Well that is awkward for the Saudis.

Esscom to get more assets

December 17, 2015, Thursday

PUTRAJAYA: The Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom) will be getting more assets, according to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the reinforcement was crucial in establishing ESSCom’s omni presence over the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone) stretching more than 1,700 kilometres.

The additional assets included a state of the art radar, an attack helicopter and drones.

“Preparedness is not just rhetoric and commitment on paper. We must meet ESSCom’s surveillance requirements and enforcement personnel preparedness,” he told a media conference on ESSCom, today.

Earlier, he chaired a high level meeting on development projects for ESSZone and acquisition for ESSCom at the Home Ministry here.

Also present were Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, Home Deputy Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed and Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

Ahmad Zahid said ESSZone which comprises 10 districts, namely Kudat, Kota Marudu, Pitas, Beluran, Sandakan, Kinabatangan, Lahad Datu, Kunak, Semporna and Tawau was very vulnerable to intruders.

Hence, he said, to prevent any likelihood of such threat, coordination and recognition of it were emphasised among the enforcement agencies involved.

“Powerful nations had in the past failed to resist guerrilla war tactics; we should not be trapped in the same way,” he said.

On the current security status in the ESSZone, he described it as good, judging from the morale of the personnel.

During the media conference, Ahmad Zahid also introduced ESSCom’s new commander SAC Datuk Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid, who is replacing DCP Abdul Rashid Harun.

Abdul Rashid has been promoted and will assume duties as Sabah Police Commissioner effective Dec 23.

ESSCom also has a new chief executive officer, Noor Alam Khan Abdul Wahid Khan. He replaces Ruji Ubi who has been appointed as Sabah State Development director effective Dec 16.

Meanwhile, Bari who was Kuala Lumpur Traffic and Public Order chief prior to his appointment said he was yet unfamiliar with his new task but would do his best.

As for Noor Alam Khan, he felt his appointment as ESSCom’s CEO would be a bigger challenge compared to his job as Sabah Immigration director.-BERNAMA

The alliance would help the 70,000 "moderate" fighters backed by David Cameron take on the terrorists in Syria.

The notorious group – responsible for the Paris terror attacks – declared a caliphate last year.

ISIS were also responsible for downing a Russian jet over Egypt in October – killing everyone on board.

Indonesian Navy Sigma PKR 10514 with the Oto Melara 76mm Super Rapid Gun Stealth Cupola installed. Looks like next armament to be install would be the Millenium Gun CIWS in front of the bridge.



Credit to IrvanFlanker.

It will be a new era for top guns: Air Force bosses have boasted combat lasers will be fitted to fighters planes by 2020.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is on track to demonstrate a working laser weapon on a fighter jet by 2020, it has revealed.

'It really is a national tipping point,' Kelly Hammett, chief engineer for the AFRL's directed energy directorate, told CNN.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has published its list of the world’s top 100 arms manufacturers. Overall, the 100 largest defense contractors totaled $401 billion in sales 2014, though the actual number is probably even higher, because the list excludes Chinese companies “due to the lack of data.”

This is a healthy chunk of the total worldwide military expenditure during the same year, which was $1.776 trillion including China.

In other words — of every dollar that governments around the world spent on their militaries in 2014, about 23 cents ended up in the pockets of one of the 100 companies on SIPRI’s list, many of which are privately owned.

SIPRI predicts Lockheed Martin’s revenue from defense goods and services to exceed $40 billion in 2015, owing to the acquisition of Sikorsky Aircraft, which manufactures the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter among other products, and would be ranked 24th on the list by itself.

Overall, American companies take 54.4 percent of the total revenue of all 100 companies on the list. Seven of the top 10 arms manufacturers — and 38 of the top 100 — are based in the United States.

BRUSSELS – Of the Belgian nationals fighting in Syria, more than a hundred are listed as residents of Brussels, with nearly a third coming from the Molenbeek district alone. Two of the perpetrators of the 13 November Paris attacks lived in the district.

International media has not hesitated to declare this Belgian province the European capital of radicalism, a no-go zone, and the hub of “jihadism”.

However, political scientist el-Ghabri recalls that "most young people who left to fight in Syria between 2012 and 2013 belonged to Sharia4Belgium, a Belgian hardline organisation dissolved on 7 October 2012. This organisation, however, had no access to mosques. On the contrary, it was even “forced out of mosques". El-Ghabri even doubts that "there are jihadist mosques, in which there would be someone calling for an armed and offensive jihad".

"It is very unlikely that the recruitment or incitement to go [to Syria] takes place in the mosques, because these are monitored places," explained the researcher. He instead advocated "the adoption of security policies that truly address the problem and respond to the emergency situation," and stressed the need to "think of intelligent answers, proportionate and respectful of freedoms".

Carter has specifically directed Maybus to cut the number of hulls for the LCS program from 52 to 40, and to select a single LCS design-shipbuilder team, instead of the current plan for two completely separate designs and shipbuilders, according to the letter originally obtained by USNI.

Two LCS variants are in production, with six ships operational (three of each type), and 20 more on the order books. The two suppliers include Lockheed/Marinette Marine for the Freedom Class that features a traditional mono-hull design, and General Dynamics/Austral for the Independence Class that features an exotic trimaran design.

The savings gained by Carter’s LCS cuts will also find their way into America’s in-demand nuclear submarine fleet by upping the funding for the Virginia Payload Module development. Once deployed operationally on future Virginia-class fast attack nuclear submarines, the upgrade will allow America’s converted Ohio-class guided missile submarines to be slowly retired, simultaneously opening up funding for the Ohio-class’s replacement.

The ship’s automated mine hunting system, a key component that was supposed give the LCS a valuable capability for one of its rudimentary missions, remains a total bust. What’s worse is that the decision to “up-gun” the design with more combat punch and armor, instead of procuring a more traditional frigate, resulted in adapting a design for something it was never meant to do.

Now our adversaries, quite frankly, are pursuing enhanced human operations, and it scares the crap out of us," Work said.

Altering human beings from the inside to more effectively fight in combat presents ethical dilemmas for American scientists and military planners. Work says those ethical concerns typically don't apply to authoritarian governments like Russia's or China's, but their lack of hesitation in developing EHOs may force America's hand.

"We're going to have to have a big, big decision on whether we're comfortable going that way," Work admits.

What sort of enhancement are we talking about? As yet, the Pentagon has not been specific, but we can infer several likely human mods from previous work done by DARPA, and our own imagination.

"Now our adversaries, quite frankly, are pursuing enhanced human operations, and it scares the crap out of us."

Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Andy Stumpf risked his life to support the SEAL community and set a global record in a death-defying feat earlier this year.

Armed only with a wingsuit and a whole lot of courage, Stumpf jumped from an altitude of more than 36,500 feet, exiting a plane travelling more than 230 mph. He used a wingsuit made by Squirrel reach speeds above 140 mph.

The prior world record was 17.83 miles absolute distance traveled in a wingsuit – this “Man on a Mission” travelled 18.257 miles.

On Dec. 15, Saudi Arabia announced a new “Islamic military alliance” of 34 countries to “coordinate and support military operations to fight terrorism.”

Unfortunately, both of these initiatives fell apart before they were even underway. Not only did the Saudis exclude the Kurds—the most effective ground force fighting ISIS

What of the Islamic military alliance? Just a day after its announcement, the Lebanese and Pakistani foreign ministers and the Malaysian defense minister denied their countries’ involvement in the Saudi-led coalition.

Embroiled in a proxy war with Russia and Iran—both of whom support Assad—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey have supported and armed the more radical elements of the opposition.

The evident objective is simply to create enough instability that the country is no longer an asset to Tehran but is, rather, a liability.

Rather than a threat from Iran, Turkey is concerned over the potential creation of a Kurdish autonomous region in Syria—much like the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq to which Turkey has reluctantly grown accustomed.

However, Russia and Iran will never give up Assad in the face of unabated external support for Syria’s Salafist opposition groups.

If the United States wants to mediate effectively between the two sides, it must find a more balanced approach. If it can’t keep its allies—especially Saudi Arabia—in check, any efforts to end the war will be doomed from the start.

Most deserters we spoke with left their military service between late 2011 and early 2013, a finding that is compatible with other sources of evidence on Syrian military deserters.

They described the military as a professional force in which religion did not interfere in relationships with comrades and superiors. Almost all respondents reported collegial relations with members of all sects and reported regularly interacting with one another at military colleges, in the barracks  and socially.

As the uprising broke out, however, soldiers described how the inflammation of sectarian divides created an atmosphere of mistrust within the military. Sunni respondents felt constricted by the presence of Alawi soldiers and officers in their units, and feared communicating their perspectives on the uprisings with fellow soldiers in these mixed-sect units.

An estimated 100,000 Syrian soldiers and officers have left their positions since the beginning of the crisis in 2011.

much big gun than our RMN Gowind ship 57mm gun .... most stupid decision on Gowind 57mm navy gun.