Raytheon and General Atomics team-up to integrate onto MALD Reaper

Raytheon and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Have joined forces, to integrate the Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) onto the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft.

The companies say That Were ground verification tests completed in November 2012 at General Atomics' Gray Butte flight operations facility in Palmdale, California. Raytheon's MALD of integration onto the General Atomics-built aircraft is expected to be completed in 2013.

"Integrating MALD is remotely Piloted aircraft weaponry systems is integral to Maintaining air superiority in today's and tomorrow's conflicts," says Harry Schulte, Raytheon's vice president of air warfare systems. "This new Offering Provides Unprecedented electronic warfare capability Enabling remote, unmanned suppression of enemy air defenses"

Elbit Develops Unique Surveillance System with BEL

The company is icts Expanding cooperation in India, signs memorandum of understanding with BEL at Aero India exhibition for the development of a new surveillance system

Elbit Systems has signed HAS memorandum of understanding with the Indian company Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) at Aero India, the 9th International Exhibition on Aerospace, Defense and Civil Aviation, taking up at Bengaluru, India. El-Op, an Elbit filiale, at the expo Announced That  it will Jointly economic development of a Compact Multi Purpose Advance Stabilization System (COMPASS) for naval applications with BEL.

Compass is a surveillance system Intended for day and night applications and includes a color camera, a sensor 3rd generation FLIR, Laser Target Designator and a Rangefinder (LTDRF) as well as automatic tracking and command and control capabilities.

The compact system includes a mission computer further Top, fire control radar, GPS and other subsystems, and it is Intended for use in a variety of platforms and interfaces

RQ-21A Small UAV Completes First Flight Ship-Based

RQ-21A Small Tactical Unmanned Air System Completes First Flight Ship-Based

GULF OF MEXICO --- The Navy's RQ-21A Small Tactical Unmanned Air System (STUAS) completed icts first flight at sea Feb. 10 from the San Antonio-class amphibious dock transportation USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19).

The system completed three months of trial flights land-based at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif.., Before launching from a LPD-class ship.

EADS confirms offer for Denis Ranque his presidency

The Appointments Committee of EADS confirmed on Wednesday proposed to appoint former CEO Denis Ranque, Thales to its presidency in the context of the evolution of its governance.

This proposal will be considered by the new Board of Directors at the end of an extraordinary general meeting held on 27 March, which will also decide on a proposed acquisition of shares, said the European aerospace and defense .

The parent company of Airbus announced the selection of Denis Ranque on the social network Twitter.

The former CEO of Thales, aged 61, is expected to succeed to the presidency Arnaud Lagardère, the group plans to sell its stake in EADS.

The announcement Wednesday confirmed the information obtained last week by Reuters from two sources familiar with the matter.

The No. 2 Pentagon Patriot inspects the Syrian-Turkish border

During his first official visit to Ankara, the number two at the Pentagon, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter spent the day with Turkish officials of the defense, and he then went southeast of Gaziantep near the Syrian border to inspect one of two Patriot missile batteries that are U.S. Border Syrian-Turkish.

But before meeting with Turkish leaders, the number two defense in the United States was stopped at the U.S. Embassy on Atatürk Boulevard, where Friday 1st February, a suicide attack against a checkpoint on the perimeter the embassy, ​​killed Mustafa Akarsu a guard in his forties, father of two teenagers.

At the embassy, ​​Monday, February 4, Ambassador Frank Ricciardone ordered the American flag be flown at half mast until sunset Wednesday, February 6, and hours of work and staff at the embassy were temporarily reduced .

Members of the Embassy staff working today to welcome the Deputy Secretary of Defense, observed a minute of silence at 13:13 one minute, hour Ankara, exactly 72 hours after the explosion of the bomb. The explosion blew out the windows on Friday checkpoints, throwing shards of glass and debris, killing and injuring several people who tried Akarsu Mustafa tried to save the lives of his colleagues and friends.

Senators ask Obama for Legal Basis for Targeted killings of Americans

U.S. Senators Have Requested the legal justification for the killings of U.S. Citizens Suspected of Terrorism by the Obama administration. Meanwhile a 'chilling' leaked memo que le Showed little need for government Sees constraint on the outcome.

A group of 11 Senators wrote a letter on Monday to President Barack Obama, Asking him to release all Justice Department memo 's on the practice of targeting U.S. Citizens Suspected of Being terrorist leaders with lethal force, drone airstrikes Particularly. The request comes as the administration seeks Senate approval for John Brennan, Obama's nomination for CIA chief.

"As the Senate considers a number of nominees for senior national security positions, we ask That You Ensure That Congress is Provided with the secret legal opinions Outlining your authority to Authorize the killing of Americans in the course of counterterrorism operations," the letter's opening paragraph reads.

Brennan, who is deputy national security advisor to the president, is to face questioning from the Senate Intelligence Committee on February 7. As the Obama administration caries on Many of the Bush-era Policies That exist in something of a legal gray area, Lawmakers want to be sour They Have all the information possible in order to "avoid year Unnecessary confrontation That Could Affect the Senate's consideration of nominees for national security positions. "

Shipborne helicopters of the Russian Navy will have a new 'vision'

Ka-27M helicopters of the Russian Navy will have a "vision" of improved radar, they will be equipped with tactical command systems based on a new radar.

The complex systems unite aboard the helicopter, including precision acoustic monitoring, radio magnetic, and radar systems. All data will be displayed on the dashboard.

Venezuelan opposition cracks could help Chavez's allies

 Venezuela's multiple opposition parties took a decade to unite against President Hugo Chavez, but old strains are emerging again just as he could be forced from power by cancer.The increasingly public tensions between moderates and radicals within the five-year-old Democratic Unity coalition play into the government's hands should Chavez fail to recover from the disease and a new presidential election be held."They're beating each other up. They have no respect for agreements, that's the opposition we have," gloated Congress head Diosdado Cabello, the third most powerful government figure after Chavez and Vice President Nicolas Maduro.After years of in-fighting, election defeats and chaotic attempts to remove Chavez through street protests, an oil industry strike and even a brief coup, some 30 ideologically diverse political groups formed the opposition coalition in 2008.

Spain’s Premier Is Drawn Into a Widening Graft Scandal Gripping His Party

Just as Spain’s financial troubles seemed to be diminishing, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has become engulfed in a widening corruption scandal involving paymeOn Thursday, El País, Spain’s leading newspaper, published what it said were excerpts from the party’s financial accounts that showed regular payouts to leading party members above their official salaries. Mr. Rajoy first appeared in the ledgers in 1997 and received sums averaging $34,000 a year through 2008, the newspaper said. The money, it said, came from “donations” from companies, particularly construction companies.

Former party treasurers, including Luis Bárcenas, who has been at the heart of the scandal, are suspected of maintaining the ledgers. Two weeks ago, the Swiss authorities informed Spanish investigators that Mr. Bárcenas had deposited as much as $29 million in Swiss bank accounts. El País, which said it gained access to the Popular Party’s internal accounts from 1990 to 2008, said that Mr. Rajoy declined to comment on its report until internal and external audits ordered by him into the party’s finances were complete. The audits were ordered after news of the Swiss accounts emerged.

But the report is certain to compound the troubles facing his government as it tries to navigate Spain’s economic crisis in a climate of increasing anger and suspicion from the public of all politicians, as scandals related to Spain’s boom years before the 2008 economic collapse come to light in all corners of the country.

Milan court convicts 3 Americans in CIA kidnapping

 A Milan appeals court on Friday vacated acquittals for a former CIA station chief and two other Americans, and instead convicted them in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.
The decision means that all 26 Americans tried in absentia for the abduction now have been found guilty.
The ongoing trials, which have dragged on for years, brought the first convictions anywhere in the world against CIA agents involved in a practice alleged to have led to torture. The case has been the source of diplomatic tensions, although three successive Italian leaders, including the technical government of Premier Mario Monti, have invoked state secrets, which has had the impact of limiting evidence in the successive trials and led to the acquittals of five Italians, including two spy chiefs.
An appeals court sentenced former CIA Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli to seven years, and handed sentences of six years each to Americans Betnie Medero and Ralph Russomando. A lower court, while convicting 23 other Americans in November 2009, had acquitted the three, citing diplomatic immunity.
None of the Americans have ever been in Italian custody or have ever appeared in court, but they risk arrest if they travel to Europe. Only two have had any contact with their lawyers, both of whom expressly requested their own counsel late in the first trial phase, in the face of U.S. official silence on the case and citing special personal and legal circumstances. A number of the names listed on the official docket are believed to be aliases.