Austria trains Conscript

BONN — Austria is launching three pilot projects to professionalize its conscription armed forces. Over the next month, three units and six military properties will be organized to work without conscripts, Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos announced.

In Lower Austria and in Salzburg, two pioneer companies will be formed on the basis of a volunteer militia. Soldiers who sign up will receive a yearly bonus of 5,000 euros ($6,474). At the same time, they commit themselves to serve about two weeks per year in exercises or on operations inside the country.

The enlistment will run from February until June, and both units are supposed to be ready for operation by 2013. Darabos said this will increase the strength and professionalism of the existing militia system.

“Both companies will do more exercises, be quicker deployable and get a bonus for performed services,” he said.

Until July, the Jägerbataillon 25, an air-deployable infantry unit, stationed in Klagenfurt, will be reorganized to operate with professional and regular soldiers. Full readiness should be achieved by July 2014. More than 350 professional and regular soldiers will be added to its current cadre of 150 professional soldiers.

The 350 conscripts who perform routine jobs as so-called system upholders in different properties will be transferred to the forces and the military core business, as Darabos put it. Currently, 60 percent of all conscripts are serving as ordinances, drivers and other kinds of aides. Their current duties will be partly outsourced, replaced by technical means or civil servants and trainees. This process is to start in the second half of 2012.

“With those projects, we make the militia more attractive and stronger, we reduce the system upholders, and we increase the operational readiness drastically,” Darabos said at a joint press conference with the Austrian chief of the General Staff, Edmund Entacher, and the commander of the Armed Forces, Günter Höfler on Jan. 23 in the Austrian capital Wien.

The Austrian military wants these pilot projects to provide experience in fields such as operational readiness, recruitment and professionalization.

“Operation has the highest priority for the forces,” said Höfler: “Everything that increases the operational readiness is welcomed.”

The money needed for these projects is to come from the defense budget itself.

Oman seeks Bid for Euro-fighter

The government of Oman has requested that BAE Systems submit a formal bid for the supply of Typhoon fighter aircraft. The move clarifies the Middle East nation’s continuing commitment to the program following delays in completing negotiations.

A spokeswoman for the U.K.-based defense company said it expected to complete negotiations by the end of the year, with deliveries of the first aircraft taking place 36 months later.

The request for proposals involves a squadron’s worth of Tranche 3 standard aircraft — about 12 airframes — a support package and training for the Omani air force.

Last month, Oman ordered a second batch of 12 F-16 Block 50’s from Lockheed Martin in a $600 million deal

The Omanis formally stated their intention to purchase the Eurofighter Typhoon in early 2010, and company executives said at the time that the deal could be ready for signing within months.

In a statement, BAE said it welcomed the release of the request for proposals, adding that the news underpins its long-standing defense and security relationship with the sultanate as a major equipment supplier.

The most recent major equipment sale was signed in 2007 to deliver three corvettes to the Omani navy in a deal valued at 400 million pounds.

The warships remain undelivered for technical reasons.

The first of the Khareef-class vessels should have been handed over in 2010 but have been delayed following the discovery of technical problems during sea trials.

The spokeswoman denied that the signing of the fighter deal between the two sides is dependent on the agreement of a get-well package for three corvettes.

The spokeswoman said the first of the corvettes is now scheduled to be handed over at the end of the second quarter.

The Omanis’ commitment to Typhoon follows recent competition losses for the fighter in Japan and Switzerland.

A decision by India on whether to select the Eurofighter aircraft or its French rival, Dassault Rafale, is imminent.

Earlier this month, BAE announced that talks with the Middle East’s first Typhoon customer, Saudi Arabia, over amendments to a deal to supply 72 fighters, were dragging on and would likely affect its 2011 earnings.

The original deal called for the first 24 aircraft to be delivered from the BAE production line in the U.K., with subsequent assembly in Saudi Arabia.

BAE and the Saudis announced a change of plan last February over where the final 42 aircraft would be built but are still haggling over the details.

Typhoon is a four-nation program involving the Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. So far, it has exported the aircraft to Austria and Saudi Arabia

Austria Balks at Selling Old Tanks to Canada

VIENNA - Austria is in talks to sell 40 secondhand Leopard 2A4 tanks back to their German manufacturer after Vienna balked at the Canadian military buying them, a press report said Dec. 12.

Austrian Defence Ministry spokesman Michael Bauer confirmed only that talks with the firm, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, were "going well, although nothing has been signed yet."

The Austrian daily Kronen-Zeitung said the Canadian military had also expressed interest in buying the 15-year-old tanks, which Krauss-Maffei will buy back for 400,000 euros ($532,300) each and then modernize.

"But that would have meant so much red tape, since the Canadians are fighting in Afghanistan, meaning that the sale would not have been approved," the paper cited an unnamed army insider as saying.

This created consternation among some partners in the NATO military alliance, although "as luck would have it" Canada decided it was no longer interested, the daily added.

The paper said Austria bought the tanks for 1.3 million euros each in 1996.

Concern Over New Landmine Use as Summit Ends

PHNOM PENH - Over 100 nations hailed global progress on landmine eradication on Dec. 2 but voiced "deep concern" over the fresh use of the weapon in four countries as a large anti-mine summit ended in Cambodia.

Signatories to the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention expressed "deep concern about new use of anti-personnel mines" in a text adopted after a week-long gathering in the capital Phnom Penh.

It comes after campaigners said last month that Israel, Libya and Syria had joined longstanding offender Myanmar in recently laying the deadly explosives.

Their actions pushed the worldwide use of landmines to a seven-year high in 2011, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

But member states at the meeting also noted "significant progress" made by several nations to live up to the Ottawa Treaty, which bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

Burundi and Nigeria both announced they were mine-free after completing their land clearance obligations, while Turkey said it had fully destroyed its stockpile of some 3 million landmines, after missing an earlier deadline.

Finland was also singled out for praise after it said it was on the verge of becoming the 159th state to join the convention. Somalia is expected to follow in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Myanmar, which has not joined the treaty, encouraged campaigners by taking part in the summit as an observer, suggesting the country was open for dialogue on its stubborn use of the weapon.

Experts warned that many challenges remained as landmines and explosive remnants of war caused 4,191 new casualties in 2010 globally, including more than 1,000 deaths, according to the ICBL.

Delegates vowed to keep up demining efforts despite "difficult financial times".

"In the midst of global economic turmoil there is a concern that states will forget they have an obligation to support each other," Kerry Brinkert, director of the secretariat of the convention, told AFP.

Host country Cambodia, one of the world's most mine-affected places, was promised more funding by Austria and New Zealand.

Cambodia received $24.3 million in aid for its demining activities last year, down from $33.3 million in 2009.

Austria To Sell, Scrap Two-Thirds of Its Tanks

VIENNA - The Austrian Army will sell, scrap or recycle two-thirds of its armored vehicles by late 2013, allowing it to save up to 15 million euros yearly, Defence Minister Norbert Darabos announced Nov. 23.
"We are getting rid of cost-intensive equipment which represents an expensive burden for the army and which we no longer need," Darabos said.

The number of armored vehicles, which has already seen cuts over the past four years, will shrink to 389 by the end of 2013, from 1,147.
Several models, including more than 400 Saurers dating back to the 1960s, will be scrapped entirely, while others will be recycled as spare parts for other vehicles.
Further models, such as the more modern Leopard tanks, will be put up for sale. Several governments and firms have already expressed interest, the defense ministry said.
The sales should help bring in 19 million euros ($25.5 million), although 2 million euros will go toward destroying ammunition.
Additionally, the army will save up to 15 million euros per year in maintenance through the cuts, according to the ministry.
"We need more than ever to adapt our capabilities to realistic deployment scenarios," Darabos said.
Where Austria once stood with its back against the Iron Curtain, with the prospect of a conventional war with the Soviet bloc on its doorstep, now "we face cyber threats, terrorist threats: these are the challenges of the future," he said.

Iran Spurns 'Useless' UN Mideast Atomic Forum

VIENNA, Nov 21 - Iran angrily stayed away Monday from a UN atomic agency forum on creating a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, amid growing tensions over Tehran's suspected efforts to develop the bomb.
Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Tehran's decision was its "first reaction" to the body's "inappropriate" recent report on its nuclear program.

That assessment saw the IAEA come the closest yet to accusing Iran outright of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran, hit by four rounds of UN sanctions, says its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes.
On Friday, the IAEA's board of governors passed a resolution of "deep and increasing concern" submitted by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany and 12 others in light of the report.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak meanwhile provided an ominous response Sunday when asked about growing speculation of a military strike.
The IAEA report "has a sobering impact on many in the world, leaders as well as the publics, and people understand that the time has come," he told CNN.
"Our greatest wish is that they commit such a mistake," Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency on Monday.
Soltanieh said another reason for not attending the two-day IAEA forum, aimed at learning from the experiences of other so-called nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ), was Israel's unofficial atomic arsenal.
"As long as the Zionist regime does not belong to the NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty) ... this kind of conference is useless and cannot succeed," Soltanieh told Iranian television channel Al-Alam.
Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it. Unlike Iran, it is not a signatory to the NPT and therefore not subject to IAEA inspections.
Syria, reported by the IAEA to the Security Council over a suspected covert reactor allegedly bombed by Israel in 2007, was, however, present at the forum, along with Israel, 17 other Middle East states and Palestinian representatives.
Some of the roughly 275 participants from 97 countries in the closed-door discussion said representatives of several Arab states, particularly Syria and Lebanon, had used their speeches to attack Israel.
"Israeli nuclear capabilities pose a grave and continuous threat to others in the region. Israel must join the NPT," Syria ambassador Bassam Sabbagh said, according to a participant.
Israel's ambassador was yet to speak. Participants said the atmosphere was, however, less "confrontational" than previous IAEA events that have degenerated into Arab-Israeli slanging matches.
NWFZ treaties prohibit the production, acquisition and stationing of nuclear weapons, as well as nuclear testing.
Zones of this kind already exist in Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia, encompassing 113 countries.
IAEA member states requested in 2000 that such a Mideast forum take place, but agreement on holding such a meeting remained elusive until now.
The forum comes ahead of a conference in 2012 to be hosted by Finland on ridding the powder keg region, rocked this year by Arab Spring uprisings in several countries, of nuclear weapons.
IAEA head Yukiya Amano, opening the forum, conceded there were "longstanding differences of view" on creating such a zone.
"It has taken 11 years to get to this point," Amano said. "I hope it will nurture fresh thinking - creative thinking."
"It's up to Iran to consider if it can make a contribution. Clearly, they felt not," South Africa's IAEA ambassador Abdul Samad Minty told reporters. "But [the forum] is a first step. It's not the end of the process."

Austria Reinstates Sacked Chief of General Staff

VIENNA - The Austrian army's chief of general staff, who was dismissed in January after criticizing reform plans for the army, will be reinstated, the defense ministry said Nov. 7.
Defence Minister Norbert Darabos had relieved General Edmund Entacher after he criticized a plan to scrap compulsory military service.

But an appeals commission within the chancellery ruled Nov. 7 that Darabos's arguments for the dismissal were insufficient and quashed the decision, the ministry said in a statement. Darabos had said he sacked Entacher because the army chief of general staff had publicly "undermined (his) confidence."
In an interview with the weekly magazine Profil, Entacher had questioned whether Austria had enough funds or enough applicants to be able to conscription and create a professional army.
"From a legal point of view, my arguments about a loss of trust were obviously insufficient," Darabos said Nov. 7.
But he insisted: "For me, the need for army reforms is not open to discussion." The Austrian army has shrunk dramatically since the fall of the Iron Curtain, and politicians have struggled to define its new role.

GD Austrian Unit Discusses Pandur Sale to Kuwait

PARIS - Steyr Daimler Puch, the Austrian unit of General Dynamics Land Systems Europe, is in talks with the Kuwait National Guard for the sale of a new generation of its Pandur armored personnel carrier, an industry executive said.
The discussions are understood to be for several dozen units of the armored vehicle, which is available in six- and eight-wheel configurations in the Pandur II version. Steyr declined comment.

General Dynamics plans to present is Mowag Piranha armored vehicle at the IDEX show in Abu Dhabi, which opens Feb. 20.