New arms threat: Argentina's £3billion boost to military

British military chiefs were last night “carefully monitoring” developments after Argentina announced a £3billion revamp of its armed forces.

 

Buenos Aires will acquire military hardware including fighter aircraft, ­anti-aircraft weapons and specialised radar, as well as beefing up its special forces.

 

The news comes months before drilling for oil ­begins in earnest off the Falkland Islands, provoking ­Argentina’s struggling President Cristina ­Fernandez de ­Kirchner.

 

Last month she created a new cabinet post of Secretary for the Malvinas, her country’s name for the Falklands.

 

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has refused to confirm that Britain would retake the Falklands if they were overrun by enemy forces.

 

The extra cash means Argentina will ­increase defence spending by 33.4 per cent this year, the biggest rise in its history. It will include £750million for 32 ­procurement and modernisation programmes.

 

They will include medium tanks and transport aircraft and the refurbishment of warships and submarines. The shopping list also ­includes Israeli air ­defence systems, naval assault craft, rocket systems, helicopters and a drone project.

 

There will be a range of hi-tech capabilities for the army and the formation of new commando and special ­forces units.

 

In August last year the Sunday Express revealed details of a contract to buy 20 French Mirage fighter jets from Spain, giving Argentina the ability to attack Port Stanley airfield with laser guided bombs.

 

Sources from British oil and gas firm Rockhopper Exploration confirmed serious drilling could begin in a few months. Its Sea Lion field is thought to have 394 million barrels of oil.

 

“We’re just waiting for a rig, which isn’t easy to organise in the South Atlantic, ­before we can escalate to the next stage,” said the source. President de Kirchner’s new Malvinas Secretary Daniel Filmus sent over 200 letters to oil firms threatening fines of up to $1.5billion and 15-year-jail terms if they drilled without consent.

 

Though the threats have no validity in international law, it is seen as an example of the lengths the president will go to in order to bolster domestic political ­support.

Britain has strengthened its defences of the islands, with four RAF Eurofighter Typhoons and 600 troops. A Royal Navy nuclear submarine armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles visits twice a year.

 

Senior military sources told the Sunday Express they were “carefully monitoring” the situation. The real fear, however, is a raid by Argentinian special forces aimed at damaging Port Stanley’s runway.

Admiral Lord West, who was at the helm of HMS Ardent when she was sunk in the Falklands War, said: “Any major increase in defence expenditure by Argentina must be viewed with concern. I am concerned that, without any ­aircraft carriers, we are incapable of ­recapturing them.”

He said Britain’s new carriers will not be operational until 2020 and until then Argentina had a window of opportunity.

Making Sailors Sharper Shooters

The U.K.is testing a new simulator as it investigates techniques to improve the accuracy of sailors using machine guns on naval and auxiliary vessels.

Simulation specialist NSC pulled together a deactivated weapon, projectors and software and delivered the completed system to the U.K.’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), according to NSC head of business development Steve Yates. It also built an instructor operating station that will allow DSTL to gather information from the system.

The simulator is based around the General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), an elderly but much-loved 7.62mm weapon used widely in the U.K. armed forces.

The GPMG is frequently shipped on simple mountings around warships and used to provide close-in fire; it was widely used in this role against attacking Argentinian aircraft during the Falklands conflict.

Like the U.S. and other western navies, the U.K. Royal Navy is concerned by the prospect of Iranian swarm attacks by small speedboats in the Arabian Gulf. The new simulator can replicating scenarios that include defending against small, fast-moving vessels, supporting anti-piracy missions, and protecting ports and vessels within them.

DSTL awarded NSC the contract to develop the new simulator for use in trials of “novel training methods” for Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) personnel. The RFA is a civilian-manned fleet owned by the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) that supports Royal Navy ships with fuel, ammunition and supplies.

The simulator is the first in the U.K. to use the newest version of Bohemia Interactive Simulations’ Virtual Battlespace 2. It puts users’ fingers on the trigger of a deactivated GPMG as the action unfolds on an almost seven-foot-tall, 180-degree curved screen.

Compressed air provides recoil feedback from the deactivated GPMG, while hidden electronics track the weapon’s movements, allowing operators to tackle engagements in an immersive environment.

The simulator does not include motion, but the projected image can reproduce varying factors such as sea states, solar glare, surface reflections and sea spray.

“The U.K. MoD is a big user of the earlier VBS2 1.6,” said Yates. VBS 2 2.0 had a number of improvements in visual reproduction, “particularly in areas such as reflections on the sea and visualisation of objects at long distances.”

The DSTL is collaborating with sports psychologists from Exeter University for the trials testing this method of training. In a written statement, the DSTL said that the NSC synthetic environment “provides specific performance data on the accuracy of the participants, allowing the researchers to compare two training approaches: traditional mechanical instructions, in comparison to instructions relating to the participant’s eye movements during the task.

The DSTL also noted that successful eye movement training could introduce a way of increasing skills development and reducing the time spent in synthetic environments during training, but declined to give further details.

Strength in Numbers

UK operates first drone strike from own territory

The strike of a British Reaper drone, which took place in Afghanistan on Tuesday, is the first drone to be used in an attack controlled from a base situated on UK soil.

“A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft system, operated by pilots from 13 Squadron located at RAF Waddington, has fired a weapon during a mission supporting UK forces on the ground in Afghanistan,” a spokesperson of UK’s Ministry of Defense said.

No further details are available as the country’s military abstains from discussing details of specific missions for the sake of operational security.

Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) has previously controlled British and US Air Force Reaper and Predator drones from the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, US during missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

According to UK’s armed forces minister, Andrew Robathan, the country’s military launched more than 2000 unmanned aerial vehicle missions between October 2006 and December 31, 2012.

Britain remains the only nation that is sanctioned by Washington to purchase and operate armed MQ-9 Reaper drones, produced by the US-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems company.

The Royal Air Force has been using UAVs of such a class since 2008, with 13 Squadron currently being in possession of 10 Reapers, all stationed in Afghanistan.

The MQ-9 Reaper is the first hunter-killer drone designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance, which is larger, heavier and more capable than the earlier MQ-1 Predator version.

It’s primarily used to gather intelligence on enemy activity on the ground, but also carries bombs and Hellfire missiles for precision strikes.

Falkland Island’s: Argentina reclaims “absolute and exclusive sovereignty over the Islands”

 Defence minister Arturo Puricelli said that Argentines “are not prepared to tolerate the usurpation” of the Malvinas Islands ‘for the rest of our lives’ and the honour and glory for those who fought in the South Atlantic “is going to be recalled until we obtain absolute and exclusive sovereignty over our Islands”.

 

“For us Malvinas is a cause that will never prescribe in the life of the nation and will only end the day the Argentine flag is flying over the Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands” added Puricelli during a military ceremony to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Argentine Air Force ‘baptism of fire’ on May first 1982 during the Falklands conflict.

The ceremony at the El Palomar Air Force base was also attended by the Argentine Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Jorge Chevallier, the head of the Air Force, Normando Constantino, other government and provincial officials, lawmakers, local magistrates, members of the three forces and Malvinas Veterans and Next of kin.

“We feel in this cause supported and accompanied the peoples and governments of the South American countries and so many others in the rest of the world”, added the minister.

Puricelli said that it is of special concern to the Argentine government “the design of a military instrument which fully guarantees the national defence all along our jurisdiction in the sea, the air and the ground”.

“Our commitment is to continue training men and women so that they belong to the Armed Forces of our nation with the same interest, courage and heroism displayed by the men, women, military and civilians during the South Atlantic war without asking for explanations, only dedicated to honour the allegiance to the flag”.

The minister during his speech transmitted “the greetings and acknowledgement of President Cristina Fernandez to the relatives of those combatants who lost their lives in the war and to the veterans who with the same courage and commitment were able to survive those heroic days”.

During the South Atlantic conflict the Argentine Air Force lost 55 personnel and almost of its combat wings. According to the Argentine version of events on May first after the British bombarded Falklands’ air strips, they were ready to land in the Islands but the Argentine Air Force reaction was immediate.

That May first started the “Air Battle of the Malvinas” and the Argentine combat aircraft at the end of the day had completed 57 attack and cover sorties against British naval targets dropping 20 tons of bombs.

Wednesday’s ceremony in El Palomar following the speeches ended with a military parade and an over-flight of Hercules C-130 and Bell-212 helicopters.
 

US defense chief blasts Karzai over troop deaths

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has voiced frustration with Afghan President Hamid Karzai preferring to "criticize" American troops, rather than acknowledging the sacrifices they have made.

Panetta, who arrived in Peru late Friday to begin a Latin American tour, told reporters aboard the military plane taking him to Lima that Karzai should remember that more than 2,000 US troops have died in Afghanistan.

The angry riposte came after Karzai said on Thursday that the United States was failing to go after militants based in Pakistan, another charge that Panetta chose to hit back at.

Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, Karzai accused the United States of playing a "double game" by fighting a war against Afghan insurgents rather than their backers in Pakistan where, in Karzai's words, "terrorism is financed and manufactured." The Afghan president also lamented what he described as NATO's refusal to supply Afghanistan with modern weapons necessary to fight its enemies.

But a visibly displeased US defense secretary suggested the Afghan president had focused on the wrong things.

"We have made progress in Afghanistan because there are men and women in uniform who are willing to fight and die for Afghanistan's sovereignty and their right to govern and secure themselves," Panetta said.

"We've lost over 2,000 US men and women, ISAF has lost forces there and the Afghans have lost a large number of their forces in battle.

"Those lives were lost fighting the right enemy, not the wrong enemy. And I think it would be helpful if the president, every once in a while, expressed his thanks for the sacrifices that have been made by those who have fought and died for Afghanistan rather than criticize." The outburst was rare for Panetta and the remarks came as relations between the United States and Afghanistan are under strain in the wake of several deadly and high-profile attacks on US troops by their local comrades.

In Afghanistan, the United States has also seen its image tarnished among ordinary Afghans this year by the burning of Korans at a military base, the abuse of corpses and a massacre of civilians by a rogue American soldier.

An unprecedented number of Afghan security personnel have turned their weapons against their allies, killing at least 51 NATO soldiers this year.

Despite this, many Afghans, particularly in the cities, fear the departure of the Western troops in 2014 from a country where the government of Karzai is widely seen as corrupt and dependent on foreign support.

In Lima, Panetta will meet President Ollanta Humala and Defense Minister Pedro Cateriano, Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.

"This trip will reaffirm the department's commitment to strengthening partnership around the world, particularly in Latin America and Europe," said Little.

The United States has provided Peru with surveillance planes to disrupt drug traffickers and help tackle remnants of the Shining Path guerrilla group. Washington gave Lima $659 million in associated aid between 2006 and 2011.

A senior US defense official said Panetta would offer further help to Peru under the Ministry of Defense Advisers program, a scheme currently being used in Afghanistan.

"What MODA does is that it embeds technical experts within the MOD for one or two years and they can provide technical advice," the official said.

Panetta will be in Uruguay on Sunday, the Pentagon said, and he will take part in the 10th Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas at the Punta del Este resort, before traveling to Brussels on Monday.

Cristina Fernandez off to the UN General Assembly to claim Malvinas sovereignty

President Cristina Fernandez leaves this weekend for New York to attend the UN General Assembly where two of the main issues of the Argentine agenda will be the Malvinas Islands claim and AMIA, the terrorist attack on an Argentine Jewish institution in which allegedly Iran could have been involved.

The Argentine president has scheduled visits to two prestigious US universities

In the five days the president will be in the US, the schedule includes opening a forum of Argentine studies in Washington’s Georgetown University and a conference at Harvard University one of the US most prestigious institutions.

President Cristina Fernandez also has scheduled meetings with US corporations including Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson precisely when Argentina’s recently seized oil and gas company YPF is looking for foreign investments to help develop gas and oil shale deposits in Patagonia.

On Monday the president will be visiting a photo show dedicated to Evita Peron at the Argentine consulate in New York: “Evita: passion and action”.

One of the Argentine president’s great aspirations, a picture with US president Obama could be becoming on two occasions: on Tuesday during the traditional lunch hosted by the White House to all world leaders attending the UN annual assembly and a cocktail at the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Wednesday evening also invitation of the US leader. However Cristina Fernandez has yet to confirm attendance.

On Tuesday Cristina Fernandez will address the UN General Assembly (16.30, Argentine time) and one of the issues to be considered is the AMIA terrorist attack from 1994, still unsolved, and for which the Iranian Foreign minister has requested an unexpected meeting with his Argentine peer Hector Timerman while in New York.

Argentina accuses former Iranian officials of direct involvement in the attack against the Jewish institution in the heart of Buenos Aires and as in previous occasions Cristina Fernandez will formally request Teheran to collaborate with the judicial investigation.

However last year following on the Iranian initiative to hold bilateral talks, the Argentine delegates did not abandon the hall when the Iranian president addressed the assembly.

The other big issue is the Falklands/Malvinas claim and calling on the UK to resume talks, following on her aggressive campaign when last June she personally spoke at the Decolonisation Committee or C24 on the 30th anniversary of the invasion of the Islands by Argentine forces which led to a full fledged 74 day conflict with Britain that recovered the Falklands.

On Wednesday she flies to Washington for the opening of the Argentine Studies office at Georgetown University. Basically it will act as a forum for discussions and interactions between Argentine officials, politicians, business people, academics and their US peers.

Thursday is Boston, to give a conference at Harvard and from there the return flight to Argentina on Tango 01.

MPs concerned over Nimrod decision

MPs have voiced "serious concern" about the risk to national security caused by the Government's decision to scrap the next generation of Nimrod maritime surveillance aircraft.

The Nimrod MRA4 was cancelled in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review as ministers attempted to fill a £38 billion black hole in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) budget. The project, designed to replace the Nimrod MR2, was already years late and hundreds of millions of pounds over budget.

A report published by the House of Commons Defence Committee said that the decision has created a "capability gap" in maritime surveillance, leaving the UK dependent on other nations for support.

Although the MoD's own capability investigations have concluded that a maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) is the solution to the UK's requirements over the next 20 years, there will be no decision on whether to commission such a plane until the next SDSR in 2015, said the report.

The cross-party committee warned that the situation was compounded by the loss of the intelligence-gathering capabilities of four Broadsword-class Type 22 frigates and is likely to get worse with the planned withdrawal of Sea King helicopters in 2016.

Committee chairman James Arbuthnot said: "We are unconvinced that the MoD has the capacity to respond to any escalation in the risks that may appear beyond the UK's shores.Furthermore we believe the risk is likely to worsen in the medium term as further maritime surveillance capabilities are withdrawn or not yet filled."

The committee accused the MoD of sending "mixed messages" over the need for a maritime patrol aircraft like the Nimrod.

"On one hand it says that there is no requirement for such an aircraft and that it is not funded or in the programme but on the other hand it acknowledges that its absence is a risk and something may need to be done," said the report.

Armed forces minister Andrew Robathan said: "UK maritime surveillance is being delivered by a wide range of military assets, including our surface ships, submarines, Merlin and Sea King helicopters, Sentry and Hercules aircraft and we are also co-operating with our allies.

"Tough decisions had to be taken to get the MoD's books back into balance and cancelling the Nimrod MRA4 programme was the right decision."

Argentina plans to explore for oil and gas next to the Falklands

As part of its “Malvinas noose tightening” policy the Argentine government is planning an international tender to offer licenses to explore for oil near the Falkland Islands, reports Buenos Aires main daily Clarin in its Monday edition, citing a letter to Congress by Cabinet chief Juan Manuel Abal Median.

Apparently the international bidding process will be carried out by Enarsa, Argentina’s state owned energy company and will be based on a seismic and geological report contracted by Enarsa with GC Technology Corporation under a plan called “Argentine Span”.

Accordingly the program is oriented to obtaining improved geo-physics data and an integral offshore geology profile and included the purchase of 2D seismic data covering an area of 11.000 square kilometres of the Argentine continental shelf. The whole operation had a cost of 42 million dollars says Clarin, but all the “information is registered to Enarsa”.

The message from Abal Medina to Congress indicates that the overall study will enable a more exact description and assessment of the involved basins in the platform helping to determine “prospective zones” for the accumulation of gas and oil resources.

Clarin says that although all the data is under a commercial confidentiality veil, “it is expected the Argentine government will be tendering 24 prospective areas”.

However following the seizure of a majority in YPF from Spain’s Repsol the Argentine government “is waiting for a better political moment for the national and international bidding process which undoubtedly will have an impact on the tense relation with Great Britain” over the disputed Falklands/Malvinas and surrounding waters.

Clarin then adds that since Brazil discovered huge reserves of oil and gas off Sao Paulo state and further south, “Brasilia changed its diplomatic strategy towards the South Atlantic”. In effect if the estimated reserves turn into proven, Brazil is expected to become an oil producer to the tune of Venezuela and Nigeria, according to Petrobras, and since the ramifications of those resources could extend along the Argentine continental platform, “Brazilian diplomacy does not want a foreign colonial power such as Great Britain exploiting a vital resource for the region”.

Clarin speculates that if oil is found in the waters located beyond the control of the UK, Argentina will have a real geopolitical tool used in a hypothetical negotiation with Great Britain.

An interesting side story of the announcement is that the person who currently heads Enarsa is Exequiel Espinosa who back in 2007 was on board the private jet that flew to Argentina from Venezuela with Venezuelan-US national Antonini Wilson who was caught with a suitcase containing 800.000 US dollars. Fearing for his life Antonini Wilson, who later proved to be a carrier of cash and messages between Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and the Kirchner couple and some programs in Uruguay, fearing for his life took refuge in the US with his family where he apparently exchanged information for safety.

The money allegedly was to help finance the first presidential campaign of Cristina Fernandez. Antonini Wilson was a prominent member of the new “Bolivarian bourgeois” close to Chavez, which have become millionaires overnight on government contracts and perks.

Following the incident Cristina Fernandez, just a few months ahead of her first election, was furious and declared it was a “US Department ploy” to “frame her” and froze relations with Washington for several months.