GCC Announces a Joint Military Command

[Hakan]

Yes.

Search British-Argentina war (The farkland wars).

During initial days of war, Argentinian Air Force struck invading British ships by using their French-made anti-ship weapons...but as days progressed, Argentinians seemed helpless and their missiles would never be able to even come close to British ships etc.

"Later", after British crushed Argentinia...it was revealed that French had 'helped' Britain by giving them source codes and all the other relevant information about the anti-ship missiles, and in this way, Argentinian French-made weapons were literally useless against British forces.

America can and most likely will do the exact same thing whenever it feels like.



Exactly.

All the 'informed' people know that.

I found this. Do you have any other sources?

Did the British have the command-destruct codes but chose not to use them?
Commenters suggest that the British, having urgently pressured Mitterand into giving up the secret destruct-codes, may have then decided to sacrifice the lives of dozens (potentially hundreds) of servicemen and hundreds of millions of pounds worth of assets to prevent the Argentinians from somehow deducing that the British might have access to secret destruct codes of which the Argentinians were hitherto either unaware or had neglected to change despite knowing how.

The least we can say is that the reported events of the Falklands war provide no evidence to support the claim that Exocets in 1982 had a remote command-destruct feature.

war - Can Exocet missiles be remotely disabled with secret codes? - Skeptics Stack Exchange

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Americans wont allow altering codes, the truth is you cannot use American systems against American will.

I was talking on a hypothetical sense not from a one-side perspective.

 

[HRK]

GCC Still Struggling To Develop Integrated Air Defense

ABU DHABI — Two years onward, American and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) air defense commanders are still calling for development of an integrated missile defense system in the region as Iran reveals a new series of ballistic missile tests.

Failure to implement the system has been blamed on international policies that have hampered integration by military commanders, said experts at the fourth Middle East Missile Defence Symposium (MEMAD) here this week.

Brig. Gen. Majed Al Neaimi, commander of the UAE Air Force and Air Missile Defence Brigade, told audiences that interoperability restrictions between GCC countries, NATO countries and the US prevent data-sharing and limit training.

“Preventing partner countries from sharing data with friendly forces impacts the development of an integrated system,” Al Neimi said. “The current policies limit our training capabilities and foreign disclosure policies need to be reviewed to enhance our bilateral training needs.”

Interoperability policy changes will enable forces to practice the rules of engagement and develop coalition tactics, techniques and procedures, he added.

“The regional threat is real and growing, building a regional [missile defense] capability can’t be fully achieved without interoperability between our regional and allies forces,” Al Neaimi said.

“We should work together with our allies to find a quick solution to the foreign disclosure and policies issues, enhance training exercises to lead our forces to the highest readiness standards. GCC needs for a long-range early warning system is essential,” Al Neaimi said.

Rear Adm. James Loeblein, deputy commander of the US Naval Central Command, echoed Al Neaimi’s call for a unified platform.

“We must be able to integrate with our partner nations to meet the [ballistic missile] threat,” Loeblein said.

“For that we must first share intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to face the asymmetric threats out there,” he said.

Loeblein stressed that the US must share with partner nations existing platforms to help develop an integrated missile defense system and that must include a combined command-and-control architecture.

Currently, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are the only countries in the region that operate the same system as US forces, the Link 16 system. The system enables the two countries to coordinate and share data and intelligence among themselves and other countries that operate it.

On Monday, Iran announced that a new series of medium- range ballistic missiles have been designed and test-fired.

As quoted by the Iranian news agency FNA, Ahmed Reza Pourdastan, commander of the Iranian Ground Forces, said the new missiles have a greater range and and improved quality compared with the Naze’at-10 medium-range ballistic missiles.

“The laboratory production of these missiles has started and one or two samples have been test-fired,” he added.

Pourdastan said the new missiles will be unveiled and used as a new class of missiles.

Despite the lack of a unified missile defense shield, individually, the GCC has a multilayered approach to missile defense. GCC countries share Patriot systems and Pantsir-S1 Russian anti-aircraft missile-gun systems.

In addition, the UAE in December 2011 purchased two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems at the cost of $1.96 billion. Saudi Arabia, whose air-defense net consists of 49 PAC-2 Patriots, MIM-23B Improved Hawk and French AMX-30SA batteries, has expressed some interest in THAAD, as has Qatar.

The current air defense net in the region, said retired Maj. Gen. Khalid Bu Ainnain, former chief of the UAE Air Force and Air Defence, protects parts of the GCC but not all.

“With this, Bahrain, Qatar the UAE and parts of Oman and Saudi can be defended,” said Bu Ainnain. “However, a coordinated GCC defense effort can cover the whole region.”

According to Bu Ainnain, who is president of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, the UAE has the equipment to protect its assets but the rapid development of potential missile threats poses a challenge.

“The impact of the threat on GCC vital interests include quick attack, precision strikes against critical infrastructure and the ability to overwhelm defenses,” he said.

 

[kalu_miah]

@Yzd Khalifa @al-Hasani @Arabian Legend its great to see that GCC is getting more organized. I am also hoping the GCC will soon include countries like Morocco, Jordan, Libya and Egypt. Creating an integrated space with free flow of goods and services will help develop a single market, which will help the development of the more underdeveloped areas and make a powerful bloc of nations. In the long term, only in this way of regional integration, financed by wealthier nations, Arab League nations can become more self sufficient, reduce dependence on external powers and face external threats. I am glad to see that nations like Saudi Arabia and UAE are taking the lead in this effort.

It will also be good for geopolitical security and standing of large Muslim countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

I am sorry I am not active as before in MEA section, because may be it is raising eyebrows with some hostile sides in and around my country, so I am keeping a low profile, but I always watch with interest what is going on in GCC and Arab world, as it is vital for our national security.

One thing I wanted to mention is that watch out for Turkey. Turkey's inclusion in NATO bloc may negatively affect Muslim nations of the world, as NATO objectives always do not match with Muslim world objective. So be careful with them. More and more I believe in Sino-Muslim alliance, which NATO may not like and as a part of NATO, Turkey also may not like.

 

[al-Hasani]

@kalu_miah

Long time no see my friend. I hope that everything is well with you.

I agree fully with your analysis. I just want to add that the GCC is among the most resource rich parts of the world and this means that playing on several horses is the right solution as seen today. There is no need to make a choice. GCC has excellent relations with USA and China which is the biggest trading partner. I see no need to change that.
More or less full self-sufficiency is a question of time. Not if but just when. The West and other partners know this very well but I don't see them plotting against the region for that reason alone. Too much at stake for both parties. The world wants that part of the ME to be stable due to its economic, political and religious importance.

 

[kalu_miah]

@kalu_miah

Long time no see my friend. I hope that everything is well with you.

I agree fully with your analysis. I just want to add that the GCC is among the most resource rich parts of the world and this means that playing on several horses is the right solution as seen today. There is no need to make a choice. GCC has excellent relations with USA and China which is the biggest trading partner. I see no need to change that.
More or less full self-sufficiency is a question of time. Not if but just when. The West and other partners know this very well but I don't see them plotting against the region for that reason alone. Too much at stakes for both parties.

Everything is well thank you. How about yourself?

Yes full self sufficiency is the key and I agree its just a matter of time for GCC countries if Arab League integration makes progress. Once a good part of Arab League is integrated and self sufficiency is achieved, only then there will be option to choose sides if there is any need to do it. For now I agree that balanced relation with both West and China will continue for the time being.

I just wanted to mention the special case of Turkey, a NATO member, which is not the case for the rest of the Muslim world and what implication it may have for the future.