have to be quick now:Today at 12:32 PM
only now noticed
Egypt takes delivery of first Gowind corvette from France Posted on September 22, 2017
The latest two additions to the Egyptian Navy’s fleet reached the country’s main naval base in Alexandria on October 18.
S42, the second TKMS-built Type 209/1400 submarine, arrived in Alexandria together with corvette ENS El Fateh, the first Gowind 2500 corvette to be delivered to the Egyptian Navy by French shipbuilder Naval Group.
The submarine and the corvette met in the North Atlantic to arrive home together. The two units also carried out joint training with the French Navy en route to Egypt.
S42 was delivered to the Egyptian Navy in a ceremony on August 8, while the ENS El Fateh delivery ceremony took place on September 22.
S42 was launched in December 2016 as the second of four submarines TKMS is to build for the Egyptian Navy. The ceremony took place four months after Egypt welcomed its first submarine S41 to the naval base in Alexandria, on April 19.
Egypt initially ordered two Type-209/1400mod submarines in 2011 and later ordered two more in 2014 as replacement for its ageing Romeo-class submarines.
The vessels arrive home just in time to take part in Egyptian Navy day celebrations commemorating the day Egyptian naval forces sank Israeli destroyer INS Eilat in 1967.
related:
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged that the Pentagon was still seeking answers behind the Oct. 4 deaths of four troops in Niger, as calls grew on Capitol Hill for an expanded investigation into the attacks.
“We do not have all the accurate information yet,” Mattis said during a meeting at the Pentagon Thursday with Israeli defense leaders.
Sgt. La David Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright died when their counterterrorism training mission with Nigerien forces was ambushed by what the U.S. military believes to be Islamic State-affiliated militants.
Two other U.S. soldiers were injured. U.S. Africa Command is leading the investigation into the attacks.
Questions remain on whether an intelligence failure on the part of the U.S. left the troops vulnerable, and on the circumstances surrounding Sgt. La David Johnson’s death.
Johnson was not initially retrieved when French helicopter gunships, medevac and a contracted aircraft responded within about a half-hour of the firefight to assist the forces and retrieve the dead and wounded. Johnson remained missing for about two days.
“He was separated,” Pentagon spokesman Dana White told reporters in a briefing late Thursday.
But all facets of the Pentagon, from Mattis down, pushed back on the suggestion that Johnson was left behind as medevac took the other injured and fallen troops.
Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Johnson being separated did not mean he was ever left behind. “From the moment of contact, no one was left behind,” McKenzie said.
Mckenzie would not say at what point the U.S. or partnered forces realized Johnson was not with them, but said from the moment of contact, “either U.S. our partnered Nigerien forces or French forces were on the ground actively searching for this soldier. The fact of the matter its a battlefield, we‘d just had a significant engagement,” McKenzie said.
“A lot of men and a lot of women searched very hard to find [Johnson],” McKenzie said.
Mattis said Johnson’s body was found by Nigeriens.
“The U.S. military does not leave its troops behind,” Mattis said. “I just ask that you not question the actions of the troops who were caught in the firefight and question whether or not they did everything they could in order to bring everyone out.”
Troop responses, however, were not what was drawing fire. It was the lack of answers from the Pentagon and White House and a general lack of transparency on where U.S. troops are currently operating receiving the most criticism, lawmakers said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair John McCain, R-Ariz., turned up the heat, telling reporters his quest for information from the administration, “might require a subpoena.”
When asked whether the communication problem stems from the Pentagon or the White House, replied, “I think it’s all of the above.”
“I don’t think they have their act together in the Pentagon, much less the White House,” he said. “I know what the problem is, but I don’t know the answer.”
White said that Congress was notified quickly after the incident, something McCain appeared to dispute.
“We did not know about Niger until it came out in the paper,” McCain said. “We need to have a process of communication, which I’ve had with other administrations.”
On Wednesday night, McCain spoke with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, urging him to conduct briefings on Capitol Hill, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and a close political ally of McCain’s.
“Sen. McCain let the Pentagon and Gen. McMaster know pretty strongly last night that this has to stop,” Graham said. “You’ve got to come over and at least brief the chairman and the ranking member of the relevant committees: Here’s where we’re headed, here’s where we have soldiers deployed.
“You won’t find two stronger defenders of aggressive action in the war on terror than Sen. Graham, but Sen. McCain is right to say this current system is not working,” Graham added.
Graham said he was surprised to learn America had any troops in Niger.
“It’s not that I object, it’s just insist on being informed,” Graham said.
Asked if a subpoena would be necessary to force transparency, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, told reporters, “I hope not.
“I mean, we’re just doing our job, which is to look carefully at what took place. We have to authorize these operations and to support them, we have to know what’s going on,” Reed said.
“We haven’t gotten a complete picture of what happened; we need that. In addition, we need to know where there are other train-and-assist missions throughout the area. With Niger, it’s a question of why that went so badly, what can we do, intelligence failures, aviation support.”
Mattis said he would not disclose whether the Pentagon is considering a more aggressive force posture in Africa to better protect trainers and advisers on the ground.
Reed said a more in-depth look at the mission there was required.
“What these troops were doing was train and assist, they thought they were in a benign environment; turned out it was very, very hostile,” Reed said. “This has been a long-term special forces mission. The question of whether we have a strategy has to be answered.”
First Turkish-made rifle begins serving abroad
DAILY SABAH WITH ANADOLU AGENCY
ISTANBUL
PublishedOctober 31, 2017
Turkey's first locally designed and produced assault rifle MPT-76 has begun being exported, security sources said Tuesday.
The Turkish defense industry sources, who asked not be named, told Anadolu Agency that the state-run Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK) and the private defense companies Kalekalip and Sarsilmaz have been given orders for mass production of the rifle.
The MPT-76 rifle is currently in the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces, produced to replace the traditional German G-3 rifles and reduce dependence on foreign manufacturers.
The MKEK, Kalekalip and Sarsilmaz will produce 20,000, 15,000 and 10,000 rifles, respectively.
MKEK has delivered 3,200 rifles so far, with 500 given to the Turkish Presidency. MKEK plans to deliver the rest in 2018.
A total of 450 rifles were delivered to Somalia, which is dealing with an insurgency. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has ordered 2,500 rifles to be added to its inventory.
After success in 47 NATO tests, the MPT-76 rifle – named after the Turkish acronym of National Infantry Rifle and the caliber of its 7.62 millimeter NATO round – is billed as "effective as the G-3, as reliable as the AK-47 and as practical as M-16."
It has an effective range of up to 600 meters and is capable of firing 700 rounds per minute at a muzzle velocity of 800 meters per second.
The rifle can be fired semi-automatically and automatically, with a 20-bullet magazine capacity. The MPT-76 can be customized through its rail system, meaning compatible accessories – including a night vision rifle scope – can be added or removed
connection to Africa being:
The MPT76 is a 7.62x54mm AR10 derivative using a short stroke gas piston. there is a 5.56x45mm version the MPT55
last I checked a map Somalia.connection to Africa being:
LOL I missed "A total of 450 rifles were delivered to Somalia ..." inside the article you postedlast I checked a map Somalia.
nowOct 8, 2017
the story (very sad) goes on as Top general provides new details on Niger attack
6 hours ago
Nigerien officials and local villagers have given accounts of the Oct. 4 ambush that killed four U.S. troops that are at odds with the Pentagon's initial version of the incident as a training patrol meant to avoid enemy contact.
"It was a mission to collect information and to neutralize the enemy or the threat," Nigerien Defense Minister Kalla Moutari told The Washington Post of the patrol of about 12 U.S. and 30 Nigerien troops near the Mali border.
"It so happened that the enemy had time to take position and got the right opportunity to attack them," Moutari said of the mission that set out from the Nigerien capital of Niamey on Oct. 3 and was ambushed on Oct. 4 near the village of Tongo Tongo.
Nigerien Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum also gave a description of the mission that conflicted with the Pentagon's account of a routine reconnaissance patrol with no particular objective other than to provide the Nigeriens with an opportunity to work with members of the U.S. 3rd Group in their train, advise and assist role.
"It was an intelligence mission but also a mission of an operational nature," Bazoum said, in a lawless area crisscrossed by militant groups with varying loyalties that resulted in the deaths of four U.S. troops and the wounding of two others. Four Nigerien troops and a Nigerien interpreter for the Americans also were killed.
Both Bazoum and Moutari said the patrol had made contact with militants and killed several in action on Oct. 3 ahead of the Oct. 4 ambush.
The four U.S. troops killed were the first U.S. combat casualties since U.S. forces entered Niger in 2013. In February, a member of the 3rd Special Forces Group was killed in a vehicle accident in Niger, the Pentagon said.
About 800 U.S. service members are in Niger, mainly operating drones out of Niamey and constructing a new drone base at Agadez.
U.S. Africa Command initially said three U.S. troops had been killed; two days later, it said the .
They were identified as Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Florida; Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35, of Puyallup, Washington; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, 29, of Lyons, Georgia.
The body of La David Johnson was not recovered until two days after the firefight. How he came to be separated from the others has become one of the lingering questions about the incident and the overall U.S. involvement in the region.
At a Pentagon briefing last month, Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the Pentagon's Joint Staff Director, stressed that Johnson was not left behind. He said that U.S., Nigerien and French troops were on the ground searching for him until his body was found about a mile from where the firefight began.
In a report from Tongo Tongo last week, CBS News cited village elder Adamou Bububaker as saying he found three of the slain Americans in or near their truck.
"Two of the bodies were in the vehicle and another on the ground," he said. CBS cited Nigerien military sources as saying that Johnson may have been captured and executed by the militants.
The sources said that Johnson had been shot and his body was dumped in bushes with his hands tied together.
Nigerien Sgt. Abdou Kane, 28, who was wounded in the leg in the firefight, told The Washington Post that some of the Nigerien troops fled as the ambush began.
"The Americans had more sophisticated weapons, and so we let them confront the enemy while we took cover," Kane said. "The Americans were telling us not to flee but to go back and fight the enemy. But the enemy was following us and shooting at us."
The Pentagon has mainly withheld comment on the ambush pending the completion of an Article 15-5 fact-finding investigation led by Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier Jr., the chief of staff to Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of Africa Command.
The FBI is also in Niger looking into the implications of the ambush for national security.
The Pentagon and AfricCom previously said that at least 26 patrols had been conducted in the same general area along the Mali border this year without incident.
However, the United Nations, in a recent report on violence in the region, said that 46 attacks had occurred this year in the Mali-Niger border area.
U.S. officials have also noted the presence in the area of a new group claiming an affiliation to ISIS and calling itself the Islamic State in the Greater Sahel.
On Oct. 21, gunmen in pickup trucks and riding motorcycles crossed from Mail and attacked a police outpost, killing 13 Nigerien gendarmes and wounding five others, Nigerien officials said.
At an Oct. 22 Pentagon news conference, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said that before fixed-wing and rotary French air support arrived from Mali in the Oct. 4 ambush.
He said the patrol's commander did not call for air support until an hour after the firefight began.
Dunford said he had no immediate explanation for the delay but speculated the commander may have assessed that the patrol could "handle the situation."
Within minutes of the call for air support, an unarmed U.S. drone was overhead, but French Mirage fighters and French Puma helicopters did not arrive for another hour, Dunford said. He added that the French air support from Mali took about 30 minutes to get ready and another 30 minutes to arrive at the scene.
"It's fair to say" that it took a total of about two hours from the time the attack began to when air support arrived, Dunford said.
The Mirages did not drop munitions and "I don't know why," he said, again speculating that the patrol commander warned against it.
Over the weekend, Niger gave permission to the U.S. to use armed drones in tracking jihadist groups. Defense Minister Moutari said the decision to go ahead on armed drones had been made before the Oct. 4 ambush.
Moutari told state radio, "It was a negotiation that had been underway for a while. Arming the drones is an option we decided on before we learned of the tragedy at Tongo Tongo.
"We are dealing with very well-armed groups," he said, and "armed drones are an appropriate and decisive response for fighting terrorism."
Zimbabwe’s military controls the capital and the state broadcaster and is holding President Robert Mugabe, 93, and his wife under house arrest. It appears that the world’s oldest head of state has been deposed by a coup.
But the military is at pains to say it did not stage a military takeover, instead starting a process to restore Zimbabwe’s democracy.
After 37 years, the military seems to have brought an end to Mugabe’s long reign in what the Army’s supporters praised as a “bloodless correction.” South Africa and other neighboring countries are sending in leaders to negotiate with Mugabe and the generals to encourage the transition.
Citizens in Zimbabwe’s tidy capital, Harare, contributed to the feeling of a smooth change by carrying on with their daily lives, walking past to go to work and to shops. Many who have never known any leader but Mugabe waited in long lines at banks to draw limited amounts of cash, a result of this once-prosperous country’s plummeting economy.
“I am just following what is happening on WhatsApp, but I am still in the dark about what is happening,” said Felix Tsanganyiso, who sells mobile airtime vouchers. “So far so good; we are going about our business without harassment. My plea is that whoever takes over should sort out the economy. We are tired of living like this.”
The whiplash developments followed Mugabe’s firing last week of his deputy, which appeared to position the first lady, Grace Mugabe, to replace Emmerson Mnangagwa as one of the country’s two vice presidents at a party conference next month.
But the first lady is unpopular among many Zimbabweans for her lavish spending on mansions, cars and jewels. Last month she went to court to sue a diamond dealer for not supplying her with a 100-carat diamond that she said she had paid for.
Grace Mugabe, 52, has been known as the leader of the G40, a group of Cabinet ministers and officials in their 40s and 50s who are too young to have fought in Zimbabwe’s war to end white-minority Rhodesia. When Mnangagwa was fired, the generals and war veterans felt they were being sidelined and took action to stop that, analysts say.
Mnangagwa’s whereabouts were unclear Wednesday. He fled the country last week, citing threats to him and his family.
Critics of the government urged Mugabe to go quietly. “The old man should be allowed to rest,” former Zimbabwe Finance Minister and current activist Tendai Biti told South African broadcaster eNCA.
On Monday the Army commander made an unprecedented statement criticizing Mugabe for pushing aside veterans of the liberation war. The following day, the ruling party condemned the Army leader for “treasonable conduct.” On Tuesday evening, the Army sent armored personnel carriers into Harare and soon seized control of the state broadcaster and other strategic points, including Mugabe’s residence.
Early Wednesday, in a televised address to the nation, Maj. Gen. Sibusiso Moyo said the Army had “guaranteed” the safety of Mugabe and his wife, but added the military would target “criminals” around Mugabe, probably referring to the first lady’s G40 group.
South African President Jacob Zuma said he was sending his ministers of defense and state security to Zimbabwe to meet with Mugabe and the military there. He said he hopes Zimbabwe’s Army will respect the constitution and that the situation “is going to be controlled.”
“There is a soft transition underway,” said Zimbabwean analyst Alex Rusero. “The whole idea is that the military has always been the chief broker in (Mugabe’s ruling party) ZANU-PF. ... But there were attempts to sideline the military by G40 and they (the military) are reasserting their position.”
Mnangagwa may well be installed as a transitional leader to return Zimbabwe to constitutional rule, Rusero said.
Zimbabwe may enter a period of negotiation to get Mugabe to step down voluntarily, said Piers Pigou, southern Africa consultant for the International Crisis Group, who also suggested that Mnangagwa may be an interim leader.
“Zimbabwe could have some kind of inclusive government and some kind of democratic process, possibly leading to elections,” Pigou said. “It’s clearly a coup d’etat, but typical of Zimbabwe, the military is trying to put a veneer of legality on the process. ... It is part of the theater that Zimbabwe is so good at, to try to make things look orderly and democratic. South African and other neighboring countries may be brought in to help put some lipstick on the pig.”
... so just to finish here:the first time I've heard of Mr. Mugabe was when he fought, off Mosambique, for independence of now-Zimbabwe ...