Tag: Africas

The landing comes as the United States and Philippines strengthen military relations as China becomes more aggressive in the South China Sea.

Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors landed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines last week in a move signaling increased defense efforts between the two countries.

During the exercise, U.S. pilots from the Alaska-based 525th Fighter Squadron joined aviators from the Philippine Air Force’s 5th Fighter Wing for low-altitude flyovers, air combat maneuvering, formation training, and, with help from a KC-135 Stratotanker, air-to-air refueling over the heavily contested South China Sea.

“This was the first time that F-22s, or any fifth-generation aircraft, have landed on and operated out of the Philippines,” Capt. Karl Schroeder, one of the Raptor pilots, said in a release. “This milestone with a regional ally aids in providing stability and security to the Indo-Pacific.”

Regional stability has become an increasingly glaring focus of the two militaries as threats continue to emerge out of Beijing. While the Philippine Constitution prohibits permanent basing of foreign troops, the two nations’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement does allow for an increased footprint of American forces by way of rotations to a handful of predetermined locations.

South Africa’s Paramount Group is gearing up production of composite blades for Soviet-designed helicopters with the establishment of a production facility in the UAE, looking to collect orders from African operators of the aircraft in need of maintenance and configuration upgrades.

Last month, Paramount said it signed a strategic partnership agreement with UAE-based AAL Group to locally manufacture main and tail rotor composite blades for Mi-type helicopters. The Emirati entity has provided a full-range of maintenance and repair services for the Mi-family of rotary-wing aircraft for more than two decades

“Our activities with AAL Group in the UAE will include but not be limited to the management of an advanced manufacturing plant, an assembly line and maintenance repair and operations facilities, servicing and upgrading fleets of helicopters for our African partners,” Steve Griessel, Global CEO of Paramount told Defense News.

There are more than 23 operators of Mi-type helicopters across the African continent, with Togo being the most recent to receive new deliveries of two Mi-17 transport aircraft in December.

Washington says ‘reckless’ Russian manoeuvers forced US to bring down MQ-9 drone, but Moscow denies collision occurred.

A US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone was brought down on Tuesday morning over the Black Sea, after what the European Command claimed as “an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” by two Russian jets. The “Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance” platform was “operating within international airspace” when the airplanes approached, EUCOM said in a statement. One of the Su-27s “struck the propeller of the MQ-9,” so the operators ditched the drone into the sea.  “Several times before the collision, the Su-27s…

For President Xi Jinping, the Iran-Saudi deal is part of a grander political vision, and a nuts-and-bolts example of how he hopes to achieve it.

The vision is that China will ultimately displace the United States as the world’s leading power. The means to achieve it? Leveraging China’s economic clout to expand its financial, diplomatic, and military footprints worldwide.

The Mideast deal also underscores a key pillar of that approach. In explicit contrast to the United States, China is assuring its partners that “internal” issues – such as human rights – are irrelevant to its outreach and alliances.

Biden administration officials are pressing their Canadian counterparts to make a decision on whether Ottawa will lead a multinational force into Haiti to assist the crisis-racked Caribbean nation in its battle against gang control, U.S. and diplomatic sources said. They are hoping that a visit to Canada by President Joe Biden next week will settle months of debate over the matter. In October, the United States proposed a resolution at the United Nations Security Council — with the support of…

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Ericsson), a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, has agreed to plead guilty and pay a criminal penalty of more than $206 million after breaching a 2019 Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA). 

Below-normal rainfall is expected over the next three months in parts of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Binance is considering ending business relationships with banks and services firms amid heightened scrutiny.

Turkey’s foreign minister on Thursday accused Sweden of being complicit in a “hate and racist crime” for failing to prevent weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam and pro-Kurdish groups. Mevlut Cavusoglu also confirmed that a key meeting in Brussels to discuss Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership has been postponed, saying such a meeting would have been “meaningless” in the wake of the protests. Turkey has been infuriated by a Quran-burning protest by anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan on Saturday and…

A former high-ranking member of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group seeking asylum in Norway is in custody on suspicion of entering the Scandinavian country illegally, authorities said Monday. Russian Andrey Medvedev “has been arrested under the Immigration Act and it is being assessed whether he should be produced for detention,” Jon Andreas Johansen of Norwegian immigration police told The Associated Press. Norway’s VG newspaper said detaining him isn’t intended as a a punishment, but a security measure. Medvedev,…

A Manhattan federal judge known for swift decisions and a no-nonsense demeanor during three decades of overseeing numerous high-profile cases was assigned Tuesday to Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency case. The case was relegated to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan after the judge originally assigned recused herself because her husband worked for a law firm that had done work related to Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried, arrested in the Bahamas two weeks ago, was brought to the United States last week to…