Blair in secret Saudi mission

[EagleEyes]

Blair in secret Saudi mission

Expulsions link to £40bn arms deal

David Leigh and Ewen MacAskill
Tuesday September 27, 2005
The Guardian

Tony Blair and John Reid, the defence secretary, have been holding secret talks with Saudi Arabia in pursuit of a huge arms deal worth up to £40bn, according to diplomatic sources.
Mr Blair went to Riyadh on July 2, en route to Singapore, where Britain was bidding for the 2012 Olympics. Three weeks later, Mr Reid made a two-day visit, when he sought to persuade Prince Sultan, the crown prince, to re-equip his air force with the Typhoon, the European fighter plane of which the British arms company BAE has the lion's share of manufacturing.

Defence, diplomatic and legal sources say negotiations are stalling because the Saudis are demanding three favours. These are that Britain should expel two anti-Saudi dissidents, Saad al-Faqih and Mohammed al-Masari; that British Airways should resume flights to Riyadh, currently cancelled through terrorism fears; and that a corruption investigation implicating the Saudi ruling family and BAE should be dropped. Crown prince Sultan's son-in-law, Prince Turki bin Nasr, is at the centre of a "slush fund" investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
The Saudis have been trying for years to get their hands on Mr Faqih, who they say was involved in a plot to assassinate the recently enthroned King Abdullah. Mr Faqih, who has asylum, denies support for violence, and privately neither the Foreign Office nor the security services regard him as a danger to Britain. Mr Masari fled Saudi Arabia in 1994, and the Major government made an unsuccessful attempt to exile him to the Caribbean island of Dominica under pressure from BAE.

The Typhoon, currently entering service with the RAF, has a price of more than £45m a plane. Saudi Arabia previously bought a fleet of its predecessor Tornados from Britain in the Al Yamamah arms deal. Mike Turner, the chief executive of BAE, Britain's biggest arms company, was quoted in Flight International magazine on June 21, just before Mr Blair's Riyadh trip, saying: "The objective is to get the Typhoon into Saudi Arabia. We've had £43bn from Al Yamamah over the last 20 years and there could be another £40bn."

There is concern within the Foreign Office at the apparent partiality of No 10 to BAE's commercial interests. Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair's chief of staff, and his brother Charles, Lady Thatcher's former adviser and now a BAE consultant, are believed to be in favour of the deal.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11...1579156,00.html

 

[Owais]

10 crashes, but 2005 IAF’s safest in 36 years

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 30: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has a long way to go as far as flight safety is concerned, but 2005 has been its safest in 36 years. In the year gone by, the IAF recorded 10 crashes, still a large figure, but a marked improvement over the past four decades. This now puts the IAF on a par with the safest operational air forces in the world.

This year’s crash statistics mark a 50 per cent improvement over last year’s, which the then IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy had pronounced the safest year of flying for the force with just 15 crashes, including three Mirage and four Jaguar aircraft.

Interestingly the 50 per cent drop in crashes over the previous year was a prediction made by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee in May when he received the Expert Committee on Air Accidents’ report on how to bring down crashes. He had said at the time that if the report’s recommendations were implemented, crashes could be brought down by 50 per cent over the next two years. Only, the IAF managed to achieve that in half the predicted time.

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi’s vision for a zero crash rate may be only an ideal, given the inherent risks of military aviation, but a more realistic statistic being aimed at, according to informed sources in the force, is about five per year with no pilot fatalities. This year, six pilots lost their lives in crashes involving four MiG-21s, two Jaguars, a Mi-17 helicopter, a Canberra fighter bomber, a HPT-32 trainer and a Kiran MKII.

But a closer inspection of year-on-year statistics reveals the long road ahead for the force yet. Last year, an achievement of sorts was in only one MiG-21 going down, though this year saw four MiG-21 crashes. Last year saw an unprecedented succession of three quick Mirage-2000 crashes, though this year it was a completely safe year for the force’s mascot jet. In 2005 the IAF also managed to eliminate crashes of the MiG-32BN, widely thought to be one of the riskiest jets to fly.

A senior IAF officer indicated that IAF had spent the last year revamping and reviewing existing flying and ground environment in terms of bird hazards, navigational aids, surveillance radars, location of flying units and organisational factors that directly affect flight safety

what a great trained force!

 

[Owais]

£40bn Saudi fighter jet deal brings RAF shortage fears
IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent December 30 2005

SAUDI Arabia plans to buy more than 200 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from the UK in a deal worth up to £40bn including spares, maintenance and training over the next 20 years, The Herald has learned.
The deal has been confirmed by Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia's deputy prime minister and defence and aviation chief, although details will not be disclosed until next March.
The news follows the announcement this week that 24 of the second batch of Typhoons already on order for the RAF will be diverted to the Saudi air force from 2008.
RAF insiders fear that selling aircraft to offset the Ministry of Defence's contractual obligations to the Eurofighter consortium will not only reduce the number deployed in UK frontline squadrons, but will also produce a spares shortage when the Saudis are inevitably granted priority of supply.
Despite MoD denials, RAF Tornado jets were left unserviceable in the 1990s in similar circumstances as the Saudis bought more than 100 as a deterrent to Iraq and Iran and demanded first call on spares.
The RAF is committed to buying 232 Eurofighter jets in fighter and ground-attack versions, with the first squadron due to enter service next year.
Deliveries of the 55 tranche one Typhoons have begun, and the MoD has signed up for 89 more in tranche two. More than 600 of the fighters are in the pipeline for UK, German, Italian and Spanish air forces, who collaborated on the jets' development.
Although more than six years late and £2bn over budget, Typhoon is rated as being able to rival the best US and Russian-built fighter planes. Each RAF jet will cost £45m, in a package worth £19bn.
Prince Sultan, the Sandhurst-trained head of the Saudi military, said at a dinner in Riyadh: "The kingdom will purchase more than 200 Eurofighter Typhoons. We shall disclose the details by next March."
Part of the deal is believed to involve the UK disposing of up to 200 ageing aircraft in the Saudi inventory. Neither BAE Systems, the aircraft's UK manufacturer, nor the MoD is willing to discuss future contracts.
The Tornados were sold as part of the £43bn al Yamamah contract, the UK's biggest defence deal. The sum was paid in oil, which will be the currency for the Typhoon sale.
Although the MoD said this week that the RAF's needs would be unaffected by the deal, few RAF officers believe that all 232 Typhoons on order will see UK service.
The MoD is also committed to buying 150 US Joint Strike Fighters for £9bn, building two aircraft-carriers for £3.8bn and spending huge amounts on other military equipment as the bill for Typhoon tranche three becomes payable.
A senior source told The Herald: "The Saudi deal is a godsend to the bean counters and politicians. Somewhere down the line, there will be a reassessment of RAF needs, and part of our order will head for the desert without being replaced."

 

[Owais]

Russia to begin supplying Su-30MKM fighters to Malaysia in 2006
Itar-Tass
Fri, 30 Dec 2005, 10:31

IRKUTSK: Russian aircraft-makers will begin supplying Su-30MKM fighters to Malaysia in 2006, officials at the Irkut research and production corporation told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

Although the 900-million-dollar contract to manufacture 18 Su-30MKM aircraft was signed in the summer of 2003, the parties began its implementation in the beginning of this year.

A group of Malaysian Air Force experts has come to the city of Irkutsk to specify the procedures to purchase equipment and materials.

Earlier, Russia supplied several dozen such planes /Su-30MKI/ to India.

The aircraft is a multi-purposes fighter intended for winning air superiority and destroying ground and seaborne targets. It can fly missions at a considerable distance from the base, in all weather conditions, day and night, and amidst electronic warfare.

Aside from the manufacture of 18 Su-30MKM, the contract envisions their servicing in Malaysia, with subsequent modernization, if necessary.

To this end, Irkut, the head company, will open a service center in Malaysia

 

[Owais]

Russian nuclear agency head to visit Iran in February
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Tue, 3 Jan 2006, 06:29

MOSCOW: The head of Russia's federal atomic energy agency will visit Iran in February for talks with Iranian officials, a spokesman said Friday, as Tehran mulls a Russian proposal to end a stand-off over its nuclear ambitions.

Sergei Kirienko will "visit the reactor at Bushehr that is being built by Russian specialists and will also hold talks with the directors of the Iranian nuclear programme," Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Rosatom agency, was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying.

Kirienko also hopes to establish a final timetable for completion of the reactor, which is set to be switched on in 2006, Rosatom said.

Russia is building Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr in the south of the country and has agreed to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran over 10 years, with the spent fuel being sent back to Russia.

The United States has accused Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb under the pretence of setting up a peaceful atomic energy programme.

Moscow has proposed a way out of the stand-off that would involve Russia enriching uranium on Russian soil on behalf of Iran, thereby guaranteeing its civilian use.

Iranian officials said this week they were examining the proposal, which has received backing from the European Union and the United States.