26/09/2013 par Jacques N. Godbout – 45eNord.ca

Des dirigeants militaires chinois et français ont convenu mardi que les forces armées de Chine et de France devraient davantage renforcer leurs échanges et coopération, rapporte l’agence Chines-Nouvelles.

La Chine et la France sont toutes deux membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU et jouent des rôles importants dans les affaires régionales et internationales, a indiqué le général Wang Guanzhong, chef adjoint de l’État-major général de l’Armée populaire de libération (APL), alors qu’il a rencontré mardi Édouard Guillaud, chef d’état-major des armées françaises, selon ce que rapporte l’agence officielle chinoise.

Le chef d’État-major a déclaré que la Chine est prête à travailler de concert avec la France pour renforcer davantage les communications militaires, dialogues stratégiques et coopération de haut niveau, basés sur le respect et la confiance mutuels, afin de constamment faire de nouvelles contributions au partenariat stratégique global entre les deux pays, rapporte Chine Nouvelles.

L’amiral Guillaud pour sa part a fait remarquer que le Dialogue stratégique de la défense entre la France et la Chine, tenu du 22 au 24 septembre à Paris, était très important pour que les deux parties améliorent leur confiance mutuelle stratégique, approfondissent leur compréhension réciproque et promeuvent leur coopération militaire.

La France est satisfaite du développement des relations entre les forces armées des deux pays et a la volonté de renforcer davantage la coopération avec la partie chinoise, a dit le chef d’État-major français.

Le douzième dialogue stratégique entre les ministères de la Défense des deux pays s’est concentré sur le développement des liens militaires bilatéraux, ainsi que sur des questions régionales et internationales de préoccupation commune.

Par ailleurs, le ministre français des Affaires étrangères, lorsqu’il s’était rendu à Pékin le dimanche 15 septembre pour évoquer la situation en Syrie avec son homologue Wang Yi, avait pour sa part déclaré que la «relation bilatérale franco-chinoise est tout à fait excellente» et avait précisé que son homologue et lui avaient «parlé en particulier de ce qui va se passer l’année prochaine et qui sera une grande année franco-chinoise avec le cinquantième anniversaire de la reconnaissance de la Chine par la France du général de Gaulle», ainsi que des échanges sur le plan électro nucléaire, et sur le plan aéronautique notamment».

Sep 25, 2013 brahmand.com

PITHORAGARH, U'KHAND (PTI): Joint exercises in general combat and mountain warfare will form part of the two-week-long 5th Indo-Nepal war games, which began here on Tuesday.

The joint military exercise will also include anti-insurgency operations in hilly terrains and relief and rescue operations at the time of natural disasters.

The military exercise will conclude on October 6, an Indian Army source said.

"Over 900 Indian and Nepali troops are taking part in this exercise being conducted in mountainous terrains of the area shared by the geography of both the countries in this part of Indo-Nepal border," an Indian army spokesman said.

He said the exercise would prove to be another link of cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.

"The joint military exercises between Indian and Nepal began at platoon level, which has now reached at company level. This shows that both the countries are heading towards higher level of cooperation in the direction of sharing military methodology," the spokesman said.

According to Army sources, after having joint exercise at different locations in the state, Army jawans from both the countries will present cultural programmes on the concluding night of October 6.

26 septembre 2013 Par RFI Avec Anne Corpet à New York

Les cinq membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, réunis à New York, le 25 septembre, ont progressé en vue d’un accord sur les principaux points d'une résolution sur le démantèlement de l'arsenal chimique syrien. Mais il encore trop tôt pour parler d’accord, comme l'ont annoncé des diplomates occidentaux. Les Russes pensent que beaucoup de choses restent encore à discuter.

C’est une progression à tous petits pas, semés d’espoir et de douche froide. « Nous sommes proches d’un accord », ont pavoisé deux diplomates occidentaux en fin d’après-midi, le 25 septembre. Mais le porte-parole de la délégation russe à l’ONU, a aussitôt rétorqué : « les Occidentaux prennent leurs désirs pour des réalités ».

Il n’empêche, sous la pression du secrétaire général de l’ONU, Ban Ki-moon qui avait convoqué à déjeuner les cinq membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité pour les pousser à agir, des avancées auraient été constatées. Moscou serait en passe d’accepter qu’en cas de non respect de l’accord, une seconde résolution soit votée sous le chapitre 7 qui prévoit des sanctions. Ceci figurerait dans le texte de la première résolution. Or jusqu’ici, les Russes opposaient un niet catégorique à la seule mention du chapitre 7.

La question de responsabilité devant la justice des auteurs de l’attaque chimique serait également en voie d’être réglée. Mais de l’aveu d’un diplomate, il y a encore du travail à fournir avant d’aboutir. Le secrétaire général de l’ONU maintient en tout cas la pression, y compris sur la question du règlement politique du conflit. Il organise vendredi une nouvelle réunion des membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité, cette fois sur la conférence de Genève 2, annoncée depuis le mois de mai dernier, mais dont la date n’a pas été fixée.

Sur le terrain, des inspecteurs de l'ONU sont revenus ce mercredi 25 septembre en Syrie, pour vérifier des allégations du régime de Damas et des opposants sur les armes chimiques.

Par ailleurs, treize factions islamistes combattantes ont annoncé qu'elles n'obéiraient plus à la Coalition nationale syrienne, l'opposition politique qui est aidée par les Occidentaux et les pays du Golfe. Elles forment une nouvelle alliance avec un groupe lié à al-Qaïda.

25/09/2013 Sources : EMA

Depuis le 20 septembre 2013, la frégate type La Fayette (FLF) Aconit est engagée au sein de la Task Force 150 (TF150), la force navale de l’opération de contre-terrorisme Enduring freedom.

Avant de franchir le canal de Suez, la frégate Aconit a mené des entraînements avec des bâtiments de l’US Navy.

Le 19 septembre 2013, les hélicoptères embarqués français et américain ont effectué des exercices d’appontage. L’hélicoptère Panther du détachement 36F de l’Aconit s’est posé sur la frégate américaine USS Gravely qui a elle-même envoyé son hélicoptère Sea Hawk sur la frégate française. Ce type d’exercice permet de renforcer l’interopérabilité entre les deux marines et d’entraîner les pilotes à apponter en toute circonstance sur un bâtiment allié. En fin de matinée, les commandants en second de l’USS Stout et de l’USS Gravely se sont rendus sur l’Aconit où ils ont été reçus par son commandant. Au cours de la journée, deux officiers supérieurs américains ont embarqué à bord de l’Aconit, afin de découvrir la frégate et partager leurs savoir-faire.

L’USS Gravely et la frégate Aconit ont également mené plusieurs exercices ainsi qu’un ravitaillement à la mer auprès du pétrolier-ravitailleur USNS Leroy Gruman.

Dorénavant, la frégate Aconit et son équipage participe au volet maritime d’Enduring Freedom dans l’océan Indien. Depuis 2001, la France est engagée dans cette opération qui vise à suivre les mouvements maritimes dans une zone allant de la corne d’Afrique au golfe arabo-persique pour lutter contre le terrorisme et ses réseaux de soutien.

Les bâtiments français engagés dans cette opération conduisent également des entraînements et des manœuvres avec nos partenaires et alliés présents dans la zone pour renforcer l’interopérabilité de nos forces.

Rare earth oxides. Clockwise from top center praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium - Photoh by Peggy Greb, US Department of Agriculture

Sep. 25, 2013 - by HAL QUINN – Defense News              

Reliance on Foreign Sources Risks Readiness

In June, the US House Armed Services Committee released a draft of the fiscal 2014 Defense Authorization Act, which included several proposals dealing with critical minerals often used in Defense Department weapon systems.

For years, the Pentagon has raised concerns about access to minerals, and yet the government still lacks a modern, coherent minerals procurement strategy and useful mineral resources remain locked beneath US soil. As a result, US military and defense contractors find themselves at the mercy of foreign countries for the minerals they need.

Minerals are critical components of the advanced technologies on which modern militaries rely. Each year, DoD must acquire roughly 750,000 tons of minerals for an array of systems to ensure America’s fighting force remains at the cutting-edge. Beryllium, for example, is used in the airborne forward-looking infrared system, missile guidance systems and surveillance satellites, while molybdenum is an effective smoke suppressant and fire retardant — especially useful in the confined spaces on aircraft.

Despite the importance of these resources, the military and its suppliers are unable to readily access many of the minerals they need. As revealed by the DoD’s 2013 Strategic and Critical Materials Report, the US faces shortfalls of 23 minerals crucial to national security. This year, the US Geological Survey warned that we remain 100 percent dependent on imports for 18 minerals — many of which were flagged in the DoD’s report.

As the world’s population surges and millions join the middle class in fast-rising economies, demand and competition for these vital ores will continue to rise. According to a recent report by retired Army Brig. Gen. John Adams for the Alliance for American Manufacturing, “The increased demand for minerals has encouraged resource nationalism, where countries seek to exert greater control over the extraction and processing of key elements. Many minerals are mined in only a few countries, exposing the United States to potential supply disruptions and other risks.”

Night-vision devices (NVDs) offer a prime example of how supply disruptions threaten our military. NVDs are integral to countless defense operations and were key to mission success in capturing Osama Bin Laden. Despite ranking in the top four globally for rare earth reserves, the US imports nearly 80 percent of the rare earth elements needed to manufacture NVDs — among other defense technologies — from China. In recent years, China has imposed export restrictions on rare earths, forcing prices for the minerals to increase by nearly 300 percent and tightening the supplies available to American manufacturers.

Simply put, the United States cannot remain at the mercy of foreign governments for key security minerals and continue to jeopardize its strategic autonomy.

There is a solution to these escalating supply concerns, one that would both boost America’s security outlook and the economy: the $6.2 trillion worth of key minerals within US borders. Minerals such as copper, zinc and nickel could be extracted in greater abundance domestically with improved regulatory certainty. The extraction of these minerals would also generate a number of other crucial minerals for which we’re facing tight supplies. Copper ore, for example, contains rhenium, selenium and tellurium, along with small amounts of rare-earth elements. Zinc ore contains indium, germanium and cadmium.

But under the current minerals mining permitting process — which is marked by unnecessary delays and redundancies at the local, state and federal levels — it can take up to 10 years to secure approval to mine for these and countless other minerals in the United States. This is five times longer than it takes in countries with comparably stringent environmental standards, such as Australia and Canada. This policy pitfall has driven investment overseas, leading to a 13 percent drop in our nation’s share of global investments in metals mining over the past decade and an increased reliance on mineral imports.

Encouraging domestic mineral production and establishing secure mineral supply chains for manufacturers and the US military would put our national security back into our own hands. The bipartisan National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013, introduced by US Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., would address this national challenge. The bill would ensure a predictable and streamlined permitting process that maintains strict environmental protections, making the US more attractive to investment in mining and facilitating the development of minerals needed across our security spectrum.

For the US, a stable and robust mineral supply is, and will continue to be, a strong pillar supporting the nation’s global competitiveness, a key driver of its technological prowess and the foundation of countless national defenses. Allies and competitors alike have enacted policies to address minerals security, and it’s time for the United States to do the same. A reformed permitting process for minerals mines is a long-overdue first step.

Hal Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, which advocates on behalf of the US mining industry.

September 26, 2013 By  Zachary Keck - thediplomat.com

The first decade of drone and unmanned warfare has been the exclusive domain of nation states like the U.S. and Israel using armed drones to target leaders of non-state actors like al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Hamas.

This type of drone warfare will almost certainly continue into the future, albeit at a reduced pace in the case of the U.S. targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Other nation states may decide to make similar use of drones, if reports that China considered using drones to target an international drug trader are any indication.

Meanwhile, a second generation of drone warfare is taking shape: one in which countries employ unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) against other nation states.

As the world's military superpower, it should come as no surprise that the U.S. is taking the lead in this endeavor. In May of this year, the U.S. garnered some headlines when it launched the X-47B drone from the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush off the coast of Virginia. Many more heads were turned in July, when the X-47B drone became the first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to make a landing on the same aircraft carrier.

Last week a X-47B drone marked the 100^th flight in the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) program, which is geared toward maturing the capability to operate combat UAVs from aircraft carriers.

A press release announcing the 100^th flight stated: “The Navy UCAS program successfully completed all objectives for the carrier demonstration phase with the X-47B.” It went on to note: “The program is currently planning for continued carrier integration demonstrations and has also begun surrogate Learjet testing of the autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) capability.” Earlier this month, the Navy announced key successes in this latter, refueling objective.

This followed the Navy’s announcement in August that the two prototype X-47Bs would not be retired to museums as planned, but instead would continue to be utilized for the purpose of, among other things, “developing unmanned aircraft carrier fleet concept of operations.”

Also in August, the U.S. Naval Air System Command (NAVAIR), which is overseeing the efforts to develop a carrier-based UAV fleet, announced that it had awarded US$15 million Preliminary Design Review (PDR) contracts to four defense companies for the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program, which is designed to provide the U.S. Navy with its first deployed carrier-based unmanned air system.

As NAVAIR explained in a press release announcing the contracts, the carrier-based drone “will provide persistent, unmanned, semi-autonomous, carrier-based Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (ISR &T) with precision strike capability to support 24/7 carrier operational coverage.”

According to Defense News, the carrier-based UAVs will initially have a strike capability of around 2,000 km. This hints at a key purpose of the drones; namely, to allow the U.S. to continue to strike China with sea-based aircraft while keeping America’s aircraft carriers outside the range of the PLA’s DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). In other words, the sea-based drones will be a key component of America’s efforts to counter adversaries’ anti access/area denial (A2/AD) strategies.   

The U.S. is also putting together the larger infrastructure to execute this strategy. For example, in July Rear Adm. Thomas J. Moore, the Navy’s Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers, confirmed that the Ford-class aircraft carriers, the next-generation U.S. carriers, are being built with the capabilities to launch large fleets of UAVs off them.

As Moore explained of the Ford Class: “The flight deck has been designed to be bigger and have a higher sortie generation rate. The ship itself is built with three-times the electrical generating capacity than the Nimitz {Ford predecessor} class has – so it is not hard to envision that we are going to be flying unmanned aircraft off that ship.”

One crucial difference between using drones against terrorists in areas where the air force enjoys air superiority, and in using them against peer-competitors in contested air space, is that the vulnerability of the drones to air defense systems becomes a key concern in the latter environment. Thus, whereas U.S. drones can loiter over Pakistani airspace for days trying to pinpoint the location of al-Qaeda operatives, they will enjoy no such luxury in trying to eliminate China’s land-based missile systems.

As such, the carrier-based combat drones that come out of the UCLASS will be unlikely to conduct their own surveillance in many of the missions in which they were operate. For that, the U.S. is developing different UAVs. As Foreign Policy reported last month, the U.S. Navy envisions “swarms of tiny drones infiltrating heavily defended skies at will.”

Summarizing a U.S. Air Force official, the report noted that “these bug-like surveillance bots will be particularly useful in the Pacific…. Because that represents the toughest challenge for American spyplanes: snooping on say, a China equipped with increasingly advanced air defenses.” Presumably, these nano-drones will collect intelligence on targets for the UCLASS drones.

The U.S. is developing another unmanned system to counter China’s A2/AD strategy. Earlier this month, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) solicited bids from defense companies for its Hydra program, which will “develop and demonstrate an unmanned undersea system, providing a novel delivery mechanism for insertion of unmanned air and underwater vehicles into operational environments.” News reports suggest that submarines will also be launched from the Hydra system. This would give the U.S. the ability to launch carrier-based aircraft from devices that would be impervious to China’s ASBMs.

General Dynamics' Advanced Light Strike Vehicle, a variant of the Flyer vehicle, was awarded a test and evaluation contract by US Special Operations Command. (General Dynamics)

Sep. 25, 2013 - By PAUL MCLEARY  - Defense News

QUANTICO, VA. — General Dynamics has scored a perfect two for two this year when gunning for US Special Operations Command ground vehicle contracts. It won the $562 million Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) 1.1 bid in August — though the award is stalled by protests from AM General and Navistar — and has now secured a $5.8 million evaluation contract for a lighter, CV-22 Osprey transportable vehicle on Sept 12.

On Wednesday, GD spokeswoman Laurie VanBrocklin confirmed that the company’s Advanced Light Strike Vehicle — a variant of the “Flyer” vehicle that won SOCOM’s GMV contract — was awarded the 12-month test and evaluation contract that includes training and parts.

A government website outlines a contract “for a minimum basic quantity of 2 vehicles each with the ability to purchase 8 additional vehicles.”

The idea behind the program is to give operators a fast, protected, but lightly armored off-road vehicle that can roll out of the back of an Osprey and begin firing mounted weapons within 60 seconds.

In May, Defense News reported on comments made by Marine Lt. Col. Ken Burger, program manager for the Family of Special Operations Vehicles, who told an industry gathering that SOCOM’s plan is to request funding for the program beginning in the fiscal 2015 budget, and that Air Force Special Operations Command will begin doing combat evaluations of prototypes in 2014.

19/09/2013 Par Guillaume Steuer – Air & Cosmos

C'est Marwan Lahoud, patron de la stratégie d'EADS, qui le reconnaissait ce matin devant les députés de la commission de défense : "la montée en puissance de la production de l'A400M sera plus lente que prévue", expliquait le dirigeant dans le cadre d'une audition sur le projet de loi de programmation militaire (LPM) pour la période 2014-2019.

Ce projet de LPM ne prévoit la livraison que de 15 A400M pour les forces françaises d'ici à 2019, alors qu'il en était encore attendu 30 au titre du contrat qui avait déjà fait l'objet d'une renégociation en 2010. Le dirigeant a cependant précisé que cette nouvelle réduction ne devrait pas avoir "d'impact dynamique" sur les emplois, le programme n'en étant que dans sa phase initiale au niveau de la production.

Le patron de la stratégie a en revanche nuancé l'impact pour son entreprise du glissement du programme de renouvellement des avions-ravitailleurs français : le projet de LPM prévoit en effet l'acquisition de deux machines seulement sur la période, pour une cible globale de douze A330 MRTT. "Si EADS était une entreprise 100% militaire, ce serait une catastrophe", a-t-il rappelé, soulignant qu'Airbus livrait plus de 10 Airbus A330 chaque mois à des clients civils.

S'exprimant au sujet des drones, Marwan Lahoud a partagé son pessimisme quant à l'émergence à court terme d'un projet de drone Male (moyenne altitude longue endurance) européen, constatant que selon la LPM, "aucun programme de ce type ne devrait être lancé" avant la fin de la décennie. Il a en revanche souligné qu'en matière de R&T, la filière hélicoptères partageait de grandes similitudes avec celle des drones et que l'avenir était selon lui aux voilures tournantes "optionnellement pilotées".

WASHINGTON, September 25 (RIA Novosti) –

 A United Nations Security Council resolution on eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons will refer to – but not automatically trigger – military action to enforce Syria’s compliance with a US-Russian deal to destroy its arsenal, The Associated Press (AP) cited a Russian diplomat as saying Wednesday.

Washington has pushed for a resolution based on Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows for military action to promote peace, though Russian officials have repeatedly called this unacceptable.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the text of the resolution would include a reference to Chapter 7, though noncompliance by Syria would not automatically trigger the use of force, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

An agreement on the text of the resolution is likely in the next two days, the AP cited Gatilov as saying.

His comments emerged almost simultaneously with conflicting reports from diplomats Wednesday about the state of the negotiations over the Security Council resolution.

Reuters cited two Western diplomats as saying that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council had agreed on the core of a resolution.

The agreement came after the foreign ministers from the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain met Wednesday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Reuters cited the diplomats as saying on condition of anonymity.

But the spokesman for Russia’s UN delegation told Reuters that this is “wishful thinking” by the Western diplomats.

“It is not the reality,” the news agency cited the spokesman as saying. “The work on the draft resolution is still going on.”

The draft resolution could be presented to the full 15-nation Security Council “soon,” Reuters cited the two Western diplomats as saying, adding that the five permanent members – who each hold veto power – would meet Friday for talks on possible peace negotiations in Geneva between the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebel forces seeking to topple him.

Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, told the AP that he expects remaining differences over the text of the resolution to be resolved “in the next few days.”

The administration of US President Barack Obama has accused Assad’s government of responsibility for an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus that Washington claims left more than 1,400 dead.

Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly suggested in recent weeks that they have evidence showing the attack was likely carried out by Syrian rebels seeking to frame Assad in order to secure outside military intervention against government forces.

After weeks of intense diplomacy and an almost three-day-long marathon of talks in Geneva between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, Moscow and Washington reached a breakthrough agreement earlier this month to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control for eventual destruction.

The Obama administration has insisted that a Security Council resolution must include the option of military action against Syria should Assad’s government fail to abide by the deal. It has also said it reserves the right to conduct military strikes against Syria independent of the UN.

A US official told Reuters that negotiations were continuing. “We’re making progress but we’re not done yet,” Reuters cited the official as saying.

Sept. 25, 2013 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: US Department of Defense; issued Sept. 24, 2013)

Pentagon Contract Announcement

B.L. Harbert International LLC, Birmingham, Ala., is being awarded a $150,703,040 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a forward operating site at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.

The site will be comprised of 11 buildings, site work and supporting facilities required to support current and emerging operational missions.

The following buildings will be constructed on a site that is approximately 20 acres in size: aircraft hangar, air operations center, armory, joint operations center/tactical operation center/communication center, berthing/fitness/morale, welfare and recreation facility, logistics warehouse, maritime/riggers facility, training facility, engineering facility, vehicle maintenance shop, tactical support facility, and an aircraft parking apron.

The contract also contains three unexercised options, which if exercised would increase cumulative contract value to $156,809,541.

Work will be performed in Djibouti, Africa, and is expected to be completed by August 2016.

Fiscal 2011 military construction overseas contingency operations supplemental appropriations, Army contract funds in the amount of $150,703,040 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with 10 proposals received.

The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-13-C-3001).

-- Caddell Construction Co., Inc., Montgomery, Ala., is being awarded a $36,169,500 firm-fixed-price contract for the design and construction of a combined headquarters building and joint operations center facility at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.

The work to be performed provides for the design and construction of a multi-story building consisting of administrative space, open and private offices, and multi-purpose conference rooms.

There will be open storage secure areas with compartmented areas within.

The contract also contains two unexercised options, which if exercised would increase cumulative contract value to $39,484,500.

Work will be performed in Djibouti, Africa, and is expected to be completed by December 2015. Fiscal 2013 military construction overseas contingency operations supplemental appropriations, Navy contract funds in the amount of $36,169,500 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 13 proposals received.

The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-13-C-3000).

-- ITSI Gilbane Co., Walnut Creek, Calif., is being awarded a $16,635,737 firm-fixed-price contract for power plant upgrades at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.

The work to be performed provides for electrical and mechanical renovations to Power Plant 2, Power Plant 3, and a modular building, Power Plant 2A.

The contractor will provide and install eight new power modules to supplement the four existing power modules, as well as an overflow fuel tank and a fuel line connecting Power Plant 2 and Power Plant 3.

Work will be performed in Djibouti, Africa, and is expected to be completed by October 2014.

Fiscal 2012 research development test and evaluation, Navy; fiscal 2012 operations and maintenance, Navy; and fiscal 2011 military construction overseas contingency operations supplemental appropriations, Army contract funds in the amount of $16,635,737 are being obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 10 proposals received.

The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-13-C-3006).

MOSCOU, 25 septembre - RIA Novosti

La Russie est préoccupée par la situation en République centrafricaine (RCA), a indiqué à RIA Novosti Mikhaïl Marguelov, représentant spécial du président russe pour l'Afrique et chef de la Commission des Affaires internationales du Conseil de la Fédération (chambre haute du parlement).

"C'est un Etat en décomposition dirigé par les chefs de guerre de la coalition amorphe Séléka. On est en présence d'une militarisation vertigineuse et d'une +somalisation+ du pays", a déclaré le sénateur russe.

Et d'ajouter que les violences se multipliaient et revêtaient un caractère interconfessionnel, risquant de déborder les frontières de la RCA.

M.Marguelov a participé mercredi à New York à une réunion de haut niveau consacrée à la catastrophe humanitaire en Centrafrique, déclarant que Moscou partageait les évaluations alarmantes de la situation politique, militaire et humanitaire dans ce pays africain.

Livrée à des bandes armées qui terrorisent la population, la Centrafrique s'enfonce dans une spirale sans fin de violences sous les yeux d'un pouvoir impuissant qui place désormais ses espoirs dans l'Onu. 1,6 million de Centrafricains, soit un tiers de la population, a besoin d'une aide humanitaire d'urgence, selon les Nations unies. Plus de 270.000 personnes ont été déplacées ou se sont réfugiées dans les pays voisins. La situation dans le pays risque d'échapper à tout contrôle.

Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant will present a line of optoelectronic systems

25.09.2013 Rostec.ru