Will Second-Hand F-16 Sales Rise With Budget Cuts?

: Many countries like Indonesia, Taiwan and Portugal have begun buying used F-16 fighter jets as defense budgets shrink.

       As countries struggle under the current economic climate, defense budgets have taken a major hit causing many to invest in used fighter aircraft.

      Over the last few years, developing nations have taken to buying used F-16s from allies to strengthen their air forces without spending billions on buying new aircraft.

      While Lockheed Martin will charge about $70 million for a brand new F-16, a second-hand jet will cost just $15 million. For many countries on a budget, that is an attractive offer.

      Budget strapped countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Jordon besides some EU states procure used F-16 fighter jets to supplement their air forces.

      Earlier this month, Portugal agreed to supply Romania with an unknown number of F-16 aircraft.

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US troops operating in Jordan near Syria border

A destroyed tank of Syrian President Bashar al Assad's forces in the city of Homs Photo: Reuters

 The 150 troops are intended in the first instance to help Jordan, a key but fragile US ally, deal with the influx of refugees from the fighting across the northern border. They are also preparing for any action that might be needed to secure Syria's chemical weapons in the event of the Assad regime losing control of them.

But officials also told The New York Times that the possibility of a buffer zone in southern Syria, enforced by Jordanian troops with American logistical support, had also been discussed. Jordan as well as its neighbours is deeply concerned at the threat of the Syrian war spilling over its borders.

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India to Build Export T-50 Stealth Fighter by 2020

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Sukhoi's T-50 stealth fighter


India will begin production of an export variant of Russian plane-maker Sukhoi's T-50 stealth fighter from 2020, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Wednesday during a visit to Delhi.
"The technical characteristics have been confirmed to our (Russia and India) defense ministries. We propose serial production of the plane should start by 2020," he said, following the meeting of an Indian-Russian intergovernmental commission.
T-50 is a prototype of a multirole stealth fighter jet currently undergoing flight testing by the Russian Air Force. The plane will feature an electronically-scanned active-array radar, supercruise capability, high maneuverability and low radar and infrared signatures. Sukhoi claims it will have significantly better performance than the US-designed Lockheed F-22 Raptor which is now in service.

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Taiwan Blames Apple Maps For Revealing Its $1.2 Billion Top-Secret

US Air Force

It's no secret Apple Maps is leaving many people people frustrated, but perhaps none so much as the Taiwanese defense ministry who claim Apple is guilty of revealing its secret military sites. PhysOrg reports ministry officials claim "secretive" military sites on the island are clearly visible in the iO6 map app and are asking Apple to lower the resolution of their satellite images, like Google did in the past.
Apple has yet to formally receive the request, however, so an official response from the company has yet to appear.

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Russia Walks Out of Nunn-Lugar Agreement – Paper

Moscow is to abandon participation in a decades-old program with the United States aimed at dismantling weapons of mass destruction


Moscow is to abandon participation in a decades-old program with the United States aimed at dismantling weapons of mass destruction, Russian daily Kommersant reported Wednesday.
The paper reported sources in the US State Department as saying Russia is no longer interested in the Nunn-Lugar program – also known as the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR) – which dates back to the early 1990's and helped decommission scores of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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6 Afghan local police killed following blast in Helmand

According to local authorities in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, at least 6 Afghan local police forces were killed following a roadside improvised explosive device explosion in this province.

The officials further added the incident took place early Wednesday morning at Nad-e-Ali district.

Nad-e-Ali district chief Mohammad Ibrahim confirming the report said the incident took place around 7:00 am local time after a local police vehicle struck with the roadside bomb.

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Dawn of the drones

In December 1998, in Kandahar, the CIA received actionable information regarding the location of Osama bin Laden. The source was only somewhat reliable, however, and the strike, by cruise missiles, could result in the death of as many as 300 bystanders. The Pentagon and the CIA chief at the time, George Tenet, decided to hold fire. The 9-11 Commission reported that, “After this episode Pentagon planners intensified efforts to find a more precise alternative.”

The result: the weapons-bearing unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone.

Today, drones are utilized by law enforcement to monitor borders and by environmentalists to track Japanese whaling boats. Meteorologists want to use them to penetrate into the eye of storms. Paparazzi are trying to develop them to spy on celebrities. They can be controlled by iphone. They can be bought over Amazon. They can weigh as little as four ounces. Yet the military ones that buzz over the skies of Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Gaza and Israel are the bulk of the world’s unmanned aerial vehicles and they are changing the face of war.

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