Russia will soon start producing four new sets of sniper equipment, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday, May 24, 2012. “We will produce four sets for snipers,” Rogozin, who oversees Russia's defense industry, told reporters in Moscow. | |||
 A sniper of Russian Federal Protective Service in Red Square Moscow. | |||
| “The weaponry is going to be a part of a set of equipment, which also includes surveillance and detection tools, means of suppression and passive protection for snipers,” Rogozin said. By armyrecognition |
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Russia to produce new sets of sniper equipment and weapons.
Russian Stealth Frigate "Dagestan" (Project 11661K) Tests New 3M14TE P-900 Missiles in Sea Trials
Russia’s second Gepard class frigate has successfully test-fired missiles from the new Kalibr-NK missile system during the first stage of sea trials in the Black Sea, a spokesman for Russia’s Southern military district said on Thursday. | |||
 Project 11661K Gepard class frigate "Dagestan" during systems outfitting (Picture: Internet) | |||
The Dagestan is the Russian Navy's first warship equipped with the Kalibr-NK missile system that is capable of using several types of high precision missiles against surface, underwater and coastal targets at ranges of up to 300 kilometers (190 miles). The vessel uses elements of stealth technology, which lower its exposure to radars. “The crew is preparing the warship to move to the Caspian Sea for the final stage of the trials,” Col. Igor Gorbul said. “It will be assigned to the Caspian Flotilla afterwards.” | |||
  3M14TE - P900 - Kalibr-NK missile can attack inland targets (Picture: Internet) | |||
The first Gepard class frigate in the Russian Navy, the Tatarstan, has been serving as the flagship of the Caspian Flotilla since 2002. The Tatarstan is armed with the SS-N-25 Switchblade anti-ship missiles. Designed to perform escort tasks or patrolling coastal waters, project 11661K has the following specifications: Displacement: 1,500 tons (standard) 1,930 tons (full load) Length: 102.14 m (93.5 m waterline) Beam: 13.09 m Draught: 5.3 m Speed: 28 knots Range: 4,000 nmi (7,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) Endurance: 15 days Complement: 98 |
By Navyrecognition
S. Korea to Choose Aircraft Competition Winners in October
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea will select suppliers of military aircraft worth billions of dollars in October, a spokesman said May 25, despite calls from the main opposition party for further studies to be carried out.
The spokesman for the state Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said purchases will include 60 stealth fighters, 36 attack helicopters and eight Navy helicopters.
“We plan to announce the names of the suppliers in October,” the spokesman said, as tensions between the North and the South and its allies remain high over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
The contract for the stealth fighters is worth 8 trillon won ($6.7 billion), he said. Lockheed Martin’s F-35, Boeing’s F-15E, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Russia’s Sukhoi PAK-FA are reportedly competing for the deal.
Some 1.8 trillion won will be allocated to acquire 36 attack helicopters, with Boeing’s Apache, Eurocopter’s Tiger and Turkey’s T129 in competition, the spokesman said.
The massive weapons acquisition plans being pushed through in the last year of President Lee Myung-Bak’s presidency have sparked opposition criticism.
The Democratic United Party urged the government not to rush through the programme.
“Further study and review are needed before the government goes ahead with the purchase of weapons. If necessary, this project should be handed over to next government,” it said in a statement this week.
South Korea has already bought 60 of Boeing’s non-stealth F-15 fighter jets since 2002 under the first two stages of a fighter modernization program.
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Friday, May 25, 2012
Heron TP stays grounded as Israel studies UAS crash
A disagreement between Israel Aerospace Industries and the Israeli air force over the cause of a Heron TP ("Eitan") unmanned air vehicle crash on 29 January has resulted in the type remaining grounded.
A joint investigation into the incident will be completed soon, and a senior IAI source says "the Heron TP will be in the air again in weeks".
Operations with the medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS have been halted since a Heron TP crashed shortly after taking off on a test flight from an air force base in central Israel.
 |
|---|
| Israeli air force |
The activity was being performed jointly by the service and airframe manufacturer IAI, with the aircraft later confirmed as having been carrying an undisclosed new payload.
Initial reports suggested the aircraft's wing had broken in the air after it exceeded the boundaries of its flight envelope.
The Heron TP is the largest UAS to have entered use with the Israeli air force. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop engine, it has a maximum take-off weight of more than 4,000kg (8,810lb), including a maximum payload weighing more than 1,000kg.
By flightglobal
Nuclear Sub May Have to Be Scrapped After Fire
KITTERY, Maine -- Even before the Navy completed its first damage assessment, the severity of a fire that swept through a nuclear-powered submarine in dry dock at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard triggered questions about whether the USS Miami can be salvaged.
The USS Miami's nuclear propulsion was spared from the intense blaze but some forward compartments including living quarters, command and control, and torpedo room suffered extensive damage, officials said Thursday.
The Navy was unable to complete a formal assessment Thursday but the damage was severe enough to raise questions about whether costly repairs would make sense for the 22-year-old Los Angeles-class attack submarine.
"The duration of the fire suggests extensive damage that could render the vessel useless. These submarines were designed decades ago. So they're no longer state of the art," said Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute. "If this vessel returns to service, I will be amazed."
Working in the submarine's favor is the fact that workers had removed some equipment and gutted part of the vessel during the retrofit, said U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine after meeting with the shipyard commander.
Rear Adm. Richard Breckenridge, commander of Submarine Group Two in Groton, Conn., where the USS Miami is based, told reporters on Thursday that it was premature to say whether the submarine could be salvaged.
If it's scrapped, it would mean the loss of a ship that cost about $900 million at the time to build. The U.S. Navy's newest attack submarines, the Virginia-class, are even more expensive at about $2.6 billion apiece.
The fire broke out Wednesday evening while the Miami was on a 20-month stay at the shipyard for an overhaul, and it took firefighters from more than a dozen departments until Thursday morning to douse the fire, described as intense and smoky.
Pingree described it as a "hot scary mess."
"It takes a lot of guts to into a burning building. But the idea of going into a submarine full of hot toxic smoke -- that's real courage," she said.
Two crew members, three shipyard firefighters and two civilian firefighters were hurt, but their injuries were minor, officials said.
Officials were waiting Thursday to begin venting smoke and noxious fumes so workers go inside the submarine to assess damage.
Workers had to let fire-damaged compartments cool enough for fresh air to be safely introduced without risk of another fire.
There were no details on the cause of the fire, but Breckenridge promised that there will be a thorough investigation.
Firefighters isolated the flames so they would not spread to nuclear propulsion spaces at the rear of the submarine. There was nuclear fuel on board the sub, but the reactor has been shut down for two months and was unaffected.
The rear compartments including the nuclear propulsion unit remained habitable, and crew members never left that part of the sub during the fire, Breckenridge said.
Nonetheless, the blaze was stubborn.
"The fire spread to spaces within the submarine that were difficult to access, presenting a challenging situation for initial responders. But they persevered in incredible heat and smoke conditions, demonstrating exceptional courage," the admiral said.
Residents reported hearing sirens from fire trucks and ambulances throughout the night, and the smoke spread over the area.
"It smelled like plastic burning," said Janet Howe of Kittery, who lives three-quarters-of-a-mile from the shipyard.
Reporters were not allowed onto the base to see the submarine Thursday. But Pingree and others who viewed the vessel said there were no outward signs of damage, because the fire was contained inside the 360-foot-long hull.
It was unclear how many people were aboard the vessel or what type of work was being done when the fire started. The submarine, commissioned in 1990, has a crew of 13 and 120 enlisted personnel. It arrived at the shipyard March 1By military.com
10-Hour Blaze Aboard USS Miami
That’s right. A fire burned for 10-hours last night aboard the nuclear-powered Los Angeles class attack submarine, USS Miami, while she was in drydock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Me.
All we know now is that seven people were hurt fighting the fire and that the blaze was contained to her forward spaces while the aft engineering spaces were sealed off and unaffected by the fire. Fire departments from tiny towns around the base responded but eventually, a foam truck from Boston’s Logan Airport — more than an hour away — had to be called in to extinguish the blaze.
U.S. considering plan that arms Syrian rebels
Posted : Thursday May 24, 2012 13:50:55 EDT
WASHINGTON — As one diplomatic effort after another fails to end more than a year of brutal violence in Syria, the Obama administration is preparing a plan that would essentially give U.S. nods of approval to arms transfers from Arab nations to some Syrian opposition fighters.
The effort, U.S. officials told The Associated Press, would vet members of the Free Syrian Army and other groups to determine whether they are suitable recipients of munitions to fight the Assad government and to ensure that weapons don’t wind up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked terrorists or other extremist groups such as Hezbollah that could target Israel.
The plan, which has not yet been finalized, reflects U.S. frustration that none of the previous efforts — including diplomatic rhetoric from the United Nations and the multinational Friends of Syria group, and special envoy Kofi Annan’s plan for a cease-fire — has even begun to nudge President Bashar al-Assad from power. The vetting would be the first tiny step the U.S. has made toward ensuring that the Syrian opposition uses the weapons to fight Assad and not to turn it into a full sectarian conflict.
While some intelligence analysts worry that there may be no suitable recipients of lethal aid in the Syria conflict, the vetting plan has arisen as the least objectionable idea in a complicated situation.
U.S. officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, stressed that the United States, which is already providing non-lethal aid to Syria’s political opposition, is not supplying military assistance to Assad’s foes.
The administration’s position remains that adding more weapons to the conflict is a bad idea and will only fan the fire of instability.
“We don’t think that adding fuel to this fire is the right way to go,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
“Our decision is to support the civilian opposition in nonlethal ways,” she said. “There are other countries who have made other decisions. That’s their sovereign decision to make. We’ve made our decision.”
But she added: “We are obviously consulting with various states about the decisions that we’ve made, that they’ve made.”
Privately, officials say that as conditions continue to deteriorate, it would be irresponsible not to weigh in with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others such as Turkey that have indicated interest in arming the rebels.
By some accounts, those nations already have begun to ship weapons with tacit U.S. agreement. In Turkey, private businessmen have begun funneling weapons into Syria.
Libya’s new rulers, fresh from their own revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, have pledged support for the Syrian rebels, but actually transferring weapons is tricky. Last month, Lebanese authorities seized a ship carrying rocket-propelled grenades and heavy-caliber ammunition, possibly bound for Syrian rebels.
The fighters’ attempts to bring in heavier arms that could change the course of the 15-month-old uprising so far have been stymied at every turn, even by countries sympathetic to the revolt. All are wary of being drawn into the fight
The rebels have cast a wide net, contacting weapons dealers in Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Without some type of U.S. vetting as to who should receive such shipments, the Obama administration and some of its European allies fear that weapons might be used against Western interests.
While the “main” Syrian opposition is not aligned with al-Qaida, the chance that weapons might fall into the wrong hands in an unstable environment like Syria is “always a concern,” said a senior intelligence official.
Al-Qaida has established a limited operational capability in Syria and is responsible for several attacks on Assad targets, the official said. He said analysts believe the goal is to “sow further chaos” and advance an extremist agenda.
The official would not comment on any military aid that might be given to the rebels by U.S. allies.
Yet he and others acknowledged the situation is growing more dire.
AP interviews with security officials, rebels and arms dealers in countries neighboring Syria indicate that individual rebel units have to scrounge for weapons. They have no central organization and no import routes for anything heavier than automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
It is into this mix that the U.S. may soon be inserting itself.
Washington’s supplies of communications equipment and medical supplies to opposition members it has approved are already under way, Officials said that those supplies can now be easily augmented with weapons from other donors.
“Smuggling lines are smuggling lines. We use the same donkeys,” said one, pointing out that the routes are essentially the same for bandages as they are for bullets.