DTN News - IRAN DEFENSE NEWS: Iran To Equip Navy with New Flying Boats BAVAR 2 To Monitor Oil Tanker Traffic Through Straits Of Hormuz

DTN News - IRAN DEFENSE NEWS:  Iran To Equip Navy with New Flying Boats BAVAR 2 To Monitor Oil Tanker Traffic Through Straits Of Hormuz
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith 
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 31, 2012: Iran has three squadrons of new flying boats, Iranian news agencies reported. The craft, dubbed the Bavar 2, is armed with a machine gun and carries surveillance cameras, according to a report from the Iranian Student News Agency

 

 "Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the few countries which managed to design, build and use flying boats in a short time," said Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who oversaw the delivering of the aircraft at the Bandar Abbas naval facility on the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz. The delivery comes as Iran celebrates its Week of Sacred Defense, which commemorates its eight-year-long resistance to the 1980 Iraqi invasion, according to the Fars News Agency 

While there is little available information as to the performance characteristics of the flying boats, and the only known weapon system is a good old-fashioned machine gun (some reports say they can carry missiles, but certainly nothing heavy enough to sink a major warship), it would be a mistake to discount these new vessels. While they might not have much chance of ever winning a battle against Western warships or aircraft, they are well suited to a task believed to be the most likely response to Iran if war with America were to come — massed suicide attacks.

The danger is real, as shown by what happened to the USS Cole in 2000. The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, equipped with a state-of-the-art AEGIS radar suite and a variety of formidable missiles and guns, was almost brought down by a raft. While the ship was docked in port, the raft pulled up alongside and its three-man crew detonated the explosives they’d stashed on board. The billion-dollar warship had an enormous hole blown in its side and nearly went down. It had to be carried — literally carried — home on top of an enormous transport ship, so severe was the damage done by three men in a raft.

The Persian Gulf is, by modern military standards, incredibly shallow and narrow. Access to the Gulf is obtained through the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow choke point that Iran is fully capably of making a very dangerous place. Despite the Gulf’s small supply, roughly 40% of the world’s exported petroleum flows through the area. In a shooting war, while dozens of billion-dollar Western warships tried to maneuver in the shooting gallery that is the Gulf, Iran would unleash its shore-based cruise missiles (Some of which have wound up in the hands of Hezbollah, with devastating but illustrative results) and could flood the Gulf and its skies with swarms of these tiny boats.

It’s a threat the United States takes seriously. Two years ago, American warships came close to opening fire on Iranian boats that came out to challenge the warships, manuevering close by and explicitly threatening a suicide attack before veering away. Past history, such as during the Tanker War of the 1980s, has shown that small boats can approach large warships even in a hostile environment. Even though some orbiting airpower can make sure that most of them are destroyed before the surviving few reach their target, that is little consolation to those left to contend with those few.

All of this is, admittedly, hinged upon the unproven contention that these flying boats are indeed intended for suicide attacks, or at a more basic level, that Iranian pilots would be willing to carry out such attacks. To those points, I say this: Iran has announced its intention to mass produce vessels that serve virtually no conventional military purpose, that are too small and too lightly armed to be significant in a conventional battle and that will be controlled not by Iran’s Navy, but by a naval contingent of its fanatical Revolutionary Guards. And to those who question whether or not anyone would willingly sacrifice their lives to kill an enemy, recall that our experience over the last nine years, and Israel’s experience for two generations, shows that that region of the world is quite adept at producing angry, alienated young men happy to commit suicide as they wage war against the Crusaders and their Zionist masters. Recall also the Japanese kamikaze’s of the Second World War: If Japan could find 2,800 naval pilots willing to hurl their planes onto Allied ships, is there any reason to doubt that Iran can do the same?

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DTN News - NORWAY TERROR PLOT: Norway Convicts Two Men Over al-Qaeda Plot On Danish Newspaper

DTN News - NORWAY TERROR PLOT: Norway Convicts Two Men Over al-Qaeda Plot On Danish Newspaper
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The Telegraph - UK
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 31, 2012: Two men were found guilty on Monday of involvement in an al-Qaeda plot to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, the first convictions under Norway's anti-terror laws.

A third defendant was acquitted of terror charges but convicted of helping the others acquire explosives.

Investigators say the plot was linked to the same al-Qaeda planners behind thwarted attacks against the New York subway system and a shopping mall Manchester in 2009.

The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud, to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years.

Judge Oddmund Svarteberg said the court found that Davud, a Chinese Muslim, "planned the attack together with al-Qaeda". Bujak was deeply involved in the preparations, but it couldn't be proved that he was aware of Davud's contacts with al-Qaeda, the judge said.

The third defendant, David Jakobsen, who assisted police in the investigation, was convicted on an explosives charge and sentenced to four months in prison – time he's already served in pretrial detention.

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It wasn't immediately clear if any of the defendants would appeal.

The case was Norway's most high-profile terror investigation until last July, when a right-wing extremist killed 77 people in a bomb and shooting massacre.

The three men, who were arrested in July 2010, made some admissions but pleaded innocent to terror conspiracy charges and rejected any links to al-Qaeda.

During the trial Davud denied he was taking orders from al-Qaeda, saying he was planning a solo raid against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo. He said he wanted revenge for Beijing's oppression of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in western China.

Davud, who moved to Norway in 1999 and later became a Norwegian citizen, also said his co-defendants helped him acquire bomb-making ingredients but didn't know he was planning an attack.

Prosecutors said the Norwegian cell first wanted to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, whose 12 cartoons of Muhammad sparked furious protests in Muslim countries in 2006, and then changed plans to seek to murder one of the cartoonists instead.

Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd, said the paper and the cartoonist were indeed the targets, but described the plans as "just talk".

Prosecutors had to prove the defendants worked together in a conspiracy, because a single individual plotting an attack is not covered under Norway's anti-terror laws.

"There is no doubt that Davud took the initiative to prepare the terror act and that he was the ring leader," the judge said as he delivered the verdict.

He said Davud planned to carry out the attack himself by placing a bomb outside Jyllands-Posten's offices in Aarhus, in western Denmark.

The men had been under surveillance for more than a year when authorities moved to arrest them. Norwegian investigators, who worked with their US counterparts, said the defendants were building a bomb in a basement laboratory in Oslo.

Jakobsen, an Uzbek national who changed his name after moving to Norway, provided some of the chemicals for the bomb, but claims he did not know they were meant for explosives. Jakobsen contacted police and served as an informant, but still faced charges for his involvement before that.

An Associated Press investigation in 2010 showed that authorities learned early on about the alleged cell by intercepting emails from an al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan and – thanks to those early warnings – were able to secretly replace a key bomb-making ingredient with a harmless liquid when Jakobsen ordered it at an Oslo pharmacy.

The judge said it had been proven that Davud had contacts with al-Qaida in Pakistan, and that his notebook contained references to Saleh al-Somali, al-Qaeda's chief of external operations, who officials believe helped organise the New York, Manchester and Norway plots. He was killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.

During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony obtained in the US in April from three American al-Qaida recruits turned government witnesses.

Source: AP

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The Telegraph - UK
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DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated January 30, 2012

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated January 30, 2012

 Source: U.S. DoD issued No. 066-12 January 30, 2012

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 30, 2012: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Contracts issued January 30, 2012 are undermentioned;

CONTRACTS

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

            Tactical & Survival Specialties, Inc.*, Harrisonburg, Va., was issued a modification exercising the second option year on contract SPM8EJ-09-D-0001/P00016.  The award is a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum $5,680,898,304 for delivery of items supported by the Special Operational equipment, tailored Logistics Support Program.  There are no other locations of performance.  Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies.  There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation.  Type of appropriation is fiscal 2011 Defense Working Capital Funds.  The date of performance completion is March 9, 2013.  The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity.

         

   W.S. Darley & Co.*, Itasca, Ill., was issued a modification exercising the second option year on contract SPM8EJ-09-D-0002/P00015.  The award is a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum $5,622,398,304 for delivery of items supported by the Special Operational equipment,  tailored Logistics Support Program.  There are no other locations of performance.  Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies.  There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation.  Type of appropriation is fiscal 2011 Defense Working Capital Funds.  The date of performance completion is March 9, 2013.  The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity.

           

 Source One Distributors, Inc.*, Wellington, Fla., was issued a modification exercising the second option year on contract SPM8EJ-09-D-0004/P00017.  The award is a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum $5,470,398,304 for delivery of items supported by the Special Operational equipment, tailored Logistics Support Program.  There are no other locations of performance.  Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies.  There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation.  Type of appropriation is fiscal 2011 Defense Working Capital Funds.  The date of performance completion is March 9, 2013.  The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity.

           

 Atlantic Diving Supply*, Virginia Beach, Va., was issued a modification exercising the second option year on contract SPM8EJ-09-D-0003/P00017.  The award is a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum $4,316,398,304 for delivery of items supported by the Special Operational equipment, tailored Logistics Support Program.  There are no other locations of performance.  Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies.  There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation.  Type of appropriation is fiscal 2011 Defense Working Capital Funds.  The date of performance completion is March 9, 2013.  The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity.

           

 Vital Images, Inc., Minnetonka, Minn., was issued a modification exercising the first option year on contract SPM2D1-11-D-8342/P00003.  The award is a fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract with a maximum $12,000,000 for radiology systems, subsystems, and components.  There are no other locations of performance.  Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies.  There were 43 responses to the Web solicitation.  Type of appropriation is fiscal 2012/2013 Defense Working Capital Funds.  The date of performance completion is Jan. 31, 2013.  The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity.

          

  United Technologies Corp., East Hartford, Conn., was awarded a firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract with a maximum $7,264,529 for F-100 rotor compressor.  There are no other locations of performance.  Using service is Air Force.  There was one solicitation with one response.  Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 operation and maintenance funds.  The date of performance completion is May 30, 2014.  The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity (SPRTA1-09-G-0001-0300).

NAVY

            Insitu, Inc., Bingen, Wash., is being awarded a $41,090,719 ceiling priced modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-11-C-0061) to exercise an option for operational and maintenance services in support of the ScanEagle unmanned aerial systems. These services will provide electro-optical/infra red and mid-wave infrared imagery in support of land-based operations in Operation Enduring Freedom to provide real-time imagery and data.  Work will be performed in Bingen, Wash., and is expected to be completed in February 2013.  Contract funds in the amount of $41,090,719 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.  The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

            

CGI Federal, Inc., subsidiary of CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc., Fairfax, Va., is being awarded a $28,206,792 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for information technology support services for the Joint Strike Fight Program Office.  Work will be performed in Arlington, Va. (70.49 percent); Rosamond, Calif. (8.57 percent); Patuxent River, Md. (7.62 percent); Ridgecrest, Calif. (2.86 percent); Dayton, Ohio (2.86 percent); Point Mugu, Calif. (1.90 percent); Valparaiso, Fla. (1.90 percent); Fort Worth, Texas (1.90 percent); and Jacksonville, Fla. (1.90 percent).  Work is expected to be completed in January 2013.  This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1.  Contract funds in the amount of $3,520,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.   The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, N.J., is the contracting activity (N68335-12-C-0119).

            

L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, L.L.C., Madison, Miss., is being awarded a $23,959,388 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery requirements contract (N00019-11-D-0024) to exercise an option for contractor logistics support and Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD) support for the T-39 Undergraduate Military Flight Officer (UMFO) Training Program.  This effort includes support of the UMFO government-owned T-39N and T-39G aircraft and associated equipment, including organizational and depot level repair.  In addition, this provides intermediate level maintenance and support for Chief of Naval Air Training aircraft, transient aircraft, tenant, and other services activities at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Fla., and NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, and surrounding areas through the AIMD.  Work will be performed in Pensacola, Fla. (75 percent), and Corpus Christi, Texas (25 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2012.  No funds are being obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.  The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

       

     The Boeing Co., Boeing Defense, Space and Security, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $12,444,077 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N68335-10-C-0491) to exercise an option for the manufacture, test, and delivery of six AN/USM-702 reconfigurable transportable consolidated automated support systems and three self maintenance and test calibration interface devices.  Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (58 percent); North Reading, Mass. (40 percent); and Stillwater, Okla. (2 percent).  Work is expected to be completed in April 2013.  Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.  The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, N.J., is the contracting activity.

            The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded an $8,261,510 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-10-C-0030) to procure an additional 700 precision laser guidance set kits for the Air Force.  Work will be performed in Haifa, Israel (37 percent); Fort Worth, Texas (32 percent); and St. Charles, Mo. (31 percent).  Work is expected to be completed in August 2012.  Contract funds in the amount of $1,357,246 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.  The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICE

            Washington Metropolitan Area Transit, Washington, D.C., is being awarded a $15,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide funding for Department of Defense transportation benefits for its employees.  Work will be performed in Washington, D.C., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2016.  Washington Headquarters Service is the contracting activity (HQ0034-12-A-001-0002).

DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY

            Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., is being awarded a $14,189,4020 technology investment agreement.  The goal of this agreement is for Novartis to perform a research and development program designed to develop a self-replicating RNA vaccine platform.  Work will be performed in Cambridge, Mass.  Work is expected to be completed by November 2015.  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the contracting activity (HR0011-12-3-0001).

*Small business

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DTN News - DEFENSE ACCOUNTABILITY: U.S. Defense Department Can't Account For Billions For Iraq, Audit Finds

DTN News - DEFENSE ACCOUNTABILITY: U.S. Defense Department Can't Account For Billions For Iraq, Audit Finds
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Josh Levs, CNN
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 30, 2012: The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about $2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete list of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects, according to two new government audits.

The reports come from the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

The Iraqi government in 2004 gave the Department of Defense access to about $3 billion to pay bills for certain contracts, and the department can only show what happened to about a third of that, the inspector general says in an audit published Friday.

Although the Department of Defense (DoD) had "internal processes and controls" to track payments, the "bulk of the records are missing," the report says, adding that the department is searching for them.

Other documents are missing as well, including monthly reports documenting expenses, the audit says.

"From July 2004 through December 2007, DoD should have provided 42 monthly reports. However, it can locate only the first four reports."

A letter accompanying the report is signed by Stuart Bowen, the inspector general. The audit was overseen by Glenn Furbish, assistant inspector general for audits.

In a response letter also contained in the report, Defense Under Secretary Mark Easton acknowledges "a records management issue."

The audit says it believes records management is to blame, and "has been an ongoing problem for DoD in Iraq. By all accounts, DoD established good internal processes and controls to account for and report on" the funds it was given after the Coalition Provisional Authority dissolved.

Where the records did exist, they matched other records and contained "good financial documentation supporting individual payments." Also, there is "sufficient evidence" that required monthly reports were sent to the government of Iraq, even though they can't be found, the audit said.

The audit deals with a time when Iraq's government was undergoing a transition. The Coalition Provisional Authority ran the country for 14 months from 2003 to 2004. During that time, the authority awarded numerous contracts. When it dissolved in 2004, the Iraqi government gave the U.S. Defense Department access to the $3 billion to pay bills for contracts the provisional authority had awarded.

The Defense Department letter from Easton -- the department's deputy chief financial officer -- thanks the inspector general's office for "the collaborative effort and professional courtesy" in a series of audits.

Separately, the inspector general's office sent a letter Sunday to the U.S. ambassador to Iraq complaining that the U.S. government is not providing Iraq with a complete list of reconstruction projects.

The U.S. criteria for selecting which projects to report to Iraq -- which include only those valued at $250,000 or more -- is a central part of the problem, the letter says.


The U.S. Embassy says the system is designed to help Iraq "focus its limited resources on sustainment of infrastructure and other large capital projects done through U.S. reconstruction efforts," the report notes.

The inspector general's office argues that the limited list -- which is also "hampered by unreliable data and other data entry problems" -- does not allow Iraq to decide where to focus its resources, and notes that the country might consider some smaller projects more important than those that are reported.

"Without more comprehensive knowledge about reconstruction projects the (Iraqi government) will not be in a position to maximize the use of its resources," the report says.

Billions of dollars in spending are not reported to Iraq under the current system, the report says.

In a response letter, Peter Bodde, assistant chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, says that while the current system is incomplete, "it does capture the vast majority of reconstruction projects and there is no other alternative that captures more."

He also notes that the Iraq reconstruction effort "is now in its very last stages, and all remaining capital projects will be reported through the asset transfer process."

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction was created in 2004 to continue oversight of Iraq reconstruction programs.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Josh Levs, CNN 
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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrian Forces Battle To Retake Damascus Suburbs

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST:  Syrian Forces Battle To Retake Damascus Suburbs
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 29, 2012:  Syrian soldiers killed 19 people in fighting to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels on Sunday, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of mounting violence.

Around 2,000 soldiers in buses and armored personnel carriers, along with at least 50 tanks and armored vehicles, moved at dawn into the Ghouta area on the eastern edge of Damascus to reinforce an offensive in the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna, activists said.

The army pushed into the heart of Kfar Batna and four tanks were in its central square, they said, in a move to flush out rebels who had taken over districts just a few kilometers from President Bashar al-Assad's centre of power.

"It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," said one activist, speaking from Kfar Batna. Activists said 14 civilians and five insurgents from the rebel Free Syrian Army were killed there and in other suburbs.

The Arab League suspended the work of its monitors on Saturday after calling on Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity. It said Arab foreign ministers would discuss the Syrian crisis on February 5.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby left for New York on Sunday where he will brief representatives of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to seek support for an Arab peace plan that calls on Assad to step aside after 10 months of protests.

He will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the league's committee charged with overseeing Syria.

Speaking shortly before he left Cairo for New York, Elaraby said he hoped to overcome resistance from China and Russia over endorsing the Arab proposals. "There are contacts with China and Russia on this issue," he said.

A Syrian government official was quoted by state media as saying Syria was surprised by the decision to suspend operations, which would "put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence."

Assad blames the violence on foreign-backed militants.

ARMY DEATHS

State news agency SANA reported funerals on Saturday for 28 soldiers and security force members killed by "armed terrorist groups" in Homs, Hama, Deraa, Deir al-Zor and Damascus province.

Another 16 soldiers were reported killed on Sunday. SANA said six soldiers were killed in a bombing southwest of Damascus, while the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 soldiers were killed when their convoy was attacked in Jabal al-Zawiya in northern Syria.

Faced with mass demonstrations against his rule, Assad launched a military crackdown to try to subdue the protests. Growing numbers of army deserters and gunmen have joined the demonstrators, increasing instability in the country of 23 million people at the heart of the Middle East.

The insurgency has been gradually approaching the capital, whose suburbs, a series of mainly conservative Sunni Muslim towns bordering old gardens and farmland, known as the al-Ghouta, are home to the bulk of Damascus's population.

One activist in Saqba suburb said mosques there had been turned into field hospitals and were appealing for blood supplies. "They cut off the electricity. Petrol stations are empty and the army is preventing people from leaving to get fuel for generators or heating," he said.

The Damascus suburbs have seen large demonstrations demanding the removal of Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated the mostly Sunni Muslim country for the last five decades.

TOWN BESIEGED

In Rankous, 30 km (20 miles) north of Damascus by the Lebanese border, Assad's forces have killed at least 33 people in recent days in an attack to dislodge army defectors and insurgents, activists and residents said on Sunday.

Rankous, a mountain town of 25,000 people, has been under tank fire since Wednesday, when several thousand troops laid siege to it, they said.

France, which has been leading calls for stronger international action on Syria, said the Arab League decision highlighted the need to act.

"France vigorously condemns the dramatic escalation of violence in Syria, which has led the Arab League to suspend its observers' mission in Syria," the Foreign Ministry said.

"Dozens of Syrian civilians have been killed in the past days by the savage repression taken by the Syrian regime ... Those responsible for these barbarous acts must answer to their crimes," it said.

The Arab League mission was sent in at the end of last year to observe Syria's implementation of a peace plan, which failed to end the fighting. Gulf states withdrew monitors last week, saying the team could not stop the violence.

The United Nations said in December more than 5,000 people had been killed in the protests and crackdown. Syria says more than 2,000 security force members have been killed by militants.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council discussed a European-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed. Britain and France said they hoped to put it to a vote next week.

Russia joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October, and has said it wants a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome" or Libyan-style "regime change.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon, Dominic Evans and Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Editing byJanet Lawrence)

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DTN News - ISRAEL DEFENSE NEWS: Boeing And Israel Aerospace Industries Mark 10 Years Of Cooperation

DTN News - ISRAEL DEFENSE NEWS: Boeing And Israel Aerospace Industries Mark 10 Years Of Cooperation
>Companies extend work agreement on Arrow Weapon System
>Arrow 3 next step in Israel's national missile defense strategy
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources  Boeing
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 27, 2012: The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced that it has renewed its work agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on the Arrow Weapon System, and enhanced the IAI-Boeing Strategic Teaming Agreement to explore and develop new opportunitiesin the missile defense arena. Leaders of both companies gathered at IAI headquarters in Tel Aviv on Jan. 19 for a signing ceremony that also marked the 10th anniversary of the Boeing and IAI partnership.

"The Arrow program demonstrates Boeing's commitment to developing international missile defense partnerships around the globe," said Boeing Network & Space Systems President Roger Krone. "We are pleased to mark this 10-year milestone by expanding our cooperation on missile defense initiatives with our partner IAI."

Over the past 10 years, Arrow, the world's first operational national missile defense system, has become a vital anti-ballistic-missile defense strategy for Israel's national defense. IAI is the prime contractor for the Arrow Weapon System. It initiated, developed and deployed the in-service Arrow 2 program and, together with Boeing, is developing the Arrow 3 system -- a crucial asset in Israel's multi-tier anti-ballistic-missile defense strategy.

"This new agreement is the next logical step in our relationship with Boeing and a strong opportunity for both companies to play a bigger role in the missile defense market. It is based on a strong foundation of successful cooperation," said Itzhak Nissan, IAI president and CEO.

"Boeing's relationship with IAI has produced an innovative, versatile and affordable advanced missile defense capability. We look forward to our continued partnership and the development of the next generation of Arrow interceptor," said Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager of Boeing Strategic Missile and Defense Systems.

The Arrow program has been a cooperative effort between the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Israel Missile Defense Organization since 2002.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $32 billion business with 63,000 employees worldwide. Follow us on Twitter: @BoeingDefense.

Contact:

Scott Day
Strategic Missile and Defense Systems
Office: +1 703-872-4206
Mobile: +1 703-403-3083
scott.day2@boeing.com

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