More Pakistan protests over NATO supply lines

A mortar round hit a house belonging to a paramilitary soldier Sunday in northwestern Pakistan, killing his wife and three of his children, police said, not far from the newly reopened NATO supply crossing to Afghanistan.

The soldier in the Frontier Corps, Dolat Mir, was wounded in the explosion in Mera Sheikhan village near the Khyber tribal area, said police official Inayatullah Khan.

The Khyber tribal region is one of the two land routes for ferrying the supplies to U.S. and its allied NATO forces across border in Afghanistan. Chaman border in southwest Pakistan is the other land crossing.

It was unclear who fired the mortar, Khan said, or whether the house was intentionally targeted. The 27-year-old soldier has been serving in the North Waziristan tribal region, said police official Behram Khan.

The military has been conducting operations against Islamist militants in Khyber.

Pakistan reopened both routes for NATO supplies on July 4 after a seven-month suspension. This came after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in an allied forces raid on a border military post. Pakistan blocked the routes after the border incident, demanding an apology.

Opponents of reopening the route demonstrated at the Chaman crossing on Sunday.

Around 4,000 Islamists travelled hundreds of kilometers to the border from Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province where Chaman is located, and held a sit-in protest, said police official Agha Mohammad. A banner in the rally read, “Say no to NATO supplies,” and the protesters chanted, “Long live Mullah Omar,” a founder of the Taliban.

The demonstrators dispersed peacefully.

Another 1,000 Islamists marched to the seaport in the southern city of Karachi, where NATO supplies are received before being transported to Afghanistan.

Thousands of Islamists under the banner of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council, or council for defending Pakistan, a group of several Islamic political parties and militant groups, thronged the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on July 9 to protest the supply resumption. At the time, the group pledged to organize more protests.

Lockheed Martin Provides Italian Ministry of Defence with Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Aircraft

Italian MoD to Use Lockheed Martin Airborne Multi-INT Lab in Operations

An innovative Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (AML) developed by Lockheed Martin for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is now being used by the Italian Air Force in a live operational environment. Lockheed Martin signed a use agreement with the Italian Ministry of Defence (MoD) to provide the AML aircraft, three ground intelligence processing systems as well as flight crew and maintenance personnel for the plane. This agreement is for one year, with an option to extend to two years.

The AML is a Gulfstream III business jet that Lockheed Martin transformed into a flying test bed to expedite the testing and fielding of C4ISR capabilities.

“The AML has proved itself as an exceptional test platform for next generation intelligence sensors,” said Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense.  “We are excited to be under contract with the Italian Air Force to leverage this experimental ISR system into an operational environment.”

Under the agreement, the Italian Air Force will use the AML, with its full suite of intelligence computing capabilities that include signals intelligence arrays and forward-looking infrared radar (FLIR), in a live operational environment for the next year. With its open architecture and configurable exterior physical structure, the Italian Air Force can integrate additional C4ISR components (software and hardware) in a matter of hours, rather than days. This open architecture design also facilitates the integration of the AML with existing sovereign ground architectures while maintaining interoperability during NATO or coalition engagements.

During the course of the agreement, Lockheed Martin and the Italian Air Force will work together to fine tune the overall system requirements as well as hone the operational implementation concepts. Lockheed Martin’s AML will fly in support of a wide range of missions to include training, concept of operations development and ISR operations. Lockheed Martin will also maintain the aircraft and AML ground stations.

To provide the most robust solution tailored specifically to meet the Italian Air Force’s needs, Lockheed Martin assembled a team with deep domain expertise across the entire airborne ISR spectrum, including communications; multiple sensors; as well as a multi-purpose platform. Lockheed Martin’s AML team includes L-3 Communications Systems-West, Rockwell Collins, FLIR Government Systems and DRS.

Lockheed Martin’s success with the AML spurred the introduction of Lockheed Martin’s Dragon family of ISR configurations last year. The Dragon configurations offer a unique approach for customers to match mission requirements and budget to their specific sensor, communications and airframe needs.

“Lockheed Martin will use insight gained from the AML’s performance in this live operational environment into future Dragon ISR configuration offerings,” said Charles Gulledge, airborne reconnaissance systems business development lead for Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. “This contract with the Italian Air Force also marks the first deployment of Lockheed Martin’s Net Dragon “ISR as a Service” concept.”

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.