The missiles hit a compound in Shokhel village, more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district which is known as a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

"The US drone fired two missiles targeting a militant compound and killing at least seven militants", a senior local security official told AFP.

Another official confirmed the strike and casualties but said the identities of those killed were not yet known.

The strike came just two days after Sharif was sworn in for a historic third time and asked the United States to end its campaign of drone attacks against militants.

"We respect the sovereignty of others and they should also respect our sovereignty and independence. This campaign should come to an end," he said after lawmakers endorsed him as premier on Wednesday.

He had also publicly criticised the drone strike that killed Taliban deputy Waliur Rehman last week, echoing long-held Pakistani complaints that the US campaign violates national sovereignty.

Rehman, the number two in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction, died along with at least five others when a drone fired two missiles on a house in North Waziristan on May 29.

Rehman, who had a $5 million US government bounty on his head, was killed after US President Barack Obama outlined new more restrictive guidelines on drone use.

Washington had accused Rehman of organising attacks against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and also wanted him in connection with a suicide attack on an American base in Afghanistan in 2009 that killed seven CIA agents.

Drone missile strikes are very unpopular in Pakistan, but Washington views them as a vital tool in the fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants holed up in the lawless tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

Ties with Washington will be a key part of Sharif's tenure, particularly as NATO withdraws the bulk of its forces from Afghanistan by the end of next year after more than 12 years of war.

The families of Pakistani victims of US drone strikes Thursday wrote to Sharif urging him to stop the campaign -- by shooting the unmanned aircraft down if necessary.

The high court in the northwestern city of Peshawar on May 9 declared the CIA drone strikes targeting suspected militants to be a "war crime" and ordered Islamabad to take steps to halt them.

Victims' families and their lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar have written to Sharif urging him to heed the court's ruling, which calls on the government to take the matter up at the UN Security Council.

Akbar said that if Pakistan failed to persuade the US to stop the strikes through the United Nations, "the court has very clearly ordered to shoot down the drones".

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Islamabad (AFP) June 06, 2013 - The families of Pakistani victims of US drone strikes Thursday wrote to new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urging him to stop the campaign -- by shooting the unmanned aircraft down if necessary.

The high court in the northwestern city of Peshawar on May 9 declared the CIA drone strikes targeting suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants to be a "war crime" and ordered Islamabad to take steps to halt them.

Victims' families and their lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar have written to Sharif urging him to heed the court's ruling, which calls on the government to take the matter up at the UN Security Council.

Islamabad regularly issues statements condemning the missile strikes as a violation of sovereignty, but has yet to take any stronger action publicly to pressure Washington to end the campaign, which began in 2004.

"The court has ordered the government of Pakistan and its security forces to administer a proper warning to the United States that future drone strikes will not be tolerated," Akbar wrote in the letter, seen by AFP.

Akbar said that if Pakistan failed to persuade the US to stop the strikes through the United Nations, "the court has very clearly ordered to shoot down the drones".

At a news conference with two relatives of drone victims, Akbar warned that Sharif would face contempt of court proceedings if he did not implement the court order within 14 days.

Mohammad Nazir, whose son was killed in a US drone strike in June 2006 in North Waziristan tribal district, a haven for insurgents, endorsed the demand and said he wanted revenge for his son's death.

"My son was 25 years old, he was a labourer and was working in a house with other labourers in the night when the drone strike took place," he told AFP.

"According to tribal law, you kill the son of that person who kills your son, so I will take revenge of my son's killing whenever I have the opportunity."

According to the British Bureau of Investigative Journalism, since 2004 up to 3,587 people have been killed in Pakistan by drone attacks, which Washington says are an effective weapon in the fight against Islamist militancy.

On Wednesday Sharif used his first speech as prime minister to urge the US to end the strikes and said a comprehensive strategy for tackling extremism should be worked out.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Islamabad (AFP) June 05, 2013 - Pakistan's new prime minister Nawaz Sharif called Wednesday for the United States to end its campaign of drone attacks in the country's tribal northwest in his first address since taking office.

"We respect the sovereignty of others and they should also respect our sovereignty and independence. This campaign should come to an end," he said after lawmakers endorsed him for an unprecedented third term as premier.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Islamabad, Pakistan (UPI) Jun 3, 2013 - Pakistan's Prime Minister-elect Nawaz Sharif condemned the U.S. drone attack that killed a senior Taliban leader as a violation of the county's sovereignty.

The attack on a house in North Waziristan tribal area near Afghanistan May 29 killed Taliban deputy leader Waliur Rehman.

The U.S. government had placed a $5 million bounty on Rehman, 42, who was believed behind many attacks on U.S forces in Afghanistan.

Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-N won last month's parliamentary election, said in a statement released by the party that he had "serious concern and deep disappointment" at the strike.

The attack violated international law and the U.N. Charter, the statement said. It also came within days of U.S. President Barack Obama setting out a new policy on drone attacks designed to ensure closer cooperation between the countries.

Unilateral measures such as drone attacks aren't the way forward, Sharif's statement said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has defended the attack as self-defense and therefore legal because the United States is fighting a war with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Kerry said drones have killed terrorist commanders, trainers, bomb makers and operatives.

Immediately after the attack, the Taliban said peace talks with the incoming government were "terminated," The Wall Street Journal reported.

"The government is killing our leadership in collusion with the U.S. And yet it speaks of peace talks," Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said.

The militant group vowed to avenge the leader's death and charged the Pakistani government had approved the U.S. drone attack.

Rehman had been a top Pakistan Taliban member since 2005 and was a spokesman for the group's former leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a drone strike in 2009. The TTP is now led by Hakimullah Mehsud.

Sharif made his statement regarding the drones last week before being sworn in as a member of Parliament in the National Assembly on Saturday.

The swearing in marks the first transition of power between democratically elected governments in the 66-year history of Pakistan.

When Sharif is elected by Parliament to lead a coalition government this week he will take over 13 years after he was ousted in a military coup led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf who returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile to run in the election.

But Musharraf's election plans came undone when he was put under house arrest because of outstanding charges relating to the death of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Last month a Pakistani court granted bail to Musharraf accused of failing to provide adequate security for Bhutto before her assassination while campaigning in 2007.

Musharraf, 69, will appear in a Lahore court June 10 to contest the charges, a report by Asian News International said.

His government dismissed a 2010 U.N. report, which said the government failed to provide enough protection for Bhutto while she was campaigning in Rawalpindi.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Luxembourg (SPX) Jun 04, 2013 - SES Techcom has successfully supported satellite communication links with a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), using SES Ku-band capacity, to establish reliable command and control, Air Traffic Control and Mission data transfer.

The DeSIRE (Demonstration of Satellites enabling the Insertion of RPAS in Europe) initiative, is an ESA-EDA (European Space Agency-European Defence Agency) project in which SES is involved, together with partners such as ThalesAleniaSpace and AT-one (an European Economic Interest Group consisting of Dutch Aerospace Laboratory NLR and German Aerospace Centre DLR).

The initiative follows another ESA study (ESA SINUE) during which SES was already partnering with INDRA, the Spanish information technology and defense systems company.

The demonstration involved the deployment of a Heron-1 RPAS, using safe and secure Satcoms provided by SES, for maritime surveillance applications offshore Spain.

The project demonstrated the safe operation of RPAS in non-segregated airspace using satellite communications. Several partners, such as the GUCI (Spanish "Guardia Civil") and AENA (Aeropuertos Espanoles y Navegacion Aerea), supported the project.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Lukhovitsy (RIA Novosti) Jun 03, 2013 - Russian military aircraft maker MiG is to go ahead with a research-and-development project for an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) based on its Skat prototype, after signing a deal with the Industry and Trade Ministry earlier this month, the firm said Friday.

"We signed an R and D contract for UCAVs on May 15," said MiG's head, Sergei Korotkov. "The contract requirements include a mock-up for a future UCAV for the Defense Ministry. We are already ahead on this, based on our Skat program."

MiG unveiled a demonstrator model of its Skat drone at the MAKS airshow near Moscow in 2007. Skat is designed to carry out strike missions on stationary targets, especially air defense systems in high-threat areas, as well as mobile land and sea targets.

Skat will operate in autonomous modes as well as in conjunction with other manned systems, MiG says.

A "flying wing" design, Skat has a projected weight of 10 tons, a two-ton payload, a range of 2,500 miles (4,000 km), a speed of 500 mph (800 km/h) and a ceiling of 36,000 feet (12,000 m).

MiG also plans to sign a contract in June with the Defense Ministry for 37 MiG-35 multirole fighter jets, Korotkov said, with delivery of 24 of them to take place in "the near future."

The new fighters will include the Zhuk-A radar system, he said.

earlier related report
Russian Military Drones Inferior to Foreign Models - Minister
Unmanned air vehicles (UAV), ground-based robotic systems and unmanned submersibles which Russian industry is developing for the Defense Ministry, are inferior to foreign analogs, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday.

Military robotic systems are under development as part of the state weapons program for 2011-2020, Shoigu said at a ministry conference call on Monday.

But "by their performance characteristics, [robotic] systems created for the Defense Ministry's needs are inferior to their foreign analogs," he said.

"At the same time, domestically-made robotized systems are successfully used by our law-enforcement agencies," he said.

Shoigu also criticized defense enterprises for frequent delays in carrying out their work, which in turn affects the quality of robotic systems.

"This is due to the technological backwardness of enterprises, weak organization of state contract fulfillment and a shortage of skilled personnel," Shoigu said.

Source: RIA Novosti

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Washington (AFP) May 31, 2013 - US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday defended the legality of US drone strikes in the "war" against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, days after such an unmanned aircraft killed a top Pakistani Taliban.

"Despite our first preference for detention and prosecution of terrorists -- that's our first preference -- sometimes, lethal action is necessary in order to protect US lives," the top US diplomat told reporters alongside his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

"Our actions are legal. We were attacked on 9/11. Within a week, the United States Congress overwhelmingly authorized the use of force," Kerry said. "Under domestic law and international law, the United States is at war with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and their associated forces."

Kerry's comments took up arguments articulated by President Barack Obama, who on May 23 laid out new guidelines for drone strikes while mounting a firm defense of the covert drone war as legal.

The guidelines state that drone strikes can only be used to prevent imminent attacks and when the capture of a suspect is not feasible, and if there is a "near certainty" that civilians will not be killed.

On Wednesday, a US drone strike killed the deputy chief of the Pakistani Taliban in the country's lawless tribal northwest, officials said, dealing a major blow to the militant network.

Waliur Rehman, the number two in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction, died along with at least five others when an unmanned US drone fired two missiles on a house in North Waziristan district.

The White House has not confirmed the killing, but on Friday Pakistan's incoming prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, condemned the strike.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Islamabad (AFP) May 30, 2013 - The killing of the Pakistani Taliban's deputy leader is a heavy blow to the militants but could also complicate peace efforts due to the loss of a relatively moderate voice, analysts say.

Waliur Rehman, second-in-command of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was killed in the early hours of Wednesday by a US drone attack in the tribal district of North Waziristan, according to Pakistani security officials.

The TTP has killed thousands in its bloody campaign of gun and bomb attacks in recent years, attacking the Pakistani state for being insufficiently Islamic and for allying itself with the US "war on terror".

Washington refused to confirm Rehman's death but said that if true it would mean the TTP had lost its "chief military strategist", blamed for assaults on US forces in Afghanistan including a suicide attack that killed seven CIA agents.

The TTP groups numerous different tribal and militant factions, sometimes competing. Analyst Saifullah Khan Mehsud said the 42-year-old Rehman was the only figure since Baitullah Mehsud, the network's founder, to inspire respect across the spectrum.

"His death is a big blow to the TTP, they have lost their statesman, they have lost a man who had the support of the rank and file and I believe that it will be very difficult for the TTP to replace him," Mehsud, executive director of the FATA Research Centre, told AFP.

"When we look at the current leadership, mid- and high leadership among the TTP, we don't see anyone who has supposedly the capability to replace Waliur Rehman."

Rehman, who had three wives and was a member of the Mehsud tribe which dominates the TTP, was a key figure in the outfit from its inception in 2007. He came from a religious background and set up a seminary in his native South Waziristan before taking up arms.

Pakistan's incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif has raised the possibility of talks with the Taliban to try to end the bombings and shootings that plague life on an almost daily basis.

Tribal affairs and security expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said Rehman's links to the mainstream religious Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUIF) party, seen as a possible go-between in any talks, could have made him a useful interlocutor.

"A common perception about Rehman was his political mind -- he was considered as a man who believed in talks," Yusufzai told AFP.

"He was close to JUIF and his elimination from the scene would be a great setback to the peace efforts."

TTP supremo Hakimullah Mehsud, himself several times mistakenly reported killed by US drone strikes, is seen as a more hardline militant and Mehsud the analyst said negotiating with him would be difficult.

"He is considered as very volatile and considering his crimes against the Pakistani state, it would be very very difficult for the Pakistani state to come to terms with the fact that will have to talk with someone like him," he said.

In any event, peace talks look a distant prospect. Sharif has set accepting the constitution and the rule of law as a condition for coming to the table, something the TTP reject.

Moreover, meaningful dialogue could only go ahead with the blessing of the armed forces, Pakistan's most powerful institution. Last month the military chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani made it clear the militants could not dictate terms for talks.

"We sincerely desire that all those who have strayed and have picked up arms against the nation, return to the national fold," he said in a speech.

"However, this is only possible once they unconditionally submit to the state, its constitution and the rule of law. There is no room for doubts when it comes to dealing with rebellion against the state."

Yusufzai said the killing could well drive the TTP even further away from the path to peace.

"Taliban would take revenge as they had already said that Pakistan military are cooperating with US on drone strikes," he said.

"But Taliban cannot take revenge on Americans, which means they will speed up their attacks on Pakistan military and security forces."

Analyst Hasan Askari said the drone strike would raise pressure on the Taliban because they were powerless to strike back against the Americans.

"It is a setback for the Pakistani Taliban. It has shown the US capacity and it will build more psychological effects on the Taliban," Askari said.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) May 31, 2013 - Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles manufacturers, hailed as the world's leading exporters of military drones a few weeks ago, are grappling with new regulations on defense exports that will limit foreign sales.

The Globes business daily reports that compliance by the defense and foreign ministries with the trade laws, which tighten oversight on defense exports, will curtail UAV sales by Israel Aerospace Industries, Aeronautics Defense Systems, Elbit Systems and others.

Earlier this month, the international business consultancy Frost and Sullivan anointed Israel's defense industry the leading exporter of UAVs. It said that in 2005-12, the Israelis sold drones, mainly surveillance craft, worth more than $4.61 billion, with 2005 the best year with UAV and systems exports worth $1.7 billion.

Israel's overall defense exports averaged $6.1 billion a year in 2005-12, putting it in the leading rank with the United States, Russia, France, Germany and Britain.

Frost and Sullivan forecasts that Israeli UAV exports would grow 5-10 percent through 2020, in part because the U.S. manufacturers cannot export UAVs since most of them are classified platforms.

These include General Atomics' MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, which are widely used by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Forces for assassinating al-Qaida operatives and their allies in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Israel's main export targets have been Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. India is a major buyer.

"Israeli companies continue ... investing in aggressive marketing in markets where demand for UAV systems continues to grow, such as Africa, Asia-Pacific and South America," said Eran Flumin, Frost and Sullivan's Israel manager.

But, Globes defense analyst Yuval Azulai observed, "despite the fantastic numbers in the Frost and Sullivan report, Israeli companies are apparently unable to repeat their peak year of 2005, when they had $1.7 billion in exports of UAVs and systems."

This, he said, was because "in view of diplomatic and other sensitivities, the Ministry of Defense has blocked several big UAV deals by Israeli companies in recent years.

These firms include state-owned IAI, flagship of Israel's defense industry and a leading UAV manufacturer, Elbit Systems and Aeronautics, as well as smaller outfits like Bluebird Aero Systems and Gilat Satellite Networks.

The Israelis were somewhat dismayed by Northrop Grumman's successful and historic May 15 launch of its futuristic X-47B UAV from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H. Bush.

That was the first carrier launch for a UAV, which will eventually allow the United States to autonomously operate drones from anywhere in the world and revolutionize naval warfare.

The X-74B will attempt its first carrier landing this summer.

The fighter-size drone has a range of around 1,875 miles, three times that of the Predator.

Globes' Azulai noted that Israeli companies "praised North Grumman's impressive achievement but worry that the X-47B's success will harm their leadership in the UAV field."

Elad Aharonson, general manager of Elbit Systems' unmanned systems division, observed: "We're not completely exposed to the capabilities developed by the Americans in the UAV field because they're classified platforms, which are not intended for export ...

"In any event, the Americans have entered the field of combat UAVs, which are due to replace combat jets and we're not in this niche.

"Entering this niche involved huge investment. We aim our systems at the export market and we're more concerned with systems than platforms."

Elbit's Skylark UAV is used by the Israeli army for intelligence and target acquisition.

Its larger systems are the Hermes 450, operated by the Israeli air force, and the Hermes 9000, considered to be its flagship model.

Elbit Systems specializes in innovative payloads to enhance intelligence-gathered capabilities, usually tailored for customers' requirements.

"In the coming years," said Aharonson, "we'll see innovation in other payload applications but we'll see less creativity in the platforms."

IAI, Elbit and Aeronautics Defense Systems are developing new and more agile unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as ground and seaborne drones.

Despite tightened export rules, Israel's foreign sales volume could still expand as production costs are relatively low.

Industry officials boast that it's significantly cheaper to buy an advanced UAV than it is to train an air force pilot.

Indeed, officials say that within a few decades Israeli UAVs will be able to carry out virtually every battlefield function currently conducted by manned aircraft.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Washington (AFP) May 29, 2013 - A week after President Barack Obama cracked the lid of secrecy on his drone war, the United States refused Wednesday to confirm it had killed a top Pakistani Taliban leader in an airborne attack.

Pakistani security and intelligence sources said that Waliur Rehman, deputy leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had perished in an American drone strike, along with at least five other people, in North Waziristan.

But senior officials in Washington stuck to their normal practice of declining to provide details of US operations, and only hinted that Rehman, wanted for attacks on Americans and Pakistanis, had been killed.

The attack appeared to be the first known US drone strike since Obama's speech last week laying out new criteria for the covert use of unmanned aerial vehicles in strikes against terror suspects and militants.

"We are not in a position to confirm the reports of Waliur Rehman's death," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"If those reports were true, or prove to be true, it's worth noting that his demise would deprive the TTP of its second-in-command and chief military strategist," Carney said.

Rehman is also wanted in connection with attacks on US and NATO personnel across the Afghan border and for involvement in the attack on American citizens in Khost, Afghanistan on December 30, 2009.

That strike, though Carney did not describe it in detail, was a dark day in CIA history, when seven counter-terrorism agents and security contractors were killed in a suicide bombing inside a US base.

Carney would not confirm whether the attack on Rehman satisfied the new criteria for drone strikes established by Obama last week during a speech that aimed to recast the country's decade-long battle against terrorism.

In the speech, Obama said lethal force would only be used to "prevent or stop attacks against US persons," when capture is not feasible and if a target poses a "continuing, imminent threat" to Americans.

Carney pointed to a clause in Obama's remarks in which he said that in the "Afghan war theater" Washington must support its troops until the NATO withdrawal is complete in 2014.

He appeared to be making a case that Rehman's killing may have satisfied the new guidelines because he may have posed a direct and imminent threat to US troops across the border in Afghanistan.

The president said in his speech that strikes would continue against "high value Al-Qaeda targets, but also against forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces."

A CIA spokesman also declined to confirm Rehman's death.

Carney dismissed the idea that keeping reporters in the dark about the reported attack conflicted with Obama's pledge for more transparency over the drone war. He said the speech at the National Defense University last week contained an "extraordinary amount of information."

"It does not mean that we are going to discuss specific counter-terror operations," Carney said.

Security, tribal and intelligence officials told AFP in Pakistan that Rehman, who had a $5 million US government bounty on his head, was the target of the strike and was killed.

Pakistani security officials said the others killed in the attack were TTP cadres, including two local-level commanders. There were no initial reports of civilian casualties.

According to Britain's Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIA drone attacks targeting suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan have killed up to 3,587 people since 2004, including as many as 884 civilians.

The frequency of drone strikes in Pakistan has tailed off in recent months, with the previous one coming on April 17.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:47 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D