MOSCOU, 9 avril - RIA Novosti

L'Iran et les six médiateurs internationaux sur son programme nucléaire (Chine, Etats-Unis, France, Royaume-Uni, Russie et Allemagne) ont convenu mercredi à commencer à rédiger un document final lors de leur prochaine rencontre, rapporte le ministère russe des Affaires étrangères.

"Un examen approfondi de tous les éléments d'un futur accord s'est achevé. Ainsi, lors du prochain round de négociations qui est prévu à Vienne les 13-16 mai, les parties ont convenu à commencer à rédiger un document final", lit-on dans le communiqué.

Selon les parties, les négociations sur le programme nucléaire iranien vont dans le bon sens. La réunion de travail qui s'est achevée mercredi dans la capitale autrichienne est la troisième organisée depuis que Téhéran a accepté en novembre dernier de geler une partie de ses activités nucléaires en échange d'une levée partielle des sanctions qui étouffent son économie. L'Iran doit prouver à la communauté internationale qu'il ne cherche pas à se doter de la bombe atomique sous couvert d'un programme nucléaire civil.

01.04.2014 Naomi Tzoref - iaf.org.il

Although it seems like the "Iron Dome" system has always been a part of the protection of the residents of Israel, today actually marks only three years since its first interception. Since then, the system has recorded hundreds of interceptions, been deployed around the country and boosted drafting percentages

Three years have passed since the "Iron Dome" system has become a significant part of the lives of the residents of southern Israel. Since the first interception above the city of Ashkelon, "Iron Dome" batteries have been deployed across Israel and the system is considered a central layer of defense against the threat of rockets.

The military service of the combat soldiers and technicians who operate the "Iron Dome" is unique: the location of the batteries in open areas close to population centers requires dealing with field conditions that are especially complex, as their location changes on short notice depending on intelligence picture.

The operators have to deal with an intensive routine, to adapt to the front and to stay alert all the time.

"Unlike other units, we don't have work plans that are determined ahead of time. Our activities are the result of the conduct of the enemy", explains Lieutenant Colonel Gilad Biran, commander of the unit. "The soldiers serving in the unit are called up on short notice over and over without warning. In fact, most of the soldiers continuously spend the duration of their service on high alert".

Because Of The Spirit

In the last three years, the unit has managed to grow and develop in all areas: from the integration of batteries and weapons to the accumulation of rich operational experience that includes hundreds of rocket-fire incidents.

"The spirit forged in the unit is what enables us to perform the complex task as efficiently as possible", explains Lieutenant Colonel Biran

Men and women serve side-by-side in the many posts at the "Iron Dome" battery: combat soldiers, interceptors and soldiers in the technical branch-everyone is greatly influential at the moment of truth.

"It's important to understand that the operations of the unit are not one-man show", Lieutenant Colonel Gilad stresses. "It's a team effort; it's just like an orchestra, in which every player plays a certain role. Only if everyone works precisely, with vigor and to the best of his/her abilities will overall tune come out fluent and accurate".

Someone Watching Over You

The tune Lieutenant Colonel Gilad mentions is frequently heard in the southern communities: in the last three years, the system has become a significant tool in the lives of the residents of the southern communities and it takes part in every round of fighting.

"Every single one of us feels the weight of responsibility", says Lieutenant Colonel Gilad. "It is clear to us that there isn't a unit similar to us in the IDF, there isn't anyone who can do the job for us. There is a deep understanding of the meaning of our operations, we provide a clear and substantive answer to the security of the country, we protect the home and, in so doing, we save a lot of lives".

The unit, which started its operations in the Gaza strip borders, operates on the northern border today and even on the Sinai border and its batteries are ready to be deployed at any time at any point on the map.

"It's hard for us to expect the security reality and we are prepared for different scenarios", he clarifies. "We are ready for the threats, but it's important to adjust the expectations to the reality: the unit cannot provide a hermetic solution during a large-scale war. This type of solution cannot only include defense capabilities; it must also include offensive ones in addition to detection, reliable deterrence and adherence on the part of the civilian population to the instructions of the Home Front Command".

The Spexer 2000 security radar improves the surveillance of borders substantially. Photo: Airbus DS

Munich,  08 April 2014 Airbus Defence and Space

Spexer 2000 security radar improves border protection

Airbus Defence and Space has been awarded a contract for the delivery of four of its Spexer 2000 security radars to further improve the surveillance of the borders of a major Middle Eastern country. The contract is an extension to an existing contract for the delivery of more than 40 Spexer 2000 radars, which have been operating successfully for almost two years now.

Thomas Müller, head of the Business Line Electronics at Airbus Defence and Space, said: “Spexer 2000 is using state-of-the-art Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) technology, which provides a multi-tasking and multi-mode capability, and increases the detection and target assessment capability substantially. Due to this, Spexer 2000 can replace several conventional radars.”

Spexer 2000 is optimized for the surveillance of borders and other applications which require the monitoring of vast areas over long distances of 40 km. With high Doppler and velocity resolution as well as high clutter suppression, Spexer 2000 is able to reliably detect, track and classify even very small and slowly moving targets such as pedestrians, and also fast objects such as speed boats or low-flying objects such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. In addition, a camera mounted on top of the radar can be cued to the radar in order to identify suspicious objects.

This technology ensures a high level of situational awareness providing border guards and security forces with additional reaction time towards illicit intrusions. The radar is qualified according to several military standards and provides a very high availability and MTBCF (mean time between critical failure), combined with a low false alarm rate and reliable performance even in severe environmental conditions.

Spexer 2000 is part of Airbus Defence and Space’s Spexer security radar family which consists of several radars, each optimized for specific surveillance applications including border, infrastructure, perimeter and coastal surveillance. A specific military version has been developed for the German Army.

About Airbus Defence and Space

Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus Group formed by combining the business activities of Cassidian, Astrium and Airbus Military. The new division is Europe’s number one defence and space enterprise, the second largest space business worldwide and among the top ten global defence enterprises. It employs some 40,000 employees generating revenues of approximately €14 billion per year.

08/04/2014 Marine nationale

À l’occasion de son passage à Paris le 7 avril, le vice-amiral d’escadre Oussama Ahmed El Guindy, commandant des forces navales égyptiennes, a été reçu par l’ amiral Bernard Rogel à l’Hôtel de la Marine. Ce fut l’occasion de faire le point sur la coopération bilatérale avec la marine de ce pays à la position géographique stratégique.

Carrefour entre l’Europe, l’Afrique de l’Est et le Moyen Orient, l’Egypte administre en effet le canal de Suez, point maritime névralgique entre la Méditerranée et la mer Rouge. Construit par Ferdinand de Lesseps en 1869, ce canal a permis de réduire fortement les transits entre l’Europe et l’Asie en évitant le contournement du continent africain. Les 20.000 navires qui le traversent chaque année génèrent toujours 10 % du PIB de l’Egypte. L’importance du canal de Suez, à la fois pour l’Egypte et pour le trafic maritime mondial, explique que la présidence de l’autorité du canal soit traditionnellement confiée à un ancien chef d’état-major de la marine, actuellement le vice-amiral d’escadre Mamish.

Voie essentielle de navigation pour les unités de la Marine nationale rejoignant l’océan Indien, il est emprunté en moyenne une trentaine de fois par an par nos bâtiments. Outre cette conséquence de la géographie, les relations navales entre nos deux marines se concrétisent par des escales régulières. Le navire-école égyptien Shalateena ainsi fait relâche à Toulon l’année dernière. En 2014, l’exercice Cleopatra, organisé tous les deux ans, se tiendra du 31 mai au 3 juin au large de Toulon. La frégate de lutte anti-sous-marine Montcalm, le bâtiment de commandement et de ravitaillement Marne devraient y participer, ainsi que cinq bâtiments égyptiens. L’objectif de cet entrainement majeur sera de conduire une opération aéromaritime commune de surveillance et de contrôle de zone.

Avant de quitter la France, le vice-amiral d’escadre El Guindy se rendra en Bretagne pour visiter une FREMM.

Apr 6, 2014 ASDNews Source : Lockheed Martin Corporation

The Sultanate of Oman accepted the first of its second order of Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-16 Fighting Falcons in a ceremony April 3 at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth facility. The fighter aircraft will ferry to Oman later this year.

In 2002, the Sultanate of Oman became the 23rd member of the F-16 family and now joins the 15 other countries which have ordered additional F-16 jets for their air defense. The new F-16s will add to the Oman Air Force's existing fleet of F-16s used to defend Oman's borders.

Read more

7 avr. 2014 Belgian Defense

April 6, 2014:  Strategy Page

Turkey recently conducted a successful test of its Hellfire clone, the Mizrak-U. With a range of 8 kilometers the Turkish missile can use either an infrared imaging guidance system or laser homing. Turkey becomes one of a growing list of nations that have produced their own version of the Hellfire. Britain produces a Hellfire variant, called Brimstone which is unique mainly in that it can be fire from jets. This version has become very popular as well. Several other countries, like China, have produced missiles similar in weight, size and capabilities to the Hellfire. Now Turkey is doing so as well.

The American AGM-114 Hellfire missile entered service since 1984 and proved enormously useful in the war on terror. An improved Hellfire II appeared in 1994 and over 30,000 have been produced so far. The Hellfire II weighs 48.2 kg (106 pounds), carries a 9 kg (20 pound) warhead and has a range of 8,000 meters. These have been the most frequently used American missiles for over a decade, with over 16,000 fired in training or (mostly) combat since 2001. A growing number of these Hellfires are for foreign customers. Hellfire missiles cost about $100,000 each depending on warhead and guidance system options.

Hellfire was originally designed for use by helicopter gunships against masses of Cold War era Russian tanks. That never happened, except in Kuwait during the 1991 war against Russian tanks owned by Iraq. Hellfire was quite successful in Kuwait. With the end of the Cold War the Hellfire seemed destined for the history books, as just another missile that worked but never distinguished itself. This all changed in 2002 when the CIA first used a Hellfire fired from a Predator UAV to kill a hard-to-find terrorist. The U.S. Air Force wasn’t really interested in this sort of thing and the CIA used its own money and authority to buy Predator UAVs and arm them with Hellfires. It quickly became apparent that the air force was wrong about UAVs and, well, the Hellfire was an army weapon used on helicopters and the air force never considered such a combination of UAV and missile useful for anything. The army soon found that Hellfire was an excellent weapon for supporting troops in urban areas or when going after terrorists anywhere.

Turkey plans to use Mizrak-U on its new T129 helicopter gunship. This aircraft is based on the Italian A129 which is roughly comparable to the upgraded versions of the U.S. AH-1 (especially the AH-1W SuperCobra). The 4.6 ton A-129 was the first helicopter gunship designed and built in Western Europe and was introduced in the 1980s. While it has been upgraded frequently, the only customer so far has been Italy, which bought 60 of them. The manufacturer, Agusta/Westland, has been desperate to get an export customer and made a deal for Turkey to produce over a hundred T129s under license.

06-04-2014 French.china.org.cn

Une flotte de navires de guerre pakistanais actuellement à quai dans le sud de l'Iran va participer à un exercice conjoint avec la marine iranienne dans le détroit d'Ormuz, a indiqué samedi un haut commandant iranien.

La flotte est arrivée samedi dans le port méridional de Bandar Abbas où elle va rester pendant quatre jours, a indiqué le commandant en second iranien pour les opérations de la marine, le Contre-amiral Shahram Irani.

"La partie la plus importante du programme de la flotte pakistanaise pendant sa présence à Bandar Abbas sera de participer le 8 avril à des manoeuvres conjointes avec des unités choisies (...) de la marine iranienne, qui auront lieu à l'est du détroit d'Ormuz," a précisé Irani.

La flotte pakistanaise est porteuse d'un message de paix et d'amitié et aidera à renforcer la coopération militaire entre Téhéran et Islamabad, a-t-il expliqué. La flotte comprend un navire lance-missiles, un navire logistique et un sous-marin moderne.

4 April 2014 naval-technology.com

Nakilat Damen Shipyards Qatar (NDSQ) has signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the Qatar Armed Forces to build seven vessels, in a deal worth QAR3.1bn ($850.6m).

Following the finalisation of all of the required agreements, the Qatari shipbuilder will construct the vessels at its shipbuilding facility at Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma in Ras Laffan.

Under the terms of the deal, NDSQ will build six 50m long axe-bow high-speed patrol vessels and one 52m-long diving support vessel, which comprises decompression capabilities, for the armed forces.

A large integrated logistics support package will also be produced.

NDSQ chairman and Nakilat managing director Abdullah Fadhalah Al Sulaiti said: "To be given the opportunity to build these vessels for Qatar will be an incredible achievement and a strong contribution to the continued growth of our nation's marine industry.

"We are thankful to HE major general Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah, minister of state for defence and we also thank the Qatar Armed Forces for placing their trust in our company and in Qatar's marine industry."

NDSQ, which builds ships with steel, aluminium and fibre reinforced plastic (FRP), is a joint venture between Nakilat and Dutch shipbuilder Damen.

04 avril 2014 Romandie.com (AFP)

BEYROUTH - Les chars et avions de l'armée syrienne ont bombardé vendredi la localité assiégée de Mleiha, à l'est de Damas, dans une tentative de prendre ce secteur rebelle, a rapporté l'Observatoire syrien des droits de l'Homme (OSDH).

De violents combats ont éclaté à la périphérie de Mleiha, causant la mort de huit combattants anti-régime, a ajouté l'OSDH. La veille, 22 rebelles avaient péri dans cette localité.

Vendredi, l'armée a mené quatre raids contre Mleiha, qu'elle assiège depuis près de six mois, à l'instar de la majorité de la Ghouta orientale, a précisé cette organisation basée en Grande-Bretagne qui s'appuie sur un large réseau de militants et de médecins.

Mleiha est proche de la banlieue de Jaramana, tenue par le régime et fréquemment visée par des tirs de mortier des rebelles.

Depuis deux jours, le régime d'Assad tente de pénétrer dans Mleiha, et les rebelles de l'Armée syrienne libre (ASL) y font face, a déclaré à l'AFP via internet un militant sur le terrain se présentant sous le nom d'Abou Saqr.

Selon lui, les combats sont féroces entre les rebelles et les forces gouvernementales, des soldats appuyés par des miliciens syriens et irakiens.

L'armée a lancé en mars 2013 une offensive pour prendre les bastions rebelles de la Ghouta orientale, et assiège complètement cette région de la périphérie de Damas depuis octobre.

Des dizaines de milliers de civils vivent toujours dans cette zone, avec des bombardements quotidiens et de graves pénuries de nourriture dans plusieurs villes et villages.

Selon l'OSDH, le manque de soins médicaux a coûté la vie à une fille jeudi dans cette région.

A Damas, 22 personnes ont été blessées par des tirs de mortiers sur deux quartiers du centre-ville, selon l'agence officielle Sana, qui a attribué ces attaques aux terroristes, terme utilisé par le régime pour désigner les rebelles.

Dans le nord, les combats ont repris dans la région côtière de Lattaquié, fief du clan du président Bachar al-Assad, où les rebelles avaient lancé une offensive il y a deux semaines.

Les combats, féroces, se concentraient toujours vendredi sur une colline stratégique dite Observatoire 45, selon la Commission générale de la révolution syrienne (CGRS), un réseau de militants sur le terrain.

Vendredi, huit combattants rebelles et huit loyalistes ont péri dans ces combats, selon l'OSDH, qui décompte plus de 300 combattants tués des deux côtés dans la région de Lattaquié ces deux dernières semaines.

Parmi ces morts figure le jihadiste marocain Ibrahim Benchekroun, un ancien prisonnier à Guantanamo connu sous le nom d'Abou Ahmad al-Maghrebi, qui avait combattu les troupes américaines en Afghanistan, selon la même source.

Dans la province d'Idleb (nord-ouest), les rebelles ont repris les localités de Babouline et Salhiyé, un an après leur chute aux mains du régime, selon l'OSDH, faisant état de 18 soldats tués dans les combats.

Ce progrès a resserré l'étau autour de Wadi Deif, une des dernières importantes bases de l'armée dans la province d'Idleb.

A Alep (nord), au moins 11 personnes ont été tuées dans un raid aérien sur le quartier rebelle d'al-Chaar, selon l'OSDH qui avait donné un précédent bilan de deux morts.

Des centaines de personnes, en majorité des civils, ont été tuées dans des raids contre des zones rebelles de la ville d'Alep, depuis le lancement d'une offensive aérienne d'envergure en décembre.

4 avril 2014 par Daniel Favre – Info Aviation

Des images prises au-dessus de la Syrie révèlent que certains MiG-25 Foxbat du pays sont toujours opérationnels.

La Force aérienne syrienne arabe (SAAF) a acquis un nombre indéterminé de MiG-25 comprenant quatre versions : des chasseurs MiG-25P, des intercepteurs MiG-25PD, des bombardiers de reconnaissance MiG- 25RB, et des avions d’entraînement MiG- 25PU. Le MiG-25 est l’un des avions militaires les plus rapides jamais mis en service à la fin des années 1970.

La SAAF avait laissé entendre qu’elle retirait ses MiG-25 depuis 2011. Cette rumeur a été confirmée par l’imagerie satellite montrant de nombreux MiG-25 stationnés en plein air à la base aérienne de Tiyas (également connu sous le nom T4) au lieu d’être stockés dans des bunker pour avion.

L’image satellite de la base prise le 3 novembre 2013 montre 28 MiG-25, dont la majorité sont sur d​es aires de stationnement autour de la piste, mais 12 ont été remorqués dans le désert, ce qui suggère qu’ils sont à l’abandon. Les images prises le 1er janvier 2014 suggèrent qu’aucun des 28 MiG-25 n’ont été déplacés au cours des deux mois suivants.

Néanmoins, une image diffusée par un groupe d’insurgés le 8 août 2012 suggère que certains MiG-25 pourraient être opérationnels à la base aérienne de Tadmor (Palmyre), qui est à 60 km à l’est de Tiyas. L’image montre deux intercepteurs MiG-25PD/PDS apparemment actifs et un avion d’entraînement MiG- 25PU sur le tarmac. Aucun avion de reconnaissance MiG-25RB n’a en revanche été aperçu.

Cette affirmation a été confirmée par deux vidéos diffusées en mars 2014, qui montrent un MiG-25 survolant Uqayribat, une ville située à 60 km au nord de la base aérienne de Tiyas.

Il semble que la SAAF n’ait jamais officiellement supprimé ses MiG-25. La plupart ont simplement été entreposés ailleurs. C’est le cas des Su-22, Su-24 et MiG-23 qui sont utilisés régulièrement pour assurer des missions d’attaque air-sol contre les insurgés. La SAAF a même commencé à utiliser des avions moins adaptés à l’attaque au sol comme ses MiG-23MF/ML, MiG-29 et MiG25RB.

Il est probable que le MiG-25 fera son retour dans les airs afin de protéger les avions d’attaque au sol de la SAAF près de la frontière turque suite à la destruction d’un MiG-23 syrien par un F-16 turc. Les intercepteurs MiG-25PD/PDS sont en effet armés de missiles R-40RD à radar semi-actif et de missiles R-40TD à tête chercheuse infrarouge qui peuvent inciter la Force aérienne turque à réfléchir à deux fois avant d’engager à nouveau des avions syriens.

02 April 2014 by Oscar Nkala - defenceWeb

Nearly 300 members of the Libyan Army have returned home after successfully completing a commando training course in Turkey as part of an international military programme to train more than 15 000 Libyan troops over the next decade.

In terms of agreements signed between the Libyan government and partner nations, the troops will be trained in Turkey, Italy, France and the United Kingdom and by the US Army at selected military bases in Bulgaria.

The Libyan Herald quoted Turkish embassy official Tufan Hobek as saying only 300 soldiers from an initial group of 440 soldiers who were recruited in Libya last year completed the gruelling training programme at a Turkish military academy near the city of Isparta.

“One of the reasons for this was that some recruits found the training too challenging,” Hobek said. He said the graduates, who had prior military training in Libya, were taken through drills which included further lessons in martial arts, operational drills and lessons in moral and religious guidance, national and cultural awareness.

Hobek said a second batch of Libyan Army personnel which includes 51 military cadets drawn from all army and air force units will leave for training at Turkish army schools in the capital Ankara and the commando academy near the city of Isparta. Libyan Army officials said another batch of recruits will leave for training at a British military academy this month.

According to Hobek, the Turkish government has plans to help the Libyan government set up a military academy for the in-country training of special forces in the Libyan town of Tajoura and may establish a military hospital in Tripoli if the two governments agree on terms.

Turkey is expected to train more than 3 000 selected Libyan Army personnel in the near future. The return of the first Turkish-trained group coincided with the arrival of two of an expected 11 members of the US Army delegation in Tripoli to help the government with logistics and the vetting of recruits for the upcoming US-run special forces training programme set to begin in Bulgaria in July.

In terms of an agreement signed last year with former Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, the US Army will train up to 8 000 Libyan soldiers as part of the international effort to rebuild the nation’s military, which collapsed during the 2011 civil war.

Like the programme offered in Turkey, the US training programme in Bulgaria will be run by up to 300 US instructors and will accommodate small groups enrolled on a rotational basis over an undisclosed number of years.

The security situation inside Libya has deteriorated seriously over the past six months with a surge in extra-judicial killings through bombings and assassinations targeting foreign embassies and staff, former and serving members of the security forces, government officials.

Last month, the government appealed once more for international support in securing and stabilising the country following a car bomb which killed several military cadets in Benghazi. Justice minister Salah Marghani called on the international community to intervene and stop the killing of Libyans and foreigners.

"The country has no army and no police force. Libyans must decide if they want a state or they want warlords. What is going on in Benghazi and Derna is terrorism and we must declare a state of emergency in Benghazi and fight back.

“Asking for international assistance in this fight is not a violation of Libyan sovereignty. What violates our sovereignty is the killing of these youth in cold blood. What is needed is to arrest them and bring to justice and the government cannot do that because these criminals are fully armed," Marghani said.

In its latest assessment of security assistance programmes and the general security situation in Libya, the European Union said its border security programme in Libya has started delivering results despite the fact that the situation remains very unstable.

"In the field of security, the priorities remain (i) ensuring law and order through professional law enforcement agents, (ii) establishing a national security architecture, (iii) the establishment of state security institutions and forces, including political engagement with the ex-fighters (iv) border control and management, (v) arms control (arms and ammunitions decommission), (vi) countering terrorism, human trafficking, smuggling and organized crime," the EU said.