DTN News - U.S. DRONES NEWS: White House Confirms US Drones In Ethiopia

DTN News - U.S. DRONES NEWS: White House Confirms US Drones In Ethiopia

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources VoA

(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - October 30, 2011: The White House says the United States has drones in Ethiopia and that the unmanned aircraft are there to conduct reconnaissance missions, not airstrikes.

Spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Friday that the operation is part of the U.S. government's partnership with Ethiopia to promote stability in the Horn of Africa and combat terrorism.

U.S. military officials have confirmed the drones are flying into Somalia, where the government is battling the al-Qaida-Linked militant group al-Shabab.

The drones can be armed with missiles and satellite-guided bombs, but a military spokesman told VOA on Friday the missions are strictly for surveillance purposes.

Authorities say the remote-controlled aircraft are flying from an airfield in the southern Ethiopian city of Arba Minch.

The spokesman also said the drone operation is unrelated to Kenya's ongoing military offensive inside Somalia.

Kenyan troops moved into Somalia two weeks ago in pursuit of al-Shabab militants, who are suspected of kidnapping several foreigners on Kenyan territory.

On Friday, Kenyan and Somali forces captured the town of Burgabo in the Lower Juba region.

Kenyan troops have now moved within 200 kilometers of the port city of Kismayo, the third largest city in Somalia and an economic hub for al-Shabab.

Endurance (Courtesy - Wikipedia)

RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude reconnaissance UAV capable of 36 hours continuous flight time

Because UAVs are not burdened with the physiological limitations of human pilots, they can be designed for maximized on-station times. The maximum flight duration of unmanned, aerial vehicles varies widely. Internal-combustion-engine aircraft endurance depends strongly on the percentage of fuel burned as a fraction of total weight (the Breguet endurance equation), and so is largely independent of aircraft size. Solar-electric UAVs hold potential for unlimited flight, a concept originally championed by the AstroFlight Sunrise in 1974^{[61][62][63][64]} and the much later Aerovironment Helios Prototype, which was destroyed in a 2003 crash.

Electric UAVs kept aloft indefinitely by laser power-beaming^[65] technology represent another proposed solution to the endurance challenge. This approach is advocated by Jordin Kare and Thomas Nugent.

One of the major problems with UAVs is the lack of inflight refueling capability. Currently the US Air Force is promoting research that should end in an inflight UAV refueling capability. The first UAV-UAV refueling flights are expected sometime during the first half of 2012.^[66]

One of the uses for a high endurance UAV would be to "stare" at the battlefield for a long period of time to produce a record of events that could then be played backwards to track where improvised explosive devices (IEDs) came from. Air Force Chief of Staff John P. Jumper started a program to create these persistent UAVs, but this was stopped once he was replaced.^[67]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is to sign a contract on building an UAV which should have an enormous endurance capability of about 5 years. The project is entitled "Vulture" and a September 15, 2010 news release indicated DARPA’s Vulture Program Enters Phase II.^[68] The developers are certain neither on the design of the UAV nor on what fuel it should run to be able to stay in air without any maintenance for such a long period of time.^[69]

Notable high endurance flights

UAV	Flight time	Date	Notes
QinetiQ Zephyr Solar Electric	336 hours 22 minutes	9–23 July 2010	[70]
QinetiQ Zephyr Solar Electric	82 hours 37 minutes	28–31 July 2008	[71]
Boeing Condor	58 hours 11 minutes	1989	The aircraft is currently in the Hiller Aviation Museum, CA. [72]
QinetiQ Zephyr Solar Electric	54 hours	September 2007	[73][74]
IAI Heron	52 hours	?	[75][76]
AC Propulsion Solar Electric	48 hours 11 minutes	June 3, 2005	[77]
MQ-1 Predator	40 hours 5 minutes	?	[78]
GNAT-750	40 hours	1992	[79][80]
TAM-5	38 hours 52 minutes	August 11, 2003	Smallest UAV to cross the Atlantic [81][82]
Aerosonde	38 hours 48 minutes	May 3, 2006	[83]
Vanguard Defense Industries	2 hours 55 minutes	11 February 2011	VTOL platform carrying a 18 lb payload.[84]
TAI Anka	24 hours	30 December 2010	[85]

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources VoA

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News

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DTN News: Piracy Off The Horn Of Africa

DTN News: Piracy Off The Horn Of Africa

*The following is an editorial reflecting the views of the US Government

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON, USA - September 16, 2009: The Gulf of Aden, off the Horn of Africa, through which some 33,000 commercial ships pass each year, is one of the world's busiest seaways – and one of the most dangerous. Since the beginning of this year, there have been 138 reported pirate attacks on commercial vessels, of which 33 were successful. (Image: This Saudi Arabian supertanker was hijacked off the Kenyan coast)

The United States government, in concert with the U.S. maritime industry and other concerned nations and international organizations, continues to work to prevent pirates operating in the waters of the Horn of Africa from interfering with maritime commerce, endangering mariners, hindering the provision of humanitarian aid to East Africa, and further destabilizing the troubled region.

The U.S. believes that all commercial vessels should take self protection measures to reduce the risk of piracy. In order to successfully deter these criminal assaults on the high seas the commercial shipping industry should continue to provide input to, and follow, internationally recognized best management practices to avoid, deter, or delay acts of piracy. Pirates near Somalia's shore.

The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have contributed ships and aircraft to NATO's counter-piracy operations and Combined Task Force 151, a multinational coalition whose mission is to protect against piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia. (Image: Pirates near Somalia's shore) The command rotates among partner navies regularly. The U.S. Navy and its task force partners actively coordinate with and support the anti-piracy operations of NATO's Operation Ocean Shield naval forces in the region, as well as those of the European Union's naval Operation Atalanta.

Despite the fact that over 1 million square miles of ocean are vulnerable to Somali piracy, the U.S. and other navies have succeeded so far in seizing or destroying 40 pirate vessels since August 2008, turning over 235 suspected pirates for prosecution in various countries, and confiscating numerous small arms and light weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades. Following the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1851 the U.S. helped to create the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia to coordinate an effective response to piracy in that region. The U.S. is supporting international efforts to help build regional judicial, legislative, regulatory, and coastal defense forces to deal with the piracy problem.

The U.S. believes that pirates should be brought to justice and that the first option for prosecution should go to the state most concerned – be it the flag state or the state of the vessel's owner or crew.The United States is committed to work with its international partners to making the waters off the coast of Somalia safe for international commerce.

DTN News: Awkward Photo? There May Be More To Come As Colonel Gaddafi Visits Rome

DTN News: Awkward Photo? There May Be More To Come As Colonel Gaddafi Visits Rome

*Source: Guardian.co.uk By John Hooper

(NSI News Source Info) ROME, Italy - June 11, 2009: One of them likes to call himself an "emancipator of women". The other likes women to call him 'papi' ('daddy'). So when the two of the world's most flamboyant and eccentric politicians - the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi - met yesterday in Rome, women not surprisingly figured large. Silvio Berlusconi welcomes Muammar Gaddafi, who arrived wearing a photo of Omar Mukhtar, a resistance leader against Italian colonialism. Photograph: Alessandro Di Meo/EPA The Libyan leader was accompanied by his all-female, 40-strong bodyguard squad, its members dressed in khaki uniforms and red berets. And the schedule for his controversial first visit to Italy included, at his own request, a meeting on Friday with large numbers of Italian women. Very large numbers. The plan was for 'only' 700. But officials said yesterday that such was the colonel's drawing power the event had had to be moved to a concert hall with a capacity for 1,000. Berlusconi has had more than a little trouble lately with embarrassing photos. So it must have been with a sinking feeling that he watched the Libyan leader descend the aircraft steps with another one pinned to his chest. The photograph Gaddafi wore to several of the ceremonies on the opening day of his visit did not show young women in tangas by the Berlusconi poolside, let alone a former Czech prime minister in the altogether. But it was discomforting for his hosts all the same: it showed the Libyan resistance leader, Omar Mukhtar, the "Lion of the Desert", on the day before he was hanged by his Italian colonial masters in 1931. Gaddafi flew in with a 300-strong retinue, on three Airbuses. As ever, the Libyan leader brought with him a giant Bedouin tent, which was erected in a Rome park. Security for his visit was tight. But that is partly because, while Gaddafi may have bones to pick with Italy, some Italians have bones to pick with him. Officially today it was all smiles as the colonel praised Italians for having "turned a page on the past". Relations have improved since Berlusconi's government agreed last year to a $5bn (about £3bn) reparations deal for colonial rule. Italy, he said, had "apologised for what happened and that is what allowed me to be able to come here today". But not everyone is happy about the visit. The Libyan leader is set to encounter protests at one of the earliest fruits of his friendlier relations with Rome - a deal allowing Italian patrols to return would-be migrants, including asylum seekers, to Libyan ports. Yesterday he dismissed claims the deal prevented asylum seekers from applying for protection in a way that visibly disconcerted his host, normally a champion of political incorrectness. "This is one of the lies that is put about", the colonel declared at a joint press conference following his talks with Berlusconi. "The Africans do not have problems of political asylum. People who live in the bush, and often in the desert, frankly don't have political problems. They don't have oppositions or majorities or elections or anything like that." The Libyan leader, who is also chairman of the African Union, went on: "These are things that only people who live in cities know. [Other Africans] don't even have an identity. And I don't mean a political identify; they don't even have a personal identity. They come out of the bush and they say: "In the north, there's money, there's wealth and so they go to Libya, and from there to Europe." According to the UN's refugee agency, an unusually high proportion of the migrants who try to cross from Libya into the European Union are genuine asylum seekers fleeing wars and civil disorder, mainly in the Horn of Africa. But Colonel Gadafi was having none of it. "Please, don't take seriously this business about political asylum", he told the assembled journalists. "The idea that they are all asylum seekers makes you laugh sometimes."

DTN News: Somalia TODAY June 5, 2009 - Somalia Vowed To Uproot And Eliminate Islamic Militants From Its Territory

DTN News: Somalia TODAY June 5, 2009 - Somalia Vowed To Uproot And Eliminate Islamic Militants From Its Territory

(NSI News Source Info) MOGADISHU, Somalia - June 5, 2009: Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed sits with his Finance minister Sharif Hasan Sheik Adan during a news conference at the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu, June 4, 2009, where he vowed to continue fighting Islamists Insurgents until peace is assured in the Horn of African nation.

Addis Adaba acknowledged on Wednesday its military personnel had been carrying out "reconnaissance" missions into neighbouring Somalia where any incursions from Ethiopia always inflame passions.

Ethiopian Forces Return To Somalia

Ethiopian Forces Return To Somalia

(NSI News Source Info) MOGADISHU - May 19, 2009: Ethiopian forces, who pulled out of Somalia in January, on Tuesday crossed back into the war-torn neighbour following a fresh offensive by rebels to topple the fledgling government, witnesses said. But Ethiopia denied returning to Somalia. Witnesses in Kalabeyrka village, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with Ethiopia, on Tuesday reported seeing troops in dozens of armoured vehicles mounting roadblocks. "Ethiopian forces have been checking vehicles in the Kalabeyrka area. They were asking people where they came from but they were not arresting anybody," said Abdurahman Afey, a truck driver. Ethiopia's state minister for communications Ermias Legesse told AFP: "No Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia." Another witness, Mohamed Sheikh Abdi said: "I have seen Ethiopian forces manning checkpoints in Kalabeyrka. They were many and there were also armoured vehicles including big trucks mounted with anti-aircraft weapons." While admitting that the situation in Somalia was deteriorating, Ethiopian Communications Minister Bereket Simon on Monday ruled out re-deployment. "We are not contemplating going back there for the moment," he said. "For the moment there is no immediate danger to Ethiopia." "There is no change in the situation," added Legesse. Kalabeyrka is located near Beledweyne, the regional capital of Hiran region in central Somalia, some 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Mogadishu. Beledweyne is controlled by militias loosely allied to Sharif's government. Fierce clashes between hardline Islamist insurgents and government troops erupted earlier this month and in two days this week the rebels have seized two key towns north of Mogadishu, sparking fears they would advance to Beledweyne. The rebel onslaught has been led by the Shebab, a hardline faction accused of links to Al-Qaeda, and Hezb al-Islam, a more political radical group loyal to senior opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. The fighting that began on May 7 has killed at least 110 people and displaced some 30,000, mainly in Mogadishu. Government forces in the capital only control a compound housing the president's office and a few ministry buildings, as well as the airport and the seaport, according to witnesses. The international community has called for an end to the fighting, accused Eritrea of providing support to Aweys' forces and urged all sides to spare civilians. Ethiopian troops rolled into Somalia in late 2006 to buttress an embattled government against an Islamist movement then led by now Somalia President Sharif Shekh Ahmed and Aweys. Their withdrawal sparked fears of a security vacuum as fighters of the toppled Islamist movement waged relentless battles against them, government targets and a small African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu. While Sharif later joined a UN-sponsored reconciliation process and was eventually elected president in January, Aweys has remained in the opposition and returned from exile last month to challenge his former ally. Insurgents now control much of southern and central Somalia, with forces loyal to the internationally recognised government pushed back to a few remaining pockets in Mogadishu and close to the Ethiopian border. The Horn of African country has lacked a central authority since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre sparked violence.

Somalia: A Country In Chaos And Governed By Warlords / Rebels Threaten Somali Government

Somalia: A Country In Chaos And Governed By Warlords / Rebels Threaten Somali Government

(NSI News Source Info) NAIROBI/MOGADISHU - May 18, 2009: A major offensive by Somalia's Islamist rebels is posing the most serious challenge yet to the country's latest central government, reviving long-standing concerns that the chaotic Horn of Africa nation could fall entirely to militants with alleged ties to al-Qaeda. An Islamist fighter poses with his weapon as he mans a position in the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, on May 16, 2009. Pro-government forces scrambled to thwart an insurgent onslaught that has left more than 100 dead and displaced tens of thousands over the past week. The UN Security Council slammed a bid by extremists to seize power by force in Somalia amid escalating fighting in Mogadishu and voiced concern about reported Eritrean arms supplies to the Islamists. Ten days of heavy fighting across the bombed-out capital of Mogadishu and other areas has pitted the Islamist rebels -- now operating openly with hundreds of fighters from the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Chechnya and other places -- against the fragile government of President Sharif Ahmed, a widely respected moderate Islamist once vilified by U.S. officials but now regarded by Washington as Somalia's last, best hope. Momentum has been swinging back and forth between the government and rebels for days, but on Sunday it seemed to be with the rebels, who include several leaders who U.S. officials have said maintain ties to al-Qaeda. In a major blow, they took a key government stronghold, Ahmed's home town of Jowhar, about 50 miles north of the capital, giving them control of major routes to the north. The rebels have for the past year controlled virtually all of southern Somalia, where local leaders -- some Somalis call them Islamist warlords -- have imposed a harsh version of sharia law, publicly flogging people who don't attend Friday prayers and chopping off the hands of alleged thieves. Ahmed's government, while popular with many Somalis, directly controls only Mogadishu's airport, its seaport and a small corner of the ruined city where the presidential palace is fortified by 4,000 African Union peacekeepers in something akin to Baghdad's Green Zone. Ahmed has remained sequestered there for most of the past week. "Things look bad for the government," said one Somali analyst in Mogadishu, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by rebels, who are quick to assassinate critics. He said it would be a "disaster" if the rebels took over. For many war-weary Somalis, the battle underway has an air of finality -- a fight that will determine whether an internationally recognized central government survives or the historically moderate Muslim nation becomes al-Qaeda's official African headquarters. At the grass-roots level, the battle is in many ways about identity, a struggle between the sense of purpose and power that militant Islam is offering thousands of young, jobless Somali men who have known only anarchy, and the almost gravitational pull of the country's entrenched clan system and a more moderate Islamic tradition. "The elders, the traditional leaders, the businesspeople, the moderate religious leaders -- they are trying to mobilize their people to support Sharif, saying that our identity is at stake," said Ali Said, director of the Center for Peace and Democracy, a Somali think tank operating in exile in Nairobi. "They are saying, 'We have to fight back.' " More than 100 people have died since the fighting began, and thousands are again fleeing the capital, where young Islamist fighters roam freely. With alliances among various leaders and militias fluid, however, the fight is hardly over. For a while, the momentum had seemed to be with Ahmed, who was elected in January and recently adopted a moderate version of sharia law in a bid to win back young Somalis who had joined the main rebel group, al-Shabab, Arabic for "youth." But last week, favor swung back to the rebels. With their advance on Mogadishu underway, hundreds of Islamist militiamen who had been persuaded to join Ahmed went back to al-Shabab. The Somali government and the United States accused Eritrea of supporting the group by flying cargo planes full of AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons to a sandy airstrip outside the capital just before the rebel advance began. Eritrea has denied the allegations.

Ahmed has strong international backing and widespread public support among Somalis sick of al-Shabab and its harsh version of Islam. While presenting himself as a devout Muslim, Ahmed has also cobbled together an alliance of clan militias and warlords eager to crush al-Shabab if only to preserve their business interests. On Sunday, militiamen loyal to the important but infamous warlord Yusuf Indahaadde, long considered an Eritrean proxy, joined with the government, which analysts and observers considered a significant defection. Somali Islamist fighters take their positions during clashes with Somali government in Mogadishu, May 16, 2009. The U.N. Security Council does not think conditions are yet right to send a peacekeeping force to Somalia but will step up support for African Union (AU) troops there, a senior Western envoy said on Saturday. "I think Ahmed will survive this," Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the top U.N. envoy to Somalia, said in a telephone interview. "And if by some miracle the rebels win, they will not last." Ould-Abdallah and other analysts say the rebels are suffering from internal divisions as leaders jockey for power and clan divisions surface. The foreign contingent, for instance, has been disillusioned to find weapons, food and money being doled out along clan lines, Ould-Abdallah said. The foreigners -- who fight under their own flag -- have in recent days withdrawn from their positions in Mogadishu. "They are demoralized," Ould-Abdallah said. "They came to wage an ideological war, and they are caught in the middle of a tribal fight." The pull of clan is beginning to trump Islamist ideology, which so far provided a common cause for fighters from an array of clans, a feat once unheard of in Somali society. According to one Somali analyst familiar with the situation, several top rebel leaders are angry with Hassan Dahir Aweys, one of Somalia's oldest militant Islamist leaders, who comes from the militarily powerful Ayr clan. Aweys, a player in Somali politics for decades, is poised to become president if the rebels take over. But rebel leaders from less-powerful clans are suspicious that he is trying to pry his clansmen from al-Shabab in his bid for power. And it is unlikely that al-Shabab's members, who have developed a keen sense of entitlement after fighting for three years against Ethiopian occupiers who installed Somalia's last government, would accept any leadership other than their own, some analysts said. "Now the Shabab and other Islamists need each other, but I don't think they'll be able to continue this alliance," Said said. "Their goal is to topple the government, but after that, what?" Special correspondents Mohamed Ibrahim in Nairobi and Yusuf Hagi Husein in Mogadishu contributed to this report.

U.S. Sea Supremacy Permits Naval Budget Shifts, Lynn Says

U.S. Sea Supremacy Permits Naval Budget Shifts, Lynn Says

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - May 6, 2009: The United States’ maritime supremacy allows the Defense Department to slow production of sea-based defense systems, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said today at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition in Oxon Hill, Md.

The US Navy will defer decisions on future amphibious ships and the CG-X cruiser to focus on the Littoral Combat Ship, of which it wants to order up to 55. (US Navy photo)

Lynn addressed the group days before the department is slated to submit its budget proposal to Congress. Echoing remarks Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made last month when announcing his budget recommendations, Lynn said the new fiscal breakdown reflects the need to balance traditional and unconventional capabilities.

“The United States stands alone unsurpassed on, above and below the seas,” Lynn said. “One consideration as we rebalance the department’s priorities is that the military dominance that we enjoy is greater in some areas than in others. We look for ways to strengthen irregular warfare capabilities while maintaining the overwhelming edge we enjoy in conventional capabilities.”

In terms of tonnage, the U.S. battle fleet is far larger than any potential combination of adversaries, and no other fleet can match the reach or combat power of a single American carrier battle group, he said.

The defense budget that is slated to reach Congress this week recommends shifting the Navy aircraft carrier program to a five-year build cycle to place it on a more “fiscally sustainable” path. This will result in 10 carriers after 2040, defense officials said. The department also proposes delaying the Navy “CG-X” next-generation cruiser program to revisit its requirements and acquisition strategy.

To allow more time to assess costs and analyze its necessity, Gates also proposed delaying the amphibious ship and sea-basing programs known as the 11th Landing Platform Dock ship and the Mobile Landing Platform ship until fiscal 2011.

Meanwhile, the department plans to use the budget to place greater emphasis on the Navy’s ability to conduct nontraditional missions. “The Navy must be ready for counterinsurgency and other irregular operations, which means dealing with nonstate actors at sea or near shore or with a swarm of speed boats sent by military groups from hostile countries,” Lynn said.

Accordingly, Gates proposed improving the Navy’s intertheater lift capacity by increasing the charter of joint high-speed vessel ships from two to four until the department’s production program begins deliveries in 2011.

The defense secretary recommended buying more littoral combat ships – a key capability for presence, stability and counterinsurgency operations in coastal regions – from two to three ships in fiscal 2010, with the long-term goal of eventually acquiring 55 such ships. “The requirement is predominance, for speed, it’s the ability maneuver in shallow waters,” Lynn said.

“The ship that best fills this bill is the LCS, which, despite its past development problems, is a versatile ship that can be turned on a dime, go places that are either too shallow or too dangerous. “And as we’ve seen off the coast of Somalia, it does not take a big ship to carry out anti-piracy missions,” he said, referring to the U.S. Navy-led rescue of an American ship captain kidnapped by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa.

“American people our more aware today of our maritime forces than they have been in a long time,” he said. “Piracy off the Horn of Africa and the dedicated actions of our skilled and brave Navy SEALs have reminded us of why we have sea services.” Lynn underscored the role U.S. maritime forces have played in operations since Sept. 11, 2001.

“The first thing is to acknowledge how grateful we are to the men and women of the Marines, the Navy and the Coast Guard since Sept. 11, 2001,” he said. “They have been engaged in operations around the world to defeat terrorist groups and to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The progress we’ve made owes so much to their skill, their dedication and too often, to their sacrifices,” he said.