Note that the American military and the Russian Rosoboronexport have previously sealed a contract for the supply of twenty-one Mi-17V5 multipurpose helicopters to Afghanistan. Here is the new agreement that should be signed as well:
Posts Tagged Military
Ratko Mladic was arrested this morning May 26, 2011. He was caught in the village of Lazarevo, in Vojvodina, Serbia. It has been reported that Ratko Mladic was picked up by the Serbian police but president Boris Tadic stated that the fugitive was caught by the Serbian Security Intelligence Agency in his cousin’s house.
Mladic should be extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in a couple of days so that he can be tried. President Boris Tadic declared that this arrest would bring Serbia one step closer to full reconciliation in the Balkan region.
Watch the video:
According to the case sheet of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Ratko Mladic is indicted for:
- Genocide; complicity in genocide;
- Persecutions on political; racial and religious grounds; extermination; murder; deportation (crimes against humanity, Articles 5 and 7)
- Murder, unlawfully inflicting terror upon civilians, cruel treatment, attacks on civilians, taking of hostages (violation of the laws or customs of war, Articles 3 and 7)
The UN ICTY has already indicted – among the most wanted ones – the former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic; the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic; Croatian Ante Gotovina – recently sentenced; and 158 other men. As Franjo Tudjman, former president of Croatia is dead, he will not be convicted. The former president of the RSK (Republic of Serbian Krajina), Goran Hadzic would be the last fugitive.
More than 200,000 people died during the latest Yugoslav wars. May they rest in peace.
The White House made it clear on May 21, 2011 that president Obama did not intend to abide by the letter of the 1973 WPR id est War Powers Resolution requiring to get congressional approval. Moreover, president Obama has sent a letter to the Congress in which he states that “drone attacks and suppression and destruction of air defenses don’t qualify as hostilities under the resolution.
In the aftermath of this discrepancy, it is deemed that Operation Odissey Dawn is not likely to be cut off unless the Congress presses the president to stop the operation in Libya:
The Indian Air Force Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) should be a European fighter jet. India shortlisted the Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Rafale for a $12 billion fighter jet deal. 126 fighter aircraft are to be ordered! As controversial rumours have spread for months through the Internet and the Indian channels, nobody could be certain of the sort of decision that could be made. For instance, remember this idea of purchasing two different combat aircraft that was issued a few months ago. Then, the news came right out of the blue yesterday April 28, 2011. Indeed the American, Russian, and Swedish jetfighters have been discarded.
According to the video hereafter,
The high-flying American campaign to win the $10 billion multirole combat aircraft tender has crashed.
The Indian Defence Ministry confirmed that the F/A-18F Super Hornet and the latest F-16IN were out of the race. Neither of these U.S. fighters would have met the Indian Air Force’s technical requirements during the trials that were also submitted to the JAS-39 Gripen; the MiG-35; the Rafale; and the Typhoon.
RAFALE La Ferté Alais 2010 - Xavier Cotton http://passiondesavions.blogspot.com/
One may wonder why the Gripen was not selected in this competition. Well, this excellent aircraft is not equipped with any arrestor hook, and that is probably why it has not been kept in the race for this tender.
According to previous articles in this very website, the assumption that a Rafale might have shot down an F-22 Raptor plus some other rumours about the French combat aircraft performance left my readers in utter disbelief two years ago.
It is important to notice that the Rafale purchase is a rather expensive option. However, it should also be noted that, in spite of the modest political clout of France in India, as well as its price tag – $90 million – the Dassault Rafale remains in the final competition. A transfer-of-technology amendment might be added to the contract.
As the Super Hornet and the Super Viper have been rejected, this is a deep disapointment for Lockheed Martin; McDonnell Douglas; Boeing; General Dynamics; as well as a real watershed in the geopolitical approach in Asia.
Photo courtesy: Xavier Cotton http://passiondesavions.blogspot.com/
How many of them are there, the U.S. taxpayers may wonder? According to this video, there could be up to 1,077 American military compounds all over the world…
