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Brigadier
Iran reserves right to respond if US pulls out of JCPOA: Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
Interview - May 3, 2018
Interview - May 3, 2018
Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter delft
- Start date
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Brigadier
Pentagon to Keep Backing Lebanon Military, Despite Hezbollah Gains
"The U.S. military is committed to supporting and providing assistance to the Lebanese armed forces, the Pentagon said on Friday, despite the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies making significant gains in parliamentary election
Shi'ite Muslim movement Hezbollah, together with parties and politicians aligned to it, won more than half the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament on Sunday."
"The U.S. military is committed to supporting and providing assistance to the Lebanese armed forces, the Pentagon said on Friday, despite the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies making significant gains in parliamentary election
Shi'ite Muslim movement Hezbollah, together with parties and politicians aligned to it, won more than half the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament on Sunday."
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Brigadier
Interview of Mr Mohammad Javad Zarif the Minister of foreign affairs of Iran, In European Parliament . . .
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Brigadier
Israel's nuclear capabilities - An In-depth....
While Israel is one of the loudest voices calling for a tougher line on Iran's nuclear program, its own nuclear capability has never been put to inspection.
Trump Administration calls for serious action against Iran and North Korea, but are reluctant to take any action against its own Ally which possesses the capability, keeping it low profile. And many in today's world are aware of the fact that Isreal is Nuclear capable!
While Israel is one of the loudest voices calling for a tougher line on Iran's nuclear program, its own nuclear capability has never been put to inspection.
Trump Administration calls for serious action against Iran and North Korea, but are reluctant to take any action against its own Ally which possesses the capability, keeping it low profile. And many in today's world are aware of the fact that Isreal is Nuclear capable!
Pretty good argument the Minister of foreign affairs has.
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Brigadier
China’s Xi backs nuclear deal in talks with Iran leader..
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the Iran nuclear deal to be "earnestly" implemented as he met the country’s president following the US withdrawal from the pact, state media said Monday.
Xi met one-on-one with Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Sunday following a two-day regional security summit in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao that also included Russia and former Soviet republics.
President Donald Trump announced last month the US was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions that would hit international businesses working in the Islamic republic.
The other parties to the deal — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — have vowed to stay in the accord but their companies risk huge penalties if they keep doing business in Iran.
In his meeting with Rouhani, Xi described the deal as "an important outcome of multilateralism", according to the official Xinhua news service.
Xi said the deal is "conducive to safeguarding peace and stability in the Middle East and the international non-proliferation regime, and should continue to be implemented earnestly," according to Xinhua.
Rouhani said Iran expects the international community, including China, "to play a positive role in properly dealing with relevant issues", the agency reported.
During the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the assembled leaders, including Rouhani, that the US withdrawal could "destabilise the situation" but Moscow still supports the "unconditional implementation" of the deal.
Rouhani also had a bilateral meeting with Putin in Qingdao on Saturday and said more talks were needed between their two countries following Washington’s "illegal" withdrawal, according to the Kremlin.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the Iran nuclear deal to be "earnestly" implemented as he met the country’s president following the US withdrawal from the pact, state media said Monday.
Xi met one-on-one with Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Sunday following a two-day regional security summit in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao that also included Russia and former Soviet republics.
President Donald Trump announced last month the US was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions that would hit international businesses working in the Islamic republic.
The other parties to the deal — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — have vowed to stay in the accord but their companies risk huge penalties if they keep doing business in Iran.
In his meeting with Rouhani, Xi described the deal as "an important outcome of multilateralism", according to the official Xinhua news service.
Xi said the deal is "conducive to safeguarding peace and stability in the Middle East and the international non-proliferation regime, and should continue to be implemented earnestly," according to Xinhua.
Rouhani said Iran expects the international community, including China, "to play a positive role in properly dealing with relevant issues", the agency reported.
During the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the assembled leaders, including Rouhani, that the US withdrawal could "destabilise the situation" but Moscow still supports the "unconditional implementation" of the deal.
Rouhani also had a bilateral meeting with Putin in Qingdao on Saturday and said more talks were needed between their two countries following Washington’s "illegal" withdrawal, according to the Kremlin.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Why did this Iraqi army brigade swap its American Abrams tanks for Russian ones?
By: 20 hours ago
tanks for the Russian T-90S main battle tank — possibly for geopolitical reasons.
The swap comes after U.S. officials complained that Abrams tanks ended up in the hands of , and may be an avenue through which Russia is attempting to gain more influence in the region.
"I think the move was at least partly motivated by smoothing over that issue,” said James Phillips, a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at the Heritage Foundation.
“But also it was a pointed reminder that the [United States] does not have a monopoly on tanks, and that Iraq can get them from Russia, as well,” he added. “This diminishes U.S. leverage and increases Baghdad’s options in the future."
The deal began earlier this year, when Russian state media reported that the first delivery of roughly 35 Russian tanks had arrived in February, and another batch of more than 30 additional tanks would arrive in late April.
That second delivery appeared to be confirmed last week, when the Iraqi Ministry of Defense posted an showcasing the new T-90S tanks.
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A Russian T-90 main battle tank variant cruises through mud and water during a demonstration. (Ramil Sitdikov/Sputnik)
Iraqi Chief of General Staff Osman Ganimi said the contract for the tanks would help with “increasing combat capacity of armored troops,” according to Russian state media.
Iraqi military officials announced the tanks are going to two battalions within the 9th Armored Division, 35th Mechanized Brigade, according to a translation of the video by Military Times staff.
The remaining Abrams tanks were redistributed over the 34th Armored Brigade, also within the same division.
The deal was initiated at a time when as many as nine tanks fell into the hands of Iranian-backed militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, which are primarily Shiite units connected to Iran but permitted to fight by the Iraqi government.
Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, told Military Times in February that the U.S. military does not provided defense equipment to the PMF.
“However, we have discovered incidents where some U.S.-origin equipment, including M1 Abrams tanks, came into the possession of certain PMF groups,” Pahon said.
Although Pahon added that the equipment was used to fight Islamic State militants, there have been reports that Abrams tanks helped crush , in October.
”All of these tanks were recently returned to Iraqi Security Forces custody,” Pahon said.
Regardless, the alleged use of the Abrams by Iranian-backed militias has caused some speculation that General Dynamics would pull its contract to maintain the tanks.
If that were to happen, the existing Abrams fleet could fall into disrepair. Moving to a Russian procurement process with the T-90 tanks would circumvent that point of friction.
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An Iraqi soldier stands atop an Abrams tank during a training session with U.S. troops on using the U.S.-made main battle tanks. In August 2010, Iraq took delivery of the first Abrams tanks. (Ali Al Saadi/AFP)
Iraqi officials said that Russian experts on the tanks had retrained officers and armored crews from the 35th Mechanized Brigade on the new equipment. The press release did not say whether the individuals helping with retraining were Russian military officials or industry contractors.
The T-90S is produced by UralVagonZavod — one of the largest main battle tank manufacturers in the world.
‘“It is one of the most sought-after tanks on the arms market,” the company says of the tank on its official website, adding that “the tank is an export version of the T-90.”
The T-90 tanks are an outgrowth of the Soviet-era T-72s, variants of which were widely used by the Iraqi Ba'athist Army prior to the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein.
The T-90S is outfitted with a 125 mm smoothbore tank gun, with a rate of fire of seven rounds per minute. The tank also has a 12.7 mm remote-controlled anti-aircraft heavy machine gun and can reach top speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour.
The T-90 tank is reportedly sought after by armed forces across the world looking to build modern armored units with advances like explosive reactive armor — which helps defeat increasingly common high explosive anti-tank warheads — as well as electronic countermeasure suites and heavier weapons systems.
Russian Fan boi will of course make an Argument of the Superiority of the T90S vs the M1A1 Abrams. Most of those arguments though are dubious. The Gas Turbine Engine is an Excellent power pack for a MBT, Where the Conventional Diesel requires far more maintenance and to get the power levels to match the Gas Turbine has to be turbocharged reducing the fuel efficiency. The Autoloader allows reduced crew, allowing a smaller tank and therefore lighter but requires more maintenance and the type used by the Russian design has a risk of explosion. the Armor is reliant on ERA tiles to make up for lack of armor density, but then again Abrams Export lack DU mesh anyway. the biggest advantage for T90 vs Abrams is mostly cost. The US paid for there Abrams tanks early on but if Iraq is to buy a tank they would be more likely to focus on Cost. The Russian tanks are half the Price of the Abrams, They are also 3 man tanks allowing the Iraqis so dedicate a smaller number of tankers to there crews vs the 4 man Abrams.
The other advantage is, The US is not involved. The US is rather picky when it comes to how somethings are used. If the Iraqis hand an Abrams to an Iranian backed group The US might just decide to blow up the Tank on it's own.
If they hand the Keys of a T90S to said group The Russians don't care.
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Brigadier
Lockheed Martin To Supply F-16 Block 70 Fighter Jets Worth $1.12B To Bahrain.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a foreign military sales (FMS) contract to supply 16 F-16 Block 70 fighter aircraft, the newest generation of Fighting Falcon, to Bahrain, the Department of Defense announced Friday.
“Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas; and Lockheed Martin, Greenville, South Carolina, have been awarded a $1,124,545,002 fixed-price-incentive-firm contract for F-16 production. This contract provides for the production of 16 F-16 V Block 70 aircraft,” the statement says.
This contract involves 100 percent foreign military sales (FMS) to the Kingdom of Bahrain, the release said.
The Block 70 is the newest and most advanced F-16 production configuration, combining numerous capability and structural upgrades. The aircraft has improved radar systems, advanced weapons capabilities and enhanced battlespace awareness.
Work will be performed in Greenville, South Carolina; and Fort Worth, Texas. The work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2023.
This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. FMS funds in the amount of $551,027,050 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity, the statement added.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a foreign military sales (FMS) contract to supply 16 F-16 Block 70 fighter aircraft, the newest generation of Fighting Falcon, to Bahrain, the Department of Defense announced Friday.
“Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas; and Lockheed Martin, Greenville, South Carolina, have been awarded a $1,124,545,002 fixed-price-incentive-firm contract for F-16 production. This contract provides for the production of 16 F-16 V Block 70 aircraft,” the statement says.
This contract involves 100 percent foreign military sales (FMS) to the Kingdom of Bahrain, the release said.
The Block 70 is the newest and most advanced F-16 production configuration, combining numerous capability and structural upgrades. The aircraft has improved radar systems, advanced weapons capabilities and enhanced battlespace awareness.
Work will be performed in Greenville, South Carolina; and Fort Worth, Texas. The work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2023.
This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. FMS funds in the amount of $551,027,050 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity, the statement added.