naval operation off the lawless coastline of Somalia next spring in the general effort to combat piracy,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters at a meeting of defense ministers. In November, NATO sent four warships to the waters off the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden to stem a surge of pirate attacks against me…

From Aviation Week [excerpt]

From http://www.defensenews.com India, France Practice Anti-Mine Operations in Arabian Sea By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NEW DELHI India and France practiced their first joint anti-mine operations Feb. 28 as part of naval exercises in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of southern India, a French officer said. The nine-day exercise, code-named “Varuna 2005” began Feb. 27, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The leader of the French naval team, Capt. Marechal, told reporters this was the first time the two navies had taken part together in “mine warfare exercises,” the report said. Marechal said the Varuna exercises, which began in 1998 within the fr…

A topic which (unsurprisingly) is taking up a lot of bandwidth on Harpgamer IRC these days is the recent attack by an anti-ship missile(s) on the Israel Defence Force's Sa'ar V (Eilat) class corvette INS Hanit. Here's a summary of what has been reported and some comments on the same. Please feel free to add your own thoughts. My hope is to make this into a little "case study" of sorts, and hopefully we can all learn something from it. It has been said that tonne for tonne, the Sa'ar V corvettes are among the most heavily armed warships in the world. As a primer, the Naval Technology website has a helpful summary of the Sa'ar V and its various systems, sensors and…

From Navy Times [excerpt]