DTN News – DEFENSE NEWS: Textron Awarded Contract To Produce Turrets And Provide Support For Colombia’s APCs

DTN News – DEFENSE NEWS: Textron Awarded Contract To Produce Turrets And Provide Support For Colombia’s APCs

 

Source: DTN News – – This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Defense News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada – March 21, 2013: Textron Marine & Land Systems (TM&LS), an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, announced today a $5.5 million contract award from the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) to provide 12 armored turrets, technical support services, vehicle repairs and spare parts for the Colombian Army’s (COLAR) Armored Personnel Carriers (APC).

The COLAR has 39 COMMANDO™ Advanced APCs in operation with its Armored Cavalry units and, under a separate U.S. Foreign Military Sales case, has requested to purchase additional APCs.

Since fielding its APCs in May 2010, the COLAR has employed them extensively while combating internal revolutionary forces in Colombia. These vehicles have provided the mobility, protection and firepower needed to meet all COLAR tactical armored vehicle requirements.

TM&LS’ APC is an extended version of the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle (ASV), combat proven over 10 years and used by the U.S. Army and other militaries in locations including Afghanistan and Iraq. The APC’s additional two feet in length and six inches in internal height allow greater troop carrying capacity in areas of operations. These vehicles are part of the COMMANDO™ Advanced line of armored vehicles, which offer excellent on-road and off-road mobility enabling them to operate in urban, jungle, desert and mountainous terrain. Crew protection is reinforced with a V-shaped hull bottom and 360-degree protection from direct fire.

“This contract is an extension of our positive working relationship with the Colombian Ministry of Defence and Army leadership, and an example of our capability as a full-spectrum armored vehicle provider,” said Textron Marine & Land Systems Senior Vice President and General Manager Tom Walmsley.

“Colombia’s APCs are performing exceptionally well in a variety of operational roles, while offering outstanding protection to COLAR soldiers. Building on this success, we’re working with Colombia to increase the number of APCs in COLAR units while sustaining its entire vehicle fleet with a coordinated program of maintenance, training and field service support,” Walmsley added.

Rigorously tested and proven in the toughest environments, the COMMANDO family of vehicles offers a range of protection options, unmatched on-road/off-road mobility and ample firepower. TM&LS produces four lines of COMMANDO four-wheeled vehicles – COMMANDO Utility, COMMANDO Advanced, COMMANDO Select and COMMANDO Elite.

As an end-to-end armored vehicle provider, TM&LS also offers its customers COMMANDO fielding, training, maintenance and logistics support throughout each vehicle’s life cycle.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Defense News
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DTN News – OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: 17 Suspected of Helping Track bin Laden Get Their Jobs Back

DTN News – OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: 17 Suspected of Helping Track bin Laden Get Their Jobs Back

 

Source: DTN News – – This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Shaan Khan, CNN
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada – March 14, 2013: Seventeen Pakistani women suspected of helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan were given their jobs back Thursday, their lawyer told CNN.

The women appeared in the city of Peshawar’s high court, where Justices Yayha Afridi and Seth Waqar Ahmed accepted their petition to have their jobs restored, Sajid Ali Awan, the women’s counsel, told CNN.

“The court has also directed the Department of Health to act lawfully and take lawful measures after accepting our petition, which is the simple restoration of the employees as their termination without a shown cause notice was against the law,” Awan said.

The women were fired from their jobs after allegations that they were involved in Dr. Shakeel Afridi’s fake vaccination campaign, which helped the CIA collect DNA samples from residents of bin Laden’s compound in the city of Abbottabad. The samples aimed to verify the al Qaeda leader’s presence there.

Awan said the secretary of health for Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province fired the health workers in February 2012. However, they pleaded not guilty, saying they were not aware of Dr. Afridi’s intentions and were simply following his orders.

Dr. Afridi is serving a 33-year sentence in a Peshawar jail, accused of having links to militant elements in Khyber Agency, though many believe he has been penalized for acting as a CIA front man in the fake vaccination campaign.

Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid on his Abbottabad compound in May of 2011.

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Shaan Khan, CNN
*Speaking Image – Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News – KOREAN PENINSULA NEWS: North Korea Threatens Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike Against US

DTN News – KOREAN PENINSULA NEWS: North Korea Threatens Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike Against US
*Threatening rhetoric comes before vote by UN on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test

Source: DTN News – – This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Associated Press in Seoul – guardian.co.uk,
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada – March 7, 2013: North Korea has vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours before a vote by UN security council on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said the North will exercise its right for “pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the headquarters of the aggressors” because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against it.

Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the US. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for a handful of cruder devices.

Such inflammatory rhetoric is common from North Korea, but it has been coming regularly in recent days. The Pyongyang regime is angry over the possible sanctions and over upcoming US-South Korean military drills.

The UN security council is set to impose a fourth round of sanctions against North Korea in a fresh attempt to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, the current security council president, said the council will vote on the draft sanctions resolution on Thursday morning.

The resolution was drafted by the US and China, North Korea’s closest ally. The council’s agreement to put the resolution to a vote just 48 hours later signalled that it would almost certainly have the support of all 15 council members.

The statement by North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesman was carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

It accused the US of leading efforts to slap sanctions on North Korea. The statement said the new sanctions would only advance the timing for North Korea to fulfil previous vows of taking “powerful second and third countermeasures” against its enemies. Those measures haven’t been specifically elaborated on.

“We gravely warn that at a time when we cannot avoid a second Korean war, the UN security council, which served as the US puppet in 1950 and made Korean people harbour eternal grudges against it, must not commit the same crime again,” it said.

North Korea in the statement demanded the security council immediately dismantle the American-led UN command that is based in Seoul and move to end the state of war that exists on the Korean peninsula, which continues six decades after fighting stopped because an armistice, not a peace treaty, ended the war.

 

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Associated Press in Seoul – guardian.co.uk,
*Speaking Image – Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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