Current Events in Mideast-Africa

From Flight International DATE: 20/12/07 SOURCE: Flightglobal.com Turkish air force in major attack on Kurdish camps By Tolga Ozbek The Turkish air force launched one of its largest ever strike missions on 16 December, sending more than 50 aircraft to take part in an attack on Kurdish rebel camps 150km (81nm) inside northern Iraq. Flown from Diyarbakir and Malatya air bases, the night-time mission involved 30 Lockheed Martin F-16s equipped with Lockheed Lantirn targeting pods and 20 modernised McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom. Inflight refuelling support was provided by two Boeing KC-135 tankers. Ankara says its fighters deployed 453kg (1,000lb) Mk82 a…

From DefenseNews [excerpt]

From Aviation Week BREAKING NEWS -- Iran Set to Try Space Launch Jan 25, 2007 By Craig Covault/Aviation Week & Space Technology Iran has converted one of its most powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. The 30-ton rocket could also be a wolf in sheep's clothing for testing longer-range missile strike technologies, Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine reports in its Jan. 29 issue. The Iranian space launcher has recently been assembled and "will liftoff soon" with an Iranian satellite, according to Alaoddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. The move toward …

Appears to be a good source for video and imagery: Brown Moses blog

From CNN [excerpt]

From Jane's [excerpt] CV32: I see a premise for a whole series of scenarios here, in multiple theaters.

Saudi Strikes Yemen Rebels as Iran Warns of 'Dangerous Step' (DefenseNews) This is quite the set of circumstances in the Mideast right now ... especially for scenario building. The US led coalition hitting ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria, being aided by Iran and inadvertently aiding the dictator in Syria. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is hitting Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

From DefenseNews [excerpt] CV32: Hunting for a better bargain or otherwise, this deals yet another body blow to Rafale's chances at export success.

Grounding the Ayatollah’s Tomcats (War is Boring)

From Jane's Iran may have lined up S-300 SAM systems By Doug Richardson 09 January 2008 Iran is set to receive Russian S-300 (SA-10 'Grumble') surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar stated on 26 December 2007. Mohammad-Najjar gave no details of the order or the timescale for deliveries, but according to Iranian state radio he said: "The S-300 system will be delivered to Iran within the framework of a contract agreed in the past. The timing of the delivery will be announced at a later date." The report was confirmed by Iran's Fars News Agency, which gave no further information. Russia's Interfax news agency …

From Army Times Turkish planes, copters attack rebels in Iraq By Selcan Hacaoglu - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Oct 24, 2007 9:50:18 EDT ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish rebels along its rugged border with Iraq on Wednesday, as Turkey’s military stepped up its anti-rebel operations. Several F-16 warplanes loaded with bombs took off from an air base in southeastern city of Diyarbakir, private Dogan news agency and local reporters said. The warplanes and helicopter gunships bombed mountain paths in Turkey used by rebels to infiltrate from neighboring Iraq, Anatolia reported. On S…

BBC News Does anyone know the identity of the ship?

From Iraq considers MiG-29 fighter buy [excerpt] This on the heels of ... Iraq Says Signs Contract For 18 F-16 Fighter Jets [excerpt]

From DefenseNews U.S. Charges North Korea-Syria Nuclear Link By OLIVIER KNOX, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: 24 Apr 15:54 EDT (11:54 GMT) WASHINGTON - The White House and the CIA told key lawmakers in secret April 24 that North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor at a site destroyed by an Israeli raid in September, officials said. Washington also took its case to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), alleging that Damascus violated its obligations under the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a U.S. official said. In Congress, top U.S. officials laid out the charges - which Syria flatly denied - behind close…

BAE Not Currently Finalizing Saudi Jet Deal By REUTERS, LONDON DefenseNews BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defense firm, said on Nov. 28 it was not moving forward on finalizing a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets. In an interview in the Financial Times, the company’s chief executive, Mike Turner, was quoted as saying BAE could not speak on behalf of the two governments. "But I do know we are not currently moving forward on finalizing the Typhoon contract," Turner was quoted as saying. A BAE spokeswoman said the sentiment of Turner’s comment was that "since Ramadan negotiations between the two sides had not exactly moved apace". …

From Navy Times Gator gets some against Somali pirates By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Jun 5, 2007 17:25:15 EDT The dock landing ship Carter Hall shot flares, fired warning bursts and unleashed a volley that set fire to three skiffs towed behind a hijacked Danish cargo ship off Somalia on Tuesday, but it could not prevent the freighter from slipping out of international waters and towards a known pirate camp, the Navy said. The Danica White, a Danish-flagged merchant vessel with a crew of five, was hijacked by pirates early Saturday in view of a French warship that could not cross into Somali territorial waters to offer help. The Danica Whit…

PART 1: Winning the intelligence war By Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry Introduction Writing five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, US military expert Anthony Cordesman published an account of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. "Preliminary Lessons of the Israeli-Hezbollah War" created enormous interest in the Pentagon, where it was studied by planners for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and passed hand-to-hand among military experts in Washington. Cordesman made no secret of his modest conclusions, rightly recognizing that his study was not only "preliminary", but that it took no account of how Hezbollah fought the conflict or judged its results. "This ana…

Iran flexes Air Force muscle on National Army Day, 18 April http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fA5J3qEn7-c

From DefenseNews Posted 02/20/07 11:06 Iran Stages War Games as U.S. Carrier Arrives in Gulf AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, TEHRAN, Iran Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards on Feb. 20 staged a war game simulating an enemy airstrike as a second nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in regional waters in an apparent warning to Tehran. The Revolutionary Guards’ land forces fought back the hypothetical airstrike from enemy helicopters, planes and missiles with 620 anti-aircraft cannon and shoulder missiles, state television said. "Today, we are fighting back at all kinds of planes at low and average altitudes," said Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the commander of t…

From Foreign Affairs [excerpt]