The United States threatened to impose conditions on arms sales to Finland during the eighties in order to pressure the Finns into joining a high technology trade blockade of the Soviet Union. Hitherto classified documents from 1984 released by the Foreign ministry reveal former U.S. Defence Secretary Richard Perle wanted to deny Finland sales of night optic sensors for the I-TOW anti-armour missile if the country did not join the U.S. ban on sales of high technology to the Soviets. Finland first received details of the U.S. conditions during a visit to Washington for talks on an arms deal by then Permanent Under Secretary at the Defence Ministry, Aimo Pajunen. Defence Secretary Perle expanded the discussions to include exports of high technology. Perle has confirmed the Americans were particularly concerned about the possible export of, for example, digital telephone exchanges developed by Tele Nokia. Finland informed him the country would not approve U.S. demands. However, despite this Finland entered the so-called Cocom(Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) arrangement in 1987. Prior to this, the U.S. Defence department had threatened to label Finland as permanently being on the wrong side of the iron curtain.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
US Threatened to Block Finnish Arms Deal Over High-Tech Exports
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Lockheed Martin Receives Contracts for Combat-Proven PAC-3 Missile Program
DALLAS: Lockheed Martin has received contracts totaling $774 million from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command for hardware and services associated with the combat-proven Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile program. These contracts include Fiscal Year 2009 missile production for the U.S. Army as well as the first sale of the PAC-3 Missile Segment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE becomes the first Middle East customer and the fourth international customer for the PAC-3 Missile, joining The Netherlands, Germany and Japan in fielding the system. Lockheed Martin expects in excess of $1.8 billion in PAC-3 Missile-related business over the life of the initial UAE program. The FY09 contracts include production of 172 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles, 42 launcher modification kits, spares and other equipment, as well as program management and engineering services. Production of all equipment will take place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities in Dallas and Lufkin, TX, Chelmsford, MA, Ocala, FL, and the PAC-3 All-Up Round facility in Camden, AR. Deliveries on the contracts will be completed by July 2011. "The PAC-3 Missile's proven hit-to-kill lethality provides an unprecedented level of protection to the warfighter," said Mike Trotsky, vice president - Air & Missile Defense Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "We continue to see interest in the PAC-3 Missile Segment around the world, and Lockheed Martin remains focused on producing this vital technology for our customers." "The PAC-3 Missile offers the UAE combat-proven hit-to-kill lethality to protect critical capabilities and National assets," said Dennis Cavin, vice president - International Air & Missile Defense Strategic Initiatives at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "PAC-3 Missile Segment performance and lethality are the premier technologies available to provide defense against the threats facing our forces and allies today and well into the future." As part of these contracts, Lockheed Martin will produce and deliver equipment to begin upgrading all U.S. Army Patriot fire units with the capability for firing the PAC-3 Missile. The U.S. Army initiatives, called "Pure Fleet" and "Grow the Army," were launched in 2006 and will provide consistency across the fleet for the user anywhere Patriot is deployed or trained. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade to the Patriot air defense system. The PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade consists of the PAC-3 Missile, a highly agile hit-to-kill interceptor, the PAC-3 Missile canisters (which each hold four PAC-3 Missiles, with four canisters per launcher), a fire solution computer and an enhanced launcher electronics system. The PAC-3 Missile is the world's most advanced, capable and powerful theater air defense missile, and currently is the only fielded pure kinetic energy air defense missile. It defeats the Patriot Air Defense System threat: tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and fixed and rotary winged aircraft. PAC-3 Missiles significantly increase the Patriot system's firepower, with 16 PAC-3s loading out on a single Patriot launcher. Lockheed Martin achieved the first-ever hit-to-kill intercept in 1984 with the Homing Overlay Experiment, using force of impact alone to destroy a mock warhead outside of the Earth's atmosphere. Further development and testing produced today's PAC-3 Missile, which won a competition in 1993 to become the first hit-to-kill interceptor produced by the U.S. government. The PAC-3 Missile has been the technology pathfinder for today's total conversion to kinetic energy interceptors for all modern missile defense systems. Currently, the Lockheed Martin-developed Aegis Weapon System, PAC-3 Missile, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Weapon System, the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) and the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) utilize this proven advanced technology to deliver lethality against today's most dangerous threats. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2007 sales of $41.9 billion.
Lockheed Martin is a world leader in systems integration and the development of air and missile defense systems and technologies, including the first operational hit-to-kill missile. It also has considerable experience in missile design and production, infrared seekers, command and control/battle management, and communications, precision pointing and tracking optics, as well as radar and signal processing. The company makes significant contributions to all major U.S. missile defense systems and participates in several global missile defense partnerships.
Pakistan closes NATO supply route, operation launched
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistan on Tuesday cut off supplies to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass as security forces launched a major operation against militants there, an official said. The operation comes after a series of spectacular raids by suspected Taliban militants on foreign military supply depots in northwest Pakistan earlier this month in which hundreds of NATO and US-led coalition vehicles were destroyed. Pakistani security forces sent tanks, helicopter gunships and artillery units into the lawless Khyber tribal region on the Afghan border before dawn, the area's administrator Tariq Hayat told reporters in Peshawar. "We have launched an operation against militants and armed groups in Jamrud," the gateway to the Khyber Pass, Hayat said. The main highway linking Peshawar to the border town of Torkham has been shut down until the operation is complete, he said, adding: "Supplies to NATO forces have temporarily been suspended." "This is a giant operation. It will continue until we achieve our objective," Hayat said, adding that the operation could be expanded beyond the area near Jamrud -- located between Peshawar and Torkham -- if necessary. The Khyber tribal area official said the operation was aimed at putting a stop to attacks on NATO supply vehicles, as well as a spate of kidnappings for ransom in the tribal badlands, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants are active. "We have 26 targets -- we will eliminate their hideouts," Hayat said, adding that three people had been injured so far, including a security official. The bulk of the supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is shipped to Pakistan's largest port, Karachi, in the south. From there, the containers of food, fuel, vehicles and munitions are taken by truck to depots outside Peshawar before being transported to Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass. But the fabled road passes through the heart of Pakistan's lawless tribal zone, where extremists sought refuge after Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led invasion at the end of 2001. Two weeks ago, several haulage companies in Pakistan refused to ply the 50-kilometre (30-mile) route, saying the security of their drivers could not be ensured. But the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) downplayed the significance of the move by the Khyber Transport Association, saying it was continuing to receive supplies. "We continue to monitor the impact of that. It is not our only means of (getting) supplies," an ISAF spokesman, British Royal Navy Captain Mark Windsor, told AFP. Senior Pakistani officials said last week that some troops had been redeployed from the tribal areas to the country's eastern border with India, amid simmering tensions with New Delhi over the Mumbai attacks. The move sparked concerns that the fight against extremists in the rugged border region could suffer.
Lord's Resistance Army rebels kill almost 200 in DR Congo: UN
KINSHASA: Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels killed almost 200 people in a campaign in northeast Congo, a UN agency said in a report released Monday. Its report said at least 120 houses have been burned down during the campaign. Troops from Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and southern Sudan have launched a military operation in the stricken region to find LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is wanted by a UN tribunal for war crimes. Kony's rebels are accused of having raped and mutilated civilians, forcibly enlisting child soldiers and of massacring thousands during two decades of conflict.
Since December 25, the rebels have killed 40 people in the Faradje district, 89 around Doruma and 60 in the Gurba area alone, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic
Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia.
The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.
Yoshihiro Kawaoka of theUniversity of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan used ferrets, which develop flu in ways very similar to humans.
Usually flu causes an upper respiratory infection affecting the nose and throat, as well as so-called systemic illness causing fever, muscle aches and weakness.
But some people become seriously ill and develop pneumonia. Sometimes bacteria cause the pneumonia and sometimes flu does it directly.
During pandemics, such as in 1918, a new and more dangerous flu strain emerges.
"The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide," Kawaoka's team wrote.
It killed 2.5 percent of victims, compared to fewer than 1 percent during most annual flu epidemics. Autopsies showed many of the victims, often otherwise healthy young adults, died of severe pneumonia.
"We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia," Kawaoka said in a statement.
They painstakingly substituted single genes from the 1918 virus into modern flu viruses and, one after another, they acted like garden-variety flu, infecting only the upper respiratory tract.
But a complex of three genes helped to make the virus live and reproduce deep in the lungs.
The three genes -- called PA, PB1, and PB2 -- along with a 1918 version of the nucleoprotein or NP gene, made modern seasonal flu kill ferrets in much the same way as the original 1918 flu, Kawaoka's team found.
Most flu experts agree that a pandemic of influenza will almost certainly strike again. No one knows when or what strain it will be but one big suspect now is the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
H5N1 is circulating among poultry in Asia, Europe and parts of Africa. It rarely affects humans but has killed 247 of the 391 people infected since 2003.
A few mutations would make it into a pandemic strain that could kill millions globally within a few months.
Four licensed drugs can fight flu but the viruses regularly mutate into resistant forms -- just as bacteria evolve into forms that evade antibiotics.
