DTN News - ASIAN DEFENSE NEWS: Singapore Defense News ~ Singapore And US Military Cooperate For M-Learning

DTN News - ASIAN DEFENSE NEWS: Singapore Defense News ~ Singapore And US Military Cooperate For M-Learning

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

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada -

April 4, 2011: Singapore’s Ministry of Defense and the US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) have teamed up to make medical-related training content available

on mobile devices under an Office of the Secretary of Defense Coalition Warefare Programme (CWP) on mobile learning.

Under the CWP project, the effectiveness of distributing critical medical training content using cellular infrastructures in more than 20 nations will be evaluated and according to the plan, allow medical responders from multiple nations to access needed information from the site of a natural disaster.

Scott Shephard, Chief of the Joint Training Directorate, USJFCOM, said that this project has the potential to help improve US medical efficiencies as well as benefit medical personnel from other nations. “Singapore’s participation is key as they bring a high level of mobile learning expertise to the table,” he added.

Said Raja Gopal, Singapore’s Foreign Liaison Officer stationed atUSJFCOM: “We are confident of the mutual benefits. Engagement with participants from other nations can only make the project and its solutions better.”

Shephard also said that mobile learning has the potential to deliver just-in-time training directly to the point of need and it could benefit any crisis responder required to perform medical duties or to assess the medical situation.

The CWP project officially kicked off in February 2011 with a three-day workshop in London where participants focused on finalising their roles and identifying goals to be accomplished in the next phase, a proof-of-concept, to be held in early 2012.

This proof-of-concept demonstration will focus on a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief scenario with a large number of injuries and casualties.

“In the scenario, as in real-life, personnel sent to assist will come from different backgrounds, will have different skills and will speak different languages. We will be testing how well medical-related mobile learning works in that environment,” said Shephard.

“Mobile learning and medical mobile learning aren’t new. What’s new is sharing common mobile content among medical responders using multiple languages and formats.”

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

Asian Defense News

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Pakistani Officials On Board For Drone Attacks: Reports

Pakistani Officials On Board For Drone Attacks: Reports/WSJ

(NSI News Source Info) NEW YORK - February 19, 2009: Although Pakistan's leaders have publicly denounced US missile strikes as an attack on the country's sovereignty, but privately Pakistani military and intelligence officers are aiding these attacks and have given significant support to recent US missions, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday quoting officials from both countries. Tribesmen gather at the site of a drone missile attack in Tappi, a village 20 km east of Miramshah. American unmanned Predator aircraft have killed scores of militants in Pakistan in more than 30 missile strikes since August, provoking outrage in the South Asian nation. Two in the past four days have killed more than 50 suspected militants. Yet, with the Taliban pushing deeper into the country, Pakistan's civilian and military leaders, while publicly condemning the attacks, have come to see the strikes as effective and are passing on intelligence that has helped recent missions, say officials from both countries. As a result, ‘the Predator strikes are more and more precise,’ a Pakistani official told WSJ. The newspaper said that eleven of al Qaeda's top 20 commanders have been killed or captured since August because of the Predator missions conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to the Pakistani official, and current and former US intelligence officials. Dennis C. Blair, the new US director of national intelligence, said last week that ‘a succession of blows’ to al Qaeda in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas have thrown the group off balance, forcing it to promote inexperienced operators to leadership posts. The Journal said among those killed include al Qaeda military's chief, Khalid Habib; Abu Layth al-Libi, whom US officials described as ‘a rising star’ in the group; Abu Khabab al-Masri, al Qaeda's leading chemical-weapons expert; and Usama al-Kini, who was believed to be involved in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and later planned attacks in Pakistan. Drones help in surveillance and target identification as well as strikes. On Jan. 22, Pakistani paramilitary forces arrested Zabu ul Taifi, a Saudi national and alleged al Qaeda operative, in an operation described by a Pakistani intelligence officer as ‘a direct result of better cooperation’ with the US. An officer from Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's premier spy agency, said Mr. Taifi was located at a safe house in the Khyber Agency, one of the tribal areas that run along the border with Afghanistan, through a combination of human intelligence from Pakistani agents, informants on the ground and aerial surveillance by US drones. Once authorities were confident Mr. Taifi was in the walled, mud compound, Pakistani paramilitary forces backed by helicopters grabbed him, the officer said. Throughout, Predator drones hovered overhead and would have attacked if Mr. Taifi or other suspects had tried to escape, the officer said. In all, Mr. Taifi and six other men —Afghans and Pakistanis —were nabbed in the raid. Maj. Gen Akhtar Abbas, a spokesman for the military, said Pakistan and the US ‘has a long history of military cooperation and intelligence sharing.’ But he said it doesn't include the missiles strikes. ‘We have made our opposition clear,’ he said. ‘The strikes are counterproductive.’

West Meets East: Hillary Clinton Chooses Asia For Her Maiden Overseas Trip

West Meets East: Hillary Clinton Chooses Asia For Her Maiden Overseas Trip

(NSI News Source Info) February 16, 2009: Hillary Clinton arrives in Asia today on her maiden overseas trip as Secretary of State, with China at the heart of her agenda as the US seeks to tackle the global economic crisis, climate change and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Traditionally, Mrs Clinton’s predecessors have travelled first to Europe or the Middle East, but her focus on Asia reflects the region’s growing influence and President Obama’s desire to broaden ties with Beijing. She will also visit Japan, Indonesia and South Korea on her seven-day tour, part of a long-term US strategy to deal with the shifting global power structures between West and East.

The US Secretary of State chooses Asia for her first foreign trip. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left for Asia on Sunday, on her maiden mission as the chief US diplomat after pledging to strengthen US ties with the region. As a presidential candidate last year, Mrs Clinton wrote that “our relationship with China will be the most important bilateral relationship in the world this century”. At a speech in New York on Friday, she declared: “Some believe that China on the rise is, by definition, an adversary. To the contrary, we believe that the United States and China can benefit from and contribute to each other’s successes. “It is in our interests to work harder to build on areas of common concern and shared opportunities.” America’s economic relationship with China is still the central issue — Beijing holds nearly $700 billion in US Treasury securities — but the Obama Administration wants China to be a central player on a range of other issues, particularly climate change. In her speech last week, Mrs Clinton noted that China passed the US recently as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, and invited Beijing to join America in a partnership to reduce global warming. Travelling with her this week will be Todd Stern, her special envoy for climate change negotiations, underscoring the importance of the issue to the new Administration. Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton believe that a sincere effort to engage China in reducing carbon emissions will improve chances of getting a deal in Copenhagen in December, where a new post-Kyoto treaty on climate change is due to be negotiated. During her visit to Beijing Mrs Clinton will visit a clean thermal power plant built through a collaboration between General Electric and China. China also chairs the stalled sixparty talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. On this issue, the Obama Administration’s policy is essentially the same as that left by President Bush: to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions through talks involving the US. The issue will be high on the agenda during Mrs Clinton’s stops in Tokyo and Seoul, both part of the multilateral effort to confront the threat. On Friday Mrs Clinton called Pyongyang’s programme “the most acute challenge to stability in NorthEast Asia”. She said that the US would normalise relations with Pyongyang if it “completely and verifiably” eliminated its weapons and programme. Mrs Clinton visits Japan first, in part to allay concerns in Tokyo that the US’s gaze has shifted from its strongest partner in the region toward Beijing. She will sign an agreement that will authorise the relocation of 8,000 US Marines stationed in Okinawa, whose presence has long angered the Japanese, to Guam. Under the deal Tokyo will pay for 60 per cent of the move but more than 15,000 Marines will remain. Last year the Bush Administration angered Japan by removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism without addressing Tokyo’s concerns about the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. In an attempt to ease such concerns, Mrs Clinton will meet the families of some of the detainees. In Indonesia, where Mr Obama lived between the age of 6 and 10, Mrs Clinton will announce that she will attend a South-East Asian summit this summer, an event that the Bush Administration often skipped.

Israel Ready To Launch A Military Offensive Against Iran

Israel Ready To Launch A Military Offensive Against Iran

On February 14, Australian News Agency “The Age” reported: <<< (NSI News Source Info) February 15, 2009: A SENIOR Israeli diplomat has warned that Israel is ready to launch a military offensive against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. In an interview with The Age, Dan Gillerman, who was Israel’s permanent representative at the United Nations from 2003 until last September, said time for diplomatic efforts to stop Iran acquiring a nuclear capability might have already expired. “The world cannot afford to live with a nuclear Iran,” Mr Gillerman said. Alireza Jafarzadeh, head of the Washington-based think tank, Strategic Policy Consulting Inc., addresses the media during a press conference organized by the Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Brussels, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008. The Iranian opposition movement alleged Wednesday that they had concrete evidence of the existence of Iran's secret nuclear weapons program command headquarters. The truth is that, after witnessing Israeli war crimes in Lebanon and in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, the world cannot afford to live with nuclear Israel. As opposed to Iran, Israel has secretly developed hundreds of nuclear warheads and delivery weapons outside of any supervision by international community. Iran continues to run its nuclear program in cooperation with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to the Press TV of February 13, The new chief of US intelligence has confirmed the findings of a 2007 intelligence report that Iran has no nuclear weapons program. Dennis Blair told the Senate Intelligence Committee that his organization has assessed that Tehran does not have nuclear weapons design and weaponization work. A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), issued in November 2007 by the sixteen US intelligence agencies, clarified that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. The 2007 intelligence report was widely seen as a setback for Bush administration efforts to pressure Iran and halt its nuclear program. The UN nuclear watchdog, which has carried out the highest number of inspections in its history on Iranian nuclear sites, has also found nothing to indicate that the program has diverted toward weaponization. In the meantime, both US and Israeli governments continue to press the issue of suspected development of military nuclear technology in Iran, slapping three rounds of sanctions against Tehran. Israel openly threatens to attack Iran in order to destroy its nuclear and scientific facilities. The real problem, as we all know by now, is this: Unlike the US and Israel, Iran has not attacked other countries in recent history. There is enough documented evidence indicating that the US planned the oil wars long ago and that Iran was one of the targets. Strong Iran is also an obstacle for Israeli territorial expansion in Arab countries. In this situation, EVEN IF Iran was trying to develop an effective nuclear deterrence capability IN SELF-DEFENCE, it would be perfectly understandable and perfectly justifiable. If the US and Israel want other countries to give up their nuclear programs, they should give an example by doing same first. This, however, will not happen because these two “partners” believe that they can unilaterally bully other nations into submission. The clear pattern here is: disarm, so that we can take over your resources and your territories, or else… we will attack you! By the way, nobody has yet explained why “the world cannot live with a nuclear Iran”. The world lives with nuclear America, with nuclear Russia, nuclear China, and India, and Pakistan, and nuclear France, and United Kingdom, with nuclear Israel, and probably a host of other nuclear countries - and nobody threatens a war against them for this reason. Somehow, the world is safer, when countries have nuclear deterrence capabilities. Nobody questions their rights to develop nuclear programs for peaceful or military purposes. So why Iran? I think I have already answered that naive question. Interestingly, Russia is not using their veto power in the UN Security Council to block the sanctions against Iran. Maybe Russia wants us to step into this mess and stretch ourselves flat? I wouldn’t be surprised. Russia is extremely good at diplomacy and at long-term chess games. Recently, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, stated late Tuesday that the Obama administration might reconsider plans for a missile defense system in Europe, if Iran stops what U.S. officials believe is a drive for nuclear weapons. This was a direct ultimatum addressed to Russia. “Help us bully Iran, or we will set up our rockets on your border”. Again, the real question is, “If the European missile defence system is to prevent Iranian nuclear warheads from reaching America, why are they being placed in Poland instead of Germany, the UK or France? Or in Iceland? Or, in Canada?” Obviously, the European missile defence system in Poland threatens Russia and this is why it became a bargaining chip in the geopolitical game for the Middle East and Caucasus. Hillary (who allegedly has an extensive experience in politics) has finally admitted it. Surely, Mr. Lavrov is working on an appropriate move in response to this “invitation”. Perhaps, the answer should be, “In the spirit of cooperation and pending the UN investigation into Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, if the US helps us force Israel to eliminate its nuclear weapons and to accept international inspections of its nuclear facilities, we will help you deal with Iran."

Russia, Armenia To Set Up Joint Air Defense Network

Russia, Armenia To Set Up Joint Air Defense Network

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - February 14, 2009: Russia and Armenia will set up an integrated air defense network similar to recently announced Russian-Belarusian air defenses, the head of a post-Soviet security bloc said on Friday. "The so-called Russian-Belarusian integrated air defense network is just a part of the cooperation within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)," Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said. "We are expecting Russia and Armenia to set up a similar joint [air defense] network," he said at a news conference in Moscow. According to Bordyuzha, the CSTO, which comprises Russia, Belarus, the Caucasus republic of Armenia and four Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, will set up three regional air defense networks - in Eastern Europe (Belarus), in the Caucasus and in Central Asia. "After that we will advance to a higher level of cooperation, coordinating the activity of all regional networks and introducing common rules of engagement and information exchange," the official said. Russia announced last year it was planning to expand military-technical cooperation with CSTO members and build a CSTO integrated air defense network. Russia and Belarus signed on February 3 an agreement on the joint protection of the Russia-Belarus Union State's airspace and the creation of an integrated regional air defense network. The network will comprise five Air Force units, 10 anti-aircraft units, five technical service and support units and one electronic warfare unit, and will be placed under the command of a Russian or Belarusian Air Force or Air Defense Force senior commander. Kazakhstan announced on Wednesday that Russia would deliver the latest version of the S-300 air defense missile system, called S-300PMU2 Favorit (SA-20 Gargoyle), to the Central Asian state in the near future.

India Denies Chinese Submarine Reports

India Denies Chinese Submarine Reports

(NSI News Source Info) February 6, 2009: Indian naval officials have denied media reports that Chinese warships forced an Indian submarine to surface in a stand-off in waters off Somalia. Reports in China said that after the submarine was detected by sonar, it was pursued by two Chinese destroyers and an anti-submarine helicopter. The Chinese ships had been on passage to take part in anti-piracy patrols. The two sides were reportedly trying to test each other's sonar systems for weaknesses. However, the Indian navy says none of its submarines was forced to surface in the area. "None of our submarines surfaced in the Gulf of Aden region as reported in a section of the Chinese media," a naval official told Indian reporters. Several Indian newspapers reported the allegations, and cited Indian naval sources as admitting their submarine had tracked the Chinese warships. "Every nation does it," one was quoted as saying. Chinese submarines surprised the US navy in October 2006, by successfully tracking the USS Kitty Hawk in the Pacific Ocean. Stand-off? Several versions of one report on the incident were circulating on Chinese websites this week, including Sina.com and QQ. These claimed that a tense stand-off occurred between Chinese warships and an Indian submarine on 15 January near the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, which separates Yemen and Djibouti, at the western end of the Gulf of Aden. The Chinese destroyers had picked up an unidentified submarine on their sonar, the reports said. The Chinese navy soon identified it as a 70m-long (230ft) vessel armed with 20 torpedoes. The Chinese reports said the Chinese ships had sent an anti-submarine helicopter to help track the submarine, which had tried to jam the Chinese warships' sonar system. But the two destroyers eventually cornered the submarine and forced it to surface, reports said. The Indian vessel then apparently left without further confrontation. Chinese media said the submarine had been trailing the Chinese ships since they had entered the Indian Ocean on the way to Somalia. But India has denied the reports, which have also not been carried by China's official news outlets, Xinhua and the China Daily. There were more than 100 pirate attacks in 2008 in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, in what is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. An EU anti-piracy task force set up in December was the first such naval operation of its kind. India, Iran, the US and China are among other nations with naval forces off Somalia.

Russia Not Permit US, NATO Military Transit To Afghanistan

Russia Not Permit US, NATO Military Transit To Afghanistan (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - January 22, 2009: Russia did not permit the United States and NATO to transit military supplies across the country to Afghanistan, Russian Military Representative to NATO General of the Army Alexei Maslov told Itar-Tass on Thursday. “No official documents were submitted to Russia’s permanent mission in NATO certifying that Russia had authorized U.S. and NATO military supplies transit across the country,” he said in comments on some media reports about a statement which Commander of the U.S. Central Command General David Petraeus has recently made in Islamabad concerning alleged agreements with Russia and other countries bordering Russia on alternative transit routes for U.S. and NATO military supplies to Afghanistan. Russia has concluded with NATO and two NATO states the agreements on transit of non-military supplies in Afghanistan. Specifically in April 2008 Russia has concluded an agreement with the North Atlantic Alliance on simplified railway transit of non-military supplies to Afghanistan and with France and Germany the bilateral agreements on air transit. According to Russian expert Lieutenant-General Leonid Sazhin in order to provide logistic supplies for its military contingent in Afghanistan the U.S. will have to ask Russia to provide the ground transit of U.S. military supplies across the country or withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Commenting on some reports about temporarily suspended supplies of medicines, food and fuel for the NATO contingent in Afghanistan across the Khyber Pass in north-western Pakistan because of a recent attack of Taliban militants on a military checkpoint in North Waziristan Sazhin said, “The U.S. already has quite big problems with logistic supplies for its 32,000-strong contingent in Afghanistan and will have more problems after the U.S. contingent is increased to 60,000 servicemen this year.” “The Americans have spoiled relations with Islamabad after lobbying President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation despite the fact that the latter could keep the situation in Pakistan under control somehow. Currently Asif Ali Zardari who is the husband of killed Benazir Bhutto rules the country. He has a weak character and cannot be an assistant to the Americans in the struggle against Taliban militants despite all his statements about firm intentions to wage the struggle against terrorists,” the Russian general added. In his opinion currently the U.S. “is trying in some way to take advantage of a quite difficult situation in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in order to transit its military supplies for the country’s troops in Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan.” “If the Talibs block the Khyber Pass in western Pakistan and the highway to the Afghan city of Kandahar from the direction of the Pakistani city of Chaman in the southwest NATO will have other alternative transit routes but only through Central Asia. Meanwhile quite few military supplies can be airlifted. Ground transport corridors are needed and the Americans cannot do without Russia in this issue. Whether or not Barack Obama’s administration wants it the U.S. cannot do without Russia. The new U.S. administration has two options: withdraw the U.S. troops from Afghanistan and recognize its next defeat after Iraq or ask Russia to provide the ground transit of non-military and military supplies across its territory,” the Russian expert said.