The defense budget invites Israeli campaign

The opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a good position to win the general election next week, accuses him of having dramatically raised military spending in anticipation of a hypothetical raid on Iran threatening. Drift could still increase fiscal austerity which looks after the elections.

The sacrosanct Israeli Defense budget was suddenly invited into the general election campaign next Tuesday. Part of the opposition centrist including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, accused the government of Benjamin Netanyahu of having "wasted" in two years more than two billion euros to finance preparations for an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities has not occurred. This controversy is the economic balance of the Prime Minister and leader of the right given by favorite polls ever to remind Israelis that their policy has avoided a recession and suffer the plight of the Greeks and Spaniards .

But undeniable success begins to have lead in the wing. The budget deficit has slipped to 4.2% of GDP in 2012, against 3% planned, which portends a severe austerity plan after the election. The question is whether the military will have this time to tighten the belt too. Defense alone represents 17% of the national budget, a figure 10 times higher than in most European countries.

A new submarine ordered in Germany

Toulon: The Leclerc tanks boarded the Ark Forwarder

A squadron of 13 Leclerc tanks embarks this week on board ro-ro Ark Forwarder, one of the ships of the Maritime Nantaise chartered for the transport and logistics needs of the French armies. From the 1st Regiment of Chasseurs Thierville-sur-Meuse, these battle tanks are some of the means employed by the Army as part of the exercise Gulf Falcon 2013 , to be held from February 16 to March 7 Qatar.

From Toulon, vehicles and equipment will be transported to Doha by Ark Forwarder. Logistics operations are managed by the 519th Transportation Group Maritime .

Four Russian fleets in the Mediterranean

Increased Russian naval activity observed in the Mediterranean in recent weeks will soon culminate in the holding of large-scale exercises. Russian buildings should include simulating a landing on the Syrian coast.

The Mediterranean since the beginning of January the venue you warships from the four Russian fleets: the Northern Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet and the Pacific Fleet.This deployment force reflects the interest shown by Moscow to the Mediterranean, and especially its eastern basin, interest has never waned since the time of Catherine II (1729-1796).

This activity will culminate Russian naval at the end of January with the holding of large international fleet exercises in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, " the most important exercises"ever held in Moscow this part of the world according to a source within State Russian General Staff. Here is the list of buildings which particperont (not exhaustive):

• Missile cruiser Moskva (Black Sea Fleet, Project 1164 Atlant).
• Large ASW ship: Marshal Shaposhnikov (Pacific Fleet, Project 1155 Fregat) Severomorsk(Northern Fleet Project 1155 Fregat)
• Frigate Yaroslav Mudriy (Baltic Fleet, Project 11540)
• Large ASW ship: Smetlivy (Fleet Black Sea Project 61)
• Large landing ships: Kaliningrad (Baltic Fleet, Project 775II) Novocherkassk (Fleet Black Sea Project 775II) Alexander Chabalin (Baltic Fleet, Project 775II) Saratov (Fleet Black Sea Project 1171 Tapir) Nikolai Filtchenkov (Fleet Black Sea Project 1171 Tapir) Azov(Fleet Black Sea Project 775III)
• Support vessels: PM-56 (Black Sea Fleet, ship repair) Ivan Bubnov (Fleet Black Sea tanker) Lena (tanker) SB-921 (tug) Altai (Northern Fleet tug ) Dubna (Northern Fleet tanker) SB-406 (Northern Fleet support ship).

Sweden discovered helpless

Chief of Staff ensures that his army would a week in case of invasion. Worried about the Russian rearmament, voices calling for the accession of the Kingdom to NATO.

The enemy General Sverker Göranson, Chief of Staff of the Swedish army, is in the numbers: he regularly denounces cuts in the defense budget Swedish. Also, while discussions on the budget starting in 2014, he wanted to convey a strong message. He said last week in a Swedish newspaper that the case of "limited attack" Sweden "could not defend one week" before falling. Worse, it ensures that if simultaneous attack on two fronts, the country could not resist. Not even a few days.

The statement aroused fears among Swedes who had disappeared with the end of the Cold War. Pressed to respond by the media, the Swedish Minister of Defence, Karin Enström, is due very reassuring. She recalled that the level of preparedness of the army corresponded to the "current threat level and credibility of an attack" against Sweden, the latter being, in her non-existent. "Our neighbors have the same capabilities as us," she added.

Tradition of neutrality

However, for some right wing political parties, yet the coalition government, this level of protection is not enough. They protest against the use of the army, since the end of the Cold War, as an adjustment variable of the Swedish budget. Compulsory military service was abolished in 2010. In twenty-five years, the number of battalions fighters from 116 to 7, these cash 20,000 professional soldiers. In the summer of 2012, General Göranson is was already to lower budgets for the armed forces, suggesting to remove, in the years to come, a branch of the defense: Navy, Army or Army of the air.

Finland receives a radar Thales-Raytheon GM 400

ThalesRaytheonSystems delivered on 15 January 2013, the Finnish Air Force the first of twelve radar systems long-range air defense Ground Master 400 (GM 400). These systems are designed to provide air surveillance territory. These radars were designed to work both in a fixed position shrouded in the field where they can be deployed in less than two hours.

Installed configuration tactical truck and electro-generator, the first radar system will allow Finland to take advantage of the latest advances in radar technology and thus benefit from a higher level of detection, both low that high altitude, a high availability and simplified maintenance.

Sagem book to the first 150 French Army Binoculars Infrared Mutifonction JIM LR 2 program JIR-TTA-NG

Sagem (Safran) delivered on 5 December the first 150 multifunction infrared binoculars JIM LR 2 in the French Army, in accordance with market JIR TTA NG (1) and its schedule. Involving a total of 1175 twins, this program has been notified by the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) awarded Sagem, contractor, in December 2010.

In a single handheld device, the JIM LR 2 includes the following features: day vision and thermal telemetry, laser pointer, compass, GPS and data transmission. It is compatible with the integrated combat system FELIN the dismounted soldier.

JIM LR 2 provides several major improvements over the earlier versions of Sagem JIM LR:

    improved performance in detecting,

    a pointer to more long-range fire support,

    independence gained more than 30%

    a recording capacity of image and video-product.

    Associated with a new terminal operating distance, the JIM LR 2 is true optronic surveillance zone, information or support, landed mode or from a vehicle.

The delivery follows a state qualifying campaign led by the DGA centers from February to June 2012 in order to validate the performance of the JIM LR 2, the operational evaluation was conducted by the armed forces.

Produced by Sagem in the establishment of Poitiers, the JIM LR is used by several NATO countries for the infantry, artillery, intelligence, special forces, support of troops in contact, border protection and the coast. To date, 5,000 JIM LR are in service or on order worldwide, including 2,000 for all French armies.

(1) Infrared Binoculars - All Weapons New Generation. 150 JIM LR 2 were received by the 2nd Regiment Hardware (Bruz) at the end of the recipe handed down by the DGA.

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Egypt signs repeat order for six additional C295 aircraft

New order confirming the market leadership of the C295.

Airbus Military has received an order for six additional C295 transport aircraft from the Egyptian Air Force, bringing the Egyptian Air Force’s C295 fleet to a total of 12 aircraft. This third batch of aircraft plus the associated spares and support equipment, training and field support are to be delivered from the end of 2013 onwards.

The Egyptian Air Force selected the C295 because of its proven versatility, robustness and efficiency for its daily transport missions combined with the ease of maintenance and low cost of operations.

This order reinforces the C295’s position as the best-selling airlifter in this category, with a total of 121 C295s sold to 17 operators. Seven of them have placed repeat orders for C295 aircraft, confirming the trust our customers place in the aircraft for medium airlift. With more than 90 aircraft in service today in 15 countries, the C295 has accumulated more than 120,000 flying hours in the most demanding conditions, from extreme cold weather to hot desert areas.

A Senator's Lonely Crusade to Learn the CIA's Secrets

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has sent an extraordinary letter to top White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, President Obama's choice to lead the CIA. The letter poses questions about executive power, like "How much evidence does the President need to determine that a particular American can be lawfully killed?" and "Does the President have to provide individual Americans with the opportunity to surrender before killing them?" We're used to such questions from organizations like the ACLU, journalists like Charlie Savage, and various concerned citizens. And though rules that confer death should always be transparent, the fact that they're being kept even from Wyden is especially indefensible.

The body he sits on, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is charged with providing "vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States," to ensure "that they conform with the Constitution and U.S. law." There is no one in America more justified in demanding to know the official legal rationale behind actions like targeted killings. Obama isn't just keeping this information from the American people. He isn't just hiding his legal reasoning from the U.S. Congress. He is stonewalling one of 15 senators that federal law establishes as the most important check on secret abuses by the CIA.  

Understand that the CIA's capacity to commit abuses is anything but theoretical. As Obama well knows, its history is rife with examples of its personnel using the cover of secrecy to do things that the American people and their elected representatives would have never willingly permitted. CIA abuses inspired the creation of the very same Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976. It began after the Church Committee discovered and revealed abuses as varied as secretly opening the mail of American citizens, attempting to assassinate foreign leaders, trying to monitor private citizens who opposed the Vietnam War, and illegal wiretapping.

Even after Congress committed to more vigilant oversight of the CIA, it continued to operate with far less transparency than other federal agencies. Little wonder that it continued to commit abuses. During the Reagan Administration, for example, the executive branch approved a CIA plan to secretly mine the most important harbor in Nicaragua. Members of the Senate committee claimed that they weren't sufficiently notified and won a promise of greater cooperation.

The Army Wants A Massive New Complex For Its Fleet Of Drones Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/armys-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-complex-2013-1#ixzz2I96HB9VF

So the Army is taking bids on parts of its new 'Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Complex' — slated to cost between $20 and 25 million.
Mark Thompson of Time's Battleland blog jokes that this can't possibly fit into the argument that drones are cheaper than their human counterparts, because:
– Anything labeled a “complex” is not cheap.
– Anything labeled using capital letters is not a bargain.
The plans include everything one might think a drone would need — runways, taxiways, storage, security systems, etc. Here are a few of the other notables from the Army's bid request (which, notable in and of itself, is pretty much classified):
Supporting facilities include extensive phasing of the site development with on-going contractor for the FY12 Phase IUAS Hangar Complex, utilities and connections, lighting, paving, parking, walks, curbs and gutters, storm drainage, information systems, landscaping and signage. Heating and air conditioning will be provided by self-contained systems.

Darpa wants to store drones at the bottom of the sea

The US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is launching an "Upward Falling Payloads" project aimed at developing storage capsules for military assets that could stay at the bottom of the sea for years until needed.

The aim is to keep non-lethal technology in the sea, stored in pressurised capsules, ready for deployment. These unmanned, distributed systems would provide the military with operational support such as situational awareness, disruption, deception and rescue. One example might be small unmanned aerial vehicles which could launch to the surface in capsules, take off and then provide observation or decoy functions.

"The goal is to support the Navy with distributed technologies anywhere, anytime over large maritime areas. If we can do this rapidly, we can get close to the areas we need to affect, or become widely distributed with out delay," said Andy Coon, Darpa's programme manager.

The project is not without its challenges: Darpa would need to find ways of extending the survival of nodes under extreme ocean pressure, find ways to wake up these nodes after years of sleep and find ways to efficiently launch payloads to the surface.