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Strategic issues
Initial $1.16B BAMS contract goes to Northrop
Northrop Grumman will 'build the U.S. Navy's much-anticipated Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) drone, beating out Boeing and the Lockheed Martin-General Atomics team for the S1.16 billion developmental contract.
The deal, announced by the Navy late April 22, includes funding for two unmanned aircraft, a systems integration lab, and two mission control systems: one primary base system and a second designed for a forward operating base.
The drones - which will be expected to remain in the air for long periods of time and monitor a 2.000-nautical-mile radius - will collect information on enemies, do battle-damage assessments, conduct port surveillance and provide support to Navy forces at sea. Each aircraft is expected to serve for 20 years.
New deadline set to rid world of chemical weapons
A body set up to rid the world of chemical weapons agreed on April 19 to a new global deadline of 2012, after conceding that Albania is the only country to have completely destroyed its stock.
After 10 days of deliberations at a review conference in The Hague called to re-assess its 11-year mission, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) gave itself a new five-year mandate to achieve total disarmament.
The U.S., Russia, India and Libya, with some of the largest stockpiles, previously had individual deadlines, some of them earlier than 2012, but havesigned up to the revised founding treaty.
The OPCW said 37 percent of global chemical agents with military functions have been destroyed alongside a third of all chemical munitions stocks.
The U.S. has removed half of its arsenal, Russia about a quarter.
The treaty has to-date been ratified by 183 countries representing 98 percent of the world's population.
TWelve states have yet to sign or ratify, including five in the Middle East - Israel, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
Director-General Rogelio Pfirter told AFP before the conference began that he had "serious hopes" of seeing Lebanon and Iraq sign up "in the near future".
The OPCW - which has conducted more than 3,000 inspections in 80 member states since its formation - had yet to establish any communication with North Korea.
Established under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention treaty, the OPCW is also charged with monitoring security at industrial chemical productions plants around the world as well as working with states to limit the opportunity for rogue terror groups to launch chemical attacks.
Source: WWW defensenews com
China defends Zimbabwe arms shipment headed for Angola A Chinese ship loaded with arms intended for Zimbabwe was headed to Angola, the agent handling the ship said on Tuesday, as China defended the shipment against international criticism. The ship, the An Yue Jiang, was carrying three million rounds of assault rifle ammunition, 3,000 mortar rounds and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, according to its inventory, published by a South African newspaper.
The ship was forced to abandon plans to offload Jbe arms in Jim,South Africamport of. .. Durban last week after activists won a court case which prevented it from transporting the load overland to the Zimbabwe border.
There were fears that the arms could be used to crack down on protests following parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe last month, both of which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says it won.
The shipment was also likely to inflame a debate about China's growing diplomatic and economic role in Africa, which has focussed on the country's links with the Sudanese government, accused of human rights abuses in Darfur.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Tuesday defended the shipment, saying she hoped there would be no attempt to ’politicise" the arms cargo, although she hinted that China might be forced to take it back.
Gripen Fighter Demonstrator -The future of air combat
Today in Linkoping, Sweden, Saab and its powerful network of leading international aerospace partners, proudly unveiled the first of the next generation of combat fighters, the Gripen Demonstrator aircraft.
In an event attended by over 700 international guests which was broadcast ’five' around the world, the Gripen Demonstrator (Demo) aircraft was 'rolled-out' in a spectacular ceremony in front of the world’s media.
The Gripen Demonstrator programme is the pathfinder for a whole new generation of technologies and capabilities to ensure that Gripen remains at the leading edge of fighter aircraft performance and capability well beyond 2040. The programme includes the development of a new Gripen test flying platform - Gripen Demo - and the Gripen Avionics Rig. The Gripen Demo includes new fea-tures such as the General Electric F414G Turbofan engine with increased thrust, a new Saab/Thales active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar, increased fuel capacity' for extended range, improved landing gear, increased weapons and stores capabilities, advanced communications and defensive systems and world-beating avionics structures.
General Electric together with Volvo Aero, Thales, Honeywell, Rockwell Collins, APPH, Martin-Baker, forma and Meggit are just some of the world-leading aerospace companies that, together with Saab, are jointly investing in the Gripen Demonstrator programme. This combination of international corporate partnership and national and international commitment, through a jointly funded industry and government investment programme, is a very’ powerful testament to Gripen's future.
Eurofighter Typhoon success in "Spring Flag 2008"
"Spring Flag”, the most important annual exercise of the Italian Air Force, in 2008 was hosted by 9* Gruppo and XII Gruppo, with their Eurofighter Typhoons taking the lead in the Air Dominance role.
The Spring Flag exercise is planned and executed to verify the Air Force's deployment capability’. The Eurofighter Typhoons performed remarkably well, building on the successes of recent deployments to the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain, and demonstrating how the aircraft, although still making its first forays into frontline service, already combines excellent operational reliability with a logistics support capability to maintain the aircraft even in the most complex scenarios.
Source www defencetaik.com