F-7 he crash

Pakistan military jet crashes: no casualties reported

A Pakistan Air Force F-7 fighter aircraft Wednesday crashed some 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of capital Islamabad without causing casualties, state media reported.

The pilot ejected safely and there was no loss of civilian life or damage to property on the ground, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.

An official inquiry has been ordered by the Air Headquarters to determine the cause of accident, which occurred during a routine training mission, the report said.

Saab receives order worth MSEK 435 for integration of Meteor on the Gripen

The Gripen will be the first aircraft to test the Meteor beyond visual range missile.
In an addition to the Meteor order, whereby Saab Bofors Dynamics was awarded the development and production order by MBDA in August 2003, Saab Aerosystems is now being commissioned to integrate Meteor on the Gripen in a contract worth MSEK 435.

“The Meteor program is an extensive development project that will continue until 2010. It is a large-scale project that could grow and it’s important for Saab and Sweden to be involved,” says Johan Lehander, Vice President and Deputy General Manager, Saab Aerosystems.

Meteor is a beyond visual range missile approximately 3.5 meters in length, for use against air targets. In the future it will replace the American AMRAAM system. The development of the Meteor air-to-air missile is being carried out as an international industrial project involving the UK, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy and Spain.

Saab Aerosystems submitted a tender to the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) in June 2002 concerning the integration of Meteor into the JAS 39 Gripen for testing purposes. The FMV has signed an international commitment whereby it will provide the Gripen as a test platform, to support the development of the missile and prepare for integration on the Gripen.

At a later stage Meteor will also be integrated in Rafale and Eurofighter aircraft. The Gripen is first fourth generation aircraft operational in service and the only fighter aircraft currently available for testing the high-tech beyond visual range missiles of the future. The first Meteor is planned to be fired in 2005, from the Gripen.

Meteor

or these ?

Originally posted by user
speak english.

pardon Patron, mea culpa

Minister for Defense, Mrs Michele Alliot-Marie (May 2003)

In your eyes is the army in an operational state?

We have suffered enormous delays. We returned on a normal level of maintenance of materials: the average availability of tanks, aircraft and naval vessels, which was lower than 50% went up to more than 60%.

Without war!!!!

The United Kingdom’s military operations in Iraq were a significant success and personnel and equipment performed impressively, Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today. However, as the Department has acknowledged, there were difficulties in ensuring that front line forces received the equipment and supplies that they needed.

United Kingdom and Coalition forces achieved their main military objectives, including the removal of the Saddam Hussein regime and the securing of key infrastructure within four weeks of crossing into Iraq.

It was a major achievement to deploy the large United Kingdom force within 10 weeks, half the time it took for the first Gulf war. The report highlights the success of the huge logistics effort which managed, for example, to deploy and sustain 46,000 personnel, 9,100 shipping containers and 15,000 vehicles. It also highlights new and modified equipment which performed well such as the Challenger 2 main battle tank, the Storm Shadow missile and the SA80A2, the upgraded assault rifle.

The rapid deployment revealed areas where there were gaps in capability. There were not enough nuclear, biological and chemical warfare protection equipment, spare parts for tanks and armoured vehicles, medical supplies, helicopter spares or desert combat clothing and boots. Urgent action was largely successful in rectifying shortfalls but, for a few equipments, training time and the supply of ancillary equipment was curtailed.

While the logistics effort was successful overall, the means of tracking supplies in theatre was largely ineffective, manpower intensive and was swamped by the sheer volume of supplies. The whereabouts of some key equipment and supplies was unknown and therefore arrangements could not be made to get them to the people who needed them. This led to shortages, loss of confidence in the supply chain and inefficiency as personnel searched for items they had ordered or ordered duplicates urgently.

Our forces were very expert at making the immediate transition from warfighting to peacekeeping. But the nature and the size of the post conflict task was extremely difficult to predict and to plan for. There were gaps in both the coordination of the planning and in the capability to do more in the short and medium term than patch up the existing inadequate infrastructure.

Sir John Bourn said today:

“It is not just the bravery of the men and women who took part in the military operations which should be applauded but also their abilities, their professionalism and their achievements. The scale of the operation and the speed with which it was carried out are both extremely impressive. There were problems, but these should be seen in the wider context of the overall success. The lessons in this report which the MOD can learn from will mean that its performance will be further improved in the future.”