DTN News - VIETNAM DEFENSE NEWS: Vietnamese Protest China A Day Before Holding Live-Ammunition Drill In South China Sea

Asian Defense News: DTN News - VIETNAM DEFENSE NEWS: Vietnamese Protest China A Day Before Holding Live-Ammunition Drill In South China Sea

**Japan to monitor Chinese navy vessels near Okinawa

**US urges peaceful end to South China Sea tensions

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press

(NSI News Source Info) HANOI, Vietnam - June 12, 2011: Hundreds of Vietnamese staged an anti-China protest Sunday for the second week in a row, a day ahead of the country's planned live ammunition naval drill amid a heated spat over territory in the South China Sea.

Waving Vietnamese flags and signs reading "Stop Violating Vietnam's Territory," a couple hundred demonstrators moved from the Chinese Embassy through the capital's streets surrounded by dozens of police and security forces. Hundreds more also protested in southern Ho Chi Minh City.

Protests are rare in Communist-run Vietnam and are typically quashed quickly by police.

Hanoi has responded feverishly following two incidents in the past month in which it accuses Chinese boats of halting Vietnamese hired vessels from conducting oil and gas exploration in waters off its central coast.

Vietnam says the incidents occurred within 200 nautical miles of its shores, within the economic exclusion area guaranteed by international law. It accuses Chinese boats of cutting cables used to conduct seismic surveys on vessels hired by state-run PetroVietnam.

But China responded harshly last week saying the latest clash occurred near the disputed Spratly islands, claimed by both countries along with several other Asian nations. It says the Vietnamese hired boat endangered Chinese fishermen's lives.

Vietnam's military exercise is expected to total nine hours Monday off the country's central coast. Boats have been warned to stay out of the area during the drill, which appears to be an apparent response to the flare-up. It was the first time Vietnam has issued such an alert about maritime exercises.

A newspaper published by China's ruling Communist Party ran an editorial Saturday warning Vietnam not provoke its much larger northern neighbour.

"If Vietnam insists on making trouble, thinking that the more trouble it makes, the more benefits it gains, then we truly wish to remind those in Vietnam who determine policy to please read your history," the editorial concluded. China once ruled over Vietnam for 1,000 years.

Vietnam and China have a long history of maritime scraps in disputed parts of the South China Sea near the Spratly and Paracel islands, which are teeming with fish and believed rich in oil and gas reserves.

The United States, which has said the South China Sea is in its national interest because of key international shipping lanes, has encouraged a diplomatic process to keep regional tensions from flaring.

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable

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DTN News - UAE DEFENSE NEWS: Bigger Than Blackwater ~ Arming The UAE

Asian Defense News: DTN News - UAE DEFENSE NEWS: Bigger Than Blackwater ~ Arming The UAE

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources by Hannah Gurman

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 11, 2011:

The International Defense Exhibition, otherwise known as IDEX, has been held bi-annually in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 1993. It is the largest defense expo in the Middle East and North Africa and one of the biggest in the world. But far from being a one-off, it highlights the UAE’s growing stature as a global arms buyer.

This year’s IDEX took place in the glistening Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center. Its high ceilings and massive rooms displayed a diverse array of high-tech weaponry against the backdrop of heavily illuminated signboards like the ones you see in the showrooms of luxury car dealerships. All the big Western defense corporations were there — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Dyncorp, Northrup Grumman, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. — as well as Chinese companies, including China North. There were also a host of local companies including Arabian Aerospace, Abu Dhabi Ship Building Company, and the state-owned Mubadala. Like all of these events, it was a heavily male enterprise. The exhibitors wore suits. The visitors wore either the military uniform of the UAE or traditional Arab dress.

The most advanced F-16s in the world are not American. That distinction belongs to the United Arab Emirates, whose F-16 E/F Block 60s are a half-generation ahead of the F-16 C/D Block 50/52+ aircraft that form the backbone of the US Air Force, and of many other fleets around the world. The Block 60 has been described as a lower-budget alternative to the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter – and has been treated as such in countries like India and the Netherlands, as they contemplate their future fighter needs

Outside, the expo began with a parade and air show, and representatives from BAE Systems gave passersby a tour of the latest features of their all-terrain tank. Just inside the entry hall, visitors could check out a parked yellow Hummer on their way to the exhibits. At the U.S. pavilion, a representative from Boeing demonstrated the features of its integrated defense simulator, and General Dynamics showed off its latest MK- 47 machine gun. At the Lockheed Martin exhibit, you could get within inches of anti-aircraft missiles propped on plastic risers like pieces of modernist art — so shiny you could see your reflection in them.

This lavish exhibition occurred a full three months before The New York Timesbroke the story that former Blackwater/Xe founder Erik Prince had struck a secret deal worth $529 million with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, to form a mercenary army for the UAE. According to reports cited in the story, the force will be used to protect oil pipelines and skyscrapers against terrorist attacks and suppress internal uprisings of the large population of migrant workers living in the country — as well as potentially engaging Iran, long the UAE’s biggest regional foe.

Coverage so far has centered on Prince and his notorious company. But the full story of the UAE’s employment of foreign companies to build up its military and defense goes well beyond Blackwater/Xe and includes a virtual who’s who of Western defense companies.

A Brief History of the UAE Military

The UAE we know today is a relatively new entity. For most of the last two centuries Britain provided security in the region in exchange for lucrative trading deals and control of the sheikhs’ relations with other foreign powers. Security was handed over to the UAE in 1971, when the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and four other emirates agreed to form a federal union.

Although the UAE’s military, known as the Union Defense Force (UDF), is technologically advanced, it is relatively small in numbers. In many armies, the vast underclass typically fills the rank and file. But in the UAE, this social group is made up almost entirely of non-citizens — migrant workers who build the roads, skyscrapers, and golf courses where the oil titans and Branjelinas of the world like to play. There are currently about 65,000 members serving in the UDF. Though most of the officers are UAE nationals, most of the foot soldiers are mercenaries from other Arab states and Pakistan.

In recent years the UAE has made massive military and defense investments in an effort to rebuff Iran, become a dominant military player in the region, and diversify its oil-dependent economy. Recruiting ever more foreign soldiers — like the Colombian paramilitaries who will be part of Prince’s mercenary outfit — is a key part of this endeavor. Purchasing ever larger amounts of the best high-tech weaponry is perhaps an even more important part. In 2009, the UAE was the biggest foreign purchaser of U.S. arms. In October 2010, it invited 50 U.S.-based defense companies to visit and see the opportunities for growth first-hand.

Who’s Profiting from the UAE Arms Proliferation?

The UAE’s long-term plan is to build its own defense industry into a major international player. In accordance with this plan,75 percent of the contracts at IDEX went to local firms, including Emirate Systems, which got a $550 million deal to coordinate military intelligence and communicate military operations down the chain of command. Another major deal involved the Abu Dhabi-based Bayanat Company, which obtained a contract to provide aerial surveillance within the UAE.

As with most aspects of the UAE economy, Western businesses have an integral and profitable role to play in this endeavor. They work as “partners” with the local companies. Typically, this means they provide the expertise, training, and equipment, while the UAE government provides the money. The state-owned Mubadala Development Company, which has seengrowing profits in recent years, does business with all the biggest Western contractors.

All parties involved are careful about how they publicly frame these partnerships. The UAE works hard to brand such endeavors with the proper Arabian stamp. To this end, an official video of the UAE armed forces posted on YouTube shows shirtless Arab sailors with turbans rowing apace with a massive battleship, men in long white robes and head scarves riding vigorously atop Arabian horses alongside tanks in the desert, and real-live falcons flying next to F-16 Fighting Falcon planes. Okay, we get it. Modern killing technology meets the elegant tradition of the Arabian warrior. This is the best of both worlds, a potent (pun intended) mixture of Western and Arabian warrior traditions.

The Western defense industries are equally careful to stem potential accusations that they have sold out to foreign Muslims who might one day turn their backs on us and join the global jihad. In the United States, industry reps couch their connections with the UAE in the all-American lingo of good business ethics. The spokesperson for the National Defense Industries Association (NDIA), the industry’s most influential lobbying arm, explained that the UAE firms “profess similar values as U.S. industry. They all emphasize integrity, service, commitment and excellence.”

They also share the value of making money. A brief sampling of recent contracts gives an idea of just how much money is at stake in the growth of the UAE’s military apparatus:

• Back in 2008, Raytheon signed a deal to deliver Patriot missiles to the UAE to the tune of $3.3 billion. The first deliveries are scheduled for later this year. After this year’s IDEX, company executives reported that they were close to signing a contract for delivery of the more sophisticated Theatre High Altitude Defense (THAAD) system in partnership with Lockheed Martin. That deal is also worth billions.

• Boeing has a contract to deliver four C-17 aircraft to the UAE, and Lockheed Martin has an agreement to make 12 C-130J planes. These two contracts amount to $3 billion.

• The second largest contract at IDEX went to France’s Nexter System to provide technical support for LeClerc tanks. For its services, Nexter will receive the equivalent of $115 million.

• The U.S.-based Goodrich Corporation secured a deal at IDEX for $81 million to provide F-16 parts for the UAE Air Force.

• There are also plans for a partnership between a UAE-based company and the U.S.-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to sell the infamous Predator drones to the UAE. This will be the first time the technology will be sold to a foreign buyer.

Who Loses Out?

The rapid expansion of the UAE military has the tacit support, if not outright blessing, of the U.S. government. In response to the news that Blackwater had struck a deal with the UAE, an Obama administration official was quoted as saying, “The gulf countries, and the UAE in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help…They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.” The Defense Department recently announced reforms that will make it easier for domestic defense companies to export their products to foreign buyers.

There are at least two reasons for the administration’s position. First and foremost, it regards the UAE as one of its most important allies in the region. The Emirates supported both Iraq Wars, and it currently is involved in cracking down on the protest movement in Bahrain — it sent 500 police officers to suppress the revolt in the tiny Gulf kingdom. In the midst of the crackdown, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed was welcomed by the White House with open arms.

Support for exporting U.S. arms to the UAE is also part of a larger move to accommodate the defense industry, which has repeatedly voiced concern about the threat of a shrinking defense budget, although the supposed 78 billion dollars in cutsrepresent little more than a cap on future growth and a reshuffling of the current budget.

In this broader context of both the U.S. willingness to provide arms for Gulf allies and the ongoing budget wars in the United States, direct contracts between the defense industry and the UAE appear to be a win-win situation for everyone — everyone, that is, except the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and critics of the UAE regime who will be among the targets of the military’s beefed-up surveillance systems and the mercenary’s guns.

It is telling that the UAE government would rather hire mercenaries to suppress potential rebellions than improve theconditions of these workers, who are systemically abused by their bosses and forced to live in cramped slums with little or no access to basic infrastructure and services. In recent months, the UAE has arrested and jailed at least five democracy activistsas well as disbanded the board of directors for the National Jurists Association and the Teacher’s Association, two of the country’s most eminent civil society organizations and supporters of democratic reform. The UAE’s enhanced military apparatus will likely suppress any potential protest movement that might develop as part of the Arab Spring.

The enhanced ties between the United States and the UAE raise important questions about who is actually responsible for the actions of the Emirati military. Currently, neither the U.S. government nor the defense industry has spoken out against the government’s crackdown. It would be delusional not to acknowledge the U.S. role in the UAE’s human rights abuses. If and when an atrocity is committed against the migrant workers and democracy activists by the UAE military, Erik Prince and the UAE government won’t be the only ones to blame.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources by Hannah Gurman

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News

Contact:

dtnnews@ymail.com

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