Pakistan Let China See Crashed U.S. "Stealth" Copter

Titlu: Pakistan Let China See Crashed U.S. "Stealth" Copter
Sursa: http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2011/08/dtn-news-pakistan-news-pakistan-let.html
Autor: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters
Data: 16.08.2011

Citat :

Pakistan Let China See Crashed U.S. "Stealth" Copter

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada / ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - August 16, 2011:
Pakistan gave China access to the previously unknown U.S. "stealth" helicopter that crashed during the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May despite explicit requests from the CIA not to, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The disclosure, if confirmed, is likely to further shake the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, which has been improving slightly after hitting its lowest point in decades following the killing of bin Laden.

During the raid, one of two modified Blackhawk helicopters, believed to employ unknown stealth capability, malfunctioned and crashed, forcing the commandos to abandon it.

"The U.S. now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," the paper quoted a person "in intelligence circles" as saying on its website.

It said Pakistan, which enjoys a close relationship with China, allowed Chinese intelligence officials to take pictures of the crashed aircraft as well as take samples of its special "skin" that allowed the American raid to evade Pakistani radar.

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there was reason to believe Pakistan had allowed the Chinese to inspect the aircraft. But the official could not confirm it happened with certainty.

No one from the Pakistani army was available for comment, but the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Pakistan's top spy agency, denied the report. The paper said Pakistan's top general, chief of army staff Ashfaq Kayani, denied that China had been given access.

The surviving tail section, photos of which were widely distributed on the Internet, was returned to the United States following a trip by U.S. Senator John Kerry in May, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy told Reuters.

Shortly after the raid, Pakistan hinted that it might give China access to the helicopter, given its fury over the raid, which it considers a grievous violation of its sovereignty.

"We had explicitly asked the Pakistanis in the immediate aftermath of the raid not to let anyone have access to the damaged remains of the helicopter," the Financial Times quoted the source as saying.

In an incident such as the helicopter crash, it is standard American procedure to destroy sophisticated technology such as encrypted communications and navigation computers.

DISPLEASURE

Pakistan is a strategic ally to the United States but the relationship has been on a downward spiral since the killing of the al Qaeda leader in the raid by U.S. forces.

Islamabad was not informed in advance and responded by cutting back on U.S. trainers in the country and placing limits on CIA activities there.

The fact that the al Qaeda chief lived for years near the Pakistani army's main academy in the northwestern garrison town of Abbottabad reinforced suspicions in Washington about Islamabad's reliability in the war against militant Islamists.

There are also growing frustrations with Pakistan over its reluctance to mount offensives against militant factions in the northwest who are fighting U.S.-led foreign forces across the border in Afghanistan.

In a show of displeasure over Pakistan's cutback in U.S. trainers, its limits on visas for U.S. personnel and other bilateral irritants, the United States has suspended about a third of its $2.7 billion annual defense aid to Pakistan.

Despite this, both sides have tried to prevent a breakdown of relations.

The head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, visited the United States last month for talks with U.S. government and intelligence officials, which both sides said went well.

Despite the billions in aid, Pakistan still considers China a more reliable ally than the United States. China is a major investor in predominantly Muslim Pakistan in areas such as telecommunications, ports and infrastructure. The countries are linked by a Chinese-built road pushed through Pakistan's northern mountains.

Trade with China is worth almost $9 billion a year for Pakistan, and China is its top arms supplier.

In the wake of attacks that left 11 people dead in the China's western region of Xinjiang in late July, Pakistan dispatched the ISI's Pasha to Beijing.

(Writing and additional reporting by Chris Allbritton in Islamabad, Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Rosalind Russell and Alison Williams)

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
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Titlu: China Already Has Advanced Stealth Technology Claims Pakistan
Sursa: http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2011/08/dtn-news-pakistan-news-china-already.html
Autor: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir - The News, Pakistan
Data: 17.08.2011

Citat :

China Already Has Advanced Stealth Technology Claims Pakistan

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 17, 2011: China is not interested in acquiring the stealth technology currently being used by the United States for its flying machines as it has already developed the same in a much advanced shape and is using it in its most sophisticated multi-role planes, highly placed defence sources told The News here Monday.

The planes have successfully conducted their test flights early this year and China is now in the production phase of its stealth planes. A chopper fitted with stealth characteristics is not much different to what is used for the fixed-wings planes. The Chinese never requested Pakistan to provide any sort of access to the debris of the US stealth chopper that crashed in the Abbottabad operation on May 2 in which American special forces reportedly killed Osama bin Laden (OBL) and took his body to Afghanistan.

Highly placed defence sources say American satellites were monitoring the movement in and around Abbottabad during the days when the debris was lying outside the OBL compound. The area was under the constant watch of the world media and US moles were also actively at work during that period. In such a situation it was not possible for any Chinese expert to examine the tail of the chopper and, secondly, China never asked for such access. The stealth planes exterior is made of highly specialised materials such as Polygraphite. China has complete knowledge of the technology and is successfully using it already, the sources maintained.

They pointed out that the western media reports pertaining to so-called inspection by the Chinese experts is totally baseless and it appearance after more than three months depicts ill-intention. The purpose is to malign Pakistan and build pressure on it.

Providing background of the technology the sources said that it is used to avoid detection by employing a combination of features to interfere with radar as well as reduce visibility in the infrared, visual, audio, and radio frequency (RF) spectrum. Development of stealth technology began in Germany during World War II.

Well-known modern examples of stealth aircraft include the United States’ F-117 Nighthawk (1981-2008), the B-2 Spirit, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II. While no aircraft is totally invisible to radar, stealth aircraft prevents conventional radar from detecting or tracking the aircraft effectively, reducing the odds of a successful attack.

Stealth is the combination of passive low observable (LO) features and active emitters such as Low Probability of Intercept Radars, radios and laser designators. These are usually combined with active defences such as chaff, flares, and ECM. It is accomplished by using a complex design philosophy to reduce the ability of an opponent’s sensors to detect, track, or attack the stealth aircraft. This philosophy also takes into account the heat, sound, and other emissions of the aircraft as these can also be used to locate it. It has already been established that the United States does not have monopoly on the stealth technology, as some other countries are also equipped with it.

Full size stealth combat aircraft demonstrators have been flown by the United States in 1977, Russia in 2010 and China in 2011, while the US Military has already adopted three stealth designs, and is preparing to adopt another.

Most recent fighter designs will at least claim to have some sort of stealth, low observable, reduced RCS or radar jamming capability, but as yet there has been no actual air-to-air combat experience against stealth aircraft.

During World War I, an attempt to reduce the visibility of military aircraft resulted in the German heavy bomber, the Linke-Hofmann R.I; this had a wooden structure covered with transparent material. The first true “stealth” aircraft may have been the Horten Ho 229 flying wing fighter-bomber, developed in Germany during the last years of World War II. In the closing weeks of the war the US military initiated “Operation Paperclip”, an effort by the US Army to capture as much advanced German weapons research as possible, and also to deny that research to advancing Soviet troops. A Horton glider and the Ho 229 number V3 were secured and sent to Northrop Aviation for evaluation in the United States, which much later used a flying wing design for the B-2 stealth bomber. The first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft was in December 1989 during Operation Just Cause in Panama. On 20 December 1989, two USAF F-117s bombed a Panamanian Defence Force barracks in Rio Hato, Panama. In 1991, F-117s were tasked with attacking the most heavily fortified targets in Iraq in the opening phase of Operation Desert Storm and were the only jets allowed to operate inside Baghdad’s city limits.

Stealth aircraft are typically more expensive to develop and manufacture. An example is the B-2 Spirit that is many times more expensive than the conventional bomber aircraft. The B-2 programme cost the U.S. Air Force almost $45 billion.

Stealth aircraft have been used in several conflicts: the United States invasion of Panama, the Gulf War, the Kosovo conflict, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 2011 military intervention in Libya. To date, the United States of America is the only country to have used stealth aircraft in combat.

The first use of stealth aircraft was in the United States invasion of Panama, where F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft were used to drop bombs on enemy airfields and positions while evading enemy radars. The successful first deployment of stealth aircraft to a combat zone marked a milestone in military aviation. In 1990 the F-117 Nighthawk was used again in the Gulf War, where F-117s flew approximately 1,300 sorties and scored direct hits on 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq while accumulating over 6,905 flight hours. Only 2.5% of the American aircraft in Iraq were F-117s, yet they struck more than 40% of the strategic targets, dropping over 2,000 tons of precision-guided munitions and striking their targets with over an 80% success rate.

The sources pointed out that in the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia two stealth aircraft were used by the United States, the veteran F-117 Nighthawk, and the newly introduced B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber. The F-117 performed its usual role of striking precision high-value targets and performed well, although one F-117 was shot down by a Serbian Isayev S-125 ‘Neva-M’ missile. The new B-2 Spirit was highly successful, destroying 33% of selected Serbian bombing targets in the first eight weeks of U.S. involvement in the War.

During this war, B-2s flew non-stop to Kosovo from their home base in Missouri and back.

In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, F-117 Nighthawks and B-2 Spirits were again used, and this was the last time the F-117 would see combat.

F-117s dropped satellite-guided strike munitions on selected targets, with high success. B-2 Spirits conducted 49 sorties in the invasion, releasing more than 1.5 million pounds of munitions. The most recent use of stealth aircraft was in the 2011 military intervention in Libya, where B-2 Spirits dropped 40 bombs on a Libyan airfield with concentrated air defences in support of the UN no-fly zone. In future, it is likely that stealth aircraft will continue to play a valuable role in air combat. In future conflicts the United States is likely to use F-22 Raptor, B-2 Spirit, and the F-35 Lightning II to perform a variety of operations.

In Russia, the Sukhoi PAK FA stealth multi-role fighter is to be introduced in 2015, to perform a wide variety of missions. In India, the Sukhoi/HAL FGFA, the Indian version of the PAK FA, is to be introduced from 2017 in higher numbers, also to perform a wide variety of missions. In China, the Chengdu J-20 stealth multi-role fighter is to be pressed into service around 2018. A prototype was flown early this year.

The sources reminded that the only time a stealth aircraft has been shot down was on 27 March 1999, during Operation Allied Force. An American F-117 Nighthawk’s bomb bay had malfunctioned causing it to remain open for an unusually long time, allowing a Serbian Air Defence crew who were operating their radars on unusually long wavelengths to launch an Isayev S-125 ‘Neva-M’ missile at it, which brought it down.

The pilot ejected and was rescued and the aircraft itself remained relatively intact due to striking the ground at a slow speed in inverted position. A B-2 crashed on February 23, 2008 shortly after takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the sources added.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir - The News, Pakistan

*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
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS.