Elbit Systems gets Israeli defence contracts worth $315 mln

Elbit Systems has won various contracts from Israel's Ministry of Defence in a number of fields worth a total of $315 million, the Israeli defence electronics firm said on Monday.

It will supply battle management systems and avionics for helicopters, virtual training for the Israeli Air Force's (IAF) fighter aircraft and operation and maintenance services for the IAF's Flight Academy, worth $75 million, covering deliveries over six years.

It will also provide Hermes 900 unmanned aircraft systems within three years as well as maintenance services over a period of eight years, for a total value of $90 million.

Elbit will supply over four years electronic warfare systems for F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft and for the navy's missile vessels, for a total amount of $90 million. It will also provide electro-optic systems worth $25 million and land systems worth $35 million.

Iranian Navy Tests Short-Range Cruise Missiles in Velayat 91 Drills

Iran to Test Fire New Surface-to-Air Missile

Iran navy will test fire its new Ra’d (“Thunder”) missile during the six-day “Velayat 91” drills that started today. The indigenous surface-to-air missile is designed to strike medium-range targets. (Fars News Agency, 28 December)

Iran test fired its first indigenous medium-range anti-radar missile, Mehrab (Altar), during the Velayat 90 naval exercises in December 2011.

Tracking Pakistan's nukes to Saudi Arabia? Transferred in 2004

Pakistan's notorious intelligence agency - ISI backed by Pakistan Army has transferred nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia for "safe keeping" considering the Islamic terrorism in Pakistan

http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/tracking-pakistans-nukes-to-saudi-arabia/#q35SV3AxQyUrLsz0.99

BEIRUT – Pakistan may have transferred nuclear weapons to the chief bankroller of its development program, Saudi Arabia, as far back as 2004, according to a then-U.S. government official who received the revelation in a Pakistani intelligence briefing at the time, says a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. 

Larry Werline, in a little-noticed report in Blackwater Tactical Weekly last June, said the transfer was revealed in a briefing that Pakistani Inter-Service Directorate, or ISI, officials gave him and other U.S. experts when relations between the United States and Pakistan were on a far better political and diplomatic footing.

Werline said that it was unusual that the intelligence service would oversee Pakistan’s nuclear program. Nonetheless, the high-ranking ISI briefers told of the increasing cooperation Pakistan was receiving at the time from China.
Chinese assistance included advanced production of lighter plutonium warheads for miniaturization to fit on Chinese missiles, based on technology, Werline said, that was stolen from U.S. and British work..

Essentially, the result of such work is weapons, with plutonium, that are lighter and have a higher explosive yield than weapons based on enriched uranium.
Sources have told WND/G2Bulletin that Saudi Arabia financed Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and that even now, given the increasing Islamist threat in Pakistan, Islamabad may have decided to store some of its nuclear weapons in Saudi Arabia for safe keeping.
The ISI briefings took place in Pakistan in November 2004. The series of briefings over a three-day period were by ISI officials who at one time were senior Pakistani military officers.
Attending the briefings were scientists from the U.S. and Britain. One of the scientists, Werline said, was from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The briefings pointed out that ISI was in exclusive control of the country’s nuclear arsenal, and security forces were “recklessly moving nuclear warheads” around the country, Werline said.
Pakistan’s ISI is known for having created the Afghanistan Taliban and other Islamist militant jihadist groups, such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT, among others, to act as proxies for the Pakistani military to launch attacks against India, which is Pakistan’s arch-enemy even until this day.
The LeT was responsible for a series of attacks in Mumbai, India, on Nov. 28, 2008, that killed 164 people and wounded some 308.
The briefing also included details of a Pakistani nuclear scientist’s visit to Afghanistan to brief then-al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the late 1990s when the Afghan government then was under the control of the Taliban.
The briefing to bin Laden “was orchestrated, planned and executed by Pakistan’s ISI,” Werline said.

Chinese KLJ-3 pulse Doppler fire control radar copied from Israeli technologies for "peaceful" rise

Is the Pakistani Air Force using Israeli technology in JF-17 radar - KLJ-7 airborne pulse Doppler radar knowingly ? 

Then it is Haram as per the jihadi curriculum published for ideological education by the Pakistan Army and the notorious ISI 

Chinese KLJ-3 pulse Doppler fire control radar

The first step in the reverse engineering process is to import a couple of kits and then copy them part by part to final assembly.

Recently, Russian media reports that the Chinese J-10 fighter uses NIIR Phazotron Company’s Zhuk Zhemchoug airborne fire control radar. In fact, PLA Air force J-10 is equipped domestic KLJ-3 pulse Doppler fire control radar.

KLJ-3 radar is indeed the result of the introduction of foreign technology, but it is not from Russia, but Israel.

In 1986, J-10 fighter program started. When the Chinese Air Force dispatched pilots go to France to fly Mirage 2000 for evaluation, the Chinese pilots were impressed with Mirage-2000′s avionics and advanced cockpit display system. After the test in France, Pilot Ge Wenyong bluntly said that if counterpart Mirage 2000 pilots do not make mistakes, PLA Air Force J-7 and J-8 fighters have no chance of winning. But Chinese electronics industry was weak at 1980s, and it is difficult to meet the development requirements of the new combat aircraft. In this case, the Heads of Chinese military has determined to actively introduce advanced foreign technology, and push the the development of Chinese avionics industry.

In later 1980s, China began aviation technical cooperation with Israel, including the a full set of LAVI fighter avionics systems. LAVI’s original EL/M-2035 multifunction pulse Doppler fire control radar, which uses a phase parameters transmitter and multi-channel receiver, programmable signal processing system, look-down capacity as 46 km detection range. Its air-to-air modes include RWS (range-while-search), TWS (Track-While-Scan), dogfight, single target tracking; the air-to-ground modes include ranging, real beam mapping and Doppler beam sharpening. The radar has weights of 138 kg. However when the LAVI project ended, the development of EL/M-2035 was also cancelled.

Later, Israel improved EL/M-2035 improvements into EL/M-2032, which was displayed for the first time at the 1987 Paris Air Show. EL/M-2032 in aerial target designation mode has the maximum search distance to reach 150 km; in the air-to-sea mode detection range over 300 km. There have been reports that the Israeli Air Force are not satisfied with F-16I fighter AN/APG-68V-9 radar’s performance and hoped to replace by EL/M-2032 radar, but the United States refused. This also reflects high- performance EL/M-2032, rising as a threat to the U.S. radar.

The introduction of the LAVI aviation electronic systems in China, was known as the 873 avionics integrated system based on 1553B data bus, which was officially launched in 1989, began to conduct test flights in 1993. Other sub-systems including airborne radar, inertial navigation, mission computer display management sub-systems, air data computers, plug-in management system. The 873 project has laid a solid foundation for J-10 to reach full operational capability and greatly raise the R&D Level of Chinese aviation industry.

China imported a multi-Ministry EL/M-2032-radar airborne radar, on which China develops KLJ-3 radar. KLJ-3 uses a double mode grid controlled TWT transmitter, so that the radar is the equivalent of two transmitters, greatly improve the performance of the radar. KLJ-3 works by low operating ratio in the low PRF mode, but also work in high work than high PRF mode. It means KLJ-3 features with real multifunction performance.

The real specifications of KLJ-3 radar are still unknown, but we can deduce its performance by KLJ-7 radar. Pakistan Air Force JF-17 is equipped with KLJ-7 airborne pulse Doppler radar with maximum detection range of 130 km, TWS mode can simultaneously track 10 targets and simultaneously guided two SD-10A active radar-guided air-to-air missile attack two biggest threats. KLJ-7 also has ground moving target indication, synthetic aperture imaging and other advanced work mode, with a strong ground attack capability. KLJ-7 antenna aperture and power supply capacity is lower than the J-10′s KLJ-3, so you can imagine KLJ-3 has better tactical and technical indicators.
China started airborne radar cooperation with Russia at the beginning of 1990s. In addition to NO01E, NO01VE radar for supporting the Su-27SK, Su-30MKK fleets, China also imported some Russian radars including ZHUK Series radar and PERO passive phased array antenna.

Chinese J-8IIM fighter is the first one equipped with Russian ZHUK-8-2 radar. After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the development of ZHUK radar was not quite smoothly, and Russian Air Force did not use it. The ultimate success of ZHUK-M-type radar developed in 2002 ultimately is equipped with the Russian MiG-29SMT fighter and the Indian Navy’s MiG-29KUB fighter.

“Zhemchoug” radar is a light version of ZHUK-M radar with performance decreased. “Zhemchoug” radar actually was later than the time of the production of F-10 fighter. Chinese J-10 airborne radar is also different with “Zhemchoug” IFF antenna design, therefore J-10 has no relation with Russia “Zhemchoug” radar.

Through the combination of technology introduction and self-development, Chinese airborne radar has made a breakthrough in the beginning of 2000s, making significant progress in the field of antenna precision manufacturing and transmitter power density, brings a strong impetus to Chinese radar tactical and technical indicators. Chinese-made radar may learn some from Russian radar technology, but the Chinese fighter almost has no possibility of directly using Russian radar. Besides, China is also developing airborne active phased array radar.

Indian Airforce SU30MKI aircraft over the Indian Ocean

Click to zoom

Syrian Army sniper kills Free Syrian army street fighters

Truck carrying weapon vaporized

In the face of "Pak" Army inaction Taliban and Al Qaeda to get bolder in 2013

Militants publishing videos of meetings, beheading and killing solders and bombing Pakistani cities at the time and place of their choosing

PAF Academy at Risalpur and "Pak" Military Academy in Kakul are probably next most of Army and Navy installations have been attacked so far

Bomb attack on Shia pilgrim buses kills 19, injures 25 in Mastung, Pakistan

Pakistani Shias, Ahmedis, Bohris being bombed into extinction.

MASTUNG: A car bomb attack on buses carrying Shia pilgrims to Iran killed 19 people and injured 25 in Mastung on Sunday, officials said.

The remotely-triggered bomb hit a convoy of three buses in Mastung district and set one of them ablaze, said Tufail Baluch, a senior government official in the district.
“At least 19 people have been killed and 25 injured. All of them were Shia pilgrims,” he told AFP, adding most of those killed were burnt to death.

“The bomb was planted in a car. The condition of some of the injured is critical,” Baluch said.
Some 180 Shia pilgrims were on their way to Iran in the buses when the bomb ripped through one of them, said Akbar Hussain Durrani, a senior government official in Quetta.
One bus carrying some 45 pilgrims was badly damaged, he said. Mastung is some 30km south of Quetta.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Somewhere in Aghanistan on Christmas day 2012

Never stop having fun regardless of the hardships

Royal Saudi Air Force Typhoons

Syria using more accurate, Iranian-made missiles

The Syrian regime this week fired at least two Iranian-made, short-range ballistic missiles in what appears to be an effort to more precisely target Syrian rebels.

The Fateh A-110 missiles are more accurate than the older Scud variants that Syrian government forces have used in recent weeks.

The U.S. military officials declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. The Iranian government has not commented on the issue.

The Fateh trades range for accuracy. It can travel about 125 miles, while the Scud can go about 185 miles. But the Fateh has a "circular error probable" or -- CEP -- of 330 feet, while the Scud's CEP is 1,480 feet. CEP is defined as the radius of a circle in which half of a missile's lethal payload falls and is the standard measure of a missile's accuracy.

The firings did not reach near Syria's Turkish border. But the regime's use of ballistic missiles is the reason NATO is planning to send U.S., German and Dutch Patriot missile batteries to Turkish military installations: to protect the southern regions of that NATO ally. All six Patriot batteries are expected to be in place by the end of January.

A NATO official could not confirm the use of short-range ballistic missiles this week, but NATO did detect the launch of such missiles inside Syria on a few December days, more recently on the 22nd.

Harrier Operations USS Bataan (LHD-5)

Turkish Type 209/1400 class submarine spotted

Turkish Type 209/1400 class submarine passing the Bosphorus to Marmara Sea

On 26 December 2012, in the early morning hours, one Turkish Type 209/1400 class submarine sailed through Bosphorus to Marmara Sea. Since Turkish Navy stopped painting the pennant numbers of the submarines, it is impossible to identify each individual submarine anymore. While this new painting scheme helps the submarines to blend and prevents IR/FLIR/LLTV using trackers or electro-optic directors any high contrast target, it makes ship spotting difficult.

Chinese Defense ministry strongly opposes U.S. defense authorization act

BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry on Thursday voiced strong opposition to the content concerning China in a U.S. defense authorization act.
　　"The content is a rude interference in China's internal affairs and harmful to our strategic mutual trust. We are strongly opposed to it," said spokesman Yang Yujun, referring to the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, which contains controversial sections related to the Diaoyu Islands and arms sales to Taiwan.

　　One section says the act acknowledges Japan's administration over the Diaoyu Islands, and another calls for more arms sales to Taiwan.

　　"Someone wants to make a profit in a troubled situation on the Diaoyu Islands issue, and someone wants to bully people by flaunting his powerful connections. All these are futile efforts," Yang noted.
　　The spokesman also criticized a planned deployment of F-35 fighters to the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, in 2017, as revealed by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Dec. 18.

　　"The deployment of several aircraft is not worth making a fuss, from a military perspective. However, such actions, which deliberately highlight military security agenda and cause a tense situation in the region, go against the trends of the times and common will of the people of all countries," Yang said.
　　He added that he hopes relevant countries will do more to help maintain regional peace and stability.

Russian Air Force Gets First Six Su-35S Fighter Jets

SU-35S

MOSCOW, December 28 – The Sukhoi aircraft maker delivered on Friday the first six Su-35S fighter jets to the Russian Air Force, the company said.
The acceptance documents were signed by Defense Ministry officials at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft manufacturing plant in Russia’s Far East.

The Sukhoi holding has fulfilled its obligations on the delivery of this type of aircraft under the 2012 state defense order,” the company said in a statement.
“The fighter jets will fly to their designated home base in the near future,” the statement said.
The Su-35, powered by two 117S engines with thrust vectoring, combines high maneuverability and the capability to effectively engage several air targets simultaneously using both guided and unguided missiles and weapon systems.
The aircraft has been touted as "4++ generation using fifth-generation technology."
The Russian Defense Ministry is planning to buy about 90 Su-35s, which will gradually become the core of Russia’s fighter jet fleet.

PLAN submarines hold confrontation drill for future wars with Chinese neighbours

December 13, 2012

The submarines of a submarine flotilla of the North China Sea Fleet under the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are conducting formation navigation training in the sea on December 13, 2012.

Interior of Pakistan Military Academy

Pakistan Radar Site in Badin, Sindh, Pakistan

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=24%C2%B039%2726%22N+++68%C2%B051%2750%22E&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=24.656515,68.864&spn=0.009712,0.021136&sll=20.98352,82.752628&sspn=40.146635,86.572266&t=h&z=16

Badin Radar Station in the Thar Desert, Sindh of Pakistan - 24°39'26"N   68°51'50"E

Another Radar station on the Western Border with Afghanistan

China’s first 3D surveying and mapping satellite starts networking operation

http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2012-12/27/content_5160554.htm

China’s first transmission-type three-dimensional surveying and mapping satellite, Space Mapping-I system, formally started the networking operation recently, according to the Space Mapping Satellite Application Management Center recently. This was another breakthrough after China’s successful launching of the No. 01 Satellite of the transmission-type three-dimensional surveying and mapping satellite, Space Mapping-I system, on August 24, 2010.
　　The No. 01 and No. 02 Satellites of the Space Mapping-I system, China’s first satellites to achieve networking operation, can greatly improve the surveying and mapping efficiency and geometric control capability, accelerate the image-capturing speed in the target areas after seamless splicing of the images captured by the two satellites, and enhance information timeliness.
　　It is a major breakthrough in China's aerospace field and boasts the milestone significance in the development of China’s surveying and mapping cause. It marks that China’s has fully mastered the key technology of the transmission-type three-dimensional surveying and mapping satellite.
　　According to a person in charge of the center, the Space Mapping-I satellites are China’s first domestic new-generation transmission-type 3D surveying and mapping satellites with completely self-owned property rights.
　　The Space Mapping-I satellite system has currently produced various types of satellite imaging products and geographic information products, and provided imaging as well as surveying and mapping support for tens of government bodies and institutions including the China Resources Satellite Center, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the State Forestry Administration, playing important role in the national economic construction.
　　It is learned that China will continue to launch space mapping series satellites in the future so as to jointly constitute a complete aerospace surveying and mapping system together with the Space Mapping-I system and form a space-to-ground detection network with all-weather, all-time, all-factor and multi-resolution functions.

China confirms it's developing large transport aircraft

Yang Yujun, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense

BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is developing Y-20 large transport aircraft to meet its military modernization drive, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said Thursday.
　　"We are developing large transport aircraft on our own to improve the capability of air transport," spokesman Yang Yujun said at a monthly news briefing held days after photos of a Y-20 appeared online.

　　The advanced long-range carrier is being developed to serve the military modernization drive, as well as to meet demands in disaster relief work and humanitarian aid in emergency situations, he added.

　　The spokesman did not say when the Y-20s will be fitted out in force, only saying "the research and development of the large transport aircraft is going forward as planned."
　　There will be a series of steps before the carriers are fitted out, "as the technology is complicated," he added.

'He also added that Y-20 will be able to land and take off from PLAN Aircraft carriers and refuel with the help of PLAAF UFOs where were reported recently to being build in China on Chinese military forums.' 

China says its plane harassed by Japanese military aircraft

We all along knew about the "peaceful" rise of China

 A government spokesman confirmed on Thursday that a Chinese maritime surveillance plane was harassed by Japanese military aircraft while patrolling airspace near the Diaoyu Islands.

Japan's action was meant to escalate the situation and it should bear the consequences, said Shi Qingfeng, spokesman for the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

Shi said the Chinese plane was conducting a routine patrol in airspace over the East China Sea about 150 km away from the Diaoyu Islands.

Shi said the flight route used by the plane has been used by Chinese surveillance planes since 2007.

"The Japanese side's disturbance was intended to cause confusion and distort the truth," Shi said. ;)

First Royal Air Force Rivet Joint

The RAF has three RC-135s on order, making the U.K. the first export customer for the RC-135V/W Sigint jets. The aircraft have been converted from a trio of 1964-vintage Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers.

The three aircraft were ordered by the Ministry of Defence in March 2010 and the first aircraft is expected to roll out early next year. Once in service, the aircraft will be operated by No. 51 Sqn which famously operated the Nimrod R1, an aircraft which for many years the RAF refused to disclose as being in operation because of the type’s intelligence gathering capabilities. 

In preparation for the Rivet Joint’s arrival, 51 Sqn crews have been flying missions with the 55^th Wing to gain experience on the type. It is understood that the aircraft will be christened Airseeker in RAF service.

Sharp-eyed readers of this blog will notice the aircraft distinctly lacks an air-to-air refuelling probe and given the RAF has not ordered a boom for its Voyager tankers, the new Airseekers will end up being dependent on USAF or tankers from other nations for refuelling.

Indian Navy : After successful launch, K-15 missile ready to join Arihant nuclear submarine

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) ends 2012 on an upbeat note, successfully launching the underwater missile K-15 off the Visakhapatnam coast on Wednesday. The missile darted 20 km into the air, after a gas generator ejected it from the pontoon that lay submerged a few scores of metres in the Bay of Bengal, and sped 650 km before splashing into the sea in its 11th flight trial. 

After one more flight, the two-stage missile will be integrated with Arihant, India’s nuclear-powered submarine, and test-fired from the ship. “It is a fantastic system. It is a very powerful and accurate system,” said A.K. Chakrabarti, Programme Director, K-15, and Director of the Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which designed and developed the missile.

“India is the fifth country to have an underwater launch system. The other countries are the U.S., Russia, France and China,” he said. 

Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, termed it “a good flight” and said the test “formed part of the pre-production clearance.” Twelve K-15 missiles, each 10 metres long and weighing six tonnes and capable of carrying nuclear warheads, will form part of the deadly arsenal of Arihant, which is powered by an 80-MWt reactor that uses enriched uranium as fuel and light water as coolant and moderator. 

Informed sources said the reactor had already been integrated with the Arihant at Visakhapatnam. “The commissioning process is on,” they said. The reactor would reach criticality within the first few months of 2013. The harbour trials of the ship have been completed, and it is ready for sea trials.

India has been developing the K-4 missile, to be launched from submarines. It will be more powerful than K-15, with a range of 3,000 km.

Israeli army's sigint unit holds workshop for hi-tech whiz kids

Israeli military's electronic intelligence unit has held a first-of-its-kind workshop to track young potential candidates, local media reported Wednesday.

Some 30 high school students with "brilliant ideas" for technological developments began Tuesday a three-day workshop hosted by the Unit 8200, which operates within the Intelligence Corps, the Hebrew Ma'ariv daily said.

Apart from collecting signal intelligence and deciphering code, the Israeli army's elite sigint unit oversees defensive and offensive cyber operations, with the demand for suitable candidates often surpassing the supply.

In addition to spotting talent for military service, the workshop also aims to start up the participants' ideas, the report said.

Attesting to the acute shortage, military head-hunters have been dispatched to scout for young computer hackers among Jewish communities worldwide with a potential to become cyber-warfare specialists, and persuade them to immigrate to Israel, Yediot Aharonot reported earlier last month.

The report came months after the Israeli military officially acknowledged that it engages in cyber warfare.

"The Israel Defense Forces is fighting consistently and relentlessly in cyberspace, collecting intelligence and protecting the army's networks as well," the Israeli military said on its website.

IRGC Navy Holds Maneuvers in Persian Gulf

 IRGC Navy began a four-day naval exercise on Tuesday in the Asaluyeh and South Pars region of the Persian Gulf. The region holds one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves.
“The exercises are aimed at improving the different units of IRGC Navy in Fourth Region. We will assess our defense capabilities of human forces and facilities,” said IRGC Rear Admiral Ali Reza Nasseri. (Mehr News Agency, 26 December)

Iran’s regular navy will also hold maneuvers on Friday, covering a 400,000-mile area from the Strait of Hormuz to northern part of the Indian Ocean.

Three generations of Chinese PLAAF fighters in air force Night fighting training in the Tibetan plateau

Chinese fighters practice war games in Tibet to continue their occupation of Tibet

AK-47's inventor Kalashnikov hospitalised

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of AK-47 assault rifle, has been hospitalised, his assistant Nikolai Shklyaev said Tuesday.

Shklyaev said the 93-year-old Kalashnikov complained to him about his health before being taken to hospital last week.
"He was in intensive care last Thursday," he said, adding that he had no information about the present condition of the legendary inventor.
"He told me 'nothing hurts, but I feel exhausted.' That's all I know," he said.
Kalashnikov's son Viktor, however, said that his father has been hospitalised for a planned health check.
"His [health condition] is normal, he was hospitalized for planned procedures, he is not in intensive care."
A hospital source who asked not to be named said, however, that Kalashnikov has been sent to intensive care upon his arrival at hospital.

US to sell $1.2bn in spy drones to S. Korea

The Pentagon has informed Congress of its plans to sell four Global Hawk high-altitude spy drones to South Korea. Under the deal Seoul’s surveillance capabilities would be greatly improved, even though the US DoD itself wanted to retire the aircraft.
­The US Department of Defense wants to sell four of the Block 30 version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk aircraft to Seoul under the Foreign Military Sales program. It formally notified Congress of the proposed deal, which is estimated to worth $1.2 billion, reports the Pentagon-affiliated Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

The deal would include “associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support”. The military says it would go in line with the transition of intelligence gathering mission from the US-led Combined Forces Command to South Korea’s own troops in 2015. South Korea hosts almost 30,000 American troops, which take on many tasks requiring use of advanced technology.
The RQ-4 Global Hawk is Northrop Grumman’s unmanned reconnaissance aircraft currently operated by the US and Germany. It fills in the same role as Cold War era Lockheed U-2 all-weather intelligence gathering.


Congress may block the deal, but diplomatic sources told the Korean news agency Yonhap that American lawmakers are likely not to oppose the sale.
Previously the US was apparently reluctant to provide Seoul with the advanced spying capabilities of the Global Hawk, the agency says. The drones can survey landscape with its radar and optical sensors through clouds while flying up to 20km high.
The Block 30 model however may not be the best value for the Korean money. The US Air Force announced in January that it wanted to retire its fleet in 2013 and instead buy more advanced Block 40s.

Chinese PLA Improved type-59 tanks tested in drill for winter warfare

An armored regiment under the Shenyang Military Area Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) took its troops to unfamiliar area on December 16, 2012 to conduct drill on such subjects as rapid maneuvering and coordination of infantrymen and tanks, in a bid to temper its troops in an all-round way.

Even the Chinese Face the Made in China problem or maybe its the snow and sleet

 Officials checking and noting something did not go as expected and planned

Pakistan Army gets Pentagon funding secretly

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon quietly notified Congress this month that it would reimburse Pakistan nearly $700 million for an effort to normalise support for the Pakistani military after nearly two years of crises and mutual retaliation.

According to the report, the United States also provides about $2 billion in annual security assistance, roughly half of which goes to reimburse Pakistan for conducting military operations to fight terrorism.
Until now, many of these reimbursements, called coalition support funds, have been held up, in part because of disputes with Pakistan over the Bin Laden raid, the operations of the CIA, and its decision to block supply lines into Afghanistan last year.
The $688 million payment - the first since this summer, covering food, ammunition and other expenses from June through November 2011 - has caused barely a ripple of protest since it was sent to Capitol Hill on Dec 7.
The absence of a reaction, American and Pakistani officials say, underscores how relations between the two countries have been gradually thawing since Pakistan reopened the NATO supply routes in July after an apology from the Obama administration for an errant American airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November 2011.

Vietnam Air Force new Su-30MK2 camouflage scheme