Armoredd.com

30 January 2009
Airbus

Airbus and a group of Chinese industrial partners today signed a contract to establish a Joint Venture Manufacturing Centre in Harbin, China to manufacture composite material parts and components for the Airbus A350 XWB programme and Airbus A320 Family aircraft.

The Chinese partners are Harbin Aircraft Industry Group Company Limited (HAIG), Hafei Aviation Industry Company Limited (HAI), Avichina Industry & Technology Company Limited (AVICHINA) and Harbin Development Zone Heli Infrastructure Development Company Limited (HELI).

The contract was signed by Laurence Barron, President of Airbus China, and Pang Jian, Chairman of the Board of Directors of HAIG and HAI in Madrid, Spain in the presence of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

The Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre Company Limited (the Manufacturing Centre) will be set up in 2009. HAIG will hold a 50 per cent stake, Airbus China will hold 20 per cent, while HAI, AVICHINA and HELI will each hold a ten per cent stake. Manufacturing operations are expected to start in September 2009 and a new plant should be ready for operations by the end of 2010.

The Manufacturing Centre will produce major components for the A350 XWB programme, as part of Airbus’ target of manufacturing five per cent of the A350 XWB airframe in China. These components will be manufactured using the latest composite manufacturing technology based on Airbus standards and processes.

“The signing of the joint venture contract marks a historical breakthrough for the relationship between HAIG / HAI and Airbus,” said Pang Jian. “HAIG / HAI and Airbus have become risk sharing partners. We will share the profits of the joint venture and will jointly meet the challenges caused by global economic slowdown. Today’s signature is a joint response of the Chinese partners and Airbus to these challenges. It is based on our confidence in the future economic growth of China and in the future development of the Chinese aviation industry together with Airbus. We will further promote and expand our strategic cooperation,” he added.

“This project demonstrates once again Airbus’ long term commitment to the sustainable development of China’s aviation industry,” said Laurence Barron, President of Airbus China. “The joint venture is another step forward in our cooperation with Hafei, as Hafei was one of the founding members of our Airbus Engineering Centre in Beijing. We are very confident in the prospects for our joint venture with our Chinese partners in Harbin,” he added.

Airbus is committed to forging a long-term strategic partnership with China. The total value of industrial cooperation between Airbus and the Chinese aviation industry is expected to be near 200 million dollars per year in 2010 and 450 million dollars per year in 2015.

Airbus is an EADS company.

Background for the editors:

Industrial co-operation between Airbus and Chinese aviation industry dates back to 1985. Aerospatiale, today Airbus France, signed first product sub-contracting agreement in 1985 with Xi’an Aircraft Company on manufacturing and assembling access doors for Airbus A300/A310 wide-body aircraft.

On 26th November 2007, Airbus signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China to formalise the commitment of allocating A350 XWB airframe workpackages to the Chinese aviation industry.

On the same day, Airbus and the former AVIC II, parent company of Hafei, signed a “Heads of Agreement” for a joint venture manufacturing centre.

On 15th July 2008, Airbus China Limited and HAIG entered into a framework contract for the Joint Venture Composite Manufacturing Centre in Harbin.

This manufacturing centre is established as part of Airbus’ efforts to fulfil Airbus’ undertaking to NDRC to allocate such airframe work packages relating to the Airbus A350 XWB programme to China.

So far, six Chinese manufacturers are already involved in manufacturing parts, such as wing components, emergency-exit doors for Airbus aircraft.

In July 2005, the Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Centre was formally inaugurated in Beijing. In June 2008, ABEC obtained its joint venture license from the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce to become a joint venture between Airbus China Limited and Chinese partners. Today Hafei holds a stake of 18 per cent in the JV.

In September 2008, Airbus A320 Family Final Assembly Line in China (FALC), a joint venture between Airbus and a Chinese Consortium comprising Tianjin Free Trade Zone, former AVIC I and Hafei, was officially inaugurated by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders.

Middle School Students Launch Model Rockets

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ — More than 80 students from Pescadero Middle School launched model rockets today as part of a new school-wide Rocketry Education Program. The program, designed to build enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and math, originated from a teacher’s summer fellowship at Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) through the Bay Area-based Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME).

Chip Harrison, a teacher at Pescadero Middle School, was one of 20 elementary school, middle school, and high school teachers who participated in IISME’s fellowship program last year at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif. The IISME organization works to foster a strong, highly skilled workforce in science, technology, engineering and math.

Based on his experience at Lockheed Martin, Harrison initiated a rocketry education program that combines research, experiments, fieldtrips, real-world applications, and actual rocket model development. To fully engage the students and staff, the program also integrates other aspects of the school’s curriculum, including elements of the Science, English, History, and Math disciplines.

“It is encouraging to see the excitement that the students have for the science and technology behind this new rocketry program,” Harrison said. “Their interest has made the program tremendously successful, but this is only the beginning. My time in the Lockheed Martin-IISME program had such a positive impact on my teaching career, but more importantly, on my students’ future.”

IISME’s Summer Fellowship Program places qualified teachers into local companies and research labs for an eight-week learning experience. During this period, each teacher, paired with an industry mentor, augments their science, math, and engineering skills by solving real-world problems. Upon returning to the classroom, application of the industry experience helps teachers stimulate student interest in math and science and, in turn, helps students to become lifelong learners.

“Mr. Harrison’s rocket launch project is exactly the kind of project that Summer Fellowships in companies like Lockheed Martin can inspire,” said Jennifer Bruckner, IISME’s executive director. “Something this fun will surely motivate his students to consider careers in science, math and engineering, and we are proud to be a part of the effort.”

The Pescadero Middle School eighth graders launched their model rockets today, under the watchful eye of the sixth and seventh graders, who contributed to the program through research on the history and technology behind the U.S. rocket program. The eighth grade students focused on the design and development of the model rockets.

Harrison organized, educated, and coached the student rocket team with the help of David Raimondi, a Lockheed Martin employee and IISME volunteer. Harrison and Raimondi hope this year’s event will be a launching point for next year’s national Team America Rocketry Challenge, in which the winning team will be awarded $60,000 in college scholarships. The annual competition is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry, with co-sponsorship by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Defense, the American Association of Physics Teachers and 34 AIA member companies, including Lockheed Martin.

“Through our IISME partnership we are helping great teachers, like Chip, better prepare students to be productive in an increasingly technical world,” said Kevin Bilger, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager and member of the IISME Senior Advisory Council. “It is extremely gratifying to see our efforts inspiring young students and making a real life impact. This program is a true testament to the efforts put forth by teachers, Lockheed Martin, and IISME.”

IISME was founded in 1985 by a consortium of San Francisco Bay Area companies including Lockheed Martin, in partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley and seeks to transform teaching and learning through industry-education partnerships.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

For more information about IISME, please visit www.iisme.org

For additional information on Lockheed Martin Corporation, visit: http://www.lockheedmartin.com

Media Contact: Michael Friedman, 408-742-3516;
e-mail, michael.1.friedman@lmco.com

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

By USMAN ANSARI
Published: 30 Jan 11:51 EST (16:51 GMT)
Defense News

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Navy will increase its aerial surveillance capabilities with the acquisition of airborne early warning and UAV systems. This was announced by the Navy’s chief of staff, Adm. Noman Bashir, during a Jan. 29 visit to the service’s aviation base, PNS Mehran, in Karachi.

The admiral was attending a ceremony to induct Fokker F-27 Friendship maritime surveillance aircraft into the Navy’s air arm, and the commissioning of a T-56 engine test bench facility. The former were acquired from Pakistan’s national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines, on retirement of the type from its service. The latter will allow for the in-house overhaul and maintenance of the T-56 engines on the Navy’s growing fleet of Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.

Though the admiral made no further comment on the UAV issue, the Navy has been evaluating the Schiebel S-100 Camcopter UAV for some time.

When asked if Bashir’s latest comments were linked to the S-100, a Navy spokesman, Capt. Asif Majeed Butt, said, “There are about 14 to 15 UAVs under scrutiny, but none have been finalized.” He did, however, say that the S-100 is “better” than some of the other UAVs under consideration.

The AEW system in question is the P-3B Orion fitted with the E-2C Hawkeye aircraft’s airborne early warning and control equipment. At IDEAS2008, an international defense trade show that took place in November in Karachi, a Lockheed official, Costas Papadopoulos, said that a number of Orions had been selected to be fitted with the Hawkeye AEW gear. But he did not comment on when delivery to the Navy is expected.

Bashir said the Navy looks forward to the arrival of Z-9EC anti-submarine warfare helicopters, which will be embarked upon the service’s new F-22P Sword-class light frigates, the first of which is expected in Pakistan later this year. Both the helicopters and ships are being built in China.

He also said a deal for the Navy’s next-generation submarine, the Type 214 built by Germany’s Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft shipyard, would be “concluded soon.” The potential terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

Associated Press

NEW DELHI, Jan 27 APP: Indian army has placed an urgent order for purchase of 4100 French-origin anti-tank missiles to meet need of its armed forces in view of tension with Pakistan and delay in the induction of its “Nag” missile. “Times of India” reported that due to tension with Pakistan and the indigenous “Nag” anti-tank missile still not operational, India has rushed to buy 4,100 French-origin Milan-2T anti-tank guided missiles. (ATGMs).

The daily quoting Defence Ministry sources said the pending Rs 592-crore order was cleared after 26/11 events. The government is now fast-tracking several military procurement plans.

India has also planned to progressively induct as many as 1,657 Russian-origin T-90S main-battle tanks (MBTs), apart from the ongoing upgradation of its T-72 fleet.

Referring to the third-generation Nag missile, with a 4-km strike range, the daily said the Indian army has already placed an initial order for 443 missiles and 13 Namicas (Nag missile tracked carriers). But the Nag is still to become fully operational almost two decades after it was first tested.

USA Today

KENOVA, W.Va. (AP) — All six people aboard a small plane were killed when it struck a power line and crashed shortly after its pilot warned on the radio that it was running low on fuel.

Witnesses said the aircraft was flying low shortly before the Friday afternoon crash, then the electricity went out.

“The pilot issued a mayday,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said. “The mayday was based on low fuel.”

Officials initially said three people had died in the crash, but later revised the death toll to six. The Piper PA-34 crashed less than two miles from the Tri-State Airport near the Ohio and Kentucky state lines. FAA officials did not immediately know the plane’s origin or destination.

Peters said Tri-State controllers were working with the pilot when the plane made a sudden 180-degree turn and they lost contact.

Witness Chris Smith was outside with his daughter when he saw the plane go down.

“It was flying way too low,” he told The Herald Dispatch of Huntington. “It was flying so low I could have thrown a rock up and hit the bottom of the plane.”

Smith’s wife, Amanda, said she heard a loud crash and saw nearby power lines shake. Then the lights went out.

“My husband ran in with my daughter because they were sleigh riding and said, ‘Call 911. A plane crashed,’” Smith told the newspaper.

Appalachian Power confirmed the plane hit a transmission line, but spokesman Phil Moye said power to the area was only briefly affected.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

The plane is registered to Wilmington, Del.-based Wesvin Inc.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article:
6 die as plane crashes near W.Va. airport

Pilot issued ‘mayday’ over low fuel shortly before aircraft hit power line

Associated Press
updated 2:23 a.m. PT, Sat., Jan. 31, 2009
MSNBC

KENOVA, W.Va. - A small plane apparently low on fuel hit a power line and crashed into a wooded area near a West Virginia airport killing all six people aboard, authorities said.

Shortly before the crash Friday, the pilot radioed the nearby airport warning that the plane was running out of fuel. Witnesses said the aircraft was flying low then the electricity went out.

“The pilot issued a mayday,” said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters. “The mayday was based on low fuel.”

The Piper PA-34 crashed less than two miles from the Tri-State Airport near the Ohio and Kentucky state lines.

Peters said Tri-State controllers were working with the pilot when the plane made a sudden 180-degree turn and they lost contact.

FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac did not know from where the plane had taken off or where it was headed.

‘Way too low’
Witness Chris Smith was outside with his daughter when he saw the plane go down.

“It was flying way too low,” he told The Herald Dispatch of Huntington. “It was flying so low I could have thrown a rock up and hit the bottom of the plane.”

Smith’s wife, Amanda, said she heard a loud crash and saw nearby power lines shake. Then the lights went out.

“My husband ran in with my daughter because they were sleigh riding and said, ‘Call 911. A plane crashed,’” Smith told the newspaper.

Appalachian Power confirmed the plane hit a transmission line, but spokesman Phil Moye said power to the area was only briefly affected.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash. The plane is registered to Delaware-based Wesvin Inc.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: Indo Asian News Service
Sulekha.com

Nagpur, Jan 31 (IANS) Aircraft maker Boeing Saturday signed a land lease agreement with Maharashtra Airport Development Co. (MADC) for setting up a $100-million maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility.

‘We will have our second MRO unit here in Nagpur with Air India as our partner,’ Boeing senior vice-president Dinesh Keskar told reporters after signing the agreement.

The state-run MADC will provide land for the project.

Keskar said the construction work will begin by the end of next year. ‘By March-end, we will float tenders for constructing hangars and other facilities for the new MRO.’

Boeing chose Nagpur for setting up the facility as there is ample availability of manpower and land. The city also provides favourable climatic conditions for the facility, said the official.

Keskar added that the company will not cut jobs in India. Earlier, Boeing announced that it would slash 10,000 jobs worldwide.

The aerospace giant that manufactures passenger, freight and military planes has a workforce of 176,000 worldwide.

He added that said Boeing has orders worth $275 billion for supplying 3,700 aircraft to various airlines across the world.

‘It will take at least five years for the company to meet the demand,’ Keskar added.

Published: 15 May 08 13:21 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/

Armed Forces Supreme Commander Håkan Syrén fears that proposed cuts to the military will diminish its capacity to defend Sweden’s borders.

In a proposal featuring an array of downsizing measures submitted by Syrén to the government on Thursday, military operations in Arvidsjaur in northern Sweden will disappear with the dissolution of the city’s Arctic Ranger battalion.

A number of other training units and naval companies are to be shut down as well.

The move comes in response to government pressure to hold down defence spending.

Syrén warned that the military won’t be able to deliver what the government is demanding.

“The Armed Forces are being forced to lower their ambitions when it comes to their ability to repel extensive military operations which threaten Sweden,” said Syrén in a statement.

According to Syrén, Sweden won’t have the protection required if current security conditions deteriorate.

In addition to the training units which the Supreme Commander wants to shut down in Kiruna, Östersund, Gävle, Strängnäs, Eksjö, Skredsvik, Halmstad, Karlskrona and Berga, Syrén has also proposed a number of additional downsizing measures.

The tank training units in Boden and Revinge are to be discontinued, as will the naval companies in Härnösand, Gothenburg, Karlskrona, Malmö and Visby.

The Arvidsjaur ranger battalion’s operations will most likely be moved to the K3 Regiment in Karlsborg, located in the south of Sweden on the shores of Lake Vättern, according to Bjarne Hald, a representative from the Association of Military Officers trade union stationed with the Arvidsjaur battalion.

“They’re thinking of shuttering the army’s ranger battalion and the airborne battalion which trains at K3,” Hald said to the TT news agency.

“They then plan on creating an entirely new concept for the rangers, in which a part of the training will take place at Karlsborg.”

“Now we’re going to request the documents, including the appendices, from the Armed Forces, which show how they calculated when it comes to the downsizing,” said Jerry Johansson, a municipal commissioner from Arvidsjaur.

“It’s not possible to get a more cost effective training than that which is carried out by the ranger battalion here,” he said.

Around 150 people work at the Arvidsjaur ranger battalion, 80 of whom are officers.

Rikard Skiöld, chair of the officers’ trade union at the ranger battalion is extremely critical of Syrén’s proposal, claiming that Armed Forces’ planning is driven by special interests and personal relationships.

“They are watching out for the interests of those with ties to certain branches of the army and parts of the organization with which they have personal ties,” said Skiöld.

The Supreme Commander’s proposal, however, does not single out the air wing which ought to be closed down, according to Kent Löving, a spokesperson at the F17 Air Wing in Kallinge in southern Sweden.

A decision regarding the air wing won’t be made before September 2008.

Regardless of Syrén’s proposals, it is the Riksdag which has the final say on which bases are closed down, the shape of the Armed Forces, and the overall defence budget.

The Commander’s proposal will serve as part of the basis for Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors’s legislative proposal on the military’s future direction and financing, to be submitted later in the year.

In addition to the Supreme Commander’s proposal, the thoughts of the government’s Defence Commission on the issue are due in June.

The government’s so called implementation group has also laid out which equipment projects will be prioritized and which are at risk for being shut down.

TT/David Landes (news@thelocal.se)

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article-1:
Military offers proposal on defence cuts

Published: 30 Jan 09 15:55 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/

Sweden’s top military commander on Friday handed over to the government a lengthy report detailing a range of proposed reductions to the country’s armed forces.

The report, given by Supreme Commander Håkan Syrén to Defence Minister Sten Tolgförs, presents the military’s suggestions for changes to Sweden’s operational force structure to be completed by 2014.

“Today’s response from the Supreme Commander represents a powerful increase in Sweden’s defence capabilities when it comes to operability and readiness,” Tolgförs said in a statement.

However, the transformation of Sweden’s military will result in significant cuts as the country moves from having six motorized battalions and two light motorized battalions, as well as an airborne and amphibious battalion to having a total of eight deployable battalions.

The new plan calls for a reduction in the number of tank units in an attempt to concentrate the military’s resources in fewer places. Today, Sweden’s tank units are stationed in Skövde in central Sweden and in Revinge in Skåne in the south.

When it comes to marine units, the basing options will be maintained for priority areas such as the Baltic island of Gotland, Öresund in the northwest, as well as the straits of Kattegatt and Skagerrak separating Sweden from Denmark.

The military will also abandon one of its airbases by 2010 at the latest. Other parts of the affected garrisons will be preserved, while command centres and air defences will be moved to another place, writes the Supreme Commander.

Currently, Sweden’s military air wings are stationed in Kallinge in Blekinge in the south, in Såtenäs in central Sweden, and in Luleå in the north. There is also a helicopter fleet in Linköping in east central Sweden, as well as a flight training school in Uppsala north of Stockholm.

According to Syrén, Sweden’s capacity for defending its own territory needs to be improved. He says that units and equipment dedicated to surveillance and the collection of intelligence will be maintained and developed.

Another conclusion by Syrén is that Sweden ought to increase its number of ships and that older patrol boats be replaced with more modern ships.

After 2010, soldiers’ basic training, and the main parts of the unit assigned to maintain air bases, will be centralized in one place.

The reduction in operational forces will also result in the need for only four training platforms, rather than the current total of five.

The military’s proposal comes in response to the government’s request for advice from the Armed Forces about how the Swedish military will evolve between 2010 and 2014.

The Supreme Commander’s suggestions will provide the basis for a bill on the future direction of the military which Tolgförs is expected to present to the Riksdag in March.

TT/David Landes (news@thelocal.se)

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article-2:
Swedish army to be cut by one third

Published: 27 Jan 09 07:18 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/

Government policies will result in Sweden’s army being reduced by one third and the number of tanks being cut in half, Armed Forces Supreme Commander Håkan Syrén is set to announce on Friday.

Advance word about the massive cuts comes from a report in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper, citing sources within military headquarters.

A government directive to the Supreme Commander from November confirms that the military budget will be frozen at 38.9 billion kronor ($4.9 billion) per year through 2014.

But at the same time must every unit within the military’s operational forces be able to deploy more rapidly.

On Friday, the Supreme Commander will respond that the new requirements will mean dissolving operational units and a reduction in vital weapons systems, say several military headquarters sources to SvD.

The army will be hit the hardest.

“There will be a 30 percent reduction of ground forces units,” once source told the newspaper.

The number of soldiers and officers deployable for combat will be cut to 12,500, down from the current level of 20,000.

According to SvD, the cuts mean that the army will retain seven tactical battalions and that one battalion will be take from the amphibious corps and instead counted in ground combat forces.

In total, Sweden’s army will be left with eight battalions.

The military is also expected to shed half of its battle tanks. The government has said that tank battle groups should consist of lighter units which can easily be transported. In other words, according to SvD, the request means reducing the number of tanks.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

Jan 31, 1:09 PM EST

By DIAA HADID
Associated Press
kmov.com

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian militants fired a rocket from Gaza on Saturday that exploded close to the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon without causing any damages or injuries, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Israeli forces and Gaza militants are supposed to refrain from attacking each other under a fragile cease-fire. The truce has been breached several times, making diplomatic efforts to build a lasting agreement difficult.

The rocket attack was the first from Gaza since Thursday, said the Israeli military spokesman, who declined to be identified under army regulations. There was no claim of responsibility from any Palestinian militant group.

Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers stopped fighting in late January after a fierce three-week Israeli offensive meant to halt eight years of near-daily rocket fire from Gaza at southern Israel.

Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, about half of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians, according to the government

Since then, Palestinian militants have fired rockets sporadically toward Israel and killed one soldier on Tuesday. Israel has conducted retaliatory strikes and pounded border tunnels it says Hamas uses to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.

Hamas has ruled out a long-term cease-fire with Israel if officials do not open sealed border crossings with the coastal territory. Israel is unlikely to do so while the militant group rules Gaza and holds captive Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid in 2006.

President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, completed his first visit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Friday evening, but little substantive work can be done until Israel completes its elections.

On Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II called for the immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after meeting with Mitchell in Amman.

Abdullah said Mitchell “insisted very serious negotiations should start on basis of a two-state solution as soon as possible,” according to a statement issued by the royal palace.

“It’s important not to lose time, and to move immediately to resume talks,” Abdullah added.

On Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his criticism of Israel, this time for arresting leading Hamas parliamentarians in an interview with the Washington Post. In the interview, Erdogan described the West Bank and Gaza Strip as “an open-air prison” and said Israel’s moves provoked Hamas.

“You expect them to sit obediently?” he asked in the interview.

The Turkish Prime Minister’s frank criticism has come as its relationship with Israel appears to be in a downward spiral.

On Thursday, Israeli President Shimon Peres had a heated exchange with Erdogan at a panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland in which he accused the Israelis of killing children.

Later on Friday, Erdogan suggested the high Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza during Israel’s operation was intentional. On Saturday, Erdogan said the Israeli government “should check itself” over its war in Gaza.

“They should not exploit this issue for the upcoming elections in Israel,” he said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor condemned Erdogan’s comments.

“If Mr. Erdogan wants to be heard, he needs to be more truthful and more respectful of the facts, not to mention to show more respect to the Israeli president,” he said.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Jan 30, 7:09 PM EST

By VIJAY JOSHI
Associated Press Writer
news-journalonline.com

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka ruled out a cease-fire with the Tamil Tigers despite growing reports of casualties among civilians trapped in the northern war zone, as the military pushed ahead with its offensive against the rebels.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had urged the rebels to let the civilians leave the conflict zone by Saturday and guaranteed safe passage to all noncombatants. But the government insisted there would be no let up in its war to crush the rebels and end the country’s 25-year-old civil war.

“We are determined not to have a cease-fire, and we are determined to eradicate terrorism in Sri Lanka,” Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told reporters Friday.

The military ousted the rebels, who have been fighting for a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, from all major towns after heavy battles in recent months.

The rebels are now cornered in a 115-square mile (300-square kilometer) area of jungle and villages in the Tamil-dominated north, where some 250,000 civilians are trapped, according to the Red Cross.

Samarasinghe disputed the figure, saying less than 120,000 civilians were in the war zone.

“We will continue to … liberate those areas which haven’t been liberated yet and then free these people,” he said.

He denied reports that more than 300 civilians were killed in recent fighting and accused the rebels of forcibly recruiting civilians, giving them two or three days of training and putting them on the front line as cannon fodder.

“We have not targeted civilians and we will not target civilians,” he said.

But Tamil Tiger spokesman Balasingham Nadesan said the government has stepped up artillery attacks on civilian areas, leaving at least 28 people dead Friday.

Most civilians are “forced to live inside bunkers and civilian casualties were mounting,” Nadesan said on a pro-rebel Web site, TamilNet.

“Only a permanent cease-fire mooted by the international community and (ensuing) negotiations would resolve the conflict,” he said.

Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah, the top health official in the war zone, said his hospital in the rebel-held village of Puthukkudiyiruppu was overflowing with patients with shell blast injuries. Many of them had no beds and were forced to stay in the hallway, he said.

Accusations and counter accusations by the two sides are not possible to verify because the government has barred most journalists and aid workers from the war zone.

Human rights groups accuse the rebels of holding the civilians hostage and the military of launching heavy attacks in civilian-filled areas, including a government-declared “safe zone.”

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said top U.N. officials were “seriously alarmed” over the fate of civilians in the north.

“It seems there may have been very grave breaches of human rights by both sides in the conflict, and it is imperative that we find out more about what exactly has been going on,” she said.

UNICEF said many children - some just months old - have been injured, some had been killed and others are living in poor conditions.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the civil war, which grew out of complaints by Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization at the heads of successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority.

—

Associated Press writer Ravi Nessman contributed to this report.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

USA Today

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department will not renew Blackwater Worldwide’s contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq when it expires in May, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

The official told The Associated Press that the contract will expire because of the Iraqi government’s decision to deny Blackwater a license to operate. The Iraqis informed the State Department last week of the cancellation, which was made amid lingering outrage over a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

The official said that renewing the contract was “basically a moot point because they were not going to be allowed to operate in Iraq anyway.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has yet to be announced.

The State Department said that it was still considering options on how to protect U.S. diplomats in the wake of the Iraqi denial of Blackwater’s operating license.

Officials have said one possibility would be to replace Blackwater with one or a combination of guards from two other U.S.-based security contractors that work for the State Department in Iraq, DynCorp and Triple Canopy. Both have licenses to operate in Iraq.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell declined to comment on the status of the contract, saying the company had been informed that the State Department would like to meet with its executives “to discuss the situation.” But she stressed that Blackwater had always known that its services in Iraq would be temporary.

Blackwater executives say the company could leave Iraq within 72 hours of being told to do so, but they cautioned that such a move would cause more harm to the diplomats it protects than to the company itself.

In a Thursday interview with the AP at the firm’s North Carolina headquarters, Blackwater founder Erik Prince said he had not received any indication that the company would be ordered to evacuate in light of the license denial.

The Nisoor Square shooting strained relations between Washington and Baghdad and fueled the anti-American insurgency in Iraq, where many Iraqis saw the bloodshed as a demonstration of American brutality and arrogance. Five former Blackwater guards have pleaded not guilty to federal charges in the United States that include 14 counts of manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter.

Blackwater maintains the guards opened fire after coming under attack, an argument supported by transcripts of Blackwater radio logs obtained by the AP. They describe a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police.

A U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, which took effect Jan. 1, gives the Iraqis the authority to determine which Western contractors operate in their country.

Blackwater has been operating in Iraq without a formal license since 2006. The State Department extended Blackwater’s contract for a year last spring, despite widespread calls for it to be expelled because of the shootings.

Blackwater’s work in Iraq, which includes a reputation for aggressive operations and excessive force it disputes as unfair and inaccurate, turned the company into a catchall brand name for private security contractors. Executives said last year that the unwanted attention had them shifting their focus away from private security.

Executives also acknowledged that losing a contract that comprises one-third of the company’s annual revenues could disrupt its growth.

“It would hurt us,” Prince said. “It would not be a mortal blow, but it would hurt us.”

However, Blackwater has also repeatedly said that it performs the contract at the request of the government, noting that while revenues for the contract are high, the margins are low, and the work in Iraq has sullied Blackwater’s brand. Executives said this week that they’d prefer to focus on other endeavors, such as international training and aviation support, where they see greater room for growth.

Separate from its State Department work in Iraq, the country trained some 25,000 civilians, law enforcement and military personnel last year. It has a fleet of 76 aircraft, with many of them deployed in Afghanistan and West Africa.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Norway Post

The Norwegian Government has decided that the wreck of the WW2 German submarine U-864 which contains 65 tons of mercury, is to be raised, and that the contaminated seabed be covered with clean sand.

The wreck, which is located off the Norwegian west coast, near Fedje, north of Bergen, has long been considered an environmental hazard by the local population and environmental groups.

However, experts have long disagreed on whether or not the wreck should be raised or if it would be better to build a sarcophagus which would isolate the mercury from the marine environment, thereby eliminating the pollution hazard.

However, the head of the Marine Safety Directorate, Magne Roedland, disagrees. In his opinion the wreck should be raised.

He believes that the strong currents around the wreck will undermine the sarcophagus, and result in emissions of mercury. The local population agree, and have said the wreck must be removed.

On Thursday Fisheries and Coastal Minister Helga Pedersen announced that she had decided that the wreck be raised.

- I have given highest consideration to the insecurity felt by the local population, as well as the concern by the fisheries industry over possible contamination of the waters, if the wreck would just be entombed, Pedersen says to NRK.

(NRK)

30 January 2009

Air Force Technology

Boeing on Thursday welcomed the Obama administration’s mention of its C-17 transport plane on the White House website, the only weapons programme in production singled out by name, but said it was still awaiting word on possible orders in fiscal 2009 and 2010.

Jean Chamberlin, vice president of global mobility systems for Boeing and C-17 programme manager, told Reuters she remained hopeful that the company’s ahead-of-schedule performance, continued cost-cutting efforts and strong airlift demand would translate into more orders in coming years.

In addition, Boeing has already spoken with a number of countries to offer C-17 aircraft as substitutes for the EADS A400 military transport, given significant delays in that programme, Chamberlin said in an interview.

“We certainly have talked to a number of different nations,” Chamberlin said. “We’re ready to help with an interim solution while they wait for the A400M to be fielded.”

Airbus parent EADS this month said the plane built for seven European Nato countries, already two years late, could fall three to four years behind schedule.

Britain’s defence procurement minister this week refused to rule out cutting back Britain’s order of 25 A400M aircraft, saying his country needed the strategic capability.

Chamberlin said Boeing officials were available around the world to talk with A400M customers, but declined to name any specific countries with which talks had already taken place.

Three assessments
She declined to predict how many additional orders Boeing could get from the US Air Force over the next few years, or from international customers, and said much would depend on three separate assessments currently planned by the US military.

The White House website refers to the C-17 and the KC-X air refuelling aircraft as ‘essential systems’ in its defence agenda. KC-X is the name of the competition for a new refuelling plane.

One congressionally mandated look at strategic airlift needs is due to be completed by the independent Institute for Defense Analyses next month, while a mobility capabilities study is not expected to be finished until the fall.

In addition, the Pentagon is also gearing up to study all its major efforts as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review conducted once every four years.

Chamberlin said the high operational tempo in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, proposed troop increases in the Army and Marine Corps, and ongoing need for humanitarian and disaster relief all point to growing demand for airlift, and possibly additional C-17 orders.

Boeing already has orders from the US Air Force for 190 C-17 transport planes, and expects to get an additional order next month for 15 more planes approved in the fiscal 2008 war spending budget, Chamberlin said.

The Pentagon initially planned to cap the C-17 programme at 180 planes, but lawmakers, keen to maintain high-paying jobs in their districts, where Boeing plants and suppliers are located, have repeatedly added funding for the programme.

Boeing has invested large sums of its own money to keep suppliers on line until those orders are finalised.

The fiscal 2008 orders will keep the C-17 production line running through the third quarter of 2010, Chamberlin said, noting Boeing also hopes to secure orders for 15 additional planes in the supplemental war budget for fiscal 2009.

Further savings possible
The fiscal 2010 budget prepared by the outgoing Bush administration did not include any C-17s, she said; but Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week said the new administration would review that proposal and submit its own to congress in the spring, possibly by the end of March.

Given repeated mentions by President Barack Obama of the C-17 programme during his campaign, and most recently on the White House website, Chamberlin said Boeing was hoping for some additional C-17 orders in fiscal 2010.

She said Boeing had given Obama transition officials data about the C-17 program but did not know the plane would be singled out: “We’re encouraged by it, and surprised…”

Boeing was working on a possible multiyear proposal that would extend production for several more years and offer the Pentagon even more cost savings, Chamberlin said. The C-17 line employs 30,000 people at Boeing and its suppliers.

She declined to estimate the extent of possible discounts but said the company was continually working to reduce its production costs. “We certainly can offer options that will be affordable to the Department of Defense,” she said.

Analyst Joe Nadol at JP Morgan on Thursday said he expected Boeing’s defense units to show modest top-line growth in 2010, but he predicted ‘further risk to performance in 2011 and beyond, particularly on C-17′ and future combat systems.

By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters.

US Army | Jan 28, 2009
Defence Talk

ABERDEEN: The lightweight Future Combat Systems XM-360 120mm cannon — designed to sit atop the new Mounted Combat System — was test-fired here Jan. 22.

The XM-1202 Mounted Combat System is one of eight new vehicle types that the Army is developing through its FCS modernization program. The FCS vehicles will be lighter and more mobile than current Army combat vehicles; yet officials promise they will have greater lethality and survivability.

Lighter and more survivable vehicles are required to combat a growing array of new and more sophisticated threats, officials here said. Greater speed and mobility, coupled with better surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, can enhance operational effectiveness, while improving survivability, they said.

Composite FCS armor, for instance, which is being developed at Aberdeen, provides better armor protection at significantly less mass and weight.

“This will change the nature of warfare,” said Rick Crozby, an official with the Combined Test Organization for the FCS Brigade Combat Team at Aberdeen. “With these new [FCS] technologies, our Soldiers will have the ability to checkmate their enemies before their enemies even know that they’re there.”

FCS is being developed at dozens of test and development sites nationwide, and some of the significant work is being done at Aberdeen.

Maj. Cliff Calhoun, assistant product manager for the Mounted Combat System, said the test-firing is one of several that would occur over a few days that would bring the total number of firing trials for the cannon to 1,000. The weapon, he said, is significant because it is as powerful as the one mounted on the M1-A2 Abrams tank — also a 120mm gun — but comes in with significant savings in weight and provides automation that will help prevent the loss of lives.

“The Mounted Combat System is going to feature an automatic ammunition handling system,” Calhoun explained. “Our current force Abrams has a crew of four men — a gunner, tank commander, driver and loader. On the MCS, there’s a crew of three men — an automated loader takes care of that loading function. So instead of having four Soldiers in harm’s way, only three Soldiers are in harm’s way with the MCS.”

The MCS carries up to 27 shells that are for a mechanized loader to pull into the cannon. The automated system means that Soldiers do not need to hand-load the heavy shells.

Coupled with other FCS technology, the MCS will also bring beyond-line-of-sight capability to the battlefield, Calhoun said.

“In the current force, a tank can engage everything it can see out to about three kilometers — if you can see it you can engage it,” he said. “With the MCS, you are going to be able to — through the network — engage targets beyond line-of-sight.”

The FCS constellation of equipment includes two unmanned aerial vehicles — the XM-156 Class I UAV and the XM- 57 Class IV UAV. Either of those could be beyond the line-of-sight of the MCS, spotting potential threats, and then feed targeting information into the FCS network for use by MCS commanders.

“If we have an enemy vehicle on the far side of a terrain feature, for example, the network will be able to send imagery back to the MCS and we can engage and destroy in distances exceeding 10 kilometers,” Calhoun said.

The armament on the MCS mission module is also going to be lighter, as a result of carbon-fiber composites and an aluminum frame construction, said Edward Hyland, of Benét Labs.

“Our main goal was that we wanted all the performance of a current gun, but in a lightweight compact package,” Hyland said. “To do that we looked at the entire design of the gun, at every part, and asked how can we make it lighter and push it to the edge.”

Hyland said the Army, in cooperation with defense contractor General Dynamics, looked at new high-strength gun steels, lightweight alloys, titanium, aluminum, and carbon-fiber composites.

“The barrel on the Abrams tank is over 2500 pounds,” Hyland said. “Using these high- strength steels and carbon-fiber composites, we’ve taken off over 800 pounds from that. (The MCS gun) weighs a little over 1,700 pounds — 800 pounds lighter than the Abrams. That’s just the gun barrel. We did the same thing with the breech assembly and the recoil assembly. Overall the net weight savings is well over 2,000 pounds, actually 2,400 to 2,500 pounds lighter than the current gun — yet it has all the capabilities of that gun.”

Hyland said a gun as powerful as the 120mm cannon needed to be modified to reduce recoil, so it would be compatible with the lightweight MCS vehicle.

“What we had to do was drop the recoil forces so we could fire from a lightweight platform,” Hyland said. “We did that in two ways. We added a muzzle break to the gun tube and also optimized recoil system — like a shock absorber on a car. We’ve optimized it for this lightweight platform.”

Hyland said that modifications to the cannon did not make it any less effective or accurate, and that in the last three or four years of testing, they have demonstrated the gun has met accuracy, recoil and weight requirements for FCS.

The recent series of test-firings of the XM-360 120mm cannon will bring the system to technology readiness level 6, which means the system has been demonstrated in a “relevant environment” and represents a “major step up in a technology’s demonstrated readiness.”

Boeing

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 29, 2009 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced it has received the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation’s Omnibus Contract II (STOC II).

STOC II is a multiple-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract with a $17.5 billion cap over as many as 10 years. As awardees, Boeing and wholly owned subsidiary Tapestry Solutions are eligible to bid over the life of the program on a variety of delivery and task orders, depending on the Army’s needs.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems’ Training Systems and Services business unit will manage the STOC II program from St. Louis. Tapestry Solutions will manage its portion of the program from its facility in San Diego, focusing on simulation and exercise support.

“This contract allows us to provide a wide array of services for the warfighter, as well as expand further within the training and simulation markets,” said Training Systems and Services Vice President Mark McGraw. “Boeing is uniquely qualified to respond to the quick turnaround time required by ID/IQ contracts.”

Boeing uses a Streamlined Management and Response Tool to reduce response time on ID/IQ requests by quickly matching contract requirements to a database of suppliers. The company also can provide the high levels of technology and integration required to respond to all areas of STOC II: Boeing will use its Contractor Integrated Technical Information Service to provide a common, secure and controlled process of sharing data, applications and Web sites with external customers, suppliers and partners.

“Boeing’s management organization is key to keeping costs down while enhancing our ‘performance to plan,’” said McGraw. “We strive for continuous improvement, and our quality-management systems will help us meet the customer’s schedule and cost requirements.”

Boeing will work in close partnership with the Army Program Executive Office to provide management and oversight of all delivery and task orders awarded to the company within the STOC II environment.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world’s largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32 billion business with 70,000 employees worldwide.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
World Tribune

HERZLIYA, Israel — Executives and officials are discussing the feasibility of Israel becoming one of the top three developers in the space industry. Israel could become the leading space and satellite producer after such powerhouses as the United States and Russia, industry and government officials said.

The officials said Israel, currently ranked No. 8, possesses the technical capabilities to lead in such fields as micro-satellites and air-based launch.

“We could be one of the top three countries in space,” Israel Space Agency director Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael said.

At a space conference on Jan. 28, defense and satellite industry leaders agreed that Israel has developed sufficient niches to win a significant portion of the $150-200 billion per year worldwide space and satellite contracts. But they said the Israeli government must approve a major budget increase for civilian space programs as well as liberalize exports.

“We can’t do a lot with things that cost a lot of money,” Ben-Yisrael told the conference, sponsored by the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, said. “We can, however, have joint ventures with those much larger than us.”

Haim Eshed, head of the Defense Ministry’s space directorate, said Israel requires a $150 million budget for civilian space programs. Eshed, a retired brigadier-general, said Israel must invest in technology that should significantly reduce satellites and space launches.

“It’s clear that we know how to cope with most of the technical problems,” Eshed said. “Our advantage is that we know how to start a project and how to end a project.”

Industry executives and officials agreed that Israel must focus on the development of micro-satellites, or platforms that weigh no more than 100 kilograms. They also cited the need to fire space-launch vehicles from the air rather than the ground.

The Defense Ministry has already examined the feasibility of launching a microsatellite from a U.S.-origin F-15 fighter-jet. The state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems was said to have conducted the lion’s share of research.

Rafael president Ilan Biran said the government must define its space requirements, approve a budget and a timetable for projects. He said Israel must also develop such fields as satellite wideband communications and composite material.

Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries have maintained a joint venture for microsatellite production and marketing. After four years, no major contracts have been announced.

A key obstacle to space development, industry leaders, has been the Defense Ministry’s refusal to issue export licenses for components and technology required for joint ventures with Europe and other regions. Executives said government policy has discouraged Israeli participation in major space forums, such as the European Space Agency.

“The Defense Ministry must change the policy of export permits,” IAI president Yitzhak Nissan said. “The policy must be much more open.”

by Richard Tomkins
Baquba, Iraq (UPI) Jan 28, 2009
Space War

Unmanned aerial vehicles have proven their worth in the war on terror as reconnaissance and surveillance platforms that provide battlefield commanders with real-time, optically enhanced streaming video of terrain, suspicious movements and intelligence-driven targets of interest.

On the brigade level, the Shadow-200 tactical UAV stands out. On the battalion level and lower, it’s the Raven, a hand-launched UAV just 38 inches in length, with a 5-foot wingspan and with nose and side-mounted cameras. The battery-operated vehicle is so small, it can be packed in a suitcase and assembled in minutes. It can take to the air for about 60 minutes to provide soldiers in the field with real-time imagery of what lies ahead, although its cameras lack a zoom capability.

But neither the Shadow nor the Raven is weapons-capable. The Predator-MQ1, however, is another matter. It’s the big boy on the block with lethal punch to its payload, as terrorists in Iraq as well as Afghanistan have found out.

“It’s one of the most asked-for assets,” said Lt. Col. Debra Lee, commander of the Air Force’s 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron. “There’s a kind of bidding war that goes on for its time.”

The Predator is described by the Air Force as a “medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft system for interdiction and conducting armed reconnaissance against critical, perishable targets.” It’s 27 feet long, 6.9 feet high and has a wingspan of 48.7 feet. It’s powered by a four-cylinder, 110-hp engine and cruises at speeds from 85 to 135 mph at heights of up to 25,000 feet. Its range is more than 400 miles.

The electronics goody bag consists of a daytime variable-aperture TV camera, a variable-aperture infrared camera for low-light/night filming and other sensors that are packed under the nose in a basketball-sized and -shaped housing that rotates 360 degrees. The cameras stream real-time video to centers in the United States as well as to ground commanders closer to its flight sectors through satellite links. The cameras’ optical zoom capabilities — six step, 155x optical zoom — can be enhanced two times and four times digitally. Its electronics also allow the Predator’s cameras to “see” through smoke and haze.

Attached to pylons on its wings are two laser-guided AGM Hellfire missiles. A Hellfire launched from a Predator in 2006 killed Iraq’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi was the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and for months had successfully escaped determined U.S. and Iraqi efforts to capture or kill him — until intelligence about his travels in Diyala province in a particular vehicle was received. A Predator put paid to Zarqawi’s orchestration of terror.

“The Predator B — MQ-9 — can also carry 500-pound bombs,” said Lee, normally a B-1 bomber pilot. “We had some here, but they’re in Afghanistan now. But we hear we may be getting some again soon.”

The upgraded Predator is a 40-foot turboprop with a ceiling of 50,000 feet.

Lee’s unit is located at Joint Base Balad, which is north of Baghdad and west of Baquba. She and her 20 personnel, who include civilian contractors who maintain the Predators and their electronics, handle the birds during takeoff and landing phases.

28 January 2009, 22:44 CET
EU Business

(WARSAW) - Top brass from Germany and its neighbours France and Poland met in Warsaw on Wednesday to draw up plans for a joint battlegroup which is expected to be ready for action in crisis zones by 2013.

“The battalions are an important tool of crisis management for the European Union and demonstrate it is prepared to take responsibility in this important field,” German Brigadier General Hans Weirmann told reporters.

Poland, a member of NATO since 1999 which also joined the EU five years ago, will act as the so-called “framework state” in the Weimar-EU Battlegroup, responsible for its infrastructure while Germany and France are to provide support, Polish Brigadier General Anatol Wojtan said.

EU battlegroups consisting of 1,500 to 2,000 troops from various states work on the basis of six-month rotations during which they are ready for deployment to crisis zones, often supporting UN conflict resolution and humanitarian aid missions.

In 2006, defence ministers from Poland, Germany and France agreed to create an EU Battlegroup known as the Weimar Triangle.

The Weimar Triangle itself is a group created after the 1989 collapse of communism in Poland to support its Western democratic orientation.

Text and Picture Copyright 2009 AFP. All other Copyright 2009

9:14AM Friday Jan 30, 2009

The New Zealand Herald

WASHINGTON - An imprisoned ex-CIA spy and his son have been charged with renewing contact with the father’s former Russian handlers to get more money for espionage.

Harold Nicholson and his 24-year-old son, Nathaniel, have been indicted in Oregon, where the elder Nicholson is still serving time in a federal prison for past espionage charges.

The pair face charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and money laundering.

The indictment says Harold Nicholson, who pleaded guilty in 1997 after being paid US$300,000 (NZ$584,647) to pass secrets to the Russians, wanted to receive further payments for his work, and used his son as a go-between.

Officials charge his son Nathaniel collected another $35,593 in a series of recent trips to meet Russians in San Francisco, Mexico City, Lima, Peru, and even a T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant in Cyprus in December.

Nathaniel Nicholson was arrested yesterday in the state of Oregon and the two are scheduled to appear in court, officials said.

Harold Nicholson is currently serving a 23-year prison term in Oregon after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit extortion.

As a trainer of CIA personnel, authorities say he gave the Russians the identities of the young CIA recruits he was training, and the identities of other high-level CIA officers.

According to the new indictment, the Russians still thought Nicholson might be able to provide them valuable information - specifically, how he had been discovered and how much the investigators had learned about Russian spying.

- AP

Copyright 2009, APN Holdings NZ Limited

By kris osborn
Published: 29 Jan 20:23 EST (01:23 GMT)

Defense News

The U.S. Marines failed to ensure they got the best price for thousands of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, according to a Jan. 29 report from the U.S. Department of Defense’s inspector general.

Nevertheless, the report praised the Corps’ Systems Command for the vehicles’ rapid delivery.

“Marine Corps Systems Command [MCSC] officials did not properly determine that contract prices were fair and reasonable when they awarded nine firm-fixed-price indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts in January 2007 for MRAP vehicles,” the report summary states.

The report said MCSC officials did too little to keep MRAP prices from escalating.

“MCSC contracting officials did not attempt to obtain cumulative quantity pricing discounts from one of the contractors. Consequently, DoD has no assurance that prices paid were fair and reasonable and likely paid more than it should have for MRAP vehicles,” the report said.

The report recommends that MCSC follow Federal Acquisition Regulation requirements for determining prices.

One analyst said the MRAPs were needed too quickly for standard acquisition practices.

“The only magic to the speed of delivery was going outside the traditional acquisition system. You cannot provide speed to the warfighter in a highly regulated system,” said Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a think tank based in Arlington, Va.

He added that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “now faces a dilemma between getting something to the war fighter speedily … versus quality of oversight, where you ensure the best price.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jan. 29, 2009, 8:04PM
Houston Chronicle

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea declared all military and political agreements with South Korea “dead” Friday, toughening its stance while accusing Seoul of pushing the peninsula to the brink of war.

The North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Pyongyang was forced to nullify past peacekeeping accords between the two wartime rivals because of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s hard-line stance against the North.

“The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the north and the south in the past to dead documents,” the committee in charge of inter-Korean affairs said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The North warned that Seoul’s continued hard-line stance would only draw “a heavier blow and shameful destruction” on the South.

In Seoul, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said the government would issue a response later Friday.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because their brutal, three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. The peninsula remains divided by a heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, with thousands of troops stationed on both sides of the border.

Ties have warmed significantly over the past decade, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il meeting with then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in a historic summit in 2000. The detente helped pave the way for first inter-Korean exchanges in 50 years.

But tensions have been high since Lee took office in Seoul nearly a year ago pledging to get tough with Pyongyang. He questioned the wisdom of his predecessors’ “sunshine policy” of nurturing reconciliation by handing over aid to the nuclear-armed North unconditionally.

Pyongyang responded by cutting off all reconciliation talks with Seoul, suspending key joint projects and ratcheting up the rhetoric against a man they denounce as a “traitor” to Korean reunification.

“Never to be condoned are the crimes the Lee group has committed against the nation and reunification by bedeviling overnight the inter-Korean relations that had favorably developed amidst the support and encouragement of all the Koreans and ruthlessly scrapping the inter-Korean agreements,” the North said Friday.

Earlier this month, the North’s military accused the South of preparing to wage war and said it was prepared to respond to any southern aggression.

Seoul has denied plotting any attack on the North.

On Friday, the North declared all agreements on the Koreas’ disputed western maritime border “nullified,” raising the specter of a naval skirmish. Disputes over the border prompted two deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002.

The U.S.-led United Nations Command unilaterally drew the Yellow Sea border at the end of the war — but Pyongyang claims it should be redrawn farther south.

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article:
South Korea Tells North Korea to Stop Raising Tension

By Heejin Koo

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — South Korea told North Korea to stop raising tension on the Korean peninsula after the communist nation said it is scrapping all military and political agreements with the government in Seoul.

“Creating and raising tensions in South-North relations is not beneficial for the Korean peninsula, northeast Asia or for world peace,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho Nyoun said in Seoul. “We urge North Korea to return to dialogue.”

North Korea accused South Korea of pursuing confrontational policies that are pushing the two nations to “the brink of war,” according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency today.

The North Korean announcement comes less than two weeks after it threatened “strong military steps” in response to South Korea’s confrontational policies and about two months after North Korea imposed border restrictions with South Korea.

North Korea also said it is canceling an Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-Aggression, Cooperation and Exchange with South Korea and nullified the military boundary in the West Sea.

“All the agreed points concerning the issue of putting an end to the political and military confrontation between the north and south will be nullified,” the reunification committee in Pyongyang said, according to the official news agency.

Kim Jong Il’s regime has repeatedly called South Korean President Lee Myung Bak a “traitor” and a “sycophant to the U.S.” It has demanded South Korea stop civic groups from launching balloons loaded with so-called propaganda leaflets criticizing Kim.

Seeking Attention

“North Korea seems to be throwing a tantrum to seek attention from an apathetic South Korea,” Ryoo Kihl Jae, a professor at Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies, said by telephone. South Korea should discern North Korea’s “real intentions.”

The government in Pyongyang may be trying to get the attention of President Barack Obama’s new administration in Washington, which hasn’t shown signs of placing North Korea’s nuclear weapons challenge at the top of its must-do list in foreign affairs.

“I think this has a lot to do with Barack Obama and not much to do with South Korea,” Lance Gatling, a Tokyo-based consultant, who is an expert on North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction, said in an e-mailed exchange.

Reconciliation Accords

North Korea and South Korea, divided by one of the world’s most fortified and landmine strewn demilitarized zones, have two major reconciliation agreements, signed by South Korea’s former President Kim Dae Jung in June 2000, and another by former President Roh Moo Hyun in October 2007, after their respective summits with North Korea’s Kim in Pyongyang.

The agreement on the maritime border aims to avoid naval skirmishes such as the one in June 2002 that resulted in the deaths of six South Korean sailors and an unspecified number on the North Korean side.

“North Korea will raise tensions with South Korea, and try to make nice with the U.S., trying to drive a wedge between the U.S.-South Korea alliance,” Ryoo said. “This would put South Korea in a quandary.”

South Korea two days ago welcomed comments from Kim that he is committed to scrapping North Korea’s nuclear program and will continue efforts toward a peaceful resolution.

Kim told a Chinese Communist Party official at a Jan. 23 meeting in Pyongyang that North Korea “is committed to making the Korean peninsula a nuclear-free zone and wishes to live in peace with all the parties concerned,” China’s official Xinhua news agency reported at the time.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006, has rejected international demands that inspectors be allowed to remove samples from its Yongbyon reactor, the source of the regime’s weapons-grade plutonium. The refusal has stalled six- nation disarmament talks that also involve the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

North Korea and South Korea are still technically at war as their 1950-1953 conflict ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heejin Koo in Seoul at hjkoo@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 29, 2009 23:16 EST