DTN News: U.S., Pakistan Bolster Joint Efforts, Treading Delicately

DTN News: U.S., Pakistan Bolster Joint Efforts, Treading Delicately Source: DTN News / By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON, U.S. - April 30, 2010: The scheduled arrival of 50 additional U.S. military personnel to Pakistan in June, accompanying four new F-16 fighter jets, will increase the official number of American boots on the ground there by 25 percent. It is enough to make the Pakistani government shudder with trepidation. Exaggerated tales of U.S. soldiers and spies flooding the country are regular front-page fare in Pakistan, and cause for strident political criticism of Western intervention that sometimes erupts into violence. Pakistan's military and intelligence services remain highly suspicious about the motives and methods of their U.S. counterparts, a wariness mirrored in American attitudes toward Pakistan. But a strategic decision by both sides to improve counterterrorism cooperation, along with the personnel requirements of increased U.S. aid, have led in recent months to a small but significant expansion in the U.S. presence in Pakistan. There are currently about 200 U.S. military involved in security assistance in Pakistan, including a Special Operations training and advisory contingent, initially set at 80 troops, that has twice been enlarged since last year and now totals up to 140 troops in two Pakistani locations, according to senior U.S. military officials. The Pakistani government prohibits U.S. combat forces. The CIA has sent additional intelligence-gathering operatives and technicians in recent months. Plans are underway to establish a joint military intelligence processing center. After an initial period of tension, Pakistani officers are using cross-border intelligence compiled at two joint coordination centers on the Afghan side of the frontier. Although news media and the public continue to criticize the CIA's drone-fired missile attacks targeting insurgent figures in western Pakistan, intelligence cooperation in directing the missiles has improved, according to Pakistani officials who say U.S. operatives have gotten better on coordinating such activities to prevent conflicts with Pakistan's own air operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, along the Afghan border. Under agreements connected to Pakistan's purchase of 18 F-16s scheduled for staggered delivery this year, a U.S. military team must be on hand to ensure that sophisticated, top-of-the-line avionics, weapons and data systems aboard the aircraft remain secure. The planes, which for the first time will allow Pakistan to conduct nighttime air operations, are far more advanced than the 30-year-old U.S. aircraft that are the current air force mainstay. They will be housed at Shahbaz air base in south-central Pakistan, one of three bases where Pakistan allowed limited U.S. use for several years after the 2001 beginning of the war in Afghanistan. Far from advertising the arrival of a new contingent of Americans at Shahbaz, the Pakistani military is building a cloistered facility to house them amid some 5,000 of its own troops that will occupy the newly expanded base. Pakistani and U.S. military and intelligence officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so on the record. "Certainly, this is a delicate area," a Pakistani military official said of the American presence. Both Pakistani and U.S. officials expressed concern about how the previously unpublished news of the team's deployment would be played in the Pakistani press, and emphasized that the U.S. personnel would have no operational role. "For someone against the United States, it is not all that easy to make him like the U.S. overnight," Nawabzada Malik Ahmad Khan, Pakistan's minister of state for foreign affairs, said in an interview. Progress in bilateral relations culminated with last month's meeting between senior Pakistani cabinet and military officials in Washington. Although it did not eliminate problems and mistrust, it does appear to have achieved a new degree of mutual candor and tolerance. During a recent PowerPoint briefing in Islamabad, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligencedirectorate, ISI, provided a comprehensive list of U.S. complaints about them. The Obama administration, a senior ISI official said, remains "suspicious of ISI linkages with the Afghan Taliban," thinks that the ISI is indifferent to the threat posed by al-Qaeda and that it promotes anti-American diatribes in the Pakistani media. The United States, the official said, sees Pakistan as incapable of guaranteeing the security of its nuclear arsenal, irrationally obsessed with the threat from India and generally not serious about either democracy or fighting terrorists, he said. The Pakistanis plead guilty as charged to some of the U.S. concerns. Al-Qaeda -- whose presence in its territory is officially disputed by Pakistan -- is not seen as a domestic threat. Links with the Afghan Taliban and other insurgent groups fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan are long-standing and considered a strategic necessity to protect Pakistan's western flank. Should the Americans withdraw from Afghanistan or allow Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reconcile with insurgent leaders without input from Islamabad, Pakistan believes it would need allies among the Pashtun tribes there to maintain its influence and protect its western flank from Indian inroads. "They don't believe we don't know what Karzai is doing," a State Department official involved in Pakistan policy said. "They're afraid that we're going to cut a peace deal without them. We've told them that as soon as we know, they'll know." A separate ISI PowerPoint slide listed Pakistan's complaints with the United States: unfounded nuclear concerns, not enough assistance, unrealistic accounting and audit demands on aid funding, and "insisting on actions that Pakistan views as inconsistent with its own concerns." The Obama administration has additional complaints. The slow issuance of visas for additional U.S. personnel remains a sore point, along with harassment of U.S. military and civilian officials at military and police checkpoints. But it has quieted its public criticism of Pakistan, hailing military successes against the Pakistani Taliban and easing up on pressure to do more. "We can be taken to task for giving too much advice" in the past, a senior U.S. military official said.

DTN News: 'Iranian Fighters May Fly Over US Forces'

DTN News: 'Iranian Fighters May Fly Over US Forces'

Source: DTN News / Press TV (NSI News Source Info) TEHRAN, Iran - April 30, 2010: A senior Iranian Air Force officer does not rule out reports that an Iranian fighter jet might have flown over a US aircraft carrier last week in the Arabian Sea. The incident was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. According to the report, a plane belonging to the Iranian Navy was flying as low as 300 feet near the USS Eisenhower on April 21. The Eisenhower was in the northern Arabian Sea when the Iranian maritime patrol aircraft flew within 1,000 yards of the vessel, US military officials claimed. Mohammad Alavi, deputy commander of the Iranian Air Force said that the fighter jet may have come close to the US aircraft carrier during a routine patrol. "Iran has scheduled flights in the air corridor in the altitude of up to 20,000 feet, and its plane might have come close to the US aircraft carrier while flying in this corridor," Fars news agency quoted Alavi as saying on Thursday. He added, "Nobody can criticize such flights because they are being conducted within the framework of international law. We conduct routine reconnaissance flights with different aircrafts, including drones, and they may have come across the US forces."

DTN News: Jihadists In Iraq ~ Down For The Count?

DTN News: Jihadists In Iraq ~ Down For The Count? Source: By Scott Stewart STRATFOR (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 29, 2010: On April 25, The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) posted a statement on the Internet confirming that two of its top leaders, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri, had been killed April 18 in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in Salahuddin province. Al-Baghdadi (an Iraqi also known as Hamid Dawud Muhammad Khalil al-Zawi), was the head of the ISI, an al Qaeda-led jihadist alliance in Iraq, and went by the title “Leader of the Faithful.” Al-Masri (an Egyptian national also known as Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir), was the military leader of the ISI and head of the group’s military wing, al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Al-Masri replaced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June 2006. Al-Zarqawi had alienated many Iraqi Sunnis with his ruthlessness, and al-Baghdadi is thought to have been appointed the emir of the ISI in an effort to put an Iraqi face on jihadist efforts in Iraq and to help ease the alienation between the foreign jihadists and the local Sunni population. Al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq and the military leader of the ISI, was considered the real operational leader of ISI/AQI efforts in Iraq. STRATFOR viewed the initial announcement by Iraqi authorities of the deaths of the two leaders with a healthy degree of skepticism. After all, they had been declared dead before, only to later release statements on the Internet mocking the Iraqi government for making false claims. But the details provided in the April 19 press conference by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (complete with photos of the deceased) and the confirmation by the U.S. military helped allay those initial doubts. The recent admission by the ISI, which made a similar statement following the death of al-Zarqawi, has all but erased our doubts about the deaths. But the ISI’s statement has raised some other questions. It claimed that the deaths of the two leaders would not affect the group’s operations in Iraq because new members had recently joined it. But when viewed in the context of other recent developments in Iraq, it appears that the operational capability of the ISI will indeed be affected — at least in the near future. Recent Activity The operation that resulted in the deaths of al-Baghdadi and al-Masri did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, it was a part of a series of operations targeting the ISI in recent months. The raids have come as a result of a renewed effort to counter the ISI following a resurgence in the group’s operations that included high-profile multiple-vehicle bombings directed against targets in central Baghdad on Aug. 19, 2009, Oct. 25, 2009, Dec. 8, 2009, and Jan. 25, 2010. The raids that resulted in the deaths of the ISI leaders on April 18 were part of a chain of events that stretches back for months, and appear to be the result of the effective exploitation of intelligence gained in one raid used to conduct the next. For example, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Qasim Ata, the spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, told Al-Iraqiya TV on April 20 that the intelligence that led to the location of al-Baghdadi and al-Masri was obtained during the March 11, 2010, arrest of Manaf Abdul Raheem al-Rawi, the AQI commander in Baghdad. Iraqi government sources claim al-Rawi is the man responsible for planning the multiple-vehicle bombings in Baghdad. If so, he is another effective operational leader who has been taken out of the ISI/AQI gene pool. Then, following the April 18 raid, Ahmad al-Ubaydi — aka Abu-Suhaib, whom Iraqi officials identify as the AQI military commander for the northern Iraqi provinces of Ninevah, Salahuddin and Kirkuk provinces — was killed April 20. The next day, Iraqi authorities located an improvised explosive device (IED) factory in western Anbar province and seized two vehicle bombs and some smaller IEDs. On April 22, the U.S. Army announced the arrest of a bombmaker in Anbar province. On April 23, Iraqi police arrested another AQI military leader in Anbar, Mahmoud Suleiman, who was reportedly found with several IEDs in his home. Also on April 23, an Iraqi police SWAT team reportedly killed two AQI leaders during a raid in eastern Mosul. They claimed that one of the AQI leaders, Yousef Mohammad Ali, was also a bombmaker. In recent days, dozens of other alleged AQI members have either surrendered or been arrested in Diyala, Mosul, Salahuddin and Basra. There have even been unconfirmed reports that Izzat al-Douri was captured April 25. Al-Douri, the “king of clubs” in the U.S. military’s 2003 deck of most-wanted Iraqis and who has a $10 million bounty on his head, was a vice president of Iraq under Saddam Hussein and an important insurgent leader. In late March, progress was also made against AQI in Mosul. Several suspects were arrested or killed, and among the latter were major AQI figures Khalid Muhammad Hasan Shallub al-Juburi, Abu Ahmad al-Afri and Bashar Khalaf Husayn Ali al-Jaburi. This type of rapid, sequential activity against jihadists by U.S. and Iraqi forces is not a coincidence. It is the result of some significant operational changes that were made in 2007 in the wake of the American surge in Iraq. The then-commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was instrumental in flattening hierarchies and reducing bureaucratic inefficiencies in both intelligence and special operations forces activities inside Iraq in order to create a highly integrated and streamlined organization. The result was the capability to rapidly plan and execute special operations forces raids based on actionable intelligence with a limited shelf life — and then to rapidly interrogate any captives, quickly analyze any material of intelligence value seized and rapidly re-task forces in a series of follow-on operations. The resulting high tempo of operations was considered enormously successful and a key factor in the success of the surge, and recent developments in Iraq appear to be a continuation of this type of rapid and aggressive activity. Such operations not only can produce rapid gains in terms of capturing and killing key targets, they also serve to disrupt and disorient the enemy. According to Iraqi Maj. Gen. Qasim Ata, AQI is currently in disarray and panic, and he believes that the organization is also facing money problems, since it reportedly has been in contact with al Qaeda prime in an attempt to secure financial assistance. This stands in stark contrast to the 2005 letter in which al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri asked AQI leader al-Zarqawi for funding. At that time there was a large flow of men and money into Iraq, but it now appears that AQI is facing some financial difficulties. Following the recent raids in which senior operational commanders and bombmakers have been captured or killed, it also appears that the group may also be facing some leadership and operational-expertise difficulties. Leadership As STRATFOR has previously noted, leadership is a critical factor in the operational success of a militant group. Without skilled leadership, militant groups lose their ability to conduct effective attacks, particularly ones of a sophisticated nature. Leadership, skill and professionalism are the factors that make the difference between a militant group wanting to attack something — i.e., its intent — and the group’s ability to successfully carry out its intended attack — i.e., its capability. The bottom line is that new recruits simply cannot replace seasoned operational commanders, as the ISI suggested in its statement. Although it might seem like a simple task to find a leader for a militant group, effective militant leaders are hard to come by. Unlike most modern militaries, militant groups rarely invest much time and energy in leadership development training. To compound the problem, the leader of a militant group needs to develop a skill set that is quite a bit broader than most military leaders. In addition to personal attributes such as ruthlessness, aggressiveness and fearlessness, militant leaders also must be charismatic, intuitive, clever and inspiring. This last attribute is especially important in an organization that seeks to recruit operatives to conduct suicide attacks. Additionally, an effective militant leader must be able to recruit and train operatives, enforce operational security, raise funds, plan operations and then methodically execute a plan while avoiding the security forces constantly hunting the militants down. Of course, not every leadership change is disastrous to a militant group. Sometimes a new leader breathes new life and energy into an organization (like Nasir al-Wahayshi in Yemen), or the group has competent lieutenants able to continue to operate effectively after the death of the leader (like AQI after the death of al-Zarqawi). But the current environment in Iraq, where numerous individuals have been rapidly and sequentially killed or captured, makes this sort of orderly leadership replacement more difficult. Therefore, it will be important to watch the ISI carefully to see who is appointed as the group’s new emir and military commander. (In practical terms, the emir may be easier to replace than the military commander, especially if the former is just a figurehead and not a true operational commander.) The group may have had a clear chain of command and competent, designated successors who have survived the recent operations. But if not, the leadership vacuum at the top could result in infighting over control, or result in an ineffective leader assuming control. The jury is still out, but with the recent successes against the ISI, there is a very good chance that it may take some time for the group to regain its footing. This, of course, is the objective of the up-tempo operations recently seen in Iraq. Effective counterterrorism programs seek to keep the militants (and especially their leaders) off balance by killing or capturing them while also rolling up the lower levels of the group. Militants scrambling for their lives seldom have the opportunity to plan effective attacks, and sustained pressure makes it difficult for them to regain the offensive. Like operational leaders, competent bombmakers are not easy to replace. They also need to possess a broad set of skills and require a great deal of training and practical experience to hone their skills. A master bombmaker is a rare and precious commodity in the militant world. Therefore, the bombmakers recently arrested in Iraq could prove to be almost as big a loss to AQI as the operational leaders. When we discussed the resurgence of the ISI/AQI back in October, we noted that at that time they had retained a great deal of their capability and that they were able to gather intelligence, plan attacks, acquire ordnance, build reliable IEDs and execute spectacular attacks in the center of Baghdad against government ministry buildings. We also discussed how the polarization surrounding the election in Iraq was providing them an opportunity to exploit. That polarization has continued in the wake of the elections as the factions jockey for position in the new government, but the extent of the damage done to the jihadists through the loss of so many commanders and operatives may not allow the successors of al-Masri and al-Baghdadi to take advantage of the situation before their window of opportunity closes. We will be watching the jihadists in Iraq carefully in the coming months to see if they can regroup and retain their operational capability. The big question is: Will the recent operations against the ISI/AQI merely serve as another temporary setback like the killing of al-Zarqawi, or do they portend something more long-term for the future of the organization? The ISI/AQI has proved to be resilient and resourceful in the past, but we are not sure they have the ability to bounce back this time. This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to http://www.stratfor.com/ *This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com Disclaimer statement Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein, DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Unless otherwise indicated, opinions expressed herein are those of the author of the page and do not necessarily represent the corporate views of DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News.

DTN News: Russian Black Sea Warships Successfully Complete Drills In Black Sea

DTN News: Russian Black Sea Warships Successfully Complete Drills In Black Sea Source: DTN News / RIA Novosti (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - April 29, 2010: The warships of the Black Sea Naval group successfully completed exercises in the Black Sea on Tuesday in an effort to maintain stability in the region, a Black Sea Fleet commander has said. During the exercises, which took place April 9 -27, more than 50 drills were conducted, including joint operations on tactical maneuvering, combat conduct by surface ships, air defense and anti-terrorist activity, the commander said. The main focus was on maintaining stability and peace in the region, further cooperation and strengthening of mutual understanding among the Black Sea countries, Bulgarian Navy Rear Admiral Georgi Motyev said. The warships involve the Bulgarian frigate Verni (Faithful), the Caesar Kunikov Ropucha-I class large landing ship (Russia), the Macelariu corvette (Romania), the Yildirim frigate (Turkey) and the command ship Slavutych (Ukraine). During the drills, the warships covered more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) and paid three unofficial visits to the ports of Eregli (Turkey), Varna (Bulgaria) and Constanta (Romania). After leaving the Romanian port of Constanta, the Blackseafor warships passed alongside the flagman ship in line with a tradition which marks the end of the Black Sea naval task force group exercises. The official end of the drills resulted in the shift in command in control of the warships from the commander of the Black Sea naval task force group to the corresponding national Naval Forces of each country. The Russian Caesar Kunikov is scheduled to arrive at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Ukraine, on April 28. Blackseafor was formally established in 2001 on Turkey's initiative and comprises Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, Georgia and Russia. It conducts search and rescue operations and environmental monitoring, and organizes goodwill visits to Black Sea countries. This year's drills are being conducted under the command of a Bulgarian admiral.

DTN News: USAF Broadens Plans For Next-Generation UAV

DTN News: USAF Broadens Plans For Next-Generation UAV Source: DTN News / Defense News By John Reed (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 28, 2010: The U.S. Air Force has begun re-evaluating and expanding the missions its MQ-X next generation tactical UAV will be required to perform to go beyond battlefield strike and ISR, service officials announced. The move is intended to make sure specifications outlined in the aircraft's initial capabilities document meet mission requirements for new UAVs in the service's just completed Remotely Piloted Vehicle Flight Plan, according to Col. Bruce Emig, chief of Air Combat Command's (ACC's) irregular warfare requirements division. The flight plan calls for a next-generation, medium-size UAV such as the MQ-X to performseveral new mission sets, such as cargo hauling and aerial refueling, that don't fall under ACC's purview, according to Emig. "We need to see if the [current definition of MQ-X] is a good solution" for those missions, Emig said during an April 27 speech at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference in Tysons Corner, Va. At a minimum, MQ-X is slated to replace the service's MQ-9 Reaper UAVs in their role as medium-sized strike and ISR planes. ACC is now working with Air Force Materiel Command, Air Mobility Command and Air Force Special Operations Command to determine what they need out of a next generation UAV, according to Emig. The service plans to have the requirements finalized in time to be included in its 2014 Program Objective Memorandum, he added. At a minimum, the aircraft must have protected communications and datalinks, the ability to survive in contested airspace, and enough power generating and cargo capacity to allow it to carry a variety of sensors and weapons, according to Emig. The aircraft must also incorporate so called sense-and-avoid technology to prevent collisions with nearby aircraft, he added. Service officials want the MQ-X and all future UAVs to be able to carry and operate a variety of mission payloads in the same way a C-130 can today. The Air Force's chief intelligence officer, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, said this probably won't have a serious impact on the service's plans to field the plane - which he described as "an order of magnitude" more advanced than the MQ-9 - close to 2020 to 2022. *This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated April 27, 2010

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated April 27, 2010 Source: U.S. DoD issued April 27, 2010 (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - April 28, 2010: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Contracts issued April 27, 2010 are undermentioned; CONTRACTS NAVY ~Baldi Bros., Inc.*, Beaumont, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5479); ~Dynalectric Co., San Diego, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5480); ~NEI Contracting and Engineering, Inc.*, San Diego, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5481); ~RQ-Berg, JV, Carlsbad, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5482); ~Stronghold Engineering, Inc., Riverside, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5483); ~Syska Hennessey Group Construction, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5484); and ~Watts Constructors, LLC, Honolulu, Hawaii (N62473-10-D-5485), are each being awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award construction contract for new construction and repair of dry utilities construction at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of responsibility (AOR). The maximum dollar value for all seven contracts combined is $300,000,000. The work to be performed provides for new construction, addition, repair, or upgrade of electrical distributions, lighting systems, cable television lines, airfield lighting, and communication transmission lines. Work will be performed at various federal sites within the NAVFAC Southwest AOR, including but not limited to: California (83 percent), Arizona (12 percent), Nevada (2 percent), Utah (1 percent), Colorado (1 percent), and New Mexico (1 percent). The terms of the contracts are not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of April 2015. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online Web site with 26 proposals received. These seven contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity. ~Orbital Sciences Corp., Greenbelt, Md., is being awarded a $94,713,285 cost-plus-fixed-fee level of effort contract for spacecraft and airborne systems research analysis and prototype development. This includes the analysis, design, development, test, operation demonstration, and transition of these prototype systems and subsystems. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C. (87 percent), and Greenbelt, Md. (13 percent), and will be completed April 2015. Contract funds in the amount of $100,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured under Request for Proposal Number N000173-00-R-KS03 for which one offer was received. The Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., is the contracting facility (N000173-10-C-2026). ~Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc., Houston, Texas, is being awarded a $22,540,000 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a 202-room combat systems officer bachelor housing at Naval Air Station Pensacola. Work will be performed in Pensacola, Fla., and is expected to be completed by June 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online Web site, with 21 proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity (N69450-10-C-0754). ~Capstone Corp., Alexandria, Va., is being awarded a $17,362,431 modification under previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00189-07-D-Z006) for studies, analyses, logistics support, and specialized program support for the U.S. Joint Forces Command. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va., and is expected to be completed by January 2011. Contract funds will not expire by the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk, Philadelphia Division, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity. ~Ocean Systems Engineering Corp., Oceanside, Calif., is being awarded $10,373,686 for task order #0073 under previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (M67854-02-A-9020). The scope of this effort is to provide Marine Corps Systems Command Systems engineering, interoperable, architectures and technology staff the detailed technical and analytical support required to define, integrate, certify, plan, and oversee the development and delivery of Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) systems. This effort consists of four domain areas: MAGTF systems engineering and integration; systems engineering and technology; joint certification; and architecture design and development. Work will be performed in Quantico, Va., and is expected to be completed in April 2011. Contract funds in the amount of $9,373,686 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Marine Corps System Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity. ~L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, LLC, Madison, Miss., is being awarded a $10,300,000 modification to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity delivery order contract (N68936-06-D-0024) to provide specialized technical services in support of depot level maintenance work (DLM) performed at the Fleet Readiness Center, Southwest (FRC-SW) on aircraft and rework of associated components and materials. Services to be provided include modifications, in-service repairs, and all other categories of service associated with aircraft DLM and its planning. The estimated level of effort for this modification is 260,100 man-hours. Work will be performed at FRC-SW, San Diego, Calif. (78 percent); the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), Camp Pendleton, Calif. (9 percent); the Naval Air Station (NAS), Lemoore, Calif. (4 percent); the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, Point Mugu, Calif. (2 percent); NAS Whidbey Island, Bremerton, Wash. (2 percent); MCAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii (2 percent); MCAS Yuma, Ariz. (2 percent); and MCAS Miramar, Calif. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in July 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, Calif., is the contracting activity. ~Suffolk Construction Co., Inc., Sarasota, Fla., is being awarded a $9,498,000 firm-fixed-price contract for design and construction of a data center at Naval Weapons Station Charleston. Work will be performed in Charleston, S.C., and is expected to be completed by June 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online Web site, with 28 proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity (N69450-10-C-1762). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY ~Husky Marketing and Supply Co., Dublin, Ohio, is being awarded a maximum $84,737,520 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other location of performance is in Lima, Ohio. Using service is Defense Energy Support Center. The original proposal was Web solicited with 27 responses. The date of performance completion is April 30, 2011. The Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-10-D-0477). ~AGE Refining, Inc.*, San Antonio, Texas, is being awarded a maximum $84,635,512 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other location of performance is in Lima, Ohio. Using service is Defense Energy Support Center. The original proposal was Web solicited with 27 responses. The date of performance completion is April 30, 2011. The Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-10-D-0462). ~Alon USA, LP, Dallas, Texas, is being awarded a maximum $70,772,090 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other location of performance is in Big Spring, Texas. Using service is Defense Energy Support Center. The original proposal was Web solicited with 27 responses. The date of performance completion is April 30, 2011. The Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-10-D-0461). ~Metals USA, dba I-Solutions Group, Fort Washington, Pa., is being awarded a maximum $48,000,000 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, prime-vendor contract supporting customer direct deliveries to locations within the central United States region. Other location of performance is in Pennsylvania. Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. There were originally five proposals solicited with four responses. The date of performance completion is April 23, 2012. The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (SPM8EG-10-D-0002). *Small business

DTN News: French Are Hopeful On Concluding UAE Fighter Jets Deal

DTN News: French Are Hopeful On Concluding UAE Fighter Jets Deal Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) DUBAI, UAE - April 28, 2010: “This can never be frustrating, as these are massive projects, requiring huge investment, and decisions sometimes take as long as fifteen, 20 or even 30 years,” Thales International Middle East president Olivier Badard told Arabian Business at the launch event of the French firm’s new Dubai office. Last year, state news agency WAM said that the UAE had been in negotiations to revamp its Mirage fighter fleet with the Dassault-built Rafale in a contract thought to be worth as much as $10bn. Thales provides the radar systems for the state-of-the-art jet, which is used by the French Air Force and Navy. The Rafale has so far not yet been sold to any other countries, although Brazil and Kuwait are known to be interested, as well as the UAE. Asked whether Thales would provide an update on the potential deal, Badard said: “we typically do not comment on ongoing bids of this potential magnitude.” “All I would say is that France and the UAE have a long history of cooperating in the area of military aircraft fighters and we’ll see what the UAE ultimately decide to do.” Badard confirmed to reporters at the event that Thales’ Middle East and Western Asia division pulled in around $1.7bn of revenue last year, around ten percent of total global operations. Asked whether he saw this percentage increasing in the future, the regional head said that the division had been earmarked as one that had greater potential for growth than its more domestic markets in Europe. In the UAE, Thales has worked closely with local authorities, providing infrastructural systems both for the Dubai Metro and Dubai International Airport’s new Terminal 3. The firm has a total of 500 staff based in the country.

DTN News: U.S. Air Force To Retire 250 Aircraft And Fighter Jets

DTN News: U.S. Air Force To Retire 250 Aircraft And Fighter Jets Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) HILL AIR FORCE BASE - April 28, 2010: The U.S. Air Force will retire more than 250 aircraft and fighter jets in the next several months. Those in the Air Force admit it's a bit of a risk phasing out so many of their fighter jets, but in the long run they hope it will make the force more effective. As part of the Combat Air Force Reduction in Forces plan, Hill Air Force Base will send out 12 aircrafts in the next two months and another 12 this fall -- making their inventory smaller, but hopefully more lethal. It's not just Hill Air Force Base losing fighter jets. "As an Air Force, we are going to accelerate the retirement of 259 aircraft," said Col. David Hathaway with the 388th Fighter Wing unit. It's all part of a master plan by the Air force, retiring several F-16s, F-15s and A-10s to save money. "It frees up $355 million this fiscal year and over the next five fiscal years will free up $3.5 billion, which will allow us to reshape our force into a smaller, leaner, more agile and capable force for the future," Hathaway explains. It also means Hill will be down one fighter squadron. But the 617 military positions from the 388th Fighter Wing won't be lost, just reassigned somewhere else. And though the retiring of these jets will mean the Air Force will have a smaller inventory right now, Hathaway says, "In the long term this makes us more lethal and combat capable, yet smaller force." Another 12 aircraft will leave Hill Air Force Base late summer for Italy.

DTN News: Algeria Cooperating With North African Countries Move Against al-Qaida

DTN News: Algeria Cooperating With North African Countries Move Against al-Qaida Source: DTN News / Algerian Daily News (NSI News Source Info) ALGIERS, Algeria,- April 28, 2010: Algeria has launched a major military campaign against al-Qaida and its fellow travelers and Morocco says it rounded up a terrorist cell amid a campaign by North African states aimed at crushing the jihadists. Insurgent groups within Algeria and parts of North Africa have become a franchise of Al-Qaeda, according to the US Intelligence reports. American military officials have evidence that a small insurgent group within Algeria has shifted tactics and it operates on the line of terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The recent spate of attacks on tourists, kidnapping and suicide attacks in Algeria bear Al-Qaeda’s signature. There are footprints of Al-Qaeda type terrorist activities in various parts spread all over Northern Africa as well. The campaign, dubbed Operation Ennasr -- Victory -- followed an April 20 summit attended by the military chiefs of four regional states -- Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger -- at the oasis town of Tamanrasset deep in the Sahara Desert south of Algiers. They agreed to set up a joint military base there, with the quartet joined by Libya, Chad and Burkina Faso. They will form a joint operational military committee with headquarters in the desert town to go after al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb -- the Arabic name for North Africa -- and Saharan drug smuggling and kidnap gangs associated with them. AQIM was established in 2008 to create a region-wide jihadist alliance. This is largely made up of Algeria's jihadist group formerly known as the Salafist Group for Combat and Preaching. AQIM has operated in all four countries but its main area of operations is in the mountains east of Algiers, which is the main focus of the Algerian operation. The Americans, who have established training programs for regional security forces to combat the jihadists, have shown some interest in using Tamanrasset as a tactical air base. So far there is no evidence of any direct U.S. involvement in developing the new base but the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor noted: "AQIM is a clear priority for the United States as well … and any coherent regional effort (and it is not yet clear that this coherent) will be something the Americans will be interested in supporting and facilitating." This could be done through the recently established U.S. Africa Command, set up to coordinate all U.S. military operations in Africa and to work with the continent's military forces. Algeria, with a 47,000-person army and some 190 combat aircraft, has the largest and best-armed military in the region and is considered the driving force behind the current campaign. It gained extensive combat and intelligence-gathering experience in fighting Islamist terrorists throughout the 1990s during a civil war between Islamist militants and the military-backed government in Algiers. Morocco and Tunisia, the other Maghreb states, have also varying degrees of expertise in combating jihadist organizations, although they don't appear to be directly involved in the current planning. Tunisia and Libya were represented at a March 16 meeting of seven regional foreign ministers in Algiers, the first high-level regional counterinsurgency meeting in years, to discuss joint action against the jihadists. But traditional rivalries between the Maghreb states were clearly in evidence and are likely to impede cooperation. Indeed, Morocco seems to have been deliberately shut out of the new formation. Still, its Interior Ministry announced it had dismantled a 24-member terror network linked to al-Qaida in mid-April. It said the group, based in Casablanca and Rabat, had been planning attacks and assassinations. Morocco's security services claim to have rounded up more than 60 terrorist cells since May 16, 2003, when 45 people perished in five suicide bombings in Casablanca, the country's economic center. At the March conference, the Algerians, AQIM's primary target, called for a program of interdicting the terrorists by restricting their access to water and fuel in the desert and porous borders where they operate. Algeria advocated airstrikes and to facilitate these operations, the French army's engineering corps was reported to be looking at up to four airstrips in north and central Mali from which to conduct the air campaign. The lack of surveillance and heavy transport aircraft, and especially helicopters, among the regional states has severely limited their counter-insurgency programs. And, unless they get outside help, this could impede the current plans that will cover the vast Sahara-Sahel region, a vast, inhospitable desert territory that extends into Mauritania, Mali and Chad. The Jamestown Foundation, which monitors global terrorism from Washington, said Algeria "has been urging Nigeria to add its air force to the campaign against AQIM." The French-language magazine Jeune Afrique reported April 7 that Algeria has informed Nigeria "that AQIM emirs have begun recruiting in northern Nigeria."

DTN News: Argentina, Chile Mull Joint Peacekeeping Force

DTN News: Argentina, Chile Mull Joint Peacekeeping Force Source: DTN News / UPI (NSI News Source Info) BUENOS AIRES, - April 27, 2010: Chile and Argentina will pool resources to form a joint military force for rapid response to humanitarian crises and peacekeeping missions in Latin America. The combined rapid response force, to be called Southern Cross, will be drawn from the armed forces of both countries and will comprise initially about 1,000 troops. Officials said the force will be ready for deployment before the end of the year. Analysts said the announcement of the joint force appeared to be symbolic, an expression of solidarity, as it wasn't immediately clear whether such a force could be deployed and under what mandate. A joint statement issued after the talks indicated the accord would cover Chile for shipbuilding contracts it is struggling to complete because of extensive damage to its shipyards in the Feb. 27 earthquake. A joint production deal means shipyards in Argentina could be sharing the work while Chile rebuilds its facilities. The magnitude-8.8 temblor wrecked Chilean shipyards and other infrastructure. Money set aside for economic development and poverty-reduction programs, announced by President Sebastian Pinera as part of his election campaign last year, is being channeled instead into vast reconstruction programs. Chilean reconstruction needs have opened major business opportunities for Argentine companies but the agreement signed Friday aims to cement closer military ties between the two countries and forge long-term links between the defense industries. Aviation, including design and joint manufacture of aircraft is another field the two countries explored when Chilean Defense Minister Jaime Ravinet visited his Argentine counterpart Nilda Garre in the capital. Much of Argentine moves in the defense sector are in response to the military's earnest representations to the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Short of funds and spare parts for existing equipment, the military has kept up pressure on Fernandez to deliver on promises to refurbish the military. The government's campaign for sovereignty claims on British-ruled Falkland Islands gave ammunition to the military's demands for greater efforts to modernize the armed forces. Chile's National Aeronautics Enterprise and Argentina National Airplanes Factory will look into manufacturing a training aircraft that could be deployed in both air forces, officials said. Until further notice, Argentina's government-owned Tandanor yard in Buenos Aires will service the clients of Chilean navy yards at Asmar, the world's southernmost shipyard, which was damaged in the quake. This is to satisfy a long waiting list of clients at the wrecked yard and to prevent Asmar customers from turning elsewhere. Chilean shipyards are also looking to secure Argentine help for an early return to normal operations. "Together with Argentina we will cooperate in the recovery of the Chilean shipyards," said Ravinet.