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DTN News - IRAQ DEFENSE NEWS: Iraqi Army Full of "Ghost Soldiers", Over 50K Troops Total Fiction!
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Overpasses For America
(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - December 5, 2014: Iraqi Prime Minister said recently that the country’s army has been paying salaries to at least 50,000 soldiers who do not exist, the latest sign of corruption in a force that the U.S. hopes to help contain the Islamic State militant group.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the country’s Parliament that the practice was revealed as part of a preliminary investigation, and that further probes would likely show “more and more” false names.
“Ghost soldiers” refer to people whose names appear on military rolls and who are paid salaries, but are not in military service. The Washington Post reported that the practice is often carried out by officers, who pretend to have more soldiers on their books then they really do and pocket the extra salary.
The Post reported that an entry level soldier in the Iraqi army receives a salary of approximately $600 per month. If the 50,000 figure is accurate, the “ghost soldiers” are costing Iraq’s treasury at least $350 million per year. However, Iraqi officials say that the true number of false names could be far greater than al-Abadi reported.
“It could be more than triple this number,” Hamid al-Mutlaq, a member of the parliamentary defense and security committee, told the Post. “The people who are responsible for this should be punished. Iraq’s safe has been emptied.”
Widespread corruption and mismanagement in the Iraqi army under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been blamed for the collapse of four of its divisions this summer in the face of an Islamic State offensive that overran Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul.
The Pentagon has already requested $1.2 billion from Congress to better train and equip Iraq’s army to improve its performance against the militants. U.S. officials told the Post earlier this week that the military hoped to build up nine new brigades that could work with Kurdish and Shiite fighters against the Islamic State.
*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Overpasses For America
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News - RUSSIA ECONOMY NEWS: Putin Blames West Responsible For Coming Recession in Russia
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources By Michael Birnbaum - Washington Post
(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - December 5, 2014: With recession looming, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the West has had his nation in the crosshairs for “centuries” and vowed that Russia would be unbowed in its attempts to pursue an independent and muscular foreign policy.
In an annual state of the nation address delivered to Russia’s political elite, Putin blasted the West and “speculators” who he said were waging an economic war against Russia over its actions in Ukraine. He made no concessions in response to Western sanctions on Russia, saying instead that they were a spur to bring offshore money home and to invest in domestic industry.
In his speech, delivered in a vast gilt hall in the Kremlin, Putin said Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s autonomous Crimean Peninsula in March was a “historic event” that would not be reversed. He likened Crimea to the Temple Mount — a sacred site in Judaism, Islam and Christianity — in its foundational importance to Russian civilization. The Crimean annexation kicked off the worst stretch of relations between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
“This year we faced trials that only a mature and united nation and a truly sovereign and strong state can withstand,” Putin said. “Russia has proved that it can protect its compatriots and defend truth and fairness.”
He was more conciliatory on domestic policy, assuring investors that “Russia will be open to the world” and ready to do business with anyone — even the West. In the 70-minute speech, which was focused largely on the economy, he offered measures to streamline markets, spur investment and bolster Russian self-sufficiency. Unlike in previous speeches, he held back from condemning opposition forces at home and pressed only against the speculators who he said were profiting from the falling ruble.
Russia has been locked in a bitter fight with the West over the conflict in Ukraine, which has claimed more than 4,300 lives. Hours after Putin’s speech, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Russia brought on the sanctions because of its “own actions” in Ukraine.
Russia’s economy is expected to go into recession next year, the result of plummeting oil prices and sanctions that have crimped investments. The ruble has fallen significantly in recent weeks and has lost more than a third of its value against the dollar since July. On Thursday, it dropped more than 2 percent.
Putin’s popularity ratings remain near record highs, but surging inflation and diminished growth have made many Russians increasingly pessimistic about the economy.
Putin said the Western sanctions were the product of a fight against Russia that began long before what he called the “Crimean Spring.”
“If none of that had ever happened,” he said, “they would have come up with some other excuse to try to contain Russia’s growing capabilities.” The efforts to thwart Russia, he said, have gone on “for decades, if not centuries.”
Putin likened Russia’s enemies to the Nazis and said they should remember the lessons of World War II. Hitler “set out to destroy Russia and push us back beyond the Urals. Everyone should remember how it ended,” he said.
He also said that although Russia is boosting its defense spending, it did not desire a new arms race with the West, saying it had more inexpensive ways to strengthen its capabilities.
President Obama said a day earlier that Putin “has been improvising himself into a nationalist, backward-looking approach to Russian policy that is scaring the heck out of his neighbors and is badly damaging his economy.” Obama said the West intends to maintain economic pressure.
Obama’s comments are “obviously unfriendly and obviously unconstructive,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Thursday.
Putin’s speech came shortly after the worst outbreak of violence in years in the Russian region of Chechnya, where he crushed an insurgency early in his presidency. Authorities said at least nine gunmen and 10 police officers were killed in a battle in Grozny, the regional capital. Putin said he had full confidence in Russian authorities’ ability to eliminate any threats.
In an effort to boost the economy, Putin said in his speech that he would freeze taxes on businesses for several years. He also promised to reduce government inspections of small and mid-size enterprises that are found to be compliant with Russian regulations. And he vowed to fight corruption and offered a full, no-questions-asked amnesty for Russians who bring money back from abroad.
Money has mostly been going in the opposite direction. Russia has been plagued by investors pulling their money from the country: Up to $128 billion in capital flight is expected in 2014.
The Economy Ministry said this week that it expected Russia’s economy to contract by 0.8 percent next year. Independent economists have forecast an even more biting recession.
Economic officials also have said that they expect inflation of up to 10 percent next year, largely driven by the falling ruble and the rising cost of food. Russia banned most U.S. and European Union food imports in August in retaliation for Western sanctions, and the move has driven up the cost of food staples.
*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources By Michael Birnbaum - Washington Post
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News - INDIA DEFENSE NEWS: India Shifts From Importing Weapons To Exporting Them
World's biggest weapons importer is fostering home industry in bid to become major exporter.
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Washington Post
(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - December 4, 2014: For more than a decade, India shopped around the world in search of a deal for more than US$1 billion worth of helicopters to replace about 200 of its military's ageing light-utility aircraft.
But in August, the new nationalist government surprised many when it abruptly scrapped the request for global bids to buy the helicopters in favour of manufacturing them in India instead.
In recent months, India has reversed two more proposals for buying transport aircraft and submarines and decided to make them at home. It's part of a push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to foster a domestic arms industry.
India is the world's largest buyer of weapons, accounting for 14 per cent of global imports, three times as many as China.
Over the next seven years, India is likely to spend more than US$130 billion importing arms, officials say, to upgrade its understocked, Soviet-era arsenal.
India's military modernisation can generate billions of dollars worth of business for American companies, but it also helps strengthen the nation's strategic role in the region - at a time when the Indian and US militaries are conducting more and more joint exercises. The massive buying spree coincides with India's growing border tensions with China and Pakistan.
In the past three years, India spent nearly US$14 billion importing weapons, of which more than US$5 billion worth were from the United States.
Now, Modi wants to upend India's arms-importer tag and turn the country into not only a defence manufacturer but also a major weapons exporter, much like China has become.
"We dream of making India strong enough to export defence equipment to the world," Modi said in August after christening India's largest home-built warship. "Instead of having to import every little piece of defence hardware, we want India to become an exporter of such equipment over the next few years."
To realise this goal, the government removed the laborious licence requirements on almost 60 per cent of defence products for private manufacturing companies. This year, the government raised the limit on foreign investment in the defence industry from 26 per cent to 49 per cent to encourage more partnerships with foreign investors.
"We want the global defence companies to come to India not merely to sell to us but also to manufacture here and export to other countries," said Amitabh Kant, secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in New Delhi.
But that still may not be enough to bring critical defence technologies to India.
"Qualitatively, nothing changes because [49 per cent] doesn't give control to the foreign investor," said Pratyush Kumar, president of Boeing India.
Critics say India is being torn by two competing goals: the nationalistic aspiration to produce weapons locally and the urgent need to fix the crippling shortages in the military.
Despite the push, many defence experts say India is not ready to make a giant leap like China's - from being the largest arms importer in 2006 to becoming the world's sixth-largest defence exporter by 2011.
"Becoming a defence exporter is a noble aspiration but it will take a lot of doing," said Arun Prakash, a retired navy chief. "Given the current state of our defence research and industrial base, it is not something that will happen overnight."
*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Washington Post
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: Y-20 Heavy Lifter Aircraft To Boost Military Capabilities
**The Y-20 aircraft is part of the PLA's plans to modernise its hardware, but engine problems continue to hinder its successful development
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Minnie Chan - SCMP
(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - December 4, 2014: The development of the Y-20 heavy transport aircraft will benefit the military and civilian aviation industries if engine problems can be overcome, military experts said.
Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun confirmed last week it is developing the Y-20 military transport aircraft as part of the People's Liberation Army's modernisation drive and for service in humanitarian and disaster-relief efforts.
Three days earlier, on December 24, several photographs believed to be showing China's first domestically produced heavy-lift military transport plane were posted on a mainland website by military enthusiasts. The aircraft bears a striking resemblance to the US Air Force's C-17 transporter, built by Boeing, but appears to be of a size that might fit somewhere between the C-17 and the Airbus A400M.
As such, it appears that the Y-20 will be wide enough to accommodate most large PLA combat and support vehicles, including its Type 99 series tanks, which weigh close to 55 tonnes.
Yang did not say when the Y-20 would be ready for service, only saying that "the research and development of the large transport aircraft is going forward as planned".
The photographs on the Chaoda Story Land website, a forum for military enthusiasts, were purportedly taken from long range at Xian Aircraft's Yanliang airfield in Shaanxi .
Xian Aircraft Industry is a subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the leading military aircraft maker.
Some features of the new transporter can be identified despite the poor quality of the images. It is powered by four jet engines that appear to be Russian Soloviev D-30KU engines, used on Russian Ilyushin Il-62M and Tupolev TU-154M airliners and the Ilyushin Il-76MD, a multi-purpose, four-engine strategic airlifter.
The PLA Air Force operates a small fleet of Russian-made Il-76 transporters powered by the D-30KU engine.
But Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canadian-based Kanwa Defence Review, said the Y-20 would not use D-30KU engines when development and research was completed.
He said the D-30KU was a noisy fuel-guzzler and even the Russians were abandoning it. China was likely to use a homegrown aircraft engine such as the CJ-1000A displayed at the Zhuhai air show in November, he said.
"I have no idea about the Chinese engines that will be used by the Y-20 as it is still being developed," Chang said. "But it will be a significant jump for China's aviation industry if it successfully develops the Y-20, especially for its larger aircraft projects which can be used for both military and civilian purposes."
Beijing-based military expert Li Jie said the Y-20 project was still in its early days.
"Like other aircraft projects, the Y-20 project is still facing the same problem - engines," he said. "But if we overcome such a knotty problem, the PLA's ability to project military force on the battlefield or send relief materials to disaster-hit areas would definitely be strengthened."
*Related Y-20 Heavy Lifter Aircraft Images;
*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Minnie Chan SCMP
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com
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(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - December 5, 2014: Iraqi Prime Minister said recently that the country’s army has been paying salaries to at least 50,000 soldiers who do not exist, the latest sign of corruption in a force that the U.S. hopes to help contain the Islamic State militant group.
