Messages In This Digest (10 Messages)

7.: Post-Lisbon Treaty: EU Bows Down To NATO From: Rick Rozoff

8.: U.S. Continues Drone Missile Carnage In Northwest Pakistan From: Rick Rozoff

9.: Irish Troops Train For EU Nordic Battle Group From: Rick Rozoff

10.: U.S. Joint Strike Fighters: Largest Arms Deal In Canadian History From: Rick Rozoff

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1.: Asia: Pentagon Revives And Expands Cold War Military Blocs

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:58 pm (PDT)

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/asia-pentagon-revives-and-expands-cold-war-military-blocs/

Stop NATO
September 14, 2010

Asia: Pentagon Revives And Expands Cold War Military Blocs
Rick Rozoff

The year before the Korean War began the United States established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Western and Southern Europe to contain and confront the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies. NATO opened the door for the Pentagon to maintain, expand and upgrade, and gain access to new, military bases in Europe from Britain to Turkey, Italy to Norway, West Germany to Greece.

During the Korean War and after its end in 1953 (with Greece and Turkey having been absorbed into NATO), the U.S. replicated the NATO model to varying degrees throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The Australia, New Zealand, United States (ANZUS) Security Treaty was set up in 1951 as troops from all three nations were fighting in Korea. Australian and New Zealand troops would also fight under American command in the Vietnam War under ANZUS obligations.

In 1954 the U.S. and fellow NATO founders Britain and France created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) with Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand as members and South Korea and South Vietnam as Dialogue Partners.

With U.S. encouragement and support, the next year Britain oversaw the creation of the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), also known as the Baghdad Pact Organization, which included Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan. In 1958 the METO/Baghdad Pact supported the U.S.'s deployment of 14,000 troops to Lebanon under the so-called Eisenhower Doctrine.

After the anti-monarchical revolution in Iraq of the preceding year led to that nation leaving the bloc in 1959, METO was renamed the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO): There could be no Baghdad Pact without Baghdad itself where its headquarters had been. (Half a century later the Iraqi capital is home to United States Forces – Iraq headquarters.)

METO/CENTO, like SEATO before it, was modeled after NATO and served the same purpose as the original: To encircle the Soviet Union and its allies and, in the first-named instance, allow the Pentagon to penetrate the USSR's southern flank as NATO did its extended western one. CENTO was dissolved in 1979 after the revolution in Iran and the withdrawal of that country.

All Asia-Pacific SEATO members and partners except for Pakistan - Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and South Vietnam - provided the U.S. with troops for the war in Vietnam, but Pakistan withdrew in 1973 because SEATO hadn't supported it in its 1971 war with India. France followed suit in 1975 and SEATO was disbanded two years later, three years after the U.S.-Chinese rapprochement formalized by Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1972.

With China the U.S.'s regional and global ally against the Soviet Union, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization served no further purpose.

ANZUS was weakened in 1984 when a new government in New Zealand forbade all nuclear weapons-capable and nuclear-powered ships from entering its ports. Two years later the Pentagon suspended security guarantees to New Zealand under the ANZUS Treaty, though Australia has maintained its obligations to both the U.S. and New Zealand.

The end of the Cold War and the break-up of the Soviet Union a generation ago eliminated any conceivable rationale for the continuation of Cold War-era military blocs, but instead NATO has expanded from 16 to 28 full members in the interim and has also gained forty new cohorts under several partnership programs. NATO members and partners now account for over a third of the nations in the world.

The North Atlantic bloc, for example, includes Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia in its Mediterranean Dialogue program; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in its Istanbul Cooperation Initiative; Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea as NATO Contact Countries; and Afghanistan and Pakistan are subsumed under the Alliance-led Tripartite Commission, which met again in Kabul last month. NATO and U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is now 150,000-strong.

All eight former Soviet republics in the South Caucasus and Central Asia are members of NATO's Partnership for Peace transitional program. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan also have Individual Partnership Action Plans and Georgia a specially designed Annual National Program.

NATO has expanded into former and current territory and integrated past and present members of SEATO, CENTO and ANZUS.

What has also been underway over the past eight years is the consolidation of what is referred to as an Asian NATO which ultimately will include most all members of CENTO, SEATO and ANZUS and dozens of other nations as well.

Australia has the largest contingent of troops - 1,550 - serving under NATO command in Afghanistan of any non-member state and New Zealand has over 200 doing the same with more on the way. Other Asia-Pacific states that have provided NATO with troops for the Afghan war are South Korea, Singapore, Mongolia and Malaysia.

The U.S. is using a 21st century expeditionary - a global - NATO as its meta-military bloc.

It is also developing closer bilateral military ties with every nation in Asia except China, North Korea, Myanmar, Bhutan, Iran and Syria.

During the last month and a half alone U.S. troops and warships have participated in military exercises in and off the shores of Cambodia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Vietnam and Nepal.

In the broader Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. led the biggest-ever biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) war games, the world's largest multinational naval exercise, from June 23-August 1, with an estimated 22,000 troops, 34 ships, five submarines and over 100 aircraft involved.

RIMPAC military maneuvers were begun in the Cold War period (1971) and initially consisted of three nations: The U.S., Australia and Canada.

This year's war games, 20 years after the end of the Cold War, featured the participation of five times as many countries: The U.S. and NATO allies Canada, France and the Netherlands. Asia-Pacific nations Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Tonga, and South American states Chile, Colombia and Peru. In addition, Brazil, India, New Zealand and Uruguay were invited to send teams of observers.

The quintupling of the number of nations participating in RIMPAC war games indicates the degree to which the Pentagon is integrating bilateral military partners into broader regional formations and ultimately into a global network, nowhere more so than with the war in Afghanistan. The majority of the Asia-Pacific nations in this year's RIMPAC exercise - Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Tonga (which recent reports document will provide several hundred marines) - have assigned troops to serve under NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the South Asian country.

Last month's Khaan Quest military exercise in Mongolia, the latest in a series of what until recently had been bilateral U.S.-Mongolian affairs, included troops from, in addition to the U.S. and the host nation, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

The 19-day Angkor Sentinel 2010 command post and field exercises in Cambodia ending on July 30 were led by U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Army Pacific and included in all over 1,000 troops, including contingents from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

The U.S. is currently conducting the large-scale, 10-day Valiant Shield exercises on and near Guam, the new hub for the Pentagon's operations in the Asia-Pacific region, with an aircraft carrier, amphibious ships and an Air Force expeditionary wing. On September 1 a Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle was flown from California to the Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.

The Pentagon is planning a $278 million program to expand interceptor missile testing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for ship-based Standard Missile-3 (and soon land-based versions of the same in the Baltic and Black Seas regions) and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic missiles. Washington's strategy for a layered, global missile shield system already includes the participation of Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the Asia-Pacific area, with India soon to be included.

In a revival of ANZUS emblematic of the reactivation of U.S. Cold War military alliances, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell recently revealed that the U.S. and New Zealand will soon resume military training and joint exercises after a 26-year suspension of both.

U.S. military activity in Northeast and Southeast Asia has raised tensions with China to an intensity not seen since the first decade of the Cold War.

In late July the U.S. and South Korea held war games codenamed Invincible Spirit in the Sea of Japan with 8,000 troops, 20 ships and submarines - led by the USS George Washington nuclear-powered supercarrier - and 200 aircraft, including U.S. F-22 Raptors.

Last month USS George Washington and the USS John S. McCain guided missile destroyer led the first-ever joint naval exercises with Vietnam, in the South China Sea.

Shortly after those maneuvers ended the U.S. and South Korea began 11 days of war games in the second country, the latest of annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises, this one featuring 27,000 American military personnel and 500,000 from South Korea.

USS George Washington is to head to the Yellow Sea in waters close to those claimed by China as part of its exclusive economic zone for more military exercises with South Korea, including anti-submarine warfare drills. The exercises were planned for September 5-9, but postponed because of a tropical storm. Last week Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell insisted that "The USS George Washington will indeed exercise in the Yellow Sea."

Admiral Robert Willard, chief of U.S. Pacific Command, the largest of the Pentagon's Unified Combatant Commands, was in South Korea in late July, in the Philippines in mid-August and in Japan the following week. The focus of his visits was China.

Last week Willard spent two days in India, a nation that until now has remained outside regional military blocs and that with its 1.1 billion citizens has a population larger than those of all SEATO, ANZUS and CENTO nations combined, the U.S., Britain and France included. Since then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee signed the New Framework for the U.S.-India Defense Relationship in 2005, the Pentagon has strengthened ties with one of Asia's two largest states.

While in New Delhi Admiral Willard met with Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, Admiral Nirmal Verma and General V.K. Singh, respectively the heads of India's air force, navy and army. Later this month Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony and navy chief Verma will travel to Washington, D.C., and Verma will also visit U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.

India under Jawaharlal Nehru was a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961. Throughout the 40 years of the Cold War it never joined a military bloc.

Now, however, it is being recruited by Washington as both a bilateral strategic military ally and as a - as the largest and most decisive - partner in a U.S. organized Asia-Pacific military alliance that dwarfs in comparison the Pentagon's earlier efforts in that direction from 1951 onward.

Not having a serious adversary, active or fancied, has never been an impediment to American military expansion throughout the Asia-Pacific region and indeed the rest of the world. In fact the lack of a credible challenger allows for accelerating the pace of the expansion. Never more so than now.
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2.: Roadmap For New World: Pentagons Touts Global NATO

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:00 pm (PDT)

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=60835

United States Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
September 14, 2010

Lisbon Summit Will Chart NATO's 21st Century Course
By Jim Garamone

-"...NATO has now had more than a decade of experience in the requirements to do expeditionary operations – to actually have your command structure actually be able to deploy and employ forces in real-world contingencies."

WASHINGTON: NATO's roadmap for a new world and its mission in Afghanistan will be the main topics of discussion when the alliance's leaders gather in Lisbon, Portugal, in November for their annual summit, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday.

Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, said two "main baskets" of issues will be on the table at the summit.

"The first will be revitalizing the alliance for the 21st century," she said, "and the second will be succeeding as an alliance in Afghanistan."

Leaders are working on a new strategic concept to capture NATO's missions going forward, Flournoy said. The last update of the strategic concept was in 1999. The United States also would like to see some changes in the alliance's infrastructure and organization, she added.

"We have a whole series of reform proposals looking at command structure, NATO agencies and institutions, NATO committees and NATO financial reform," she explained.

Flournoy said she believes that with many in Europe calling for cutbacks in the face of the world's economic situation, the impetus is there to reform the alliance. That, she added, sets the stage for organizational changes that suit the alliance's operational evolution.

"There is a downward pressure to do things more efficiently," she said. "Secondly, NATO has now had more than a decade of experience in the requirements to do expeditionary operations – to actually have your command structure actually be able to deploy and employ forces in real-world contingencies."

....
As they discuss the Afghanistan mission, NATO leaders will focus on assessing how the alliance is doing, identifying milestones for progress and keeping the cohesion of the International Security Assistance Force, Flournoy said.

"We are approaching 150,000 international troops in Afghanistan – about 45,000 are non-American," Flournoy said. "When we had our plus-up of 30,000 [troops], NATO also stepped up with an additional 9,000."

And while the alliance members have stepped up in numbers, a number of the countries are stepping up in terms of their activities, Flournoy said. For example, the Germans in Regional Command North are now fully partnered with the Afghan units and "are operating with them, training with them, doing everything with them," she said. "That is a real change, and we've seen other countries also step up."
....
The counterinsurgency strategy is permeating ISAF forces in Afghanistan, Flournoy said.

"Our troops really 'get' counterinsurgency," she said....

Though the Dutch have left Afghanistan and the Canadians are leaving, this is counterbalanced by a number of countries that have increased their commitments, Flournoy said. Still, she acknowledged, all of the NATO nations involved in the effort need to show their publics at home some demonstrable progress in Afghanistan by the Lisbon summit, and even more progress by next summer.

NATO leaders also will discuss Kosovo at the summit, Flournoy said. The alliance still has 9,000 troops in the country, she added....
....
Missile defense is another priority for NATO in Lisbon, Flournoy said, and the United States hopes the alliance will embrace missile defense as a mission. NATO would need to contribute a command and control system, with individual countries contributing various capabilities, she said.
....
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3.: Pentagon's No. 2 To Brief NATO Allies on Cyber-Warfare, Afghan War

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:00 pm (PDT)

http://www.defense.gov//News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=60836

United States Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
September 14, 2010

Lynn to Discuss Cybersecurity with NATO Allies
By Jim Garamone

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III has arrived here for discussions with NATO leaders.

The primary purpose of the trip is to brief NATO leaders on the U.S. defense cybersecurity initiative, said Bryan Whitman, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

"It's an opportunity to convey the importance of cybersecurity to our NATO allies, as well as a chance to encourage them to secure NATO systems," Whitman said.

Lynn is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen before briefing the alliance's North Atlantic Council on U.S. cyber initiatives. He will then travel to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe to meet with Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe.

While the focus of the visit will be cybersecurity, the discussions will cover the gamut of NATO issues, Whitman said. Lynn probably will discuss the NATO mission in Afghanistan with the leaders, and the November NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, he added.

The cybersecurity threat is real and growing, and an effective defense will require international cooperation, Lynn has said....

The Canadian, British and Australian militaries have agreed to work closely with the United States to combat the threat to military information systems, defense officials said, noting that cyber attacks are not just military threats, but also threats to critical infrastructures and overall economic well-being. The U.S. military always has maintained that a shared, alliance approach to cybersecurity is critical to defending against cyber attacks, officials said.

Lynn's briefing will update NATO's 28 nations on U.S. initiatives and suggest ways to improve cybersecurity for the alliance and among the individual countries, Whitman said.
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4.: Afghanistan: Battlefield Network Connects U.S., 50 NATO Allies, Part

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:01 pm (PDT)

http://defensesystems.com/articles/2010/09/02/c4isr-2-afghan-mission-network-connects-allies.aspx?admgarea=DS

Defense Systems
September 14, 2010

Battlefield network connects allied forces in Afghanistan
Commanders can access dozens of critical warfighting applications
By Barry Rosenberg

For the first time, the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan have subsumed their own internal secret communications networks in favor of a common network for managing command and control and sharing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information. However, to implement the Afghanistan Mission Network, which creates a common operating picture for all U.S. and NATO commanders in Afghanistan, the U.S. military had to undergo a shift in the way it manages its Secret IP Router Network.

"The only way to do this was to change the previous coalition network norm, which said that, first, U.S. formations are only commanded by U.S. commanders and, second, the U.S. military fights on SIPRNet," said Brig. Gen. Brian Donahue, director of command, control, computers and communications systems at the Army's Central Command. "There are many other transports that contribute, but the fight and the critical mission functions occur on SIPRNet. What that led to was a U.S-unique or U.S.-discrete battlespace, while coalition members fought on their own secret networks," such as the United Kingdom's Overtask and Canada's Land Command Support System.

The various networks only converged for communications via e-mail messages or teleconferencing. There was no common operating picture among the allies for critical warfighting functions such as battlespace management, joint fires, joint ISR, counter-improvised explosive device efforts and force protection.

"They had their battlespace; the U.S. had its battlespace," Donahue said. "It was not a means to prosecute the fight. The norm that we had to change was to move the fight to the coalition network."

Critical warfighting functions are dependent on the network, which meant the applications that supported those functions and the data that populated those applications had to be moved to a network accessible by U.S. and coalition forces.

To generate a common operating picture in the Afghanistan Mission Network (AMN), 165 applications were moved to the shared network, including 13 NATO-unique applications, Donahue said. Of those, 55 are considered critical because they're tied to mission functions and mission threats.

The U.S. contribution to AMN is the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System-International Security Assistance Force. As capabilities mature and expand on AMN, the Army expects that it will lure an increasing number of users away from systems such as SIPRNet, though it is not meant to replace the U.S. secret network in Afghanistan.

"What we are not saying is that SIPRNet is going away," Donahue said. "The number of users on SIPRNet will decrease, and the echelons that SIPRNet is extended to will also roll back. Right now, the requirement for the network in Afghanistan is extended down to the company level, and it is goes down to the platoon level in 16 different places in Regional Command-East."

"There was also a stated requirement to extend the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System down to the maneuver battalion level," he said. "I think that requirement will also be consumed or taken up" by AMN.
....
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5.: Simmons Consolidates NATO's Hold On Armenia

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:01 pm (PDT)

http://www.armradio.am/news/?part=off&id=18214

Public Radio of Armenia
September 14, 2010

Robert Simmons: NATO appreciates the partnership with Armenia

On September 14 Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received Robert Simmons, NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Greeting the guest, Minister Nalbandian noted that Armenia attaches importance to the mutually beneficial cooperation with NATO and intends to reinforce it by paying special attention to the implementation of the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP).

Edward Nalbandian stressed that Armenia will continue the cooperation within the framework of NATO's Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Council and will participate in peacekeeping operations, the fight against corruption, elimination of consequences of natural disasters.

Emphasizing the importance to the development of cooperation with Armenia, Robert Simmons noted, in turn, that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization highly appreciates the partnership with Armenia and said that the Armenia-NATO IPAP provides for a good opportunity to keep the cooperation on a proper level.
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6.: NATO Warships Visit Morocco To Strengthen Ties

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:01 pm (PDT)

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4778206&c=MID&s=SEA

Agence France-Presse
September 14, 2010

NATO Ships Visit Morocco To Boost Ties

CASABLANCA: Five ships from the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) will dock in Casablanca on Sept. 16 to boost ties with Morocco...NATO said Sept. 14.

"This visit will allow NATO forces to develop cooperation with civil and military (Moroccan) authorities, by drawing on its excellent existing relationship," NATO said in a statement.

The relationship stems from NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue program, launched in 1994, which focuses on a regional contribution to fighting terrorism.

A joint training session between NATO forces and the Moroccan navy is also planned, according to the Dutch commander of SNMG2, Michiel Hijmans, who will be in Casablanca for the Sept. 16-19 visit.

SNMG2 regularly participates in the Active Endeavour Operation, which fights against terrorism in the Mediterranean.

Since 2001, navy forces from NATO member states have patrolled the Mediterranean daily....
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7.: Post-Lisbon Treaty: EU Bows Down To NATO

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:02 pm (PDT)

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/337101-will-eu-cuddle-nato

Press Europe
September 14, 2010

Will the EU cuddle up to NATO?

"EU leaders to urge closer links with Nato at summit," reveals the Irish Times.

A document drafted for the European Council summit on 16 September presents "closer relations with Nato as a way of exploiting Europe's bonds with Washington more fully", especially in economic and strategic spheres, explains the daily.

EU diplomacy chief Catherine Ashton will be tasked with implementing the 27 member states' recommendation.

This is a "politically sensitive move" for Ireland, which reaffirmed its neutrality in the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
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8.: U.S. Continues Drone Missile Carnage In Northwest Pakistan

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:30 pm (PDT)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-09/14/c_13495040.htm

Xinhua News Agency
September 14, 2010

Second drone attack kills 3 in Pakistan's tribal area

ISLAMABAD: At least three people were killed Tuesday when a second suspected U.S. drone launched an airstrike at North Waziristan tribal area in northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, local sources said.

The pilotless aircraft fired missiles at a vehicle in Qutub Khel area of North Waziristan, sources told Xinhua.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, a U.S. drone fired three missiles at a house allegedly used by militants in Shawal tehsil, 50 kilometer from Miranshah, the center of North Waziristan, killing at least 10 people.

However, the identity of perished people could not be known as yet as usually drone strikes focus on targeting prominent insurgent militants.

Some 30 people have been killed in the six most recent drone strikes in North Waziristan.

More than 1,000 people have so far been killed in over 200 drone strikes in the troubled Pakistani tribal region since Aug. 2008, raising serious concerns over destruction of civilian properties and an alarming civilian death ratio.
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9.: Irish Troops Train For EU Nordic Battle Group

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:30 pm (PDT)

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0914/defence.html

RTE News
September 14, 2010

120 Irish troops to join EU battle group

About 120 members of the Defence Forces, mostly from the Munster area, are taking part in exercises in Co Wicklow in preparation for their participation in an EU battle group next January.

The troops will be part of a 1,500 strong Nordic battle group, which will be on stand-by for six months for deployment at five days' notice to trouble spots around the world.

It is the second time Irish soldiers have been part of a battle group. They were previously involved in 2008.

The battle group concept was developed less than a decade ago to enable the EU to respond rapidly to emergencies and disasters.

They can be deployed to help stabilise crisis situations and contribute to humanitarian efforts.

This week's military preparations are taking place in the Glen of Imaal and further exercises will be held next week in Kilworth, Co Cork. The Irish soldiers will shortly undergo a month-long exercise in Sweden.

They will be providing a surveillance and reconnaissance contingent to the Nordic battle group, which will be on standby from January to June next year. Other countries participating in the group include Sweden, Finland, Norway and Estonia.

An additional 30 soldiers from Ireland will be based at the battle group headquarters in Sweden for the duration of the standby arrangement.

A second battle group will also be on standby during the same period.

The battle groups have yet to be called into action since their establishment.
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10.: U.S. Joint Strike Fighters: Largest Arms Deal In Canadian History

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:30 pm (PDT)

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Politics/20100914/ottawa-defends-jets-100914/

Canadian Press
September 14, 2010

Cabinet ministers defend fighter jets

-Canada's contract for 65 new F-35 stealth fighters was awarded to U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin without competing bids.
The standard 20-year maintenance contract could see the cost of the F-35 purchase climb as high as $16 billion, making the deal the largest military procurement in Canada's history.

OTTAWA: Four cabinet ministers are flying to the defence of the decision to spend $9 billion on fighter jets, in an attempt to counter the whipping three others are likely to receive over the deal at a parliamentary committee.

From Lunenburg, N.S., to Vancouver, cabinet ministers and a minister of state will be making the case to Canadians on Wednesday that the sole-sourced purchase is worth it, both for the economy and for the military.

The national public relations effort is also aimed at soothing international nerves that Canada is waffling on its commitment to the U.S.-led, multinational joint strike fighter program.

The F-35 was jointly conceived and developed by several nations in the 1990s, who later paid for the privilege of being part of the deal, in turn giving Canadian companies opportunities to bid on contacts associated with the project.

"The political risk and the risk to the industry is sending out an uncertain message," said Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose, who kicked off the public-relations tour Tuesday at an aerospace company in Dorval, Que.

"We want there to be a clear message from the government of Canada and the Parliament of Canada that we are fully behind the (memorandum of understanding) for the joint strike fighter program."

Canada's contract for 65 new F-35 stealth fighters was awarded to U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin without competing bids.

The standard 20-year maintenance contract could see the cost of the F-35 purchase climb as high as $16 billion, making the deal the largest military procurement in Canada's history.

The deal has been widely criticized as an astronomical sum at a time of financial uncertainty, and the sole-source contract has led to criticisms the government didn't get the best price.

Those issues will be up for debate before the House of Commons defence committee Wednesday, which will hear from Ambrose, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Industry Minister Tony Clement.

High-ranking military officials, industry leaders and academics are also testifying.

Meanwhile, Treasury Board Minister Stockwell Day will appear in Vancouver, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews in Winnipeg, International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan in Mississauga, Ont., Minister of State for Economic Development Denis Lebel in Montreal and Fisheries Minister Gail Shea in Lunenburg.

The five senior MPs on the road will all be at companies who've already gotten a piece of the procurement pie on the deal, which the government estimates could be worth as much as $12 billion.

"This is incredibly important for job creation and for the sustainability of the aerospace industry," Ambrose said.

Canadian contractors have already won $375 million worth of work on the planes, including the company Ambrose visited Tuesday, Heroux-Devtek, which employs 1,500 people in five plants.

The company makes each of 11 types of mechanical locks found on the plane.
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