Russia to Boost Defense Spending 59% by 2015

Russia plans to boost annual defense spending in 2015, the head of the State Duma’s Defense Committee said

Russia plans to boost annual defense spending by 59 percent to almost 3 trillion rubles ($97 billion) in 2015, up from $61 billion in 2012, the head of the State Duma’s Defense Committee told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

“Targeted national defense spending as a percentage of GDP will amount to 3.2 percent in 2013, 3.4 percent in 2014 and 3.7 percent in 2015,” Defense Committee chairman Vladimir Komoedov is quoted as saying in the committee’s conclusion on the draft budget for 2013-2015.

The draft budget will come up for a first reading in the Duma on Friday.

The spending proposals provide financing to “re-equip units with new weapon systems, military and specialty equipment and provide housing and social safeguards for service members” among other issues, Komoedov said.

Turkey's defense industry confident

The Turkish defense industry is targeting a turnover of $8 billion and an export figure of $2 billion for 2016, according to the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry’s (SSM) Murad Bayar.

The Turkish defense industry was getting a lot of attention from other countries and that Turkey had reached an important level in its technology capacity, Bayar told the Anatolia news agency at the sidelines of a recent Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) meeting. That said, he stressed that the Turkish industrial defense industry needed to use the latest technology and most recently developed products.

“For the continuity of our exports, reliability, cost and quality production are very important,” Bayar said. Going forward, the responsibility for weapons systems will lie solely in the hands of companies, he said.

The SSM had increased its targets within the scope of the 2011-2016 Strategic Plan, Industrial Defense Assistant Undersecretary Sedat Güldoğan said. The 2016 turnover target is $8 billion, and $2

billion in defense exports, he said, noting, however, that the export target could be revised depending on the sector’s performance.

The defense sector’s 2011 turnover, including aviation figures, reached $4.4 billion, and that its underlying sectors, including electronics, were responsible for 34.5 percent of the total, with 15.96

percent for land vehicles and 13.59 percent for aviation and space aircraft, according to TOBB’s Industrial Defense Assembly President Yılmaz Küçükşeyhan.

Turkey’s industrial defense exports have already reached $1 billion, with 36.24 percent being shipped to Europe, 32.61 percent to North America and 19 percent to the Middle East and North Africa.

Levin believes January cuts will be avoided

The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman predicted Thursday that Congress will find a way to avoid automatic budget cuts in January that could hurt national security, but he added that any ultimate budget agreement won’t leave the Defense Department unscathed.

Pressure is building, particularly within the defense industry, to head off the automatic across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to take effect in January under terms of last year’s Budget Control Act.

Beginning as early as October — perhaps sooner — layoff notices could be delivered to defense industry workers, and possibly to some DoD civilian employees, as officials prepare for the possibility that Congress and the White House won’t come up with a compromise to avoid the automatic cuts.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who has chaired the armed services committee since 2007, said Thursday during a breakfast with defense reporters that he believes sequestration will be avoided in January, although he isn’t sure how — or when an agreement might be reached.

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SASC chairman: More defense cuts likely in any budget deal (June 12)

He said he is optimistic about avoiding the cuts, which could reduce defense spending by 10 percent, or about $55 billion, next year, “because 80 to 90 percent” of members of Congress want to prevent sequestration.

Levin is concerned, however, that harm may result from waiting for lawmakers and the White House to reach the almost inevitable post-election, last-minute agreement to either avoid or postpone the budget cuts.

Even if agreement is reached, he said, “If it comes too late, the specter of it could have a negative effect on the economy and on people’s lives.”

Levin is pushing the idea of a pre-election bipartisan announcement of the intention to come up with a later budget agreement. He said such an announcement might soothe the stock markets and reassure the public, and could include some details on areas where lawmakers agree, such as extending middle-class tax cuts.

The House of Representatives has passed a budget plan that would avoid sequestration while also reversing the cuts in defense approved last year as part of the Budget Control Act, but Levin discounted that plan as unworkable.

Defense cuts, he said, will have to be part of any final agreement to achieve $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. He suggested a plan that would include about $200 billion over 10 years in cuts in discretionary spending, with half coming from defense. The impact of a roughly $10 billion annual reduction in defense spending would be far less than the consequences of sequestration.

Levin declined to specify how that $10 billion savings could be achieved, saying providing details at this point would not make it easier to get an agreement.

Canada - Conservatives to revise $490B defence spending plan

Minister of Defence Peter MacKay says the reset would have occurred regardless of the 'fiscal realities.' Minister of Defence Peter MacKay says the reset would have occurred regardless of the 'fiscal realities.' (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The Harper government is redrafting its extensive, multi-billion shopping list of equipment for the Canadian military in an exercise many observers believe will set more sober expectations in a time of austerity.

The revision to the Canada First Defence Strategy is slated to be complete and ready for public consumption by fall, multiple sources have told The Canadian Press.

Although Defence Minister Peter MacKay describes the hallmark plan as a "living document," the reset comes at a time when the government has been hammered politically over the F-35 stealth fighter, an issue that tarnished the fiscally responsible image that the Conservatives try to project.

Defence sources say there is a baseline expectation that the promises made in the original 2008 document will be mostly kept, but whether the government will be buying in the quantities outlined at the height of the Afghan war when the federal treasury was flush, is another matter.

    'We have to do this reset and it would have happened regardless of the recession, regardless of the fiscal realities.'—Defence Minister Peter MacKay

"We have to do this reset and it would have happened regardless of the recession, regardless of the fiscal realities," MacKay insisted during an interview with The Canadian Press.

But the political thinking, according to some defence insiders, is that a redrafted wish list will take some of the bite out of opposition attacks and restore public confidence rattled by the F-35.

When it was announced with much fanfare, the $490-billion, 20-year defence policy was hailed as the prescription for a Canadian military which the Conservatives say was starved for cash.

But delivering on that long laundry list of ships, tanks and planes has turned into an excruciating experience, which found a voice last week in Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose's declaration that she was "tired of being told why something can’t be done."

Some equipment must be replaced

But defence experts, such Phillipe Lagasse at the University of Ottawa, who studies procurement, said he hopes the procedural frustration and the storm over the F-35 doesn't lend itself to some quick, politically palatable decisions.

"They weren't able to achieve everything they hoped they could achieve under Canada First, [and] it didn't happen as smoothly as they hoped," said Lagasse, who noted the procurement system wasn't structured to deal with such an ambitious list.

Aside from the politically-charged stealth fighter program, which has been harshly criticized by the auditor general, there are a host of planes and ships that have yet to leave the drawing board, including fixed-wing search aircraft and navy supply tankers.

Sources said the various drafts circulating around National Defence acknowledge that there is some equipment that must "be replaced right away," but there are other more complicated issues, such as the F-35 and the glitch-plagued Victoria Class submarines.

The navy is currently studying whether the four British-built boats can have their life extended until 2029, but it's clear that thought is already being given to replacing them.

Sources said the next generation of submarines has already been the subject of high-level briefings within the military and it is expected the redrawn strategy will highlight such a plan.

Lagasse said the challenge for the government will be to temper the military's expectations.

Already signs are emerging that Conservatives are looking for long-term economical defence solutions, while those in uniform tend to believe the budget restraint is just temporary.

"Unfortunately, until they're honest with each other, and I hope that is what this document will do, we'll be engaged in a dialogue of the deaf," said Lagasse.

The mistake the Conservatives made with the first version of their strategy was to raise expectations by being very specific about what they were going to buy, he added.

Great Britain, France to Attack Somali Pirates

Great Britain and France are forming strike task force in order to destroy land infrastructure of Somali pirates, sources report

The task force includes French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, British light aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, amphibious assault ship HMS Bulwark, and support ships. The task force mandated by the EU last month to attack land assets of Somali pirates will be deployed near the Horn of Africa since coming August.

Pirates are traditionally most active early in autumn when summer heat is gone, said a British security expert. That is when their infrastructure will be attacked, he added.

According to the reports , European military experts reached a conclusion that pirates' fast-speed boats should be destroyed in basing sites, i.e. ports of southern Somalia; they also decided to destroy land infrastructure including fuel depots. For this purpose, it is planned to use helicopters like Apache based on HMS Illustrious. Landing assault operation is not slated.