US Cancels Russian Helicopter Buy Amid Syria Standoff – Senator

WASHINGTON, November 13 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has scrapped plans to purchase additional helicopters from state-run Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport amid pressure from federal lawmakers over Russian arms deliveries to Syria, a top US senator said Wednesday.

“I applaud the [US] Defense Department’s decision to cancel its plan to buy 15 additional Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport,” US Sen. John Cornyn said in statement, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, has been leading a push in Congress to oppose the Pentagon’s purchase of Russian helicopters for deployment in Afghanistan due to Moscow’s weapons shipments to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad as his forces battle rebel groups in a fierce civil war.

Russia has insisted that it is fulfilling existing contracts with Syria, and that the deliveries are legal under international law. Moscow has also questioned the composition and goals of the various armed groups fighting the Assad regime.

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to RIA Novosti on Wednesday that the United States does not have plans to purchase additional Mi-17s from Rosoboronexport beyond previous orders.

US defense officials had requested Congressional funds for next year “to provide additional enhancements for the Afghan National Security Forces” but have since “re-evaluated requirements in consultation with Congress,” the spokesperson said.

The 15 Russian-built Mi-17s were slated to be purchased by the Pentagon next year for $345 million and then given to Afghan national security forces, the AP reported.

“Doing business with the supplier of these helicopters has been a morally bankrupt policy, and as a nation, we should no longer be subsidizing Assad’s war crimes in Syria,” Cornyn said in the statement cited by the AP.

The United States has purchased a total of 63 Mi-17V-5 military transport helicopters from Russia for use by the Afghan National Army.

The United States and several other countries accuse Assad’s government of being behind an August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus that Washington claims left more than 1,400 dead.

The Syrian government in turn has accused rebel groups it has been battling since March 2011 of being behind the attack, though it agreed to a Russia-brokered deal to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal.

The deal was struck amid threats by Washington that it would carry out military strikes against Syrian government targets in response to the Aug. 21 attack.

In the United States the newest aircraft carrier “Gerald Ford” launched

11.11.2013 Lenta.ru
 
The newest U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier “Gerald Ford” launched, Associated Press reports. Launching ceremony of the ship on the water took place on Saturday, November 9, at the shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. The traditional stage such ceremonies – breaking a bottle of champagne on board the ship – entrusted to Susan Ford Bales, daughter of the 38th U.S. president, whose name was given to the aircraft carrier.

US to Buy 30 Russian Helicopters for Afghanistan Next Year

MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) – The United States will next year buy 30 Russian-made helicopters for the Afghan army, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Friday.

The batch of Mi-17V-5 military transport helicopters will raise to 63 the quantity of that model supplied under US-Russian deals for the Afghan National Army.

The Mi-17V-5 is part of the Mi-8/17 family, members of which are used by more than 80 countries.

US Tested Soviet MiG Fighter at Mysterious Area 51

WASHINGTON, October 30 (RIA Novosti) – The United States covertly tested Soviet MiG fighter planes at the mysterious Area 51 site in the Nevada desert in the 1960s, including one plane secretly obtained by Israel, according to declassified US government documents published this week.

The first of the Soviet fighters, a MiG-21, was loaned to the United States after Israeli secret intelligence services obtained the aircraft from an Iraqi air force captain who defected in 1966, according to George Washington University’s National Security Archive, which published the declassified documents on its website Tuesday.

The US Air Force held onto the MiG-21 for more than three months in 1968 at Area 51, where specialists tested and examined the fighter to evaluate it against US fighter planes in air-to-air combat and to develop new tactics to defeat the Soviet jet, according to the documents.

The operation to study the MiG-21 was designated “Fishbed-E” and concluded that the Soviet fighter has “excellent operational capability in all flight regimes,” according to one of the declassified US Department of Defense documents.

US specialists noted, however, some deficiencies, including poor forward and rearward visibility and “limited” performance when flying below 15,000 feet (4,572 meters).

The aircraft was subsequently returned to the Israelis in April 1968.

Area 51 was also home to two efforts to evaluate the MiG-17 in the 1960s, according to the documents. Those operations, designated “Have Drill” and “Have Ferry,” including flying the MiGs on a combined total of 224 sorties.

For decades Area 51 has been the subject of countless conspiracy theories, including the existence of extraterrestrials, alien autopsies and whether the site even existed at all.

But US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents declassified in August acknowledged that Area 51 did indeed exist and revealed that it was used as a base to test U-2 and other spy planes.

Those documents were also published by George Washington University’s National Security Archive after it obtained the report in response to a Freedom of Information request filed in 2005.

Russian Missile Forces to Field All-New Arsenal by 2021

MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) will be fully equipped with fifth-generation missile systems by 2021, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

The proportion of modern missiles in the RVSN will reach around 60 percent by 2016 and 98 percent by 2021, Col. Igor Yegorov said.

In addition to the fifth-generation Yars and Topol-M missiles, new command and control centers are being built and new communications, security and other systems put in place, he said.

Russia’s missile forces are being modernized in a bid to enable them to penetrate the anti-missile defense systems being fielded by NATO and the United States, Russian officials have said previously.

Departing from Afghanistan, the United States strengthen Pakistan

22.10.2013 The Independent newspaper
 
United States restored military aid to Pakistan, giving him more than $ 1.6 billion. The decision will be discussed at a meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to be held on Wednesday at the White House. Washington is going to present a final visit as a sign of establishing relations with Islamabad. However, the contradiction between the parties remain, especially around the CIA drone program

US Starts Transfer of its Airbase in Kyrgizstan

MOSCOW, October 19 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has started the withdrawal from an airbase in Kyrgyzstan that serves as the main transit hub for NATO forces in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday.

In 2011, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev announced plans to shut the base down by 2014, when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is to be pulled out of Afghanistan.

He signed a bill ordering the closure of the base into law in June. It stipulates that US forces must abandon the base at Manas International Airport, near the capital Bishkek, by July 2014.

“The Department of Defense has begun the process of relocating from the Transit Center at Manas International Airport (TCM) and plans to complete the transfer of areas and facilities to the Government of Kyrgyzstan by July 2014,” the statement reads.

“Working closely with Kyrgyzstan over the next nine months, the U.S. will manage the TCM relocation effort while continuing to support the International Security Assistance Force mission,” the Department of Defense said.

Pentagon spokesman George Little told the media that U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Romanian Defense Minister Mircea Dusa agreed during their meeting on Friday that US military cargo and personnel going to and from Afghanistan by air will be hauled via Romania after the closure of Manas.

Secretary Hagel and Minister Dusa finalized an agreement for Romania to support logistics into and out of Afghanistan, including both personnel and cargo movement,” Little said.

Little said Hagel also thanked Romania for its decision to host the U.S. Aegis Ashore missile defense system due to be ready in 2015.

Russia begins “Open skies” flights over US

MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russian military inspectors will begin a series of monitoring flights over the United States Monday under the international Open Skies Treaty, a Russian Defense Ministry official said.

Experts from Russia will conduct two flights on board a Tupolev Tu-154M-LK-1 plane between September 2 and 16, said Ruslan Shishin, acting head of the ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center.

The flights will be carried out from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and the Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, along agreed flight routes with the maximum range of 4,900 kilometers (3,044 miles) and 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) respectively.

The Open Skies Treaty, which entered into force on January 1, 2002, established a regime of unarmed aerial observation flights over the territories of its 34 member states to promote openness and the transparency of military forces and activities. Russia ratified the treaty in May 2001.

These will be the 28th and 29th observation flights conducted by Russian military inspectors over the territories of the treaty member-states in 2013.

Each aircraft flying under the Open Skies program is fitted with optical, infra-red and radar sensors to gather imagery, which can be shared among all signatories to support the monitoring of compliance with arms control treaties.

United States will provide Ground Forces Iraq with service of ground equipment

 
TSAMTO, July 30. The Agency for Defense Security Cooperation (DSCA) U.S. Defense Department on July 25 notified Congress of a proposed sale to Iraq under the “Foreign Military Sales” the services for a variety of platforms.

The total price of the agreement could reach $ 750 million.

The Iraqi government has asked the United States to the request of the possibility of the provision of services for a period of five years for ARV M-88A1, M-88A2 «Hercules’ , family M-113 armored fighting vehicles, self-propelled howitzers M-109A5, towed howitzers M-198, heavy trucks -1070 (HETT), M-977 , armored HMMWV and tactical floating bridges TFRBS (Tactical Floating River Bridge System), the supply of spare parts and components, accessories and training equipment, technical documentation, training, technical support from the contractor and the U.S. government, and other related elements of logistical problems.

Russia begins inspection flights over United States

MOSCOW, July 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russian military inspectors will begin on Sunday a series of monitoring flights over the United States under the international Open Skies Treaty, a Russian nuclear security official said.

According to Sergei Ryzhkov, head of the National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, Russian experts will carry out two consecutive monitoring missions in a Tupolev Tu-154M/LK-1 aircraft from July 28 through August 12.

“The missions will be carried out from the Travis Air Force Base [in California] and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base [in Ohio],” Ryzhkov said.

“These will be Russia’s 23rd and 24th monitoring flights in 2013 over the territories of the Open Skies Treaty member states,” he added.

Russian inspectors, accompanied by US specialists, will operate surveillance equipment on board of the aircraft as set out in the international Open Skies Treaty.

Under the treaty, each aircraft flying under the Open Skies program is fitted with a sensor suite including optical panoramic and framing cameras, video cameras with real-time display, thermal infrared imaging sensors and imaging radar.

The Open Skies Treaty, which entered into force on January 1, 2002, establishes a regime of unarmed aerial observation flights over the territories of its 34 member states to promote openness and the transparency of military forces and activities.

Russia ratified the treaty in May 2001.