5 New Messages
Digest #4696
Messages
Wed May 8, 2013 9:57 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://www.act.nato.int/news-
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
May 7, 2013
Allied Reach 2013 Kicks off in Norfolk, Va.
NATO's senior military leadership and key civilian figures are gathered in Norfolk, VA, USA, for NATO's Allied Reach 2013 (AR 13).
Allied Reach 2013 (AR 13), a high-level seminar conducted biannually and alternately by both of NATO's two Strategic Commands (SC) opened Tuesday. The purpose of AR 13 is to offer an opportunity to frame discussion and build a shared vision of the Alliance's future operating environment.
Participants include NATO nations' senior military and civilian leadership and staff along with select representatives from international and political bodies. This year, Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is the lead SC headquarters planning and running the seminar which is being held over a period of three days. For the occasion the Joint Force Staff College opened its campus to host the event.
The theme of this year's seminar is "Forging the Future – Leading NATO Military Transformation." AR 13 serves to build a common understanding, at both the strategic and operational levels of the potential implications of the evolving strategic and geo-political environment. "This AR seminar is a perfect venue to imagine where the borders of this future operating environment might be and to explore the limits of our future operations within those boundaries" said General Paloméros in his opening remarks. "I am pretty sure that during our seminar we will have to confront the fog of uncertainty of the post 2014 perspective in which the Alliance will have to, once again, keep pace with the changing environment."
The seminar offers a crucial opportunity for senior leaders to frame discussion and debate, and contribute to better prepare NATO in facing future threats and challenges as well as actively participate in the future transformational concept development. It also is a valuable forum to examine which NATO military capabilities may be needed to help secure and defend member nations and assist them, if and when necessary in preserving their respective political and strategic interests, as well as discuss how NATO should be equipped, structured, organized, prepared and trained to meet future challenges.
To enhance the cooperative and collaborative character of the seminar, and in addition to plenary discussions, participants are divided into six working groups required to conduct detailed analysis and debate on the following broader themes: Crisis Management Operations, Cooperative Security and Partnerships, Space and Cyber, Connected Forces Initiative (CFI) and NATO Forces 2020, Collective Defence, and People.
==============================
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North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
May 7, 2013
Allied Reach 2013 Kicks off in Norfolk, Va.
NATO's senior military leadership and key civilian figures are gathered in Norfolk, VA, USA, for NATO's Allied Reach 2013 (AR 13).
Allied Reach 2013 (AR 13), a high-level seminar conducted biannually and alternately by both of NATO's two Strategic Commands (SC) opened Tuesday. The purpose of AR 13 is to offer an opportunity to frame discussion and build a shared vision of the Alliance's future operating environment.
Participants include NATO nations' senior military and civilian leadership and staff along with select representatives from international and political bodies. This year, Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is the lead SC headquarters planning and running the seminar which is being held over a period of three days. For the occasion the Joint Force Staff College opened its campus to host the event.
The theme of this year's seminar is "Forging the Future – Leading NATO Military Transformation." AR 13 serves to build a common understanding, at both the strategic and operational levels of the potential implications of the evolving strategic and geo-political environment. "This AR seminar is a perfect venue to imagine where the borders of this future operating environment might be and to explore the limits of our future operations within those boundaries" said General Paloméros in his opening remarks. "I am pretty sure that during our seminar we will have to confront the fog of uncertainty of the post 2014 perspective in which the Alliance will have to, once again, keep pace with the changing environment."
The seminar offers a crucial opportunity for senior leaders to frame discussion and debate, and contribute to better prepare NATO in facing future threats and challenges as well as actively participate in the future transformational concept development. It also is a valuable forum to examine which NATO military capabilities may be needed to help secure and defend member nations and assist them, if and when necessary in preserving their respective political and strategic interests, as well as discuss how NATO should be equipped, structured, organized, prepared and trained to meet future challenges.
To enhance the cooperative and collaborative character of the seminar, and in addition to plenary discussions, participants are divided into six working groups required to conduct detailed analysis and debate on the following broader themes: Crisis Management Operations, Cooperative Security and Partnerships, Space and Cyber, Connected Forces Initiative (CFI) and NATO Forces 2020, Collective Defence, and People.
==============================
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==============================
Wed May 8, 2013 9:57 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://en.ria.ru/military_news
Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 9, 2013
Estonia Holds Military Drills with NATO Allies
TALLINN: Estonia will hold annual military exercises involving about 4,500 personnel from several NATO countries on May 9-25, the General Staff of the Estonian Defense Forces said.
The Spring Storm drills have been held annually in different parts of Estonia since 2003. This year they will involve for the first time units from the UK, Belgium and Poland as well as the Estonian navy.
"Spring Storm will this year bring together in North Estonia conscripts, reservists, Kaitseliit [Estonian paramilitary organization] members and professional military, as well as our NATO allies with one common goal - to learn to better defend Estonia," said the commanding officer of the exercise, Commander of the Army Col. Artur Tiganik.
NATO allies will be represented by an infantry company from the UK and Latvia each, a reconnaissance platoon from Lithuania and an anti-aircraft missile platoon from Belgium.
In addition, an unspecified number of Polish Sukhoi Su-22 attack aircraft will take part.
Estonia, as well as two other ex-Soviet republics in the Baltics – Latvia and Lithuania, joined NATO in March 2004.
==============================
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==============================
Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 9, 2013
Estonia Holds Military Drills with NATO Allies
TALLINN: Estonia will hold annual military exercises involving about 4,500 personnel from several NATO countries on May 9-25, the General Staff of the Estonian Defense Forces said.
The Spring Storm drills have been held annually in different parts of Estonia since 2003. This year they will involve for the first time units from the UK, Belgium and Poland as well as the Estonian navy.
"Spring Storm will this year bring together in North Estonia conscripts, reservists, Kaitseliit [Estonian paramilitary organization] members and professional military, as well as our NATO allies with one common goal - to learn to better defend Estonia," said the commanding officer of the exercise, Commander of the Army Col. Artur Tiganik.
NATO allies will be represented by an infantry company from the UK and Latvia each, a reconnaissance platoon from Lithuania and an anti-aircraft missile platoon from Belgium.
In addition, an unspecified number of Polish Sukhoi Su-22 attack aircraft will take part.
Estonia, as well as two other ex-Soviet republics in the Baltics – Latvia and Lithuania, joined NATO in March 2004.
==============================
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Wed May 8, 2013 9:57 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://www.mod.gov.ge/?newsid=
Ministry of Defence of Georgia
May 7, 2013
BILC Conference
The conference “NATO Speak: English in Multinational Settings” is ongoing in the “Courtyard Marriott” Hotel. Deputy Defence Minister Tamar Karosanidze opened the Bureau for International Language Coordination (BILC) Conference.
Deputy Chief of JS of GAF [Joint Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces], Colonel Vladimer Chachibaia, representatives of the Defence Ministry and military attaches of NATO member and partner countries accredited to Georgia attended the forum. The conference is hosted by the Defence Ministry of Georgia and Joint Staff of the GAF.
Chairman of BILC Secretary Julie Bubeau leads the seminar.
The BILC conference aims to promote the English language development within the partner countries of the Alliance. 64 delegates from 26 NATO member and partner countries take part in the conference. During four days civilian and military language specialists discuss the issues of elaboration of English language models on the base of received experience, which aims to develop language knowledge level of military personnel contributing to international missions.
The participants of the seminar also touch upon NATO policy in the direction of education, trainings and testing. BILC is a NATO’s advisory body on language matters. Since 2005 BILC experts have been carrying out language training and testing activities within Georgian Armed Forces in order to develop language matters. Annual BILC Conference will come to an end on May 9.
==============================
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==============================
Ministry of Defence of Georgia
May 7, 2013
BILC Conference
The conference “NATO Speak: English in Multinational Settings” is ongoing in the “Courtyard Marriott” Hotel. Deputy Defence Minister Tamar Karosanidze opened the Bureau for International Language Coordination (BILC) Conference.
Deputy Chief of JS of GAF [Joint Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces], Colonel Vladimer Chachibaia, representatives of the Defence Ministry and military attaches of NATO member and partner countries accredited to Georgia attended the forum. The conference is hosted by the Defence Ministry of Georgia and Joint Staff of the GAF.
Chairman of BILC Secretary Julie Bubeau leads the seminar.
The BILC conference aims to promote the English language development within the partner countries of the Alliance. 64 delegates from 26 NATO member and partner countries take part in the conference. During four days civilian and military language specialists discuss the issues of elaboration of English language models on the base of received experience, which aims to develop language knowledge level of military personnel contributing to international missions.
The participants of the seminar also touch upon NATO policy in the direction of education, trainings and testing. BILC is a NATO’s advisory body on language matters. Since 2005 BILC experts have been carrying out language training and testing activities within Georgian Armed Forces in order to develop language matters. Annual BILC Conference will come to an end on May 9.
==============================
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==============================
Wed May 8, 2013 9:57 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"ANTIC.org-SNN" minimaks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
US air force strips 17 officers of power to launch nuclear missiles | World news |guardian.co.uk <http://guardian.co.uk>
The US Air Force has stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to oversee nuclear missiles, after a string of failings that the group's deputy commander said stemmed from "rot" within the ranks. The suspensions followed a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, that resulted in a "D" grade for the team tested on its mastery of the Minuteman III missile launch operations system.
"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the group's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email that was obtained by the Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force. The Air Force had publicly described the inspection as a success.
The news follows a series of incidents in recent years that have uncovered major problems with the oversight of the US's nuclear arsenal. In 2007, airmen at Minot accidentally loaded a B-52 with six nuclear weapons. The aircraft then flew to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. In another incident, nuclear weapons parts were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan. The defense department learned of the error in 2008, 18 months after the fuses for nuclear warheads were shipped.
Minot's crew are supposed to stand ready 24-hours a day to launch missiles on the president's command. A crew member was disciplined in 2008 for falling asleep on duty, while watching nuclear launch-code components.
The 17 officers were part of a team standing 24-hour watch over the Air Force's most powerful nuclear missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can strike targets across the globe. They were removed from duty in April. "You will be a bench warmer for at least 60 days," Folds wrote.
The suspensions are believed to be the most extensive ever. According to the email obtained by AP, Folds moved to discipline the crew after "such rot in the crew force" that a pattern of weapons safety rule violations, possible code compromises and other failings had arisen "all in the name of not inconveniencing yourselves", Folds wrote.
Folds said the crew had also questioned their superiors' orders and failed to show proper respect. An earlier inspection had been deemed "satisfactory" but problems had worsened, he said. "We are breaking you down, and we will build from the ground up," Folds wrote. In another message, he wrote: "It takes real leaders to lead through a crisis and we are, in fact, in a crisis right now."
Minot's latest crisis follows a 2008 Pentagon report that found a "dramatic and unacceptable decline" in the Air Force's commitment to the mission, which has its origins in a Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union. Ahead of the report the then defense secretary, Robert Gates, sacked the Air Force secretary and chief of staff. The Air Force has since taken numerous steps to improve its nuclear performance.
The Air Force told AP that the latest lapses had not put the security of the nuclear force at risk. It said the officers who lost their certification to operate ICBMs were now getting more training, with the expectation that they will return to normal duty within about two months. The missiles remained on their normal war footing, officials said.
Bruce Blair, who served as an Air Force ICBM launch control officer in the 1970s and is now a research scholar at Princeton University, said the Folds email pointed to a broader problem within the nuclear weapons force.
He said problems were not confined to Minot and that the lack of discipline was "extremely worrying". Blair said the jobs were seen as "dead end" positions. "It's tedious work, you are out in the middle of nowhere and answer to nobody," he said. He said problems had been growing for decades and "raised serious concerns about the safety and security of the nuclear missile force".
Blair said the missile system had been set up for a full-scale war for Russia and that it was largely now obsolete. "The force has always been second fiddle to the flying force," he said. Morale had worsened after a decision earlier this year to end a scheme where the nuclear watch crews could train and transfer to more covetable positions in areas like space operations. "That really angered the crew force," he said.
Blair is co-founder of Global Zero, an international group that advocates the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. In 2011, the defense secretary Chuck Hagel, who was then a senator, co-authored a report for Global Zero calling for a dramatic reduction in the US nuclear arsenal, of about 5,000 warheads and bombs, to about 900. "All these guys see the writing on the wall: the future is not nuclear," said Blair.
Thu May 9, 2013 6:51 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_05
Voice of Russia
May 9, 2013
U.S. to maintain 9 bases in Afghanistan after 2014
The United States will maintain nine military bases in Afghanistan after NATO’s troop withdrawal in 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed on Thursday that the bases, including in Kabul, Bagram, Mazari Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat, would stay because that was in the interests of Afghanistan.
The U.S. will cut its Afghan troop contingent from about 66,000 now to between 3,000 and 9,000 after 2014.
------------------------------
http://www.pajhwok.com/en/
Pajhwok Afghan News
May 9, 2013
US seeks 9 military bases in Afghanistan
By Javed Hamim Kakar
KABUL: The United States has demanded nine permanent military bases in Afghanistan, something that has long fuelled concerns among regional countries, President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday.
In the bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) being negotiated between the allies, the president said: “The United States insists on its demands and interests and we stick to our own.”
Addressing a ceremony at the Kabul University, he said Washington had sought military bases in Nangarhar, Parwan, Balkh, Kabul, Paktia, Kandahar, Helmand and Herat provinces.
Iran and Russia have repeatedly opposed a permanent American military presence in Afghanistan, fearing it may exacerbate insecurity in their neighbourhood.
Given the fact that Afghanistan was going through a critical phase of history, his administration was doing its bit to exercise caution in taking important decisions, he observed.
He underlined the need for concrete steps to ensure a better future for the conflict-torn country, notably durable peace and economic security. With this in mind, Afghanistan had signed a strategic pact with the US, he said.
In return for the military bases, Afghanistan wanted the US to ensure its stability, strengthen its economy and equip its armed forces, the president explained.
Karzai believed the presence of US and other foreign troops after 2014 would be in Afghanistan’s interest, but the world had accord primacy to boosting its security forces.
“If they do it, we are ready to sign the BSA with America,” remarked the president, hinting at separate agreements with the NATO states that wanted to stay in Afghanistan after next year’s withdrawal of foreign combat troops.
The president tended to allay concerns about America’s continued presence in his country, saying Afghanistan desired robust ties to its neighbours. He hailed as a success his recent trip to Denmark, Finland and Poland.
Voice of Russia
May 9, 2013
U.S. to maintain 9 bases in Afghanistan after 2014
The United States will maintain nine military bases in Afghanistan after NATO’s troop withdrawal in 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed on Thursday that the bases, including in Kabul, Bagram, Mazari Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat, would stay because that was in the interests of Afghanistan.
The U.S. will cut its Afghan troop contingent from about 66,000 now to between 3,000 and 9,000 after 2014.
------------------------------
http://www.pajhwok.com/en/
Pajhwok Afghan News
May 9, 2013
US seeks 9 military bases in Afghanistan
By Javed Hamim Kakar
KABUL: The United States has demanded nine permanent military bases in Afghanistan, something that has long fuelled concerns among regional countries, President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday.
In the bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) being negotiated between the allies, the president said: “The United States insists on its demands and interests and we stick to our own.”
Addressing a ceremony at the Kabul University, he said Washington had sought military bases in Nangarhar, Parwan, Balkh, Kabul, Paktia, Kandahar, Helmand and Herat provinces.
Iran and Russia have repeatedly opposed a permanent American military presence in Afghanistan, fearing it may exacerbate insecurity in their neighbourhood.
Given the fact that Afghanistan was going through a critical phase of history, his administration was doing its bit to exercise caution in taking important decisions, he observed.
He underlined the need for concrete steps to ensure a better future for the conflict-torn country, notably durable peace and economic security. With this in mind, Afghanistan had signed a strategic pact with the US, he said.
In return for the military bases, Afghanistan wanted the US to ensure its stability, strengthen its economy and equip its armed forces, the president explained.
Karzai believed the presence of US and other foreign troops after 2014 would be in Afghanistan’s interest, but the world had accord primacy to boosting its security forces.
“If they do it, we are ready to sign the BSA with America,” remarked the president, hinting at separate agreements with the NATO states that wanted to stay in Afghanistan after next year’s withdrawal of foreign combat troops.
The president tended to allay concerns about America’s continued presence in his country, saying Afghanistan desired robust ties to its neighbours. He hailed as a success his recent trip to Denmark, Finland and Poland.
