Saturday, August 21, 2010

DTN News: Aerospace/Defense Headlines - News Dated August 21, 2010

Defense News: DTN News: Aerospace/Defense Headlines - News Dated August 21, 2010
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 21, 2010: Comprehensive daily news related on Aerospace/Defense for the world of TODAY.

*Comprehensive daily news related on Aerospace/Defense for the world of TODAY.

Saturday August 21, 2010

Friday August 20, 2010

Thursday August 19, 2010
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DTN News: Iran Begins Fueling First Nuclear Power Plant

Defense News: DTN News: Iran Begins Fueling First Nuclear Power Plant
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including By Thomas Erdbrink and Janine Zacharia - Washington Post
(NSI News Source Info) TEHRAN, Iran - August 21, 2010: Iranian and Russian engineers began loading nuclear fuel into Iran's first atomic power plant Saturday amid international concern that the Islamic Republic is seeking a nuclear weapon.
State television showed what appeared to be fuel rods being loaded into the core of the reactor, which is on the shores of the Persian Gulf near the town of Bushehr. The plant is one of the first tangible results of Iran's controversial nuclear program, which has been the target of increasingly tough international sanctions.
Iranian officials, speaking during a ceremony in Bushehr, lauded the country's nuclear program and said the reactor was a symbol of Iran's international stature. It took more than 35 years to build the plant, with construction disrupted by the 1979 revolution, the war with Iraq in the 1980s and a decision by the original German contractor, Siemens, to pull out of the project.
"When a nation decides to live with freedom, it will finally reach its goal," Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, told state media.
Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom helped finish the plant, which has cost Iran nearly $1 billion. Russia has pledged to supply the fuel for the plant, low enriched uranium, for the next 10 years.
The Iranian government insists that its nuclear development is for peaceful purposes, such as electricity production and medical research. While Iran says it has been open about its nuclear enrichment program, the United States and its allies say the Islamic Republic has concealed parts of it nuclear fuel program, possibly to build a nuclear weapon, something Iran denies.
Iranian officials say they fear that outside pressure could ultimately force Russia to stop supplying the nuclear fuel.
"We are looking for assurance of supply of fuel to the reactors," Salehi told reporters. He said Iran has had bad experiences with Germany and France, which had committed to starting up the reactor in the past but reneged on their promises.
"That was instrumental in making our government decide to have its own enrichment facilities in Iran," Salehi said. "We want to have the capacity and capability to assure the continuous supply of the fuel to the reactors."
Israeli officials said they were not particularly worried about the fuel being loaded into Bushehr. "Our problem is with the other facilities that they have, where they enrich uranium," Uzi Landau, Israel's minister of national infrastructure, said in an interview Thursday in Tel Aviv.
Landau said that although the reactor's operation would add to Iran's "technological know-how," the facility won't produce nuclear material for military use and spent fuel will be shipped back to Russia.
Contrary to other nuclear successes, Iranian officials and state television refrained from huge celebrations Saturday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not at the opening of the plant.
"Faced with international pressure, they are keeping a low profile," said Masallah Shamsolva'ezin, an analyst critical of the government. "Maybe they will need to make some kind of compromise in the future, so now might not be the time for nationalistic celebrations."
*Zacharia reported from Jerusalem.
*Link to this article "Iran Begins Fueling First Nuclear Power Plant - By Thomas Erdbrink and Janine Zacharia - Washington Post "
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News: 11 Soldiers Among 14 killed In South Yemen: Ministry, Medics

Defense News: DTN News: 11 Soldiers Among 14 killed In South Yemen: Ministry, Medics
Source: DTN News / AFP
(NSI News Source Info) ADEN, Yemen- August 21, 2010: Eleven soldiers were killed on Friday as the Yemeni army fought gunmen in the southern city of Loder, the interior ministry said, and medics said three civilians also died.
The soldiers were killed "in an ambush set up by Al-Qaeda terrorists and outlaws cooperating with them," the ministry said.
Eight of the soldiers were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their armoured vehicle, Loder regional security chief Yahya al-Barkani said.
The three civilians were killed -- and another four wounded -- when soldiers bombarded buildings near Loder market from where the military was being targeted, medical sources said.
The interior ministry said in a statement that the gunmen were "holed up in houses and certain areas near the marketplace in Loder."
Earlier, a local security source said the armed men involved in the firefight may have been Al-Qaeda members, but another local official said they could be linked to a southern separatist movement.
However, a member of the separatist Southern Movement coalition of secessionist groups categorically denied involvement.
"We reject such acts -- the Southern Movement uses only peaceful means to secure independence for the people of the south," Aydarus Haqis told AFP.
At the same time he condemned "the actions of the army, especially the indiscriminate shelling by tanks" of a residential area of Loder.
"Loder is a ghost-town, and fighting's going on in the streets. We don't know if the gunmen are Al-Qaeda or southern separatists," one local official told AFP, asking not to be identified.
Friday's fighting came a day after a two-hour clash in the same city, in the southern province of Abyan, in which gunmen killed two soldiers and wounded two others.
A local official said the gunmen involved in that incident "could be part of Al-Qaeda."
Thursday's firefight erupted after two soldiers were attacked in the marketplace and their weapons were seized, leading to the intervention of the army.
South Yemen is feared to have become a base for Al-Qaeda militants to regroup, under the network's local franchise Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Also on Thursday, Yemeni security forces said they had arrested a suspected Al-Qaeda militant who was sentenced to death for attacking a French ship and was among 23 prison escapees in 2006, a security official said.
Huzam Majali, considered a leading Al-Qaeda figure in Arhab, north of the capital, was arrested on Wednesday.
Majali was sentenced in August 2004 for his role in the deadly attack on French tanker the Limburg in October 2002 off Yemen's southeast coast. A blast ripped through the ship, killing a Bulgarian crewman and wounding 12 others.
Two years earlier, 17 US sailors were killed when two suicide bombers on an inflatable raft blew themselves up alongside the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen's southern port of Aden.
Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The south is also the site of frequent protests and separatist unrest, with southerners complaining of discrimination by the Sanaa government in the north over the allocation of resources.
It was independent from 1967 until 1990 when it united with the north. It seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived conflict which ended with the south bring overrun by northern troops.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News: Iran TODAY August 21, 2010 - No Decision Made On Russian S-300 Deliveries To Iran - According To Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov

Defense News: DTN News: Iran TODAY August 21, 2010 - No Decision Made On Russian S-300 Deliveries To Iran - According To Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including Ria Novosti
(NSI News Source Info) YEREVAN, Armenia - August 21, 2010: No decision has been taken yet on the delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Iran, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Friday.Russia signed a contract on delivering at least five S-300 systems to Iran in December 2005, but the contract's implementation has so far been delayed.
On June 9, the UN Security Council approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, including tougher financial controls and an expanded arms embargo.
Later, the United States and the EU imposed extra sanctions against the Islamic republic.
The sale of S-300 air defense systems is believed to fall under the sanctions, though Russia said the delivery would not be affected since the weapons are not included in the UN Register of Conventional Arms.
The head of the Russian State Technology Corporation Rostekhnologii, Sergei Chemezov, said in July that the contract had not been cancelled.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News: India TODAY August 21, 2010 - India To Order Another 59 Russian Mi-17 Helicopters

Defense News: DTN News: India TODAY August 21, 2010 - India To Order Another 59 Russian Mi-17 Helicopters
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including Ria Novosti
(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - August 21, 2010: The Indian Air Force will soon order an additional 59 Russian Mil Mi-17 helicopters on top of the 80 ordered earlier, the IAF chief said on Thursday.
The first deliveries of the 80 Mi-17 helicopters, ordered in 2008, will begin later this year, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik said in an interview with India Strategic.
The Russian supply of 80 Mi-17s are to replace and augment its existing fleet of around 150 Mi-8 and Mi-17 medium-lift choppers, which have over five tonne load carrying capability and are also used to ferry troops and VIPs.
The Air Force had felt the need of inducting more medium-lift choppers after a spate of natural disasters following the tsunami in December, 2004 and the heavy snowfall in Kashmir in 2005.
Along with the induction of the new choppers, the IAF is also planning to upgrade over 50 choppers from its existing fleet of Mi-8s and Mi-17s.
"This will enhance the life of these Russian-origin choppers by at least another ten years," they said.
In the mountainous areas, Mi-17s have been used to ferry troops and carry loads up to heights of 18,000 feet along the Line of Control.
The Mi-17s are deployed for tasks like ferrying troops, airdropping supplies, evacuating casualties, search and rescue, and ferrying VIPs.
It can carry 15 fully equipped troops and some of these choppers have been equipped with 57 mm rocket pods and machine guns.
The IAF's recent request for 42 Su-30MKI fighters had been cleared by the Defense Ministry, "taking the total number of these air superiority combat jets order to a sizeable 272," he added.
The IAF has also signed a contract with Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-controlled arms exporting agency, to upgrade its fleet of Soviet-vintage MiG-29 fighters and Il-76 airlifters while the Indian Navy has placed an order for 45 MiG-29K carrier-borne fighter jets.
Naik said that the Il-76s, first acquired in April 1985, are also undergoing a life extension program with Russia.
"The life extension of Il-76 aircraft will involve a complete overhaul of the airframe at the manufacturer's premises in Russia... The first aircraft has already been sent and servicing work has commenced. Various other upgrades will be carried out in India. Post-servicing, the aircraft would be available to us for more than 10 years," he said.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News: Russia Extends Lease On Military Base In Armenia Through 2044

Defense News: DTN News: Russia Extends Lease On Military Base In Armenia Through 2044
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including Ria Novosti
(NSI News Source Info) YEREVAN, Armenia - August 21, 2010: Russia and Armenia on Friday signed amendments to a 1995 bilateral treaty extending Russia's use of a military base near Armenia's border with Turkey through 2044.
The document was signed by the countries' defense ministers as a result of negotiations between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Medvedev is currently on a state visit to Armenia.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the term of the 1995 deal on the base in Gyumri, Armenia's second largest city, had been extended from 25 to 49 years.
Asked by reporters about the cost of the lease on the base, he said "there is no question of money."
Some reports have said that the mission of the Russian troops was being expanded, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the deployment locations for Russian troops had been agreed for a long time and were not affected by the new document.
Lavrov and Serdyukov both said the only thing that had changed was the length of the lease.
"One thing has changed - the extension to 49 years," the defense minister told RIA Novosti.
Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan said earlier in the week that Russia would also provide Armenia with arms and modern military equipment.
Russia's 102nd Military Base has been deployed in Gyumri since 1995 and is part of a CIS integrated air defense system. It is under the command of Russia's North Caucasus Military District.
There are around 5,000 personnel at the base, as well as S-300 surface-to-air missile systems and MiG-29 fighters.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News: India To Get Russian Nuclear Submarine On Lease In Fall

Defense News: DTN News: India To Get Russian Nuclear Submarine On Lease In Fall
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including Ria Novosti
(NSI News Source Info) KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, Russia- August 21, 2010: The Russian K-152 Nerpa nuclear attack submarine, which is currently carrying out workup trials in the Russian Far East, will be transferred to India on a 10-year lease in the fall, a spokesman for the Amur Shipbuilding Plant said on Friday.
The workup includes a training program for the Indian crew to ensure they can operate the submarine's systems, the spokesman said.
The lease contract, estimated at some $900 million, was drawn up following an agreement between Moscow and New Delhi in January 2004, in which India agreed to fund part of the Nerpa's construction.
The Nerpa was scheduled to be introduced into the Indian Navy as INS Chakra by mid-2008 but technical problems stalled the process.
Twenty sailors and technical workers were killed onboard the submarine shortly after the start of sea trials in November 2008, due to a toxic gas leak when the automatic fire extinguishing system malfunctioned. The boat is now fully operational following repairs.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News: India, Russia Likely To Export BrahMos Missiles

Defense News: DTN News: India, Russia Likely To Export BrahMos Missiles
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including By Anantha Krishnan M. -AviationWeek.com
(NSI News Source Info) BENGALURU, India - August 21, 2010: India and Russia are looking into exporting the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
An intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed by New Delhi and Moscow stipulates that the missile will be inducted into the armed forces of India and Russia and also will be exported to certain shared allies.
Though the export of the missile has been discussed for many years, nothing concrete has happened. It is still too early to know which nations would be identified first, according to one Indian official. “It will be a decision taken after a lot of deliberations,” the official said.
“The missile will be exported to friendly countries after taking into account the security needs of both [Indian and Russia],” Indian defense minister A.K. Antony said. “Many countries have shown interest to buy these missiles, but no decision has been taken as to whom the missile can be sold.”
Presently, the Brahmos missiles are being produced for the Indian army, navy and air force. Export will start only after meeting the minimum requirements of India. In addition to the IGA, the missile has the approval of the Indo-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Military Technical Cooperation for Export.
AVIATION WEEK reported in May this year, following a facility visit to the BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram (BATL), that an air version of the missile is currently under development and will be fitted on to the Su-30MKI fighter (Aerospace DAILY, May 27). “The prototype of the missile launcher is ready from our side and we are awaiting a critical system from HAL Nasik to be fitted on to it,” an official said Aug. 11. “The trials would then begin on the Su-30MKI platform.”
A hypersonic version of the missile is also in the works and the design aspects are likely to be finalized very soon. The new missile will be ready for testing by 2015, Indian sources said. The export of BrahMos will be a huge boost to India’s military might.
“After Dhruv choppers, it will be a great achievement if we can identify a couple of nations to export these missiles [to],” one source said. “It would also put India into a league of countries that exports military wares.”
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News: Lockheed Martin Awarded Contract Modification To Provide Sustainment For F-22

Defense News: DTN News: Lockheed Martin Awarded Contract Modification To Provide Sustainment For F-22
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including U.S. DoD issued August 20, 2010 - No. 746-10 & Air Power Australia
(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - August 21, 2010: Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $111,386,931 contract modification to provide sustainment for the F-22 program for calendar year 2010.
At this time, $241,645,563 has been obligated. ASC/WWUK,Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting agency (FA8611-08-C-2897 P00049) .
Why America Needs More F-22 Raptors
*Survival In Combat Against Modern Weapons
Proliferation of Advanced High Technology Missiles and Aircraft
Since the end of the Cold War, the Russian and Chinese defence industries have absorbed most of the advanced technology in the globalised market. The most recent generation of radars, Surface to Air Missiles and fighter aircraft they have developed can produce air defence systems which are completely impenetrable to all United States combat aircraft other than the F-22A Raptor and B-2A Spirit. The new stealthy Sukhoi PAK-FA directly challenges the F-22A Raptor. The result of this is that the United States will lose access to many theatres of operation on the global stage, as these new weapons proliferate, unless the United States deploys ~700 F-22A Raptors - the number originally planned for in the first place.
*There Are NO Alternatives to the F-22 Raptor
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is NOT a Substitute for the F-22 Raptor
The widely held view in Western bureaucratic circles, that the F-22 and F-35 are interchangeable aircraft, is not true and can never be true. The F-22 provides close to three times the capability of the F-35 at a similar unit procurement cost. The F-35 lacks the performance of the F-22, the survivability of the F-22, the firepower of the F-22, and the deployability of the F-22. The limitations of the F-35 are inherent in its basic design and cannot be fixed by design modifications or upgrades. Poorly defined basic specifications for the F-35 and inadequate prototyping have resulted in an expensive aircraft which cannot be used in combat situations other than benign, requires support by a lot of F-22 Raptors and aerial tankers, and requires long concrete runways for overseas deployments.
*Legacy Fighters Are No Longer Viable
Decline of the Legacy US Fighter Fleet of F-15s, F-16s and F/A-18s
Most of the legacy US fighter fleet was built during the late Cold War period, and was designed during the 1970-1980s. Not only are these aircraft no longer able to survive against modern Russian designed fighter and air defence technology, but the F-15C, F-16A-D and F/A-18A-D air combat fighters are increasingly suffering from airframe structural fatigue life exhaustion. Much of the F-15C fleet has also suffered from manufacturing defects in their structure, further shortening the life of these fighters. The F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter fleet was recently retired altogether. Unless the United States industry manufactures a significant number of new and survivable fighters over the next decade, we will observe a large reduction in United States fighter fleet sizes. Of all of the fighters currently being produced in the United States, only the F-22 provides a good return on investment.
*Without sufficient numbers of F-22 Raptors the United States military will soon lose the conventional strategic advantage it has enjoyed since 1945.
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