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1.: U.S. Consolidates New Military Outposts In Eastern Europe

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

Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:19 pm (PDT)

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/u-s-consolidates-new-military-outposts-in-eastern-europe

Stop NATO
September 23, 2010

U.S. Consolidates New Military Outposts In Eastern Europe
Rick Rozoff

Two weeks after the United States started its third rotation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Baltic air patrol on September 1, with the deployment of F-15C Eagle fighter jets operating out of the Siauliai International Airport in Lithuania, neighboring Estonia finished a three-year project to upgrade its Amari Air Base in order to accommodate more NATO warplanes.

The opening ceremony for the enlarged base, which with expanded runways is able to host "16 NATO fighters, 20 transport planes [and] up to 2,000 people per day" [1], was held on September 15.

The Estonian base, like its Lithuanian counterpart, is a Soviet-era one modernized and extended for use by NATO, which financed 35 percent of the expansion.

Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo said of the augmented air base that "You could say that it wasn't just the Estonian Air Force that got a base, but
our allies now also have a home, or if you prefer, a nest in Estonia where they
can land and rest." [2] The head of the Estonian Air Force, Brigadier General Valeri Saar, said that NATO aircraft involved in the air policing mission in place for over six years could be stationed at the Amari Air Base in the future.

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an American expatriate and former Radio Free Europe employee, made even stronger claims by stating the completion of the base will facilitate the deployment of fellow NATO members' troops and military equipment to his nation for prospective direct intervention: "It is obvious that a small country like Estonia would need the help of its allies in the event of a serious military crisis. Likewise, it is obvious that no matter how willing someone is to provide this help, they cannot do so without the proper infrastructure. Let's be honest: until today our ability to accept the airborne help of our allies has been extremely limited." [3]

A "serious military crisis" only makes sense in relation to Russia. The air policing operation that was launched in March 2004 when Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia were absorbed into the Alliance - the first former Soviet republics to enter the bloc - with the subsequent rotation of U.S., British, German, French, Turkish, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian and Czech warplanes has never identified against whom and what NATO was allegedly protecting the three Baltic states' airspace.

As the stock villains - Iran and North Korea - cannot be invoked as threats to the region, Estonia's and Lithuania's joint neighbor Russia is the inescapable candidate.

Ilves also "underscored the fact that from 2012, when the complex as a whole is due for completion, NATO will have one of the most modern air force bases in the region at its disposal" [4] for the above-mentioned purpose.

By obtaining the use of the Siauliai and Amari air bases, NATO has secured facilities for air operations in five former Soviet states in total. The invasion of Afghanistan earlier brought the Alliance into air bases in Kyrgyzstan (Manas), Tajikistan (Dushanbe) and Uzbekistan (Termez). Comparable sites between the Baltic Sea and Central Asia - Georgia and Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus - are NATO's for the asking and are already being used for supplying the war in Afghanistan.

Airfields are not the only locations where increased NATO and U.S. military presence is being felt in the Baltic Sea region.

On September 13 thirteen NATO member states and partners began this year's annual Northern Coasts naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. Over 4,000 military personnel, more than 60 ships, and planes and helicopters from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden are involved in the largest exercise ever staged in Finnish waters, near the Bay of Bothnia where last year's Loyal Arrow 2 NATO war games included "the biggest air force drill ever in the Finnish-Swedish Bothnia Bay." [5]

A week after Northern Coasts 2010 began, U.S. Special Operations Command Europe launched the Jackal Stone 10 multinational special forces exercise at the 21st Tactical Airbase in Swidwin, Poland, from which it will move to two other locations in Lithuania. 1,300 special forces from the U.S., Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Romania and Ukraine are participating, the first time that special operations units of the seven countries have engaged in joint maneuvers.

At the opening ceremony for the exercises Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich addressed the participants, stating, "Special operations in the world today are becoming increasingly important in the conduct of combat operations. And exercises like this check the ability of allied and international cooperation, which is essential for the success of the Allies." [6]

The centerpiece of the exercise is the deployment of USS Mount Whitney, the flagship of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, which was sent to the Georgian port of Poti on the Black Sea in a show of strength by Washington shortly after the 2008 Georgian-Russian war. The president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, inspected helicopters used in the exercises, was given a tour of the USS Mount Whitney and said "Lithuania's active policy has helped to [assure] that such defense guarantees will be provided to us." [7]

The war in Afghanistan is not the only application for the skills so acquired, although all 12 new NATO members in Eastern Europe - Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia - supplied troops for NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR), for the war in Iraq and for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

NATO Partnership for Peace allies and candidates Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine have provided forces for one or more of the above missions, in several cases for all three.

The West's post-Cold War military colonies are levied not only for bases on their territory but for troops and military hardware to be used in wars abroad.

When this May the Pentagon moved a Patriot missile battery and over 100 troops into Morag, Poland - 35 miles from the border with Russia's Kaliningrad district - it was not for NATO's first ground war in Afghanistan or against an imaginary missile threat from Iran. A Polish newspaper account of the ongoing Jackal Stone 10 special forces exercise - "US army to show its strength in Poland" - pulled no punches: "NATO is in the process of developing contingency plans to defend Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania against Russian attacks – the first time since the end of the Cold War that NATO has specifically identified Russia as a potential threat." [8]

Poland's fellow Visegrad Four member Slovakia hosted the NATO Military Committee, which consists of 450 military officers from all 28 member states, on September 17-19. The conference was attended by NATO's two top military commanders, Admiral James Stavridis (Supreme Allied Commander Europe) and General Stéphane Abrial (Supreme Allied Commander Transformation). General David Petraeus, commander of 150,000 U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, participated via video conference. The gathering focused on military operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo and on the new Strategic Concept to be adopted at the bloc's summit in Lisbon in November.

Slovakia joined NATO five years after its Visegrad partners the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland because its citizens consistently voted in federal elections in a manner displeasing to Washington and Brussels, evidently preferring the notion that a government ought to represent the interests of the nation rather than those of the U.S. and should uphold the rights of its own people over those of the American president and NATO secretary general. NATO demands political subservience as well as warfighting and weapons interoperability.

After a compliant government was installed and Slovak troops had been dispatched to Iraq, the nation was brought into NATO in 2004. Its forces, like those of 16 other new NATO member states and partners, were transferred to Afghanistan beginning in December of 2008, much as NATO is now redeploying troops from Kosovo to the same war theater. It is hard to believe that many (if any) Slovaks are convinced that sending their sons and daughters to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan in any fashion contributes to their nation's defense and security.

Slovak troops that have been sent to the three war zones have had the opportunity to renew acquaintances with their former fellow countrymen from the Czech Republic. The European Union has formed a 2,500-troop Czech-Slovak battlegroup.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels on September 17 and confirmed that "Presence in NATO´s Afghan mission is a long-term priority of the new Czech government."

Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra recently disclosed that he had submitted a proposal to the Czech government for streamlining the procedure for deploying and maintaining troops abroad to circumvent oversight in the parliament where opposition parties can scrutinize the deployments. Vondra wants to shift troops from NATO's mission in Kosovo to its war in Afghanistan where there are now 530 Czechs deployed, and Necas "would like the current system of approving missions for one year only to be extended to two years...." [9] On September 23 Vondra announced that 200 more Czech troops are headed to the Afghan war front and that the nation's special forces are to resume combat operations there.

Popular and parliamentary objections will not be allowed to interfere with NATO obligations.

A government report of earlier this month detailed that Czech overseas military missions cost almost three billion crowns last year, up by half a billion from the preceding year. The 2009 expenditure for Afghanistan was forecast to be 1.73 billion crowns but rose to 2.32 billion crowns.

It was recently reported in an article called "Czech military strategy looks toward U.S." that former Czech defense minister and current NATO Assistant Secretary General Jiri Sedivy (the first Czech to be appointed to such a major NATO post) is heading up a team of 15 security and international relations experts drafting a white paper on the transformation of the country's armed forces.

"The new strategic concept of NATO will be one of the important works in creating" the white paper, a Defense Ministry spokesman recently stated, in fact asserting that "NATO initiatives will take precedence." He added that "The ambition is that three quarters of the armed forces of the Czech Republic are consistent with NATO standards." [10]

This past weekend a "two-day NATO Days military air show" was held in Moravia and attended by 205,000 observers. "One of the major attractions was a U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber. The aircraft, which was deployed in the Vietnam war, in the Persian Gulf war, in the bombing of Yugoslavia and in the recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, is on the territory of Central Europe for the first time ever." [11]

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher has recently reconfirmed American interests in basing an interceptor missile radar facility in the Czech Republic to complement missile deployments in Romania and Poland. NATO plans radar sites near Nepolisy in Bohemia and in Slavkov (Austerlitz) in Moravia.

On July 27, 2009 officials from NATO and 12 participating nations - NATO members the U.S., Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania and Slovenia and Partnership for Peace allies Finland and Sweden - were present for the activation of the "first-of-its-kind multinational strategic airlift unit" [12] at the Papa Air Base in Hungary, which in the interim has been used extensively for the war in Afghanistan.

To Hungary's west, it was reported this week that the head of the Slovenian Armed Forces Union, Gvido Novak, sent a letter to President Danilo Turk informing the latter that the Slovenian government was "illegally sending troops" to participate in NATO operations in Afghanistan, that "the commander-in-chief...was unconstitutionally and illegally sending Slovenian soldiers to Afghanistan."

Novak's accusation came a week before the latest deployment of troops to Afghanistan and was based on the fact "that without a state of war being declared, the decision cannot be made without parliament, while the government is yet to send its proposal to MPs." His letter additionally warned that "the new Slovenian military mission to Afghanistan will not be peacekeeping and defensive any longer, and that it will be a war mission...." [13] Slovenes are also learning that the popular will and parliamentary procedures are overridden by demands imposed under NATO membership conditions.

After NATO's 78-day air war against Yugoslavia in 1999, 50,000 troops marched into Kosovo under NATO command and the U.S. build the colossal Camp Bondsteel and its sister site Camp Monteith there, the first foreign military bases on Yugoslav soil since World War II.

Earlier this week Bulgarian Defense Minister Anyu Angelov announced that the draft of his nation's National Security Strategy is "in total harmony with the draft Strategic Concept of NATO" and, contradicting a recent claim by President Georgi Parvanov, said "We should not make wrong conclusions from the contents of the draft National Security Strategy - such as concluding that the Bulgarian armed forces can protect the country in a large-scale military conflict on their own, and without NATO's collective security system."

Angelov also stated: "I personally think that Bulgaria must stick to the US missile shield....Our commitment to active participation in the missile defense of the US and NATO in Europe must be part of the Strategy." [14]

After a seven-day visit to Washington beginning in late June during which he met with Pentagon chief Robert Gates, NATO Allied Command Transformation officials in Virginia and missile shield coordinator Ellen Tauscher, the defense chief "confirmed Bulgaria's firm position that it will participate in the US missile defense in Europe, and that the shield must be a crucial project for the entire NATO."

He also disclosed "that the United States has confirmed its plans for deploying its troops in Bulgaria and Romania in the so-called Joint Task Force East....Under an inter-governmental agreement, the US will be able to use together with the Bulgarian Army four military bases on Bulgarian soil, with a total of 2,500 soldiers, to go up to 5,000 during one-month rotation periods." [15]

Last month Angelov revealed why he does not believe that Bulgarian troops can defend their nation without NATO support - because their purpose is not to defend their country but to assist NATO in wars abroad - when he "announced that Bulgaria was going to change the functions of the Bulgarian troops in Afghanistan, and that instead of guard units it was going to send a 700-strong combat regiment by the end of 2012." [16]

At the beginning of this month Angelov flew to Poland to meet with Defense Minister Bogdan Klich for discussions concentrating on "the US missile shield in Europe." [17]

On September 19 the Bulgarian defense minister "expressed strong support for his colleague, Economy Minister Traikov, who invited US companies to consider investments in Bulgarian military plants." Traikov was in the U.S. at the time where he "invited Boeing to study opportunities for the privatization of the ailing Bulgarian military industrial giant VMZ Sopot." Angelov applauded the offer as an effort to "breathe life into the Bulgarian defense industry." [18]

A new member state doesn't only turn the nation's military bases over to the Pentagon and NATO and offer them combat troops for wars thousands of miles away, it is also compelled to cede national defense industry assets to the U.S. and its main NATO allies as well.

Immediately afterward it was reported that a NATO team led by Frank Boland, director of NATO's Defense Policy and Planning Department, was arriving in Bulgaria "to review the level of implementation of the agreements between Sofia and Brussels," in particular to examine, adjust and approve the nation's aforementioned new National Security Strategy. [19]

In neighboring Romania, last week it was announced that Frank Rose, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense Policy and Verification Operations, was in the capital for a "third round of negotiations centered on Romania's participation in the US missile defence system," [20] following the Supreme Defense Council approving U.S. Standard Missile-3 deployments in the country on February 4 of this year and official negotiations on the agreement led by Ellen Tauscher in Bucharest on June 17. On September 16 Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, fresh from a meeting with his American counterpart Robert Gates in Washington, said of U.S. interceptor missile plans in Eastern Europe: "They tell us their missile shield is not aimed against us, but we tell them our calculations show it is aimed against us." [21]

The year after Romania's NATO accession, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice secured an agreement with the nation for the acquisition of four military sites: The Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base and training bases and firing ranges in Babadag, Cincu and Smardan. The air base had been used in 2003 for the invasion if Iraq, a year before Romania joined NATO, and has been employed since for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2006 a similar pact was signed with Bulgaria for the use of the Bezmer Air Base, Graf Ignatievo Air Base and Novo Selo army training range. The seven military sites were the first the U.S. gained access to in former Warsaw Pact countries. They have been used not only for air operations but for the training of a Stryker regiment, special forces and other combat units for "downrange" conflicts like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon's Joint Task Force-East, "the largest U.S. military contingent operating in Eastern Europe," [22] spends much of its time training at Romania's Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base and Babadag Training Area.

It was announced last year that the U.S. will spend $110 million to upgrade a base apiece in Bulgaria and Romania as 2,000 American troops were completing military exercises with the armed forces of both countries that ran from June to the end of October.

With NATO as intermediary, facilitator and Trojan horse, the Pentagon has established itself - with bases, troops and missiles - along the entire length of Eastern Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.

1) Estonian Public Broadcasting, September 15, 2010
2) Ibid
3) Office of the President, Public Relations Department, September 15, 2010
4) Ibid
5) Barents Observer, June 8, 2009
6) U.S. Army, September 22, 2010
7) Press Service of the President, September 21, 2010
8) Warsaw Business Journal, September 21, 2010
9) Czech News Agency, September 17, 2010
10) Prague Post, September 8, 2010
11) Czech News Agency, September 20, 2010
12) U.S. Air Forces in Europe Public Affairs, July 27, 2010
13) B92, September 20, 2010
14) Sofia News Agency, September 19, 2010
15) Sofia News Agency, July 3, 2010
16) Sofia News Agency, August 18, 2010
17) Sofia News Agency, September 5, 2010
18) Sofia News Agency, September 20, 2010
19) Standart News, September 21, 2010
20) Nine O'Clock News, September 17, 2010
21) Itar-Tass, September 17, 2010
22) Stars and Stripes, October 17, 2009
===========================
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2.: Guam: Small Pacific Island Becoming A U.S. Strategic Hub

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

Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:42 pm (PDT)

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/75603

CNSNews
September 22, 2010

Small Pacific Island Becoming A U.S. Strategic Hub
By Patrick Goodenough

-Guam, which is currently home to U.S. Navy facilities and Andersen Air Force Base, has long been a functional forward-deployed location for the military, and in 2000 became the first installation outside the continental U.S. to store long-range air-launched cruise missiles, easily accessible in the event of a future conflict in the region.
-In another sign of its growing importance, Andersen on Monday became the first permanent U.S. base to deploy an RQ-4 Global Hawk, the advanced unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft slated in time to replace the venerable U-2 spy plane.
Andersen is scheduled to get three Global Hawks, which are capable of flying at high altitudes for long-distance missions lasting 30 hours or more, tracking moving targets and intercepting ground communications.

The signing of a document on Guam Tuesday marked the beginning of a historic build-up of U.S. military assets on the small Pacific island, part of an alignment of forces designed to better handle future security challenges in a key part of the world.

The plan calls for the relocation to Guam of 8,600 U.S. Marines and their estimated 9,000 dependents, from Japan's Okinawa some 1,400 miles to the northwest; the construction of a deepwater wharf capable of accommodating visiting nuclear-powered aircraft carriers; and the development of a U.S. Army air and missile defense facility, to provide a defensive umbrella for the military assets.

Some Marine training facilities also are expected to be built on Tinian island, 100 miles to the north – part of the Northern Marianas, a U.S. commonwealth.

Guam, which is currently home to U.S. Navy facilities and Andersen Air Force Base, has long been a functional forward-deployed location for the military, and in 2000 became the first installation outside the continental U.S. to store long-range air-launched cruise missiles, easily accessible in the event of a future conflict in the region.

But now it is on track to become a much more important strategic hub and staging point for the U.S. as the closest military presence on U.S. soil to regional hot spots such as North Korea and the Taiwan Strait. Guam is about 3,700 miles closer to the Korean peninsula than is Hawaii.

Being U.S. territory, Guam also meets the "freedom of action" requirement, the absence of which has at times hampered U.S. forces based in America's main regional military allies, Japan and South Korea.

In another sign of its growing importance, Andersen on Monday became the first permanent U.S. base to deploy an RQ-4 Global Hawk, the advanced unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft slated in time to replace the venerable U-2 spy plane.

Andersen is scheduled to get three Global Hawks, which are capable of flying at high altitudes for long-distance missions lasting 30 hours or more, tracking moving targets and intercepting ground communications.
....
At Naval Base Guam on Tuesday, a U.S. Navy "record of decision" was signed, marking what the Joint Guam Program Office (JGPO) executive director, retired Marine Maj. Gen. David Bice, called the "transition point" for the major project.

When then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Guam during a 2003 visit to Northeast Asia to first discuss force repositioning options Gov. Felix Camacho and Guam's congressional delegate, Madeleine Bordallo, urged him to consider deploying more U.S. personnel there. They also wanted the Pentagon to choose Guam over Hawaii as the homeport for the first nuclear-powered carrier to be permanently stationed outside the continental U.S.

Although they did not get their wish on the carrier homeport – Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan was chosen instead to house the USS George Washington – Guam will see a significant influx of military personnel and dependents in the coming years.

The report signed Tuesday estimates that the population increase on Guam will total around 34,000, although it will reach double that for a limited period while construction work is underway.

The influx will have a big impact on the island, which is about three times the size of Washington, D.C., and has a population of around 178,000 people, about 40 percent of them indigenous Chamorros.

....
Two sensitive aspects of the plans relate to the location of a live-fire training range near an ancient Chamorro village, raising heritage preservation concerns; and the impact of the carrier berth on coral reefs. The document signed Tuesday deferred final decisions on those two issues, allowing more time for consultation and marine surveys of possible alternative berth sites.

The U.S. Marines' move to Guam by 2014 is part of a broader bilateral agreement with Japan, aimed at reducing the U.S. military footprint on Okinawa while retaining U.S. commitments to provide for the defense and security of Japan. As such, Japan agreed in 2006 to carry just under 60 percent of the costs of the relocation.
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3.: Star Wars Veterans Urge UAV's For Global Missile Shield

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

Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:42 pm (PDT)

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awst/2010/09/20/AW_09_20_2010_p72-253599.xml&headline=UAVs%20Pushed%20For%20Missile%20Defense

Aviation Week
September 22, 2010

UAVs Pushed For Missile Defense
By David A. Fulghum

-"Global Hawk variants could be used to carry a suite of launch-detection sensors with new high-performance interceptors, or there could be a combination of Global Hawks with sensors supported by lower-altitude, Predator-class UAS carrying the new interceptors [working] in tandem."
-Darpa is looking at similar capabilities for its Vulture program, which features a months-long endurance at altitude above 65,000 ft. carrying a 1,000-lb. payload.
-Adding radar-killing missiles, cruise missile defense and ballistic missile interceptors to their arsenals has become appealing, and the cost is dropping.

Washington: Advocacy of an air-launched, missile defense system is being proposed by two veterans of the Pentagon's "Star Wars" era and a 1990s program to mate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and long-range air-to-air weapons.

Len Caveny, a former director of science and technology, and Dale Tietz, a retired U.S. Air Force officer who focused on unmanned aircraft, were part of the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). Now they are offering a new concept—backed up with several decades of research—to kill theater ballistic missiles (TBMs) soon after launch when they are slow, bright targets.

The argument for the capability is that "the only way we can assure a kill on a TBM is to hit it during boost phase," Caveny says. "Our adversaries make it harder and harder to shoot them down during re-entry from where they can cause the most damage. Maneuvering warheads are an issue; but part of the problem is that because of irregularities in design, often nobody knows where they are going. They can fake us out."

The new concept is an extrapolation of the BMDO's mid-1990s Raptor Talon combination UAS-missile program.

"It has two unmanned aircraft options that leverage payload mass," says Tietz. "Global Hawk variants could be used to carry a suite of launch-detection sensors with new high-performance interceptors, or there could be a combination of Global Hawks with sensors supported by lower-altitude, Predator-class UAS carrying the new interceptors [working] in tandem."

However, the UAS need to be dedicated to the missile-launch surveillance and intercept mission because "constellation multi-tasking [for conventional reconnaissance and intelligence gathering] will not work since the engagement times are so short," Tietz says. "In fact, the boost-phase intercept [BPI] system will have to be nearly fully autonomous. Unlike the 1990s, we now have fully functional high-altitude, long-endurance UAS and the warfighting infrastructure to do the job."

The Missile Defense Agency is already looking for an unmanned aircraft that can detect boosting missiles and has focused on a sensor pod that can fly on a number of existing platforms. A Reaper carrying a Raytheon MTS-B electro-optical/infrared/full-motion video sensor was able to detect and track a boosting missile from greater than 621 mi., says Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, MDA director. One of the pods has been a part of each major MDA flight test since December.

Moreover, rocket-motor companies and missile designers are being encourage to devise more powerful boosters and repackage them as missiles that are small and light enough to be carried internally. They have to be fast enough—at least 5 km. (3 mi.) per second—to engage heavy ballistic missiles during boost and ascent at ranges of 350 mi. or more. The greater the range, the faster and heavier the interceptor has to be.

"In the 1990s, under the Raptor/Talon program, the [plan] was to use a custom-designed, high-altitude [more than 20 km.], long-endurance [more than 24 hr.] unmanned aerial system carrying ultra-lightweight sensors and weapons based on Brilliant Pebbles technology," Tietz says. "The UAS would fly very close or sometimes over enemy territory hunting for Scuds as a fully autonomous, networked wolf pack. The concept was designed to push the enemy back and destroy his TBMs within 2 min."

Tietz and Caveny says they need an organization like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), supported by the MDA, to fund two companies with full-scope capabilities to undertake a competitive, six-month systems analyses of the new concept.

"We have a strategy that builds on the existing infrastructure of Predator and Global Hawk that will serve as pickets [for launch warning]," Caveny says. "I think we could build a [pre-hostilities] defense against North Korea in 18 months. Iran is more difficult and would take twice as long." That time line assumes existing UAS are diverted from other missions in a national emergency.

From 65,000 ft. altitude, sensors can see a missile launch plume at a range of about 350 mi. That would make the defense of South Korea and Japan relatively easy. Iran is far more complicated because of the country's size.

Darpa is looking at similar capabilities for its Vulture program, which features a months-long endurance at altitude above 65,000 ft. carrying a 1,000-lb. payload. Missions being considered are BPI, counter-piracy and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

"It's a big country, you might have to put up six [or more] UAVs around the edges to cover all of it," Caveny says. "To defend Israel, three to the west of Iran would do it.

"[South] Korea can be defended with a 3-3.5-km.-per-second interceptor," he says. "For Iran, you would need about 5 km. per second. The kill vehicle technology is pretty advanced. What we don't have is the low-mass, two-stage, solid rocket that is more aggressive than Raytheon's Network-Centric Air Defense Element. We need NCADE on steroids. It also is going to require a very agile missile because you need short time-to-target at standoff ranges up to 350 mi."

In times of heightened tension, even with that kind of missile performance, the missile-carrying UAS would have to move into Iranian airspace, which would require it to carry additional weapons to protect itself against surface-to-air missiles.

"The showstopper right now is the size of rocket motors," Caveny says.

He sees three key methods to compensate: using MDA's small kill vehicles, taking inert mass out of the system by using two propulsion stages, and using higher-energy designs acceptable for unmanned aircraft. Missiles built for use on UAS have lower design margins and therefore less inert mass. The two-stage missiles would be carried in pods or bays to avoid extreme cold at high altitudes.

"The big primes will have to get involved because we have to know how much of the battle management will be done with the overhead assets," Caveny says. "A good bit might be done with an infrared tracker. When a launch occurs, it lights up the horizon. That may be enough [if satellites are involved]. Then the modifications to the UAVs would be small. [Depending on size] you may get four missiles on a Predator, or one."

Raptor/Talon, a Burt Rutan-designed unmanned aircraft, was built and flown as part of a BMDO program. Missiles to arm the aircraft did not mature quickly enough so the U.S. Air Force turned to the airborne laser and fighter-based BPI. Israel designed the reduced-signature HA-10 unmanned aircraft and a Python-derivative missile. The project instead produced Israel Aerospace Industries' long-range Heron 1 program.

What has changed in the last decade is the introduction of major technological advances and the accumulation of lots of U.S. and Israeli operational and combat experience with remotely piloted and armed designs. Unmanned aircraft have increased their endurance and payloads. High-resolution, wide-area sensors are entering service. Warheads and rocket motors have become smaller and more powerful and allow aggressive maneuvering in the moments before intercept.

Even in the 1990s, studies showed that an airborne force of three or four UAVs could have grounded Iraq's Scud force. But now unmanned platforms are regaining interest because they will operate over any future battlefield gathering intelligence, conducting surveillance and firing weapons at enemy forces. Adding radar-killing missiles, cruise missile defense and ballistic missile interceptors to their arsenals has become appealing, and the cost is dropping.
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4.: Two Killed As NATO Tankers, Containers Blown Up In Pakistan

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

Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:43 pm (PDT)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hogLCxt7I1OrgXtiRhbDSCb6wI6w

Agence France-Presse
September 23, 2010

Two killed as NATO tankers, containers blown up in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Militants Thursday blew up four oil tankers and three containers carrying fuel and other supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan, killing two people, officials said.

The incidents took place in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border, top local administration official Shafeerullah Khan told AFP.

"A bomb planted underneath an oil tanker exploded while it was on the move in a market in Landi Kotal town of Khyber turning the vehicle into a ball of flame, which also engulfed four nearby vehicles and killed two people," Khan said.

He blamed the attacks, which also wounded 11 people, on local militants.

The lawless Khyber is on the main NATO supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where 150,000 foreign forces are battling to reverse an escalating Taliban insurgency.

Khan said militants also blew up three oil tankers and four containers carrying fuel and other supplies for NATO troops. "These vehicles were parked in Torkhum town at the time of attack", he added.

Local intelligence officials in Khyber also confirmed the attacks and casualties.

NATO supplies also travel through the southwestern province of Baluchistan, which is troubled by Taliban violence and attacks by separatists who rose up in 2004 demanding autonomy and a greater share of profits from natural resources.
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5.: Turkish President: All Balkan States To Be In NATO Soon

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

Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:43 pm (PDT)

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-222451-100-turkish-president-wishes-all-balkan-states-to-join-nato.html

Anatolia News Agency
September 23, 2010

Turkish president wishes all Balkan states to join NATO
The Turkish president expressed on Wednesday Turkey's wish to see all Balkan states in NATO

New York: President Abdullah Gül said a more stable situation would occur if all Balkan states united under Euro-Atlantic organization.

"NATO has many other functions than security and defense, and therefore, we wish all Balkan states to take place in NATO," Gül said during a Balkan Leaders Summit in New York, the United States.

Gül said Turkey was one of the oldest members of NATO, and it supported every Balkan state that wanted to become a NATO member.

"We are sure that non-NATO member Balkan states will complete their accession process soon, and take their place in NATO," Gül said.

Gül said problems would then automatically be solved, and unification of the Balkans under a big umbrella like NATO would bring confidence and stability to the region.

President Gül said European Union (EU) membership was also important for Balkan states, and expressed belief that all Balkan states would become a full EU member one day.
....
"When all Balkan states unite under the EU and NATO, I believe everything will be easier," he said.
....
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6.: Call For Tighter NATO-Tajikistan Ties

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

Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:44 pm (PDT)

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15523511&PageNum=0

Itar-Tass
September 23, 2010

Tajik president calls for expanding cooperation with NATO

DUSHANBE: Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon calls for expanding and strengthening cooperation with NATO.

The Tajik president said he is satisfied with interaction with NATO within the Partnership for Peace programme (PfP). Rakhmon considers cooperation with the alliance "important for the strengthening of cooperation".

He thanked NATO for contribution "to implementing programmes related to border security and mine neutralisation". Rakhmon said recently Tajikistan and NATO structures had signed a memorandum on technical support and cooperation, as well as on the creation of a NATO library at Tajikistan National University.

"We have a special attitude towards the Individual Partnership Programme between Tajikistan and NATO as an important instrument for strengthening cooperation," the Tajik leader said. Among priority directions, he named "the joint fight against terrorism and training counter-terrorism personnel for Tajikistan".
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7.: Cyber Endeavor: US, NATO, World's Largest Military Communications Dr

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

Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:26 pm (PDT)

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/56673/cyber-endeavor-meets-global-challenge-securing-cyberspace

American Forces Press Service
September 22, 2010

Cyber Endeavor meets global challenge of securing cyberspace
110th Public Affairs Detachment
Story by Sgt. Michael Simmons

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany: Cyber Endeavor, a component of the U.S. European Command's Combined Endeavor 2010 exercise, the largest military communications training, ended its first cyber-defense seminar, Sept.15.

More than 40 participants from 26 countries and two organizations, including NATO and the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, an organization formed under the government of the Republic of Estonia, participated in the seminar hosted in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 3-15 at the Joint Multinational Simulations Center. The event brought the nations together to discuss and develop cybersecurity best practices.

"Securing against cyber attacks has become one of the highest priorities for organizations and nations," said William C. Poole, International Cyber Defense Engagement Officer. "To achieve this objective, networks, systems and the operations teams that support them must vigorously defend against a variety of threats."

In 2007, Estonia was the subject of a series of cyber attacks....

"Cyber Endeavor's goal is to help meet the global challenge of securing cyberspace in a multi-national forum," Poole said.

The site at Grafenwoehr's Camp Aachen was selected this year to host the exercise because it had both the facilities and network capabilities to facilitate the large-scale event.

All of the required technology was provided onsite. Additionally, many private organizations, such as, SANS, IXL, Symantec, McAfee, CISCO, Breaking Point, and Norwich University of Northfield, Vt., contributed time or technology to assist the seminar.
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