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Source: Bloomberg

• Seeks 38 vessels through 2021, 10 Fewer Than Earlier Plan
• Delayed $13 billion aircraft carrier to be delivered in Sept.

Ford Carrier Delay

Ohio-Class Replacement

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Recent satellite images of North Korea's main nuclear complex show suspicious activity that could be linked to re-processing plutonium for additional nuclear bombs, a US think tank said Tuesday.
Analysis of the images focused on exhaust plumes from a steam plant used to heat a radiochemical laboratory facility at the Yongbyon complex.
The facility is used for processing plutonium from a five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon into weapons-grade fissile material.
Whether the exhaust plumes mean "re-processing additional plutonium is under way or will be in the near future remains unclear", analysts at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University concluded.
However, they noted a recent statement by US National Intelligence Director James Clapper that North Korea could be ready to extract weapons-grade plutonium from the nearby reactor's spent fuel rods in a matter of weeks.
North Korea mothballed the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but began renovating it after its third nuclear test in 2013.
Satellite imagery analysis by another US think tank in January suggested the reactor was still not operating at full capacity.
When fully operational, the reactor is capable of producing around six kilos (13 pounds) of plutonium a year -- enough for one nuclear bomb, experts say.
North Korea has carried out four nuclear tests -- the most recent on January 6, when it announced it had detonated its first hydrogen bomb.
Experts have disputed the H-bomb claim, saying the yield from the test was far too low for a full-fledged thermonuclear device.
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DARPA has awarded Phase 1 contracts for its Gremlins program, which seeks to develop innovative technologies and systems enabling aircraft to launch volleys of low-cost, reusable unmanned air systems (UASs) and safely and reliably retrieve them in mid-air.
Such systems, or "gremlins," would be deployed with a mixture of mission payloads capable of generating a variety of effects in a distributed and coordinated manner, providing U.S. forces with improved operational flexibility at a lower cost than is possible with conventional, monolithic platforms. The Phase 1 contracts have been awarded to four teams whose proposals cover a spectrum of technical approaches to this challenging mission.
The teams are led by:
+ Composite Engineering, Inc. (Roseville, Calif.)
+ Dynetics, Inc. (Huntsville, Ala.)
+ General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (San Diego, Calif.)
+ Lockheed Martin Corporation (Dallas, Tex.)
"We've assembled a motivated group of researchers and developers that we believe could make significant progress toward Gremlins' vision of delivering distributed airborne capabilities in a robust, responsive and affordable manner," said Dan Patt, DARPA program manager.
"These teams are exploring different, innovative approaches toward achieving this goal and are rolling up their sleeves for the hard work ahead."
Phase 1 of the Gremlins program is designed to pave the way for a proof-of-concept flight demonstration that would validate an air recovery concept of multiple gremlins. The program plans to explore numerous technical areas, including:
+ Launch and recovery techniques, equipment and aircraft integration concepts
+ Low-cost, limited-life airframe designs that leverage existing technology and require only modest modifications to current aircraft
+ High-fidelity analysis, precision digital flight control, relative navigation and station keeping
Named for the imaginary, mischievous imps that became the good luck charms of many British pilots during World War II, the program envisions launching groups of UASs from existing large aircraft such as bombers or transport aircraft-as well as from fighters and other small, fixed-wing platforms-while those planes are out of range of adversary defenses.
When the gremlins complete their mission, a C-130 transport aircraft would retrieve them in the air and carry them home, where ground crews would prepare them for their next use within 24 hours.
The gremlins' expected lifetime of about 20 uses could provide significant cost advantages over expendable systems by reducing payload and airframe costs and by having lower mission and maintenance costs than conventional platforms, which are designed to operate for decades.
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Amid growing bonhomie between India and the US, 12 IAF aircraft, including the Russian origin Su30 MKI, will fly to Alaska in April to take part in the prestigious ‘Red Flag’ air exercise that will see them in action alongside NATO forces during war games.
The aircraft four each of Sukhoi and deep penetration Jaguars, two C17 transport plans and two mid air refuellers IL 78 will travel through Bahrain, Egypt, France, Portugal and Canada before finally reaching Alaska.
The air exercise, from April 28-May 13, is seen as a complex and advanced network centric operation — the toughest test for flying machines and men.
“The personnel have now assembled at the Jamnagar air base where they will undergo some training schedule. Advanced party will leave shortly and the rest would join them later in the US,” an IAF official said.
This is the second time that India is participating in such an exercise after 2008.
Due to high costs, the IAF had decided to take part in the exercise once every five years. It was scheduled to take part in the 2013 edition but the exercise was cancelled by the US following budget cuts.
According to an estimate, it will cost India over Rs 100 crore. It will also see over 150 IAF personnel in action.
“Crawl, walk and run” is the term used for the format of deployment for systematically increasing pace and scope of the exercise and combat maneuvers during ‘Red Flag’.
The Red Flag would be the most complex aerial war game involving forces from India and US that will also see Aerial Early Warning aircraft from NATO forces in action.
Once again, India has refrained from taking its Aerial early warning aircraft for the overseas exercise.




Source:- IBNLive
The post 4 Su-30 MKI’s, 4 deep strike Jaguars, 2 C-17s and IL-78 head to Alaska :: Pak-China out appeared first on Defence Update.


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The Department of Defense and State Department announced today that two Libyans have been transferred from Guantanamo to the Republic of Senegal in West Africa.
Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr Mahjour Umar and Salem Abdul Salem Ghereby allegedly belonged to the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), worked with senior al Qaeda leaders and had advanced explosives training in Afghanistan prior to their detention in Cuba.
President Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force, which reviewed the detainees’ cases between Jan. 2009 and Jan. 2010, deemed Umar “too dangerous” to free. But a Periodic Review Board subsequently approved Umar’s transfer last year.
Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), which oversees the detention facility, assessed both of the men to be “high” risks who are “likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies.”
Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr Mahjour Umar (Internment Serial Number 695)
JTF-GTMO was especially concerned about Umar. In an Aug. 22, 2008 threat assessment, which was later leaked online, JTF-GTMO recommended that the Defense Department continue to hold him.

JTF-GTMO’s analysts also issued a warning: “If released without rehabilitation, close supervision, and means to successfully reintegrate into his society as a law abiding citizen, it is assessed detainee [Umar] would immediately seek out prior associates and reengage in hostilities and extremist support activities.”
US officials found that Umar was a high-level member of the LIFG’s military committee and worked with a Who’s Who list of al Qaeda leaders and operatives.
Umar was allegedly a “long-time associate” of Osama bin Laden, worked for one of the al Qaeda founder’s companies, and flew on one of bin Laden’s planes from Sudan to Afghanistan.
Umar also reportedly had “affiliations” with: Ayman al Zawahiri (the current head of al Qaeda), Saif al Adl (a senior al Qaeda official wanted for his role in the August 1998 US Embassy bombings), Abd al Rahim al Nashiri (a current Guantanamo detainee and suspected ringleader of the USS Cole bombing in October 2000), Abu Musab al Zarqawi (who founded al Qaeda in Iraq before his demise in June 2006), Abu Laith al Libi (an al Qaeda leader who was killed in 2008), Hamza al Qaiti (who served as an al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan and Chechnya), as well as others.
Still other al Qaeda leaders, some of whom were held in the CIA’s controversial detention and interrogation program, are cited as sources of intelligence on Umar throughout the leaked JTF-GTMO threat assessment. One of them is Ahmed Ghailani, who was tried and convicted for his role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings. Ghailani identified Umar as a trainer at al Qaeda’s Al Farouq training camp and told authorities that Umar “taught anti-aircraft systems and basic explosives.”
According to the intelligence included in the leaked threat assessment, Umar moved seamlessly between LIFG and al Qaeda facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan during the 1990s. He allegedly worked as an “explosives and weapons trainer at LIFG and al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.” JTF-GTMO found that he also helped rebuild al Qaeda’s camps after airstrikes were launched in retaliation for the attacks on US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998.
On Mar. 28, 2002, Umar was captured during raids on two suspected al Qaeda safe houses in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The counterterrorism operations targeted Abu Zubaydah’s “Martyrs Brigade,” which planned to launch improvised explosive device (IED) attacks against US and Coalition forces in Afghanistan. JTF-GTMO’s analysts assessed that Umar was a “a participant in [Zubaydah’s] cell,” or “Martyrs Brigade.” Zubaydah, a senior al Qaeda facilitator, is still detained at Guantanamo.
President Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force, which filed its final report in January 2010, shared JTF-GTMO’s security concerns about Umar.
The task force determined that Umar should be held under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) because he was one of 48 detainees “determined to be too dangerous to transfer but not feasible for prosecution.”
However, a Periodic Review Board (PRB) determined in August 2015 that Umar’s detention was “no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.”
The PRB acknowledged Umar’s “past terrorist-related activities and connections,” but found that the “risk” he “presents” could be mitigated by his “significantly compromised health condition,” his “record of compliance” within Guantanamo, and his “recent engagement with his family illustrating his intent to move forward in a positive manner.”
Even so, the PRB couldn’t rule out the possibility that Umar would return to the jihad.
The August 2015 decision reads: “The PRB also recommends appropriate security assurances as determined by the Guantanamo Detainee Transfer Working Group, with special attention to those that would mitigate the threat the detainee [Umar] may pose with respect to propaganda, recruitment, and training of others.”
According to data compiled by The Long War Journal, Umar is the fifth detainee since September of last year to be transferred after being deemed “too dangerous to transfer” by Obama’s task force. A sixth detainee was also transferred despite being recommended for prosecution by the task force. In all six cases, President Obama’s interagency body concluded that the detainees should be held. But they were granted transfers from Guantanamo by the PRB system, which is increasingly willing to transfer higher risk detainees.
Salem Abdul Salem Ghereby (ISN 189)
Unlike Umar, Salem Abdul Salem Ghereby was approved for transfer by President Obama’s task force more than six years ago. This doesn’t mean the task force believed he was an innocent who could be freed without any security precautions. The task force recommended Ghereby for transfer “to a country outside the United States that will implement appropriate security measures.”

JTF-GTMO concluded that Ghereby was a “former explosives trainer and a veteran jihad fighter” in the LIFG. He was also allegedly “associated” with senior al Qaeda members, including Abdul Hadi al Iraqi (Bin Laden’s primary paramilitary commander prior to 9/11) and Ibn Shaykh al Libi. Bin Laden named al Libi as the leader of al Qaeda’s forces during the Battle of Tora Bora in late 2001. (Al Iraqi is held at Guantanamo. Al Libi died in a Libyan prison in 2009.)
JTF-GTMO’s analysts found that Ghereby “attended multiple training camps” and “received explosives training” from a “senior al Qaeda explosives expert” known as Abu Khabab al Masri. According to the leaked JTF-GTMO threat assessment for Ghereby, Masri’s diary describes the explosives accident that cost Ghereby his fingers and vision in one eye.
JTF-GTMO’s analysts also assessed that Ghereby participated in the Battle of Tora Bora and fled the mountain range with Ibn Shaykh al Libi and other jihadists.
LIFG and al Qaeda in North Africa
The LIFG, which Umar and Ghereby served, found new life in North Africa during the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and afterwards. In fact, Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant believed in early 2011 that “an active Jihadist Islamic renaissance” was “underway.” Al Qaeda was encouraged by the fact that many LIFG members, some of whom also served al Qaeda, had been freed from jail. One of them was another ex-Guantanamo detainee who was a member of both al Qaeda and the LIFG: Sufian Ben Qumu. Today, Ben Qumu is best known for his putative role in the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi.
According to the terms of their transfer, it is likely that the Republic of Senegal is responsible for ensuring, at least in the short-term, that Umar and Ghereby do not rejoin their LIFG brethren elsewhere in Africa. Of course, it is possible that one or both of them will choose a different path.
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Thousands of US and Filipino soldiers will on Monday launch annual war games that this year are being seen as a show of strength in the face of China's increasing assertiveness in the region.
The 11-day Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises are expected to show how the Philippines, though severely outgunned, can counter China with the help of the United States, its longest-standing ally.
China has in recent months built massive structures including radar systems and an airstrip over reefs and outcrops in the contested South China Sea, sparking international concern.
Beijing lays claim to almost all of the waters, which are important for international shipping and believed to hold valuable mineral and energy deposits, and neighbouring countries fear China could impose military controls over the entire sea.
The joint manoeuvres come ahead of a decision this year by a United Nations-backed tribunal on a legal challenge by Manila to China's territorial claims.
Adding to the tensions, the Philippines is preparing to host US troops in five bases under a defence pact born out of US President Barack Obama's plan to reassert American influence in the Pacific.
Balikatan has evolved from counter-terrorism manoeuvres against Islamic extremists like the Philippines' Abu Sayyaf, to simulations of retaking and protecting territory as disputes with Beijing have escalated.
However, Filipino and US officials insist the exercises are not explicitly aimed at China.
Balikatan spokesman Captain Celeste Frank Sayson said 55 US aircraft would take part in the drills, while the Philippines will deploy fighter jets it has recently acquired.
While no specific staging areas have been disclosed, the two allies have in recent years held war games at air bases just 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the disputed areas in the South China Sea.
Rene de Castro, an international studies professor at the De La Salle University in Manila, told AFP the drills appeared to have China's expansion in the South China Sea in mind.
"Looking at the features of Balikatan -- the mobile missile-launchers, the fighter planes -- that is an indication that the alliance is being geared for territorial defence," he said.
Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science professor at the De La Salle University in Manila, added that the exercises "aim to enhance interoperability among allies nations and signal their preparedness to confront China if necessary".
- Manila courts US, Japan -
The Philippine military said the US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), designed to shoot down aircraft, will be sent to Palawan, the Philippines' westernmost island on the South China Sea, during the war games.
The Philippines operates one airstrip in the South China Sea, on Thitu island, where there are around 350 civilian residents.
It also keeps small military contingents in smaller outcrops, including Second Thomas Shoal, where Marines are stationed on a decaying World War II ship.
The Philippines, which has one of the weakest militaries in the region, has sought to counter China's overwhelming military advantage by improving ties with the United States and Japan.
While it has acquired new fighter jets and surplus US naval ships, the Southeast Asian nation still has far to go, De Castro warned.
China's defence budget dwarfs that of the Philippines and Beijing is this year set to outspend its smaller neighbour by a factor of around 60.
The Philippines is also increasing its military engagements with the US with the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, which took effect in January.
Under the deal, US troops will rotate through five military camps including two air bases that are strategically positioned near the South China Sea.
"It is very apparent that the thrust of (the agreement) is air power," said former national security adviser Roilo Golez.
Australia, which recently criticised China's assertiveness in the disputed waters, is sending 80 troops to join parachute drills as part of the manoeuvres, Sayson said.
Obama this week confronted Chinese President Xi Jinping over Beijing's actions in the disputed seas.
Tensions have flared between the superpowers since the US sent warships close to disputed islands twice in the past six months.
Indonesia demands 'bully' China hand over fishing boatJakarta (AFP) April 1, 2016 - Indonesia called on China Friday to hand over a fishing boat it claims was operating illegally in its waters near the South China Sea, saying big countries should not "bully" smaller ones.
It was the latest salvo in a rare public row between the nations, which began two weeks ago when Indonesian and Chinese vessels clashed near Indonesia's Natuna Islands.
An Indonesian patrol boat had been seeking to detain a Chinese fishing vessel, which they claimed had been operating without a permit. But as they towed it to shore, Chinese coastguards appeared and rammed the captured boat, helping it to go free.
Beijing claims nearly all the South China Sea -- through which a third of the world's oil passes -- despite conflicting claims from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Indonesia does not have overlapping territorial claims with Beijing in the hotly disputed waters, but it does object to a segmented line China uses to define its claims since this overlaps Indonesia's exclusive economic zone north of the Natunas.
Indonesian Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who has been leading a crackdown on illegal fishing in the archipelago's vast water, on Friday demanded Beijing hand over the Chinese trawler to Indonesian authorities.
"I do believe China is a great country, with good law enforcement, and they do not back illegal fishing, even if it is done by Chinese vessels," she told AFP in an interview.
"I do believe they will honour me, by handing over this (illegal fishing) vessel."
And she added: "I think as a big country you cannot bully small countries."
The campaign against illegal fishing has seen around 200 foreign vessels detained in Indonesian waters and many have been blown up in public displays after their crews were removed.
Before the Chinese coastguards freed the fishing boat, officials succeeded in detaining eight Chinese crew members.
Pudjiastuti said Friday around three would be prosecuted, but the rest would likely be deported back to China. She would not be drawn on whether the boat would be blown up if handed over.
There was no immediate response from the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, but Beijing has said previously the fishing boat was operating in a "traditional Chinese fishing ground".
Pudjiastuti rejected this claim, insisting it was in Indonesia's exclusive economic zone -- an area where a state has rights relating to exploration and use of marine resources.
Indonesia's defence ministry also said Friday that F-16 fighter jets would be deployed to help defend the fish-rich Natunas, in the far northwest fringe of the archipelago, part of an ongoing military build-up around the islands.
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US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced an initiative Friday to create smart textiles that one day could see tents made of power-generating fabric, running shoes as light as socks and uniforms that detect chemical and nuclear contamination.
The Department of Defense is investing $75 million to help create "Advanced Functional Fabrics of America" -- a consortium of 89 companies, universities, researchers and startups that will innovate new fibers and textiles, Carter said as he unveiled the program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"Revolutionary fibers and textiles have enormous potential for our defense mission," the Pentagon chief said.
"For example, lightweight sensors, woven into the nylon of parachutes, will be able to catch small tears that otherwise would expand in midair, risking paratroopers' lives."
Carter, a physicist, frequently stresses the need for the Pentagon to invest in new technologies and likes to cite GPS, jet engines and the Internet as examples of military innovations that have also transformed civilian life.
He said textile manufacturers will soon combine fibers and yarns with flexible integrated circuits, lights and sensors "to create fabrics and cloths that can see, hear, sense, communicate, store energy, regulate temperature, monitor health, change color and more."
"For example, running shoes as lightweight as socks will be able to sense impact load for every step, so athletes can better understand their physiological condition," he said.
The Pentagon's $75-million investment has already been matched by more than $240 million in contributions from public and private-sector partners, Carter said.
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