ASIAN DEFENCE: 2011

Dec 31, 2011

Chinese Navy New JL-9 Trainer

Chinese Navy New JL-9 Trainer

Partnership With Pakistan To Be Enhanced Says China

China would continue to develop its strategic partnership with Pakistan, said Chinese Foreign Ministry.

No matter how the international situation changes, this policy will not be shaken,` said the spokesman for the ministry, Hong Lei.

He said Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo, who recently visited Pakistan as a representative of President Hu Jintao, met President AsifAli Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to discuss the state of relations between the two countries.

The future prospects in ties were also discussed.

At the meetings, the Pakistani leaders described the ties with China as a cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy, said Hong.

He said China firmly sup-ported Pakistan’s efforts to safeguard its sovereignty, security, independence and territorial integrity and also its endeavours to improve the lives of its people.

JF-17 Thunder Fighter Jet To Get Block-2 Upgrades From 2012

The JF-17 Thunder fighter, co-developed by China’s Avic and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), is to receive improvements that will start being produced with the Block-2 version from next year.

The enhancements will effect the data link and electronic warfare capabilities. An air-to-air re refueling capability will be added, as will be new guided weapons. A two-seat variant is being developed, too. The current program schedule calls for the Pakistan-based factory to deliver the JF-17 Block-2 to the PAF from mid-2012 to 2015. Then, a Block-3 version is planned from 2016. Block-1 aircraft are being delivered until the middle of next year.

PAF Air Chief Marshall Rao Qamar Suleiman said marketing efforts focus on those countries needing to replace old fighters such as the MiG-21, early Mirage, F-5 and Phantom types. The program’s target export countries can be found in Latin America, Africa and Asia. “We offer performance comparable to U.S. and European fighters when it comes to radar, dogfight missile, range and BVR [beyond visual range] capabilities, for one third of the cost,” Suleiman claimed.

So far, five countries are said to have taken a close look at the aircraft. China itself is currently evaluating the JF-17 and a decision is expected “shortly.” Avic and the PAF expect to sell “between 300 and 500 JF-17s” over the next 10 years.

How Downed U.S RQ-170 Stealth Drone Can Help China?

By Joshua Wiseman

The loss of a U.S. RQ-170 stealth drone over eastern Iran has led to speculation that the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) will eventually find its way into Chinese hands. Access to the drone could allow China to use reverse engineering to incorporate key technologies into its own indigenous aerospace systems and to develop countermeasures that would make it harder for U.S. stealth UAVs and aircraft to operate near China. Iran has significant political, military, and financial incentives to provide such access, reversing the usual flow of technology from China to Iran.

Despite the claims of some Iranian officials, Iran lacks the technical capacity to exploit and duplicate the advanced technologies in the RQ-170 on its own. Providing access to China could therefore generate benefits in terms of expanded Iranian access to Chinese military technologies, potential future access to UAV countermeasures, and Chinese diplomatic support in Iran’s confrontation with the West over its nuclear program.

A robust arms sales relationship has existed between China and Iran since the early 1980s. China has supplied Iran with military hardware including fighter aircraft (F-7), fast-attack patrol vessels, anti-ship cruise missiles, and guidance technologies for use in Iran’s ballistic missile program. The dollar amount of official arms transfers in the decade 2000-2010 decreased from previous decades, but China continues to help Iran develop critical weapons programs. According to Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News agency, both Chinese and Russian officials have already made requests to inspect the RQ-170.

By DAVID WISE

IN 1995, a middle-aged Chinese man walked into a C.I.A. station in Southeast Asia and offered up a trove of secret Chinese documents. Among them was a file containing the top-secret design of the American W-88 nuclear warhead that sits atop the missiles carried by Trident submarines.

He told a story to the C.I.A. that was so bizarre it might just be true. He said that he worked in China’s nuclear program and had access to the archive where classified documents were stored. He went there after hours one night, scooped up hundreds of documents and stuffed them into a duffel bag, which he then tossed out a second-story window to evade security guards. Unfortunately, the bag broke and the papers scattered.

Outside, he collected the files and stuffed them back into the torn bag. Although many of the documents were of interest for their intelligence content, it was the one about the W-88 that roiled American counterintelligence most because it contained highly classified details about a cutting-edge warhead design.

The United States had been producing small nuclear warheads for decades, and the Chinese were desperate to find out how to build miniaturized warheads themselves. China’s military was, and still is, playing catch-up to the United States.

China’s success in obtaining the secret design of the W-88 is the most dramatic example of a fact that United States counterintelligence agencies have been slow to recognize: just as China has become a global economic power, it has developed a world-class espionage service — one that rivals the C.I.A.

During the cold war, dozens of counterintelligence agents in the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. pursued Soviet and then Russian spies. The K.G.B. was seen as the enemy; China took a back seat. Only a handful of F.B.I. agents specialized in Chinese spy cases, and their work was not regarded as career-enhancing. Washington’s ongoing failure to make Chinese espionage a priority has allowed China to score a number of successes in its espionage efforts against the United States.

Russia Ranked 2nd Biggest Global Arms Exporter

Russia became the world’s second largest arms exporter in 2011 after the United States, the head of the Moscow-based arms think tank Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade (CAWAT), Igor Korotchenko said on Friday.

The CAWAT ranking revealed that Russia occupied the second position for world arms sales in 2011 with $11.29 billion in revenues, which accounts for 16.1 percent of all international arms supplies, Korotchenko said. “The forecast for 2012 is $11.3 billion or 17.3 percent of global arms sales.”

The Unitied States, however, dominates world arms exports, with over 40 percent of trade globally, or $28.76 billion.

Korotchenko also said that Russia had scored high records on arms exports despite the fact that it had lost the Iranian market because of the arms embargos imposed on Tehran by Washington. Moscow also supported arms sanctions against Libya, suspending all contracts for the supply of military hardware to the country.

The top ten biggest arms suppliers include France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Israel, Spain, Sweden and China, according to the CAWAT ranking.

The two-person crew of an Indian air force Sukhoi Su-30MKI ejected safely before the strike aircraft crashed near Pune in western India on 13 December.

Sources have said initial indications point to a failure involving the aircraft's fly-by-wire flight control system. The air force has established a court of inquiry to investigate the factors behind the accident.

Japan has selected the Lockheed Martin F-35A joint strike fighter (JSF) for its F-X contract, which purchases 42 aircraft to replace an ageing fleet of McDonnell Douglas F-4Js.

The contract award announced on 20 December makes Japan the second country outside the nine F-35 development partners after Israel to select the jet. The initial contract will be for four jets in Japan Fiscal Year 2012, which begins 1 April, 2012.

“We are honored by the confidence the Japanese government has placed in the F-35 and our industry team to deliver this Fifth Generation fighter to the Japan Air Self Defense Force,” said Bob Stevens, Lockheed Martin chairman and chief executive officer. “This announcement begins a new chapter in our long-standing partnership with Japanese industry and builds on the strong security cooperation between the USA and Japan.”

The announcement also dealt a fresh blow to the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Eurofighter Typhoon.
However, the Typhoon remains in competition with the Dassault Rafale in India, while the F/A-18E/F continues to look for new sales in the Middle East and Brazil.

Lockheed Martin has rolled out the last F-22A Raptor on order by the US Air Force, to close a nearly 15-year-old final assembly line that produced a total of 187 operational fighters.

After a ceremony marking the milestone event with employees, the final F-22A, bearing the tail number 4195, was moved to the flight line outside Lockheed's massive factory in Marietta, Georgia. It is scheduled for delivery to the USAF late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2012.

Meanwhile, Lockheed is implementing a plan to preserve carefully the F-22's special tooling and the manufacturing knowledge of its existing workforce. The air force has revealed no plans to restart F-22 production, but the tools will not be scrapped. Lockheed has said the equipment may be needed again for a future mid-life upgrade programme.

The defence ministry (MoD) indicates a decision is imminent about whether the Air Force will buy the Typhoon or Rafale.

The review terms 2011 ‘The Decisive Year for the MMRCA,’ suggesting the winner of the contest to sell India 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft could be announced this fortnight.

In April, the MoD eliminated Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Mikoyan and Saab, leaving only Dassault’s Rafale and Eurofighter’s Typhoon in the fray. On November 4, the two commercial bids were opened. The IAF has given a comparative evaluation and the ball is now in the MoD’s court.

US-Iran Cyber War Leads To Capture OF CIA Spy In Iran

The budding cyber war between America and Iran could be quickly transcending off of computer networks and into the real world, with the US allegedly putting boots on the ground. Iranian state television is reporting that they’ve captured a CIA spy.

Overseas media reported over the weekend that Amir Mirza Hekmati, a 20-something American man of Iranian heritage, was abducted by Iranian forces, to whom he confessed that he has been in cahoots with the Central Intelligence Agency.

According to a taped confession offered up by Hekmati, the spy was apprehended by Iranian intelligence after being dispatched into the country from a US base in neighboring Afghanistan. The spy says he had been working out of Bagram near the country’s border with Iran in preparation for a CIA-led mission that has been years in the making, but despite assurance from American authorities that his cover would not be blown, Iranian intelligence intercepted him and is now holding him captive.

Israeli news agency Debka is suggesting that Iranian intelligence has managed to not just crack into the computer networks of at least one American spy drone but also CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia outside of Washington DC. Following the downing of a top-secret RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone aircraft over Iran earlier this month, military officials speaking under condition of anonymity to Debka say that such a take-down could only have been conducted by infiltrating the command center inside the actual CIA compound.

Insiders suggest that it would take the exact coordinates and times of the dispatched drone for Iranian intelligence to hijack the craft, which went down on December 4. With Hekmati now being apprehended after a decade of briefing by way of the Department of Defense, it only further establishes that Iran has indeed infiltrated the American intelligence community, causing concern for all involved that the cyber war between nations is quickly escalating to a battle involving not just robotic planes but soldiers, spies and international, undercover attacks.

Russia carried out a successful test of a short-range interceptor missile on Tuesday as a part of its effort to develop a domestic missile defense shield, the Defense Ministry said.

The missile was launched from the Sary-Shagan (Kazakhstan) shooting range, the Ministry’s spokesperson said.

The goal of the test was to confirm the technical characteristics of the missile used by the Defense Ministry’s Space Command.

Russia's Defense Ministry uploaded a video of the missile's launch on its web site.

The test comes a month after the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that if Moscow's participation in the European missile defense project fails, Russia would deploy Iskander tactical missiles in the Kaliningrad Region and halt its disarmament and arms control efforts, including participation in the new strategic arms reduction treaty with the United States.

The Indian Army has received its first indigenous remotely operated vehicle (ROV), capable of diffusing improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The delivery of the initial batch of six units follows limited series production (LSP) for 20 Daksh units awarded to DRDO's Research and Development Establishment (R&DE - Engineers) in September 2010.

The robot has been developed by R&DE - Engineers in collaboration with Tata Motors, Dynalog (I), Theta Controls and Bharat Electronics.

The battery-operated robot on wheels is primarily designed for the safe handling and destruction of IEDs using multiple cameras, X-ray devices and a strong manipulator arm with six degrees of freedom.

The ROV can be armed with an on-board shotgun for blasting through door locks when tackling car bombs and will be useful for route clearance operations on borders prone to terror attacks.

It is a high definition spy satellite, launched by CZ-4B rocket from Taiyuan.

This is the 19th launches in 2011 and the 155th launch of the CZ rocket family. As of today, CZ-4B maintains a 100% success rate for 13 launches.

USAF Deploys Newest Armed Stealth General Atomics Avenger Drone To Afghanistan

As the US military scrambles to deal with a U.S. spy drone lost in Iran, it was revealed that the U.S. Air Force has bought a cutting edge, jet-powered stealth drone -- and plans its immediate deployment in Afghanistan.

But the brand new drone -- an armed model from General Atomics designed for strike as well as reconnaissance -- was ordered months ago, well before the crash of the stealthy Lockheed-made RQ-170 Sentinel that remains in Iran, the USAF said in a statement to aviation website FlightGlobal.

"This aircraft will be used as a test asset and will provide a significantly increased weapons and sensors payload capacity on an aircraft that will be able to fly to targets much more rapidly than the MQ-9 [Reaper] UAS," the USAF said.

Developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the Avenger -- also known as the Predator C -- is the upgraded successor to the Predator and Reaper drones with significantly greater firepower, speed and sensor capabilities.

It also has an internal weapons bay and is capable of carrying 2,000-pound missiles.

Despite being labeled a test aircraft, the order for the Avenger came in response to an urgent request made by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in early 2011. The Avenger was the only aircraft that met the Defense Department's needs on such short notice, the Air Force Times reported, citing a heavily redacted document posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

Wired's Danger Room blog speculates that the drone may be used not in Afghanistan but for further missions in Iran, given its stealth capabilities and large weapons payload.

“The Avenger reportedly carries a ground-mapping radar and the same ultra-sophisticated cameras as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, making it a perfect candidate for quietly snooping above, say, suspected nuclear facilities or terrorist camps guarded by air-defense radars and missiles,” wrote Danger Room’s David Axe.

Gen Jean-Paul Paloméros, chief of staff of the French air force, is confident about the Dassault Rafale's prospects in major international competitions, and partially attributes the aircraft's previous losses in Singapore and South Korea to politics.

"I've flown in the Rafale and I know what it can do," said Paloméros, speaking to Flightglobal at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition in Malaysia late last month. "Rafale was designed since conception as a multi-role aircraft," he added.

According to Paloméros, the Rafale is well suited to handle emerging air-to-air and air-to-ground threats in the Asia-Pacific region.

"The Rafale has very high manoueverability," he said. "It will be getting an AESA [active electronically scanned array] radar and it has good weapons. It will also receive the MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile, offering extra range against any types of threats."

The AESA version of the Thales RBE2 radar will be introduced into Rafale in 2013, when French forces begin receiving the fourth block of production aircraft. The Meteor is still undergoing development, but should be deployed on the Rafale after the middle of the decade.

Paloméros is confident the Rafale will emerge triumphant in India's medium multi-role combat aircraft competition for 126 fighters, where it is on a shortlist with the Eurofighter Typhoon. Indian media reports suggest the decision is imminent, possibly before the end of 2011.

China and Russia have agreed to allow their currencies to trade against each other in spot inter-bank markets.China, Russia to dump US dollar for bilateral trade.

The motive is to "promote the bilateral trade between China and Russia, facilitate the cross-border trade settlement of [the yuan], and meet the needs of economic entities to reduce the conversion cost," according to Chinese officials.

This latest move -- a continuation in a series of efforts by both countries to move away from U.S. dollar usage in international trade -- further threatens the dollar's reserve currency status.

The dollar has this status because it is currently the currency of international trade.

For example, when Malaysia and Germany exchange goods, the transaction is often denominated in dollars. In particular, oil -- something that all modern economies need -- is denominated in U.S. dollars, so the currency is almost as indispensable as oil itself.

The dollar reserve currency status allows the U.S. to run up high deficits and have its debt be denominated in the U.S. dollar, which in turn enables it to print unlimited dollars and inflate its way out of debt. America, understandably, wants to protect these privileges.

The euro crisis, political instability in Saudi Arabia and conflict with Pakistan have emerged as top potential threats facing the United States in 2012, an influential think-tank said Friday.

The Council on Foreign Relation’s Center for Preventive Action anonymously surveyed US officials and experts to compile an annual list of the most plausible conflicts for the United States in the new year.

The 2012 list elevated several contingencies to the top tier of risks: an intensified euro crisis, which could plunge the United States back into recession; Saudi instability, which would threaten global oil supplies; and a US conflict with Pakistan prompted by an attack or counter-terrorism operation.

Threats that remained at the top of the list from last year included a potential incident between the United States and China, internal instability in Pakistan, intensified nuclear crises with Iran or North Korea, and a spillover of drug-related violence from Mexico.

Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who focuses on conflict resolution, said that the survey was designed to fill a gap as the US government has a poor record forecasting future instability and conflict.

“It is a perennial problem to get policymakers to focus on future challenges when dealing with the tyranny of the inbox,” Zenko said, referring to the overwhelming flow of messages.

“But in an age of austerity it has never been more important to forecast, prevent or mitigate plausible contingencies that could result in an expensive and long-lasting US military involvement,” he said.

The survey also added Bahrain as a “tier-two” risk to the United States, citing fears that growing instability in the Sunni-ruled kingdom could spur fresh military action by Saudi Arabia or Iran.

US is Eyeing to sell its battle proved armed drones to key allies, including India, but the move is being opposed by lawmakers who don't want the technology to be exported.

"The Pentagon wants more North Atlantic Treaty Organization members to have such pilotless aircraft to ease the burden on the US in Afghanistan and in future conflicts like the alliance's air campaign in Libya this year," Obama Administration officials were quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying.

It is believed that India would be one of the potential target countries for the US to sell its drones.

India has been purchasing drones from Israel for quite some time now, and has been developing its drone capabilities, but does not have armed drones like the Predators and Reapers used by US security agencies with devastating effect against al-Qaeda and Taliban targets.

"The Pentagon's proposed sales have set off a behind-the-scenes debate between the administration and some members of Congress over whether the US should speed the spread of a technology that will allow other

countries to carry out military strikes by remote control," the report said.

With the gradual withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, time has now come for India to send its military inside that country, a top American lawmaker has said.

“It makes sense for the two largest countries to be military allies. On Afghanistan, India, as you know, as a security establishment, is already fighting over 30 insurgencies or guerilla operations,” Senator Mark Kirk said at a discussion forum organised by Washington-based think tank, Foreign Policy Initiative.

“The Indian security establishment well understands this challenge. I think can correctly perceive that moving terror from North or South or general parts of Dafatan into secured bases around Kabul with the fall of the Karzai government would represent a long-term real security threat for India,” he said.

Blasts in Afghanistan at Muhraam were one of the worst terrorist strikes in the country this year.

Iran is driving a hard bargain for granting access to the US stealth drone RQ-170 it captured undamaged last week, as Russian and Chinese military intelligence teams arriving in Tehran for a look at the secret aircraft soon found.Moscow sources disclose that the price set by Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Ali Jaafari includes advanced nuclear and missile technology, especially systems using solid fuel, the last word on centrifuges for enriching uranium and the S-300PMU-1 air defense system, which Moscow has consistently refused to sell Tehran.

This super-weapon is effective against stealth warplanes and cruise missiles and therefore capable of seriously impairing any large-scale US or Israeli air or missile attacks on Iran's nuclear sites.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent Russian-speaking Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Moscow on Dec. 7 to try and dissuade Prime Minister Vladimir Putin from letting Iran have the S-300 batteries as payment for access to the captured US drone.

Sources in Washington report that before sending Lieberman to Moscow, Netanyahu first checked with the White House at the highest levels.

Rising Fifth Generation Stealth Fighters J-20 & T-50

New photos have appeared showing the wingless full-scale radar cross section model of Japan's Mitsubishi ATD-X Shinshin.

The ATD-X is a demonstrator scheduled to fly in 2014, possibly leading to a Japanese-built stealth fighter entering service after 2020.

China's homegrown C919 large passenger plane has finished its preliminary development review and entered the development phase, a senior executive of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (COMAC) in Shanghai said Friday.

An expert team of the C919 project has approved the overall preliminary development review (PDR) of the passenger jet, said Jin Zhuanglong, president of the Shanghai-based COMAC.

It is expected that the manufacturing process for the components of the prototype will begin by the end of 2011.

COMAC signed a deal to sell 20 C919 large passenger planes to China Aircraft Leasing Company Limited (CALC) on Thursday.

Up to now, the users of C919 large passenger planes have reached 10 and total orders amount to 215 units.

COMAC said earlier it would develop both 168-seat and 156-seat models of the jet, with more models to be developed in the future.

The French defense company, MBDA, is offering its Mistral system for the INR 27,000 crore (USD 5.4 billion) Indian tender for Very Short Range Air Defense (VSHORAD) systems. The company’s Corporate Marketing Director, Daniel Petit, spoke to StratPost about their proposal for the tender for over 800 launchers and 5,000 missiles.

Designed from inception for tri-service requirements, Petit says the system on offer is the second generation Mistral, developed in the last decade. The system has already been selected for India’s Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH), something which could be an advantage for the company, in terms of logistics and ordinance management. “It means same logistic, same training – it’s a key advantage,” he points out, saying, “The Indian armed forces have selected already the system for the helicopter (Advanced Light Helicopter – Dhruv). Mistral is going to be – again the same missile. I’m talking about ATAM – it’s the Air-To-Air-Mistral.”

A company statement says, ‘With Mistral having already won a competition to arm India’s ALH Dhruv helicopters, MBDA has also been keen to propose all the advantages that the missile offers as a ground-based air defense weapon’, calling the ‘supply logistics’, ‘service and maintenance benefits’ of a ‘multiple use missile’ to be ‘an added advantage’. The statement cites MBDA’s representative in India, Loïc Piedevache, as saying, “This could of course be a single Mistral production line in India for both the Dhruv and for the surface to air requirement should it be selected.”

Victor Komardin, the deputy director of Russia’s arms export agency Rosoboronexport, contends that the two short-listed candidates for India’s Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition have effectively ruled themselves out by putting too high a price on their fighters.

India’s politicians told the local press earlier this year that the MMRCA contract was a $10 billion deal, but reports from India in recent weeks say the manufacturers of the two finalist aircraft, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale, are each asking for around $20 billion to fulfill the 126-aircraft order, Komardin says.

“Against the backdrop of the [financial] crisis [sweeping the world], it is hard to see how any government would allow such a waste of money, particularly when there are social problems” to deal with, Komardin says. “And there is no imminent threat to India’s [sovereignty]. My prediction is that this tender will be canceled.” Komardin spoke to Aviation Week on the sidelines of the LIMA Airshow in Langkawi, Malaysia.

Russian and Chinese experts appealed to Iranian authorities asking them to give access to the shot down US drone, wrote on Thursday, the Iranian newspaper The Tehran Times citing an informed source at Iran's armed forces.

It is also possible, the newspaper continues, that the UAV will be on display, "Interfax".

As reported by the newspaper VIEW, according to media reports, American downed Iranian military reconnaissance aircraft invisible CIA used to gather information on Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as the training camps of militants "of Hezbollah."

On Tuesday it was announced that the U.S. spy plane RQ-170 performed the task of American intelligence, but the nature of the device was not specified. Earlier, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby expressed concern that Iran's military might to seize the data about the secret techniques of the American UAVs.

On Sunday, Iranian television channel «Press-TV» spread the information that the Iranian air defense forces in the east downed U.S. drone aircraft.

Pakistani security officials were shocked to see over two dozen Jewish soldiers at the Shamsi Airbase, deemed as a key station for launching airstrikes in Afghanistan and northwestern areas of Pakistan, sources said.

The sources said that the Pakistani officials visited the airbase for the immigration of US officials in the wake of cabinet decision to evacuate the base after a Nato raid in Mohmand Agency that killed 24 soldiers last month.

A security official requesting anonymity told that the Jewish soldiers were introduced to Pakistani officials as Americans, but Islamabad thinks that the Jewish soldiers were under cover agents of Israel and were deployed in Pakistan for espionage purpose.

They said that the Jews’ deployment was amid at spying on Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.

Pakistan will shoot down any U.S. drone that intrudes its air space per new directives, a senior Pakistani official told NBC News on Saturday.
According to the new Pakistani defense policy, "Any object entering into our air space, including U.S. drones, will be treated as hostile and be shot down," a senior Pakistani military official told NBC News.

The policy change comes just weeks after a deadly NATO attack on Pakistani military checkpoints accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, prompting Pakistani officials to order all U.S. personnel out of a remote airfield in Pakistan.

Pakistan told the U.S. to vacate Shamsi Air Base by December 11.

A senior military official from Quetta, Pakistan, confirmed to NBC News on Saturday that the evacuation of the base, used for staging classified drone flights directed against militants, “will be completed tomorrow,” according to NBC’s Fakhar ur Rehman.

Iran Shows OFF Downed US Stealth Drone RQ-170 On State TV

The RQ-170 Sentinel, supposedly the CIA’s unseen “eye in the sky”, capable of beaming back a trove of imagery and electronic intercepts, was broadcast on Iranian state television.

The aircraft was shown beneath an Iranian flag, apparently intact after crashing 140 miles inside the country last Sunday. State television claimed that an electronic attack had forced it down by overriding flight systems. American officials acknowledged the loss of the aircraft, but said it was more likely the drone had simply crashed.

Russia and China immediately seized their chance to gain a unique insight into one of the world’s most powerful intelligence assets, asking Iran for permission to inspect the drone. Surveillance flights over Iran by CIA-operated aircraft of this kind have been taking place for several years, using bases in neighbouring Afghanistan. Iran’s nuclear installations are believed to be the prime target.

China's Latest "Feng Ren" UAV System

China's Latest Feng Ren UAV System

The French air force has successfully carried out the first interception of a theater ballistic missile-type threat on November 14 thanks to the sensors and systems deployed by DGA at its Biscarrosse missile range.

DGA had carried out the first engagement of a similar threat in October 2010.

This firing of an Aster 30 missile from a Système Sol-Air Moyenne Portée Terrestre (surface-to-air, medium-range ground-based air-defence system, or SAMP/T) operated by the air force trials wing, CEAM, is a major milestone for the French air force’s air-defence capabilities.

This successful firing complements a previous one, in September, when the “Servance” air-defence squadron deployed at Luxeuil-les-Bains (air base n° 116) intercepted a target representative of a conventional threat (i.e., an attacking aircraft).

The SAMP/T is a French-Italian system – the first one in Europe – capable of such performance. Christened Mamba in French air force service, the system will allow the French air force, by the summer of 2012, to assume full responsibility for the air defence of French forces deployed overseas.

It will also be used to defend high-value targets on French territory.

Indian Navy Uses JF-17 Thunder On Navy Day Masthead For Show OF Power

A special report released on Navy Day by the Indian maritime force in a local newspaper features the JF-17 Thunder fighter jet on the masthead – which has been jointly developed by Pakistan and China reported on Monday.

According to the report , there has been no official reaction from the Indian Navy.

Iran Says IT Shot Down US RQ-170 Stealth Spy Drone

A senior Iranian military official says Iran's Army has downed a remote-controlled reconnaissance drone operated by the US military in the eastern part of the country.

The informed source said on Sunday that the Iranian Army's electronic warfare unit successfully targeted the US-built RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft after it crossed into Iranian airspace over the border with neighboring Afghanistan.

He added that the US reconnaissance drone has been seized with minimum damage.

The RQ-170 is an unmanned stealth aircraft designed and developed by the Lockheed Martin Company.

The US military and the CIA use the drone to launch missile strikes in Afghanistan and in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region.

The unnamed Iranian military official added that “due to the clear border violation, the operational and electronic measures taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Armed Forces against invading aircraft will not remain limited to Iran's borders."

However, NATO forces say operators lost control of a surveillance drone flying over Afghanistan last week that may be the same one Iran says it has downed.

U.S. Sticking TO Anti-Ballistic Missile Shield In Europe Regardless OF Moscow Objections

The Obama Administration plans to complete an anti-ballistic missile shield to protect European allies against Iran "whether Russia likes it or not," the U.S. envoy to NATO said on Friday.

Moscow's objections to the project, which includes participation by Romania, Poland, Turkey and Spain, "won't be the driving force in what we do," Ivo Daalder, the ambassador, told reporters at a breakfast session.

The U.S. estimate of the Iranian ballistic missile threat has gone up, not down, over the two years since President Barack Obama opted for a new, four-phased deployment to protect the United States and NATO allies, Daalder said.

"It's accelerating," Daalder said of the U.S.-perceived threat of Iran's ballistic missiles, "and becoming more severe than even we thought two years ago."

"We're deploying all four phases, in order to deal with that threat, whether Russia likes it or not," he added. At the same time, he urged Moscow to cooperate in both to deal with Iran and to see for itself that, as he put it, the system's capabilities pose its strategic deterrent force no threat.

Dec 31, 2011

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Dec 24, 2011

By Joshua Wiseman

By DAVID WISE

IN 1995, a middle-aged Chinese man walked into a C.I.A. station in Southeast Asia and offered up a trove of secret Chinese documents. Among them was a file containing the top-secret design of the American W-88 nuclear warhead that sits atop the missiles carried by Trident submarines.

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