Saudi king wants advanced F-15s to counter 'Iranian threat'

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtri...0587_06_29.asp

Saudi king to press Obama for advanced F-15s to counter 'Iranian threat'

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia has submitted an urgent request for advanced F-15 fighter-jets from the United States

Officials said the Saudi request would be discussed during King Abdullah's meeting with President Barack Obama on June 29. They said the 86-year-old king was expected to sign an agreement in principle to purchase the F-15s in a deal estimated at nearly $10 billion.

Officials said the Saudi royal family has relayed a request for 72 F-15s, manufactured by Boeing. They said the F-15s would comprise the most advanced models, including stealth platforms.

"This has been high on the Saudi agenda," an official said. "The Saudis want these planes quickly."

"The deal would also include Saudi financing of a stealth F-15," the official said. "Right now, the U.S. Air Force is not interested in such a plane."

Officials said Abdullah has demanded the rapid implementation of U.S. weapons deals. They acknowledged that the Defense Department, amid the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been mired in huge delays regarding the delivery of more than $10 billion in Saudi weapons orders.

"The Saudis want to buy [American warplanes], but they won't tolerate delays," the official said. "They have reminded us that they could turn to Europe and get advanced aircraft within three years of a contract.

Saudis want F-15 Silent Eagle badly and is willing to finance its development so that they could get the first plane within 3 years.

"Saudis want F-15 Silent Eagle badly and is willing to finance its development so that they could get the first plane within 3 years." so i guessing they are getting ready for when the SHTF, experts say iran could possibly have a nuke in 3-5 years which is why they want them with in the next 3 years

Springfield Armory SOCOM II

Springfield's SOCOM 16 is the shortened version of its M1A that was built by military request. The 16-inch-barreled .308 sports a four-inch MIL-STD 1913 rail attached about 8 3/4 inches behind the front sight to accept a long-eye-relief scope, making the gun suitable for either close-quarters combat or long-range engagements, but according to some, a shortcoming of the SOCOM is the lack of rails for attaching accessories.

In response, Springfield developed the SOCOM II. One version has a MIL-STD 1913 rail running along the top of the barrel from the front of the receiver to just 2 1/4 inches behind the front sight. Another version extends the rail to the rear of the receiver and can accommodate a scope with standard eye relief. Springfield then adds rails to the bottom and both sides of the fore-end. The rail system can be removed in a matter of seconds by retracting two spring-loaded latches, revealing the standard fiberglass stock available in either black or Urban Camo. I received the Extended Cluster Rail version for testing.

The SOCOM II action is identical to the M14, using a gas piston and rotating bolt, except that a muzzle brake has been added. It sounds easy to shorten a rifle, but just lopping off the end of the barrel reduces gas pressure and affects functioning, so the muzzle brake, which also acts as a pressure chamber, was added to ensure proper cycling

The rear sight is a military aperture that is fully adjustable for elevation and windage and moves the point of impact one minute of angle per click. At the other end, protected by sturdy wings, is a post front sight with tritium insert to aid in low light. The gun accepts any M14 magazine. The test gun's two-stage military trigger broke at six pounds, two ounces.

Immediately after receiving the test gun, I contacted Vltor Weapon Systems for its recently developed M14 Modstock, which sports a buttstock that is adjustable for both height and length of pull, a quick-detachable sling swivel on both sides and a pistol grip made by Tango Down. I added a Surefire Model 900 combat light with its own vertical foregrip, a Wilderness Single Point Sling, an Aimpoint Comp M3 with two-MOA dot combat optic and an Aimpoint 3XMag magnifier.

So how did it shoot? Well, off the bench at 50 yards the best group average was 1.2 inches with Hornady 155-grain TAP, but all ammunition used performed well within acceptable limits.

This gun has an effective range of 300 to 400 yards, perhaps more depending on the aiming device and the ability of the shooter. At the Scottsdale Gun Club, I conducted close-quarter combat drills consisting of quickly acquiring and shooting targets at ranges from three to 25 yards and found the SOCOM II to be fast, accurate and easy to aim.

IMPORTER: Springfield Armory
TYPE: Gas-operated semiauto
CALIBER: .308
CAPACITY: 5, 10, 20 possibly 30
WEIGHT (oz.): 10 3/4
SIGHTS: Aperture rear, tritium post front
PRICE: $2,006

m14 EBR pretty much the same thing

BAE Systems Anti-Aircraft Missile Jammer

By Joe Pappalardo

new device, called Boldstroke, is the solution to a problem the Army does not want to have: the threat of advanced shoulder-fired missiles to American helicopters

There's a laser-guided antiaircraft missile jammer sitting on the table of the conference room in the office of Popular Mechanics. It comes in a medium-size box, weighing in at about 30 pounds, topped with a clear hemisphere housing a prominent mirror mounted on a 360-degree gimbal. Peering inside the dome, a viewer can see a network of other mirrors that bounce light from a laser housed below, directing the beam to the main lens affixed to the gimbal. This prototype is the only one in the world, and this is the first time its inventors, BAE Systems, have brought it out of the lab for a journalist to paw over.

The device, called Boldstroke, is the solution to a problem the Army does not want to have. The threat of advanced shoulder-fired missiles to American helicopters is a nightmare, one that hearkens to the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, where U.S. supplied Stinger missiles downed an estimated 250 Russian helicopters over two years. Shoulder-fired missiles with infrared tracking can rightfully take their place next to improvised explosive devices, sniper rifles and car bombs as gold-standard tools of asymmetric warfare.

Insurgents in Iraq have used SA-7s, shoulder-fired missiles tipped with infrared homing devices, against U.S. and British aircraft. But there are more sophisticated threats out there, like the SA-16, which has a sensitive seeker that adds ultraviolet tracking to IR seekers in order to ignore flares that aircraft fire to spoof the missiles. The SA-16 is available on the black market.

In 2008, something happened that triggered an increase in helo protection, and the Army commissioned BAE to fast-track a system that uses lasers to blind the seekers in infrared missiles. Exactly what prompted the request, called a Quick Reaction Contract, is classified. But it's not a leap to assume that intelligence reports or an actual attack set the wheels in motion. By the end of 2009 BAE delivered its first Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasure (ATRICM) to the Army for use on its CH-47 Chinooks. ATRICM fires a pencil-thin multiband laser at frequencies that blind IR seekers scanning for targets in those same frequencies. The Pentagon recently confirmed to Aviation Week that the defensive system thwarted an IR missile attack on a Chinook, and BAE officials tell PM that the attack occurred within weeks of weeks of ATIRM's arrival in Iraq. The Army is on track to outfit its fleet of Chinooks in Iraq and Afghanistan with the protective system by the end of the year.

Helicopters are a deciding factor in both Iraq and Afghanistan—more so in Afghanistan, where roads are lacking and helos are used for resupply as well as combat missions. The crucial rotorcraft that ferries troops and supplies is the Chinook, but they depend on massive engines to haul their heavy loads. Those engines produce a lot of heat, enough to attract the attention of even modest missile seekers. “There is a huge IR signature from Chinooks,” says Ernest Keirstead, the director of BAE's Boldstroke program.

That brings us back to the prototype on the conference-room table. BAE has created Boldstroke to improve on ATIRCM. It's lighter, has fewer moving optical parts and uses mirrors instead of a physical “light pipe” to shoot its laser. Instead of three boxes, the entire unit is housed in one box. A helicopter with a Boldstroke system mounted on either side of the helicopter would have 360 degrees of protection. And the 360 gimbaled mirror is an improvement on the two-axis steering of the currently deployed ATIRCM.

The Boldstroke rollout is coinciding as simple, unguided rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) continue to take their toll on helicopters during takeoff and landing. In early June a NATO helicopter was felled by a pair of RPGs, killing four soldiers. It is not the first such successful attack. BAE officials say they have dedicated money in-house to investigating how to modify current detection systems that could warn pilots of the approach of an RPG. The key, again, is heat from the rocket, which could be tracked by BAE's existing thermal sensors. Instead of a laser countermeasure, the system could warn pilot where the missile is coming from and allow for some evasive action.

BAE has sunk $70 million over the last three years on upgrading its lab and production infrastructure at its Nashua, N.H., facilities. They are betting—with good reason—that more work will come their way as IR missile threats proliferate. That could mean deploying similar systems on commercial airplanes as well as a wider variety of military aircraft

UAE Rafale Talks Moving Ahead: French Minister

PARIS - Technical talks on the sale of Rafale fighters to the United Arab Emirates are wrapping up, Defense Minister Herve Morin said June 15, adding that France was likely to pick up part of modernization costs.

Regarding the improvements that the UAE is seeking to the multi-role aircraft, Morin said on France Info radio "that's a discussion we've been engaged in for months and which is in the course of being finalized

Talks on acquiring the latest-generation French-made fighters began after the UAE expressed interest in 2008 in replacing its 60 aging Mirage fighters.

The Rafale, made by Dassault, has yet to clinch a single overseas sale and is in competition with Sweden's Gripen NG by Saab and the F/A-18 Super Hornet manufactured by U.S. giant Boeing.

The deal for 36 fighter planes is estimated to be worth between four and seven billion dollars, depending on details of armaments, maintenance and peripheral industrial involvement.

Turkey To Buy 9 European A129 Attack Helicopters

ANKARA - Turkey will launch urgent talks to buy nine A129 Mangusta attack helicopters from the Italian-British manufacturer AgustaWestland to fight separatist Kurds operating in an area near the country's borders with Iraq and Iran, a key Turkish official announced late Tuesday

F-35 Lightning II Intelligent Laser System

Not your typical paint job. The F-35 Lightning II is the most advanced combat aircraft ever built. Cutting edge technologies, including robotics, are used in it's manufacturing. Even painting the aircraft with radar-evading coatings is accomplished with precise instrumentation guided by lasers.

Saudis permit Israeli jets to pass over to Iran

Report: Saudis permit Israeli jets to pass over to Iran

London Times reports Saudis carry out defense missile tests aimed at allowing Israeli warplanes to pass through airspace on way to bomb nuclear facilities in Iran. 'We will let them through and see nothing,' says source Ynet Published: 06.12.10, 08:42 / Israel News
Saudi Arabia has carried out tests of its missile defense systems aimed at allowing Israeli warplanes to pass over its territory on their way to strike nuclear facilities in Iran, defense sources in the Persian Gulf told the London Times Saturday.


Panic in Tehran grows as Ahmadinejad’s imaginary world crumbles



Passing over Saudi Arabia would shorten the flight to the Islamic Republic. According to the report, the missile tests were carried out in order to ensure that Israeli planes will not be shot down while flying over the kingdom's territory.
In 2009 the London Times reported that Mossad chief Meir Dagan held talks with Saudi Arabia on the subject, and even updated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on their outcome.
In the report, a diplomatic source was quoted by the paper as saying that "the Saudis hinted that they would agree to allow Israeli jets to pass through their airspace in order to carry out a mission with common Israeli and Saudi interests".
In Saturday's report a US defense source in the region was quoted as saying, "The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way."
He added, "They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the State Department."




Sources in Saudi Arabia also told the paper that senior officials in the kingdom had agreed among themselves to allow the planes' passage. Despite the bad blood between the two states, fears Tehran will develop a nuclear weapon are shared.
"We all know this. We will let them through and see nothing," one source told the paper.

BAE Systems South Africa smart turret/RG41 armoured fighting vehicle

Written by Leon Engelbrecht
Thursday, 10 June 2010 06:26

BAE Systems South Africa will be displaying a new fire-on-the-move Tactical Response Turret (TRT) on its new RG41 8x8 mine-protected wheeled armoured combat vehicle at next week's Eurosatory defence show in Paris, France.

Operated by one person, the overhead remote-controlled turret provides self protection and ground support for light armoured vehicles (LAV), mine-resistant armour protected vehicles and infantry combat vehicles and will be competitively-priced, the company says.

The self-contained turret, as designed, can be fitted with a US Alliant Techsystems M242 Bushmaster 25mm cannon – or similar-sized weapons ranging from 20 to 30mm – as well as an co-axial M240 (FN MAG) machine gun. Armoured bins allow for 1000 7.62x51mm NATO rounds and 260 25x137mm rounds in two magazines of 130 rounds each. In addition, the turret is fitted with four 76mm smoke launchers. Traverse is all-round and elevation is from -10 to +65 degrees. Mechanical or software-controlled interruptors are available to restrict movement in azimuth in order to create “prohibited zones”.

BAE Systems says the turret weighs 800kg of which some half is the weapon and ammunition. On a typical LAV such as those derived from the MOWAG Piranha, the TRT offers a weight saving of 1200kg. It is also a major space-saver, the company avers. The TRT is typically 1100mm high and 1320mm wide. Traverse is at 1.8 rad/s, 103 degrees a second or 3.5 seconds to circle, elevation is 1.5 ad/s or 85 degrees a second. Stabilisation is “better than 0.5 rad/s” while operational on the move while laying accuracy is better than 150 Rad with automatic optical tracking after manual lock-on.

The standard sighting sensor system allows for identification by day at 1000m and by night at 750m in terms of STANAG 4347), while the Vectronics 3042 laser range finder ranges to 5km. A “high performance” suite offers identification by day at 2500m and 1600m at night. The suite's Carl Zeiss laser range finder does so at 12km. In both cases a further commanders' observation sight is available.

The turret was developed by Land Systems SA's Dynamics business – the former IST Dynamics, acquired in September 2008 and the “non-complex” man machine interface or “battle station” can be positioned anywhere in the carrier vehicle. An optional commander's station is available. The fire control system (FCS) includes a fully-integrated ballistic computer, an integrated automatic video auto-tracker, aim-point adjustment based on target speed and distance as well as a continuous electronic zoom combined with a fixed field of vision. Optional is a patent-pending “rapid-target designation” system available to the commander. Further options include the integration of the FCS with onboard command-and-control suites or battle management systems, GPS and navigation means as well as a laser warning and shot detection system. Additional armour protection is also available, BAE Systems product literature adds.

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.ph...and&Itemid=105

The new RG41 armoured fighting vehicle and Tactical Remote Turret (TRT) that BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa will formally launch on to the world market at next week’s Eurosatory defence exhibition in Paris in France are both entirely South African in design and development.

The TRT with 25 mm Bushmaster cannon, mounted on an RG34 vehicle

Both were developed with our own research and development funding and in both cases the intellectual property is owned by Land Systems South Africa,” highlighted company marketing and communications manager Natasha Pheiffer to Engineering News Online on Thursday. “We are busy patenting one of the TRT’s features – its rapid target designation capability.”

BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa is 75%-owned by the global group BAE Systems and 25% by local, and black-empowered, company DGD Technologies, and comprises three divisions.

The new RG41 armoured vehicle

The RG41 is the latest in a long and successful line of armoured and mine-protected vehicles from BAE Systems Land Systems OMC, which is based in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, while the TRT comes from Pretoria-domiciled BAE Systems Land Systems Dynamics. (The third division is located in Alrode, which is south of Johannesburg, and is BAE Systems Land Systems Gear Ratio).

“The RG41 was developed to meet a general requirement noted by us in the world market, as was the TRT,” she explained. “We saw a gap in the market for turrets and ours is a cost-effective design.”

The company is not yet in any talks with possible customers for either system. “We will start to gauge the interest at Eurosatory next week.”

The RG41 is an 8 x 8 wheeled armoured fighting vehicle which is 7,78 m long, 2,8 m wide and 2,357 m high (hull only). It can carry a crew of three, plus an infantry section of eight.

Its payload capacity is 11 t and it has a gross vehicle mass of 30 t, and, powered by a Deutz 2015TCD V6 diesel engine, can reach a maximum speed of 100 km/h.

The RG41 is a mine-protected, modular design capable of being repaired in the field, with high mobility and a comfortable ride because it has a specially modified hydro-pneumatic suspension. The vehicle employs many commercial-off-the-shelf components and does not employ any American components that are subject to US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

The TRT is designed to be operated by one person and to be able to be fitted to a wide range of armoured vehicles. Equipped with electromechanical drives it has a unique functionality which allows for rapid acquisition of, and locking on to, targets. It can rotate 360˚ in a time of 3,5 seconds, and elevate from -10˚ to +65˚.

It can be fitted with day monochrome or colour charge-coupled device cameras and a thermal night camera for target detection and combines “game-boy” style controls with a 104 mm liquid crystal display screen. The vehicle commander can also be provided with a sight for the TRT.

Currently, the TRT is equipped with a McDonnel Douglas M242 Bushmaster 25-mm cannon and a 7,62-mm co-axial machine gun, but can be adjusted to take alternative weapons up to 30-mm in calibre.

street fighting

10,000 strong to stop Ground Zero mosque

As many as 10,000 protesters from across the country – including family members who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001 – took to the streets in New York City Sunday to fight construction of a 13-story Islamic mosque to be built just steps from Ground Zero where Muslim terrorists murdered 2,751 people in the name of Allah.

Now the organizers plan to sue the federal government to designate the site as a war memorial

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SILYNX C4OPS ShadowOps

http://www.silynxcom.com/sitefiles/1/29/355.asp
link for pictures



Designed to provide the most advanced two way radio communication system and transmit full surround audio for discrete monitoring and eavesdropping.

This miniaturized and concealed headset features a chest-worn Inductor microphone, a wired or wireless PTT, a radio connector and a wireless induction earpiece. The ShadowOps™ is also supplied with a transparent acoustic tube for semi-covert operations.

Miniaturized and anatomic wireless induction earpiece
● Fits left or right ear
● Continuous operations for more than 200 hours on one Zinc Air battery
● Induction/Microphone box
Miniaturized induction/microphone box
● Speaker for transparent acoustic tube
● Induction/acoustic tube mode switch
● Microphone sensitivity switch (normal or eavesdropping)
PTT
● Remote wired PTT
● Dual Wireless PTT- easily concealed in pockets and other locations
Optional Configurations and Features:
● ShadowOps kit for Urban AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wireless PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Maritime AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wireless PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Urban AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wired PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Martime AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wired PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Motorola XTS300/5000 includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wireless PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Motorola XTS300/5000 includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wired PTT

Humvee replacement - First Look: Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV)

We spent the day at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., yesterday riding around in the three entrants for the Army-Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) competition; the Humvee replacement as it’s often called. The industry teams are: BAE Systems, General Tactical Vehicles (GTV) — a joint venture between General Dynamics Land Systems and Humvee builder AM General, and Lockheed Martin.

They wouldn’t let us shoot the inside of the vehicles for security reasons, but they all pretty much resembled later iterations of the Humvee, a little cramped (particularly the 6 seat infantry carrier), though with plenty of extra goods such as blast seats, more computing and electrical power, flat panel monitors and functioning air conditioning.

The ride in all three JLTVs was impressively smooth and the vehicles had plenty of power climbing hills and obstacles. The JLTV family of vehicles will come in 2, 4 and 6 seat versions, along with a cargo hauler and ambulance. The program folks say they’ll provide MRAP level protection against IED blasts. The planned buy is 60,000 for the Army and 5,500 for the Marines; full production is planned for 2015

BAE Systems

Image link: http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...2b87f.Full.jpg
Video: http://shock.military.com/Shock/play...259379f16d55ab

GTV

Image link: http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...4e0ad.Full.jpg
Video: http://shock.military.com/Shock/play...0a0ba52a0332c1

Lockheed Martin

Image link: http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...0168e.Full.jpg
Video: http://shock.military.com/Shock/play...45f07f6156fd05

i say either the lockheed for the GTV, your thought??

BAE CV90 Armadillo

The Global Combat Systems sector of Britain's BAE Systems will reveal the new Armadillo concept of its CV90 armored combat vehicle family at the Eurosatory 2010 trade show outside Paris.The latest iteration in a vehicle line that has won more than 1,100 orders, CV90 Armadillo is intended to bring a high level of flexibility in payload and battlefield utility to a new range of vehicles using common CV90 components, according to the company.

"This is a concept of a flexible family of vehicles of modular type built around the CV90 platform," said Hakan Karlsson, vice president of marketing communications for BAE Global Combat Systems in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden.

An ideal armored combat vehicle, Karlsson said, offers a balance between high mobility, high payload and extremely high protection; should have a practical and effective interface for digitally equipped soldiers and the digital battlespace; should be reliable and affordable; and above all, offer a low logistics footprint. This has been the ethos behind the development of the Armadillo build standard, Karlsson told journalists May 27 in a London briefing.

BAE has analyzed the degree of commonality between variants in existing CV90 vehicles, and overlaid on this the benefits of a modular approach to future variants based on the Armadillo standard. Based on cost, engineering effort expended and the number of major common components, the company believes it can achieve between 65 percent and 88 percent commonality for turreted, personnel carrier and specialist engineering vehicles.

The real payoff for the Armadillo comes in its available payload of 16 metric tons, according to Karlsson. In its armored personnel carrier form, the CV90 Armadillo will weigh in at 26 metric tons, leaving 9 metric tons of payload availability, which can be traded off against higher levels of protection.

The standard level of protection is already high. "Resistance to mines in the 8-10 kilogram area is already considered pretty good - we have achieved protection well in excess of the 10 kilogram bracket; we are setting new standards with the Armadillo program," Karlsson said.

Armor protection also is high, at "well above Level 5," and the entire vehicle architecture has been built with ease of interoperability with tomorrow's digital soldier in mind.

Equipped with a Saab LEDS150 hard-kill self-protection system, a BAE Lemur remote weapon station, and external fire suppression equipment to deal with urban warfare attacks from Molotov cocktails and the like, the Armadillo family will include ambulance, mortar, personnel carrier, command-and-control, logistics support and recovery variants, depending on customer demand.

Future development may well examine other variants, such as a vehicle-launched bridge, with a continued focus on improving the payload/protection balance, according to Karlsson.

Questioned on the degree to which the design had taken into account the development of soldier modernization programs, Karlsson responded that there are several challenges that need to be balanced.

"We need to provide adequate power and cooling, ensure we can cope with handling and sharing tactical information with the crew, and also maintain a useful level of useable payload and space," he said.

spainish sub photographed transport of weapons in the Syrian coast

The Spanish submarine S-72 Siroco watched the movements of arms on the coast of Syria in the weeks before the controversy over the alleged transfer of Syrian Scud missiles to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. The image captured, which can be seen easily dozens of military vehicles on the deck of a merchant ship was taken from near the Syrian port of Tartus on 2 March.

The Sirocco was patrolling the area under anti-terrorist operation Active Endeavour, NATO, ie, monitoring maritime traffic in search ships suspected of carrying out weapons smuggling. The Spanish navy says the merchant, photographed periscope height (from the submerged submarine) was "suspicious" by the criteria of the operation, although it claims that the information about the final destination of the cargo and the ship's flag is seen photographed classified material.

What reveals itself the image captured by the Spanish periscope, near the Syrian coast, is the obvious interest of NATO to control the movement of weapons that might be taking place at that time and in that part of the Mediterranean Sea. NATO, certainly not the shot he missed. A few weeks after the snapshot taken by the Sirocco, on 13 April, Israeli President Shimon Peres spoke of sending a dangerous missile from Syria to Hezbollah and of rapid rearmament of the Islamist militia. His message was immediately followed by another of King Abdullah of Jordan on the high risk of an imminent armed conflict in the Middle East. The controversy had begun.

Scuds and M-600

Since then, although Syria has denied it repeatedly, from Israel have continued to succeed accusations that Iran is supplying Scud missile and M-600 to Hezbollah with the complicity of Damascus. Both the Scuds as the M-600 have a power far greater than the missiles that Hezbollah has so far, using it as they have a range exceeding 600 kilometers from the Lebanese border could reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

Although the United States has not officially confirmed the existence of these alleged missiles, and the UN mission in Lebanon claims to have found no evidence on the alleged shipment, there is something in which both Washington and the UN agree to publicly and unambiguously Israel: There is strong evidence that Hezbollah is increasing its arsenal.

The accusations involving Syria have been a blow to attempts by the U.S. President, Barack Obama, closer to Damascus, to which his government sees as crucial to peace efforts in the Middle East.

Satellite imagery and the large simulation

The British newspaper 'The Times' took a giant step in the controversy on Friday when he claimed to have had access to satellite imagery to show the existence of Hezbollah missiles on Syrian soil. The English newspaper, said that information gathered by American satellites shows the existence of a Lebanese militia complex located near the Syrian town of Adra, northwest of Damascus. A base which would include shelters, weapons, and a fleet of trucks for transfer.

The weapons in question would either Syrian or supplied from Iran by sea or by air. The 'Times' said that American intelligence suspected that at least two Scuds had entered Lebanon and could be hidden in underground deposits in the Bekaa Valley, north of the country. As if that were not enough elements of tension, last week, Israel carried out the largest simulation of war in its history: a period of five days' duration, designed to prepare the population for a scenario of massive attack with missiles from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip

idf soldiers talk about what happen on the flotilla

Flotilla Passengers Fire Live Ammunition at IDF Soldiers