US Air Force uses leftover ICBM funds to revamp Qatar plane

DefenseNews: The Air Force plans to use leftover funds from the LGM-35A Sentinel nuclear missile program to help pay for refurbishing a Qatari-donated plane into a new Air Force One presidential transport aircraft. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a June 26 hearing that the reallocated Sentinel money was “excess to need in [20]24,” and stressed the program to build new intercontinental ballistic missiles and launching infrastructure would not suffer or see further delays from moving funds around. “Let me be very clear, the Sentinel progr…

Qatar, Kuwait & UAE to follow India's lead over purchase of Rafale

Qatar, Kuwait & UAE are interested in buying French Rafale fighter jets but are waiting to see whether India will make a purchase first, France's defence minister said yesterday. "They are in effect interested but they won't know for sure until the first one jumps in," said the minister, Gerard Longuet. He said he hoped that the UAE, which is talks with France to buy 60 Rafales, would make a decision "within a time frame that will allow its two neighbours, which hope to be interoperable with the Emirates, to …

Iran’s Missile Strikes Exposed Major Weaknesses in U.S. Middle East Bases

Satellite evidence reveals hidden vulnerabilities inside America’s Gulf defense network. Satellite imagery and battlefield assessments reveal how Iranian missile and drone attacks damaged critical U.S. military infrastructure across the Middle East, exposing vulnerabilities in regional defense architecture and reshaping future American force posture. The scale of damage inflicted by Iranian missile and drone attacks on U.S. military installations across the Middle East appears to have been significantly larger than publicly acknowledged during…

Afghan reconciliation process should not confer legitimacy to insurgent groups: India

Throwing its weight behind Afghanistan on the issue of  Taliban  opening a political office in Doha, India on Friday said reconciliation process should not undermine legitimate Afghan government or confer legitimacy to insurgent groups. "The reconciliation process should not seek to create equivalence between an internationally recognised Afghan government and insurgent groups, confer legitimacy to insurgent groups or convey the impression of two competing state authorities for Afghanistan," external affairs ministry spokespers…

Syria urgently needs a political solution - John Kerry

Unless the bloodshed in Syria stops, the region could descend into a chaotic sectarian conflict, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday, as he called for an urgent political resolution to the war that has dragged on for two years and claimed 93,000 lives. The top U.S. diplomat and his counterparts from 10 Arab and European nations agreed at a daylong meeting in Qatar to step up military and other assistance to the Syrian rebels. But Kerry would not disclose details of the aid, saying only that it would re-balance the fight…

Karzai suspends talks with U.S. over Taliban agreement

The Afghan president on Wednesday suspended talks with the United States on a new security deal to protest the way his government was being left out of initial peace negotiations with the Taliban meant to find a way to end the nearly 12-year war. The move by Hamid Karzai raises tensions significantly and could derail the peace process even before it has begun. In a terse statement from his office, Karzai said negotiations with the U.S. on what American and coalition security forces will remain in the country after 2014 have been put o…

How the Strait of Hormuz Crisis Is Reshaping Global Naval Security

Global navies are entering a new era of maritime confrontation. The Strait of Hormuz crisis is reshaping global naval security, maritime strategy, oil chokepoint defense, and multinational military deployments across the Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz has once again become the center of global strategic anxiety, but the current crisis is fundamentally different from previous Gulf confrontations. What was once viewed primarily as an energy security issue has rapidly evolved into a broader test of maritime power projection, naval deterrence, allian…

What happens when one of the world's most important energy chokepoints becomes a bargaining chip in a stalled peace process? Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen sharply, with only six vessels recorded crossing the waterway on Monday as hopes for a U.S.-Iran agreement fade. The disruption is again putting energy security, maritime trade and regional stability under pressure. Strait of Hormuz Shipping Falls to Six Vessels Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has dropped to levels far below normal as diplomatic effort…

Afghan peace talks: India voices concern

In their briefings to India on the prospective talks with the Taliban, the US had assured India that it would not hold talks with the Haqqani network, the deadliest Taliban outfitthat attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul and is known to be close to the Pakistan army.  Yet, as the US try to put their talks with the Taliban in motion, its clear the Haqqanis will be part of the Taliban delegation. This will top the talks with Kerry here next week as India joined the clamour against the talks which Indian officials described as "opportuni…