Defence`s Feeds

Slovenian remote weapon station (RWS) and turret developer Valhalla will perform the first firing trials of its Midgard 300 RWS in the United Kingdom in late September 2018, Jane’s has learned. The first version of the modular Midguard 300 RWS is armed with the UK-made AEI Systems stabilised

The US Navy (USN) will need to do a better job providing budgeting information and other reports for the dismantling and disposal of aircraft carrier former USS Enterprise (CVN 65), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. “The budget documentation and reporting that the Navy

A Su-34 involved in a runway overrun at Khurba airbase, Russia. On Jul. 31, a Russian Air Force Su-34 veered off the runway at Khurba airbase, near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the far east part of Russia. The aircraft had just landed after a night training mission and the incident was caused, according to unofficial sources, because […]

Americas

• Leonardo DRS is being contracted to provide the US Army with a new C-UAS capability. The awarded contract modification has a value of $13.25 million and provides for engineering and testing of the Mobile Low, Slow Small Unmanned Aerial System Integrated Defeat System (MLIDS) Increment 1. The C-UAS capability is essentially a vehicle-mounted weapons system that is capable of neutralizing small UAVs. MLIDS is a collection of different sensors and weapon systems that have been integrated by DRS to fill the C-UAS mission and mounted on top of two separate all-terrain mine resistant ambush-protected vehicles, or MATV. MATVs can be equipped with either an elevated electro-optical infrared system or with a combination of radar and a variety of kinetic weapons suitable for countering the threat posed by enemy UAVs. Work will be performed at the company’s location in St. Louis, Missouri and is expected to be completed by May 2019.

• The US Army is tapping Leidos for further work on the Saturn Arch program. The awarded contract modification provides for sustained operations and support services at a cost of $60 million. The Saturn Arch Program began in 2010, with an effort to implement intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to a special aircraft fitted with state-of-the-art sensor technology to identify and assist in removing IEDs from the battlefield in Afghanistan. It uses a variety of platforms and sensor assets for detecting and assisting in the removal of enemy IEDs and other threats. Aerial platforms including manned and unmanned aircraft use electro-optical and infrared sensors, ground-penetrating radar, and radio-frequency detectors to locate IEDs, allowing friendly forces to either avoid or disable them. It also allows trends to be mapped to develop a picture of where the weapons are most concentrated in operations areas. Work will be performed in Bridgewater, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of 16th September 2019.

• The US Navy’s next Littoral Combat Ship is currently entering its post-shakedown availability (PSA). Austal is being awarded a cost-plus-award-fee order with a value of $14.8 million. The company will provide engineering and management services in support of the USS Tulsa (LCS 16), including work specification development, prefabrication efforts and material procurement. The USS Tulsa is an LCS-2 Independence class vessel which is a futuristic but practical high-speed trimaran, based on Austal designs and experience with vessels like the US Marines’ Westpac Express high-speed transport. LCS 16 carries a General Dynamics designed combat system, and standard LCS weapon fittings. Work will be performed in Mobile, Alabama and San Diego, California. The PSA is expected to be completed by August 2019.

• PAE Aviation and Technical Services is being tapped to provide a variety of services in support of the Navy’s fleet of F-5 aircraft. The awarded modification provides for options for organizational and limited depot-level maintenance and logistics support services for the F-5F Tiger II and F-5N Freedom Fighter aircraft at a cost of $47.9 million. The F-5 was born out of a 1950s US Navy requirement calling for a small, lightweight, jet-powered fighter to operate from the decks of its Escort Carriers. The F-5N is a single seat, twin-engine, tactical fighter and attack aircraft providing simulated air-to-air combat training. As a tactical fighter aircraft, the F-5N accommodates a pilot only in a pressurized, heated and air-conditioned cockpit and rocket-powered ejection seat. The avionics of the F-5E Tiger II are more sophisticated compared to the earlier version F-5A aircraft. It rolled out from production in 1987 and since then has undergone various upgrades to compete with changing combat environments. The aircraft costs are low and can be easily maintained compared to the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. Work will be performed at multiple locations, including Naval Air Stations Key West and Fallon, as well as Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. All work is expected to be completed by 2019.

Middle East & Africa

• Jane’s reports that the Israeli defense manufacturer IAI is currently jointly developing a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) with the Croatian company DOK-ING. In futuristic warfare scenario, CBRNE weapons cause hazardous effects including contamination of environment & terrain. CBRN UGVs can be used for detection, sample collection and marking of contaminated zones without risk of exposing personnel, which gives them a certain edge over conventional manned NBC recce vehicles. Details of the IAI and DOK-ING produced platform are currently in the embryonic stages. However, IAI General Manager for Robotic Systems Division Meir Shabtai explained that it would be suitable for military applications as well as the civil market. Under the collaboration agreement, DOK-ING will be providing the platform and IAI will be incorporating its autonomous capability.

Europe

• The US State Department is currently in the process of approving a possible foreign military sale to Denmark. The North-European country has requested the purchase of up to 46 SM-2 Block IIIA All-Up Rounds and other related equipment for an estimated cost of $152 million. SM-2 Block IIIA missiles have greater capability at even lower altitudes than previous SM-2 versions, a more powerful fragmentation warhead, and can use Interrupted Continuous Wave Illumination (ICWI) to improve performance against supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. The missiles are provided as medium range (50 mile) rounds that can be fired from AEGIS rail launchers, AEGIS vertical launch systems, and Tartar rail launchers. The deal would also include a telemetry omni-directional antenna, warhead dud capable missiles, the Mk13 Vertical Launching System Canisters and operator manuals. The system will be installed on the Royal Danish Navy’s IVER HUITFELDT Frigate Class ships. In combination with the Anti-Air Warfare System (AAWS) combat system the missiles will enhance anti-air warfare capabilities. The principal contractors will be Raytheon and BAE Systems.

Asia-Pacific

• Japan is currently withdrawing its PAC-3 air defense systems in light of easing relations with North Korea. The systems had been deployed in five prefectures across the country since August 2017 to counter the threat posed by North Korean missiles. PAC-3 is the current standard for new-build Patriot Missiles. The missile uses a “hit-to-kill” approach, instead of the PAC-2’s large fragmentation warhead, which allows it to pack more missiles per launcher (16 instead of 4). Its enhanced capabilities also allow it to be used for point defense against ballistic missiles, and its Config-3 ground systems also feature a range of improvements to the battery’s radar, communications, electronics, and software. The missile batteries were returned to their respective Japan Air Self-Defense Force bases after Japanese officials decided that North Korea would be unlikely to fire ballistic missiles as tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have eased following the landmark summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on 12th June on Singapore’s Sentosa Island.

Today’s Video

• Watch: What do we know about the F-15X ?

Although the Eid ceasefires have been and gone, they have rekindled hopes across Afghanistan that peace is possible. Helmand’s peace movement is keeping up the pressure. It has staged sit-ins in front of embassies in Kabul and sent letters to countries participating in or supporting the war effort. The movement has also reached other parts of the country. Its members claim that the Taleban have softened their approach towards them. AAN’s Ali Mohammad Sabawoon and Thomas Ruttig (with input from Emilie Cavendish) have been looking at the peace marchers’ latest activities, as well as their strategy.

Following the Eid ceasefires, the Helmand Peace Movement that formed after a suicide attack in Lashkargah in March (with a subsequent high-profile 770-kilometre march lasting 37 days to the capital, Kabul, where it arrived as Eid celebrations were underway), is keeping up the pressure on all sides involved in the Afghan war in its attempts to bring the conflict to an end. Iqbal Khaibar, the head of the People’s Peace Movement (in Pashto, De Sole Wulusi Harakat) told AAN on 20 July, “The Eid ceasefire influenced our efforts well. People contact us every day. They motivate us and tell us that they are with us. […] We got a public image now.”

There are “120 individuals from Helmand, Uruzgan, Kandahar, Zabul, Ghazni, Wardak, Bamyan, Nangrahar, Herat, Baghlan, Paktia, Paktika and Kabul” now participating in the movement in Kabul, Khaibar told AAN:

As we do not have [enough] money for food, we send half of them home, and then those who have gone home come back and then the rest of the protestors [takes a rest]. The Kabul money exchanger union and the Jaji [tribal] shura are giving us food. Sometimes women come here and they offer us food. Our only problem is money, and the colleagues are all poor people.

Bismillah Watandost, the People’s Peace Movement spokesman, told AAN on 8 July one of the latest to join the cause was a small convoy from Logar province consisting of eight men and six women. He said, “The men are still with but we told the women to go back to their homes.” The protestors felt they had no appropriate place for the women as “we spent our days and nights on the roads,” and their permanent presence was not “suitable because of traditional sensitivities.” He added that “Those women still sometimes come to participate in our sit-ins and then go back home.”

The activists continue mobilising people throughout the country and now plan to move north. They are also trying to put pressure on countries they perceive to be external drivers of the war, as well as on the UN. They have renewed their attempts to get in touch with the Taleban in order to persuade them to join talks through tribal contacts in southeastern Afghanistan. At the same time, they are trying to consolidate their movement, avoiding relations with other protestor groups they presume to be too close to the government.

What is the marchers’ strategy?

Khaiber told AAN, “in the beginning we were concerned, fearing that any group might attack us, and our efforts for peace will end.” But on their march, more and more people were joining, first in Maiwand district of Kandahar, during the marchers’ first attempt to contact the Taleban. Then, on their march to Kabul, Khaibar said, the marchers set up new support groups along the way. He said “If we are attacked or killed our groups could continue our efforts. (…) Now we have the strength to continue our efforts countrywide.”

He further explained that the marchers do not want to take part directly in peace talks. Khaibar told AAN that “our movement only raises the issue and paves the ground. We wants the Taleban to stop fighting and the government [to understand] that it is not enough to say we are ready for talks. We want the government to mitigate for [those] Taleban who contact the government for talks.”

Khaibar even claimed that new international peace efforts – such as the US initiative to seek direct talks with the Taleban (media report here) are a result of their movement. In any case, together with the Eid ceasefires (AAN reporting here and here) it has definitely contributed to a changing atmosphere.

The Taleban also appear to have modified their position towards the peace marchers. Khaibar told AAN that they had claimed, through a message, that their initial rejection was not directed at them but at (other) groups “that were established by the government or linked to it.” At the same time, he said, “family member of Taleban of the Quetta shura are coming to us, they are in close contact with us. Relatives of Taleban ex-leader Mullah Mansur have contacted us. All of them are very eager for peace.” The Taleban had initially alleged that the Helmand marchers were carrying out an agenda on behalf of foreign forces, which had made them feel threatened (media report here). Khaibar responded by telling Tolo News that he was prepared to stand trial in a Taleban court should they find evidence to prove their allegations.

Working the provinces

Since their arrival in the capital, the Helmand activists have received further local support. Khaibar told AAN that on 20 July:

The people of Paghman district in Kabul made a big event for them. Hundreds of people gathered there. They invited us. We went there and the people assured us that they were with us and asked us not to quit the efforts. The ulema (religious scholars) talked about peace. Talking about peace in Afghanistan, especially from the mosque, was a big risk [so far].

Khaibar referred to the frequent killings of ulema who had previously done so. (The New York Times reported “hundreds” killed since 2016.) Elders from Dehsabz, a mainly Pashtun area to the north of Kabul, also came to meet the marchers.

The movement recently sent a five-man delegation to Paktia in the southeast to talk to tribal elders and community members there (more on peace initiatives in Paktia soon). It included a former university lecturer, a retired colonel, a student and a former journalist, and it has now proceeded to Khost. According to Bacha Khan Mawladad, responsible for communication in the Helmandi People’s Peace Movement, the delegation has already spoken with tribal elders and other influential people both in Paktia and Khost. He told AAN “they will be working on organising small jirgas to go to Taleban areas and talk to them.” He said they had not succeeded on talking to the Taleban yet but that the delegation, together with the elders, would continue their efforts.

On 2 July, religious scholars, tribal elders and young people gathered in Wama district in Nuristan to ask that the Taleban engage in peace talks, praising President Ghani for the Eid ceasefire. One participant, Muhammad Ahmadi, told Radio Liberty’s Pashto service that “Afghan peace is needed for Afghans like water for a thirsty man. Peace is the divine order. In every case we need peace. Afghans, whether they are Taleban or government soldiers are brothers.”

The marchers’ next target is the country’s north. Khaibar said, “If the people there are responsive to the peace effort, we will travel by vehicle. If the people in north are not very keen, then we will march. We endure the difficulties in order to awake the people for peace.” One of the participants of a recent sit-in in Kabul told AAN they were even ready “to go there barefoot, if need be.”

The tent at the stadium in Lashkargah where the movement started is still standing. Mirwais Kanai, one of the People’s Peace Movement’s local organisers told AAN on 29 July that the tent remains erected “as a symbol of protest” but that they had relocated for their organisational work to a two-room office within the same stadium. A group of university teachers is helping them. Kanai said “We [continue to] go to villages and meet the people to support our efforts.” He added that “in the beginning some people had doubts and were blaming the protestors for being a project of foreigners or the government, that’s why only a small number of protestors marched to Kabul. We have been working on people’s mindset and now the people have understood that [we] are really working for peace.”

Peace march participant Sardar Muhammad Sarwari from Helmand. Source: Mohammad Omar Lemar

Nur Zaman Haidar, a civil society activist in Helmand told AAN that the movement started by Khaibar and his colleagues was “a real movement.” He said, “in the beginning, I and some of my colleagues were criticising the movement because they were only asking the Taleban to stop the war. Their banners were reading like “Taleban brothers: Stop the war.” Haidar said he thought that was “thoroughly one-sided, but after they continued their protest and started marching to Kabul, we realised the movement was really for peace.”  He also said “We believe their effort would succeed because they do what every single Afghan wants.”

Nazar Muhammad Rudi, the head of the coordination office for Helmand province’s civil society organisations told AAN on 25 July, “I, along with my friends, was participating every day in the People’s Peace Movement by the time they were protesting in Lashkargah, and now we convey the messages of peace to our people [elsewhere] in Helmand. We have had meetings in Nawa and Gereshk districts and in Lashkargah city. We will continue our efforts until the peace prevails.”

More and more people want to join the peace movement bandwagon, but not all of them are welcome among the Helmandis, who want to avoid being associated with either the central or local government, and are ready to cut ties. Khaibar said “in the beginning of our efforts people erected [sit-in] tents in 16 provinces to support us”; but, he added, some of these initiatives “were not according to our hopes.” The people who had organized a sit-in in Kandahar, he said, “took money from the members of provincial assembly. And in Zabul province government officials were sitting in the tent all day long. Also in other provinces the tents were under the influence of government. Our policy is that we do not want the government officials to join us and we do not accept money from them.” The reason, Khaibar told AAN, was that the organisers want the movement to be “completely people-centric” and not “affiliated with one or the other group.”

Another example is a group from Kunar, which arrived on 28 June and launched a sit-in in Chaman-e Hozuri, a large public space in eastern Kabul near the National Stadium. The leader of the convoy, Doctor Nematullah Safai, who also heads De Sole Ghag Tolena (Voice of Peace Society) spoke with AAN on 2 July, confirming that they had not joined the delegation from Helmand but had had meetings with them. He explained there were some “minor differences” between them and Helmand’s peace marchers’ but he hoped the two delegations would unify soon. Safai also explained that De Sole Ghag Tolena had been lobbying for peace for the past year; its initiatives included sponsoring events at universities and schools.He told AAN on 18 July that they were waiting to meet the president and would then “share our agenda with the Taleban and then with United Nations.”

Another group of peace marchers arrived in Kabul on 28 June from Peshawar across the border in Pakistan including six students and an Afghan refugee representative called Jamil Khan Azizi, who had marched from the border crossing at Torkham to Nangrahar and who then drove on to Kabul. According to Azizi, Laghman’s governor, Asef Nang, welcomed them in his province, as did the minister for refugees, Sayed Alemi Balkhi, in Pul-e Charkhi, Kabul’s door to eastern Afghanistan. The group did not join the Helmand or the Kunar peace activists, Azizi added, as it had a different agenda. AAN did not receive a clear answer as to what the ‘minor differences’ and the ‘different agendas’ between the different peace movements were, except for some veiled accusations that the Helmandis would concentrate on Kabul too much and the other groups “go to the provinces” (which, indeed, the Helmandis have done from the beginning).

On 2 July, members of the lower house (Wolesi Jirga) praised the peace protestors arriving in Kabul. Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, head of the lower house, stated “Their opinions must be heard and they must be assisted.” He added that a commission had already been tasked to visit the demonstrators and to bring their demands to the lower house. On 17 July, Khaibar told AAN that two members of the security committee of the lower house had come to them to discuss a meeting. He said they had told them they were ready to meet them but they did not appear again.

Embassy sit-ins in Kabul

Over the last few weeks, the Helmandi marchers in Kabul have staged a number of sit-ins or erected a blue protest tent in front of offices and embassies. They have also attempted to hand over letters to both foreign governments and their country’s citizens, as well as hanging up banners with country-specific slogans. Khaibar said, “Our strategy is now to show our people that the [countries represented by these] embassies are involved in the war in our country. We meet the people in Kabul to engage them in peace efforts.”

Helmand peace marchers in front of the UN Office in Kabul. Photos: People’s Peace Movement/2018

This part of their campaign in Kabul started on 24 June, with three days in front of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) office. There, a poster asked, “What have you done for peace in Afghanistan over the past 17 years?” The marchers also sent a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres with the same complaint. The UN mission in Afghanistan issued a short statement online (quoted here) to welcome the sit-in, saying the “UN in Afghanistan committed to support Afghan peoples will for the extension of a ceasefire and the beginning of Afghan-led Afghan-owned peace talks to end the war.” Liam McDowall, UNAMA’s chief of communications, told AAN on 25 July through a text message:

We have a real respect for the peace marchers’ dedication and dignity, but mostly for their singular focus on ending the senseless bloodshed. The peace marchers and the UN share the same overriding objective: bringing peace to Afghanistan. We respect that each party working for peace has their own strategies and processes. The UN is tasked by member states to use its diplomatic channels to achieve progress in getting a peace process started and supporting an Afghan-led peace process. We are dedicated to doing just that.

From the UNAMA office the protestors then went to the US embassy. From there they sent a letter to the US Congresson 5 July 2018, after they had camped there with hundreds of people, both Kabulis and with people from other provinces accompanying the Helmandis for nine days. Near the Massud Circle, protestors defied the sweltering summer heat, squatting on cheap carpeting on hot asphalt, protected from the sun with only straw hats and thin gowns. The Afghan media noted the presence of a number of female participants.

Although the embassy sent Afghan staff to invite them to come in to talk or to meet at the Norwegian embassy, being a ‘neutral venue’, the protestors refused, arguing their rule was to talk outside the embassies. According to Khaibar, they said to the Americans, “we are the representatives of the people and the message of their convoy was clear, [namely] to stop the fighting in our country. We do not have other demands to talk more with you.” Khaibar said representatives of the embassy then came out to them and the protestors handed them the letter.

In the letter, they praised the United States’s assistance to Afghanistan but complained that the military intervention had failed to bring security to the country in the 17 years since the troops’ arrival. The letter further included a statement saying they would demand the withdrawal of the US troops if they did not care better for the Afghan people (the following quote is from the English original):

We should re-emphasise, if you people don’t care about our pain and sorrow, we will [consider] your aid and assistance wasted. We will infer that your help wasn’t truthful, [and] at the end Afghans will be displeased from you people and will force to sit at the door of your embassy [in order to] ask you to leave your job here and go out.(1).

Bismillah Watandost, the spokesman for the Helmand Peace Movement, told AAN on 8 July that the letter in three languages, Pashto, Dari and English, was addressed “to the American people and the US Congress.” He said, “We gave a copy to the media, one copy to the US embassy to convey our message to the Congress and one copy [was addressed] to all Afghans living in America to share our concerns with the people of America and with the Congress.”

Khaibar said they had sent the letter to Afghans living in the United States and also in European countries. In the US, they submitted the letter to Congress.

The following day, on 6 July, the protestors moved on to the Russian embassy and staged their next sit-in there, again with hundreds of participants, where they remained until 12 July.

The marchers also sent a letter to the people of Russia, containing a request to pressure their government not to support the war in Afghanistan. Khaibar told AAN “the Russians have once again started interference in our country and they support the Taleban to continue the war in our country.” He added Russia had made the mistake of invading the country between 1979 and 1989 and they “should not commit the same blunder again.”

Khaibar told AAN on 20 July that the Russian embassy responded in a polite manner, also through a letter: “Before we reached the embassy, their representatives came along with some answers to the questions we had already shared with the media. In the letter, they said that they were not supporting the Taleban and were always trying for peace of Afghanistan.”

On 12 July, the protestors moved on to the Pakistani embassy, where they erected their protest tent once again. They put banners on the walls in four languages, including in Urdu, addressing the Pakistani public: “ O, the people of Pakistan: your government is killing us.” Another banner read: “ Dear Pakistani public! We are happy you have educational institutes but your government destroys our schools.” Khaibar said:

We want the Pakistan not to support Taleban. We want them to release the Taleban and their families and children from their prisons. We want them not to kill those Taleban who refuse to fight. (…) We want Pakistan to stop the direct attacks on our country, ie [in border areas of] Kunar and Jaji Maidan in Paktia.

Khaibar said that even after 13 days nobody from the embassy had come out to meet them. In response to this, they submitted a “white letter” to the UN on 25 July, entitled: “To the Pakistani people.” Before, as announced, Khaibar cut his hand and put his blood on the letter. Watandost told Tolo News their “’bloodstained letter’ was a symbolic move and aimed to highlight that Pakistan has been a ‘harmful’ neighbour to Afghanistan for decades.” He said Pakistan has literally “given the knife to some people in Afghanistan to kill their own countrymen”.

Helmand peace marchers in front of the British embassy in Kabul. Photo: People’s Peace Movement/2018

Then they went to the Iranian embassy, where they also held a press conference. There, some of the banners read: “To the people of Iran! Your government is equipping militant groups in Afghanistan. (…) The current situation in Afghanistan is bad for us but it is not beneficial for you as well. Put pressure on your government to participate in Afghan peace process.”

At the British embassy, where they had set up camp on 27 July, for the first time an ambassador, Sir Nicholas Kay, came to sit and talk with them on 29 July, shunning usual security precautions. The peace marchers urged his government to put pressure on Pakistan to help find a peaceful solution for Afghanistan, echoing the widespread assumption among Afghans that Britain had the biggest influence on the rulers in Islamabad.

Helmand peace marchers in front of the British embassy in Kabul. Photo: People’s Peace Movement/2018

According to spokesman Watandost, the sit-in were then scheduled to congregate at the offices of the European Union and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an umbrella organisation of 50 Islamic states. Watandost told AAN on 31 July, however, that the OIC Permanent Representative – the Turkish diplomat Huseyin Avni Botsali – had promised to visit them at their tent at the Chaman-e Huzuri on the same day. There, as they had told AAN, they handed him an empty letter, as a symbol of what they felt was the indifference of the Islamic countries about the bloodshed in Afghanistan. The protestors told Afghan media that their “pain and sorrow“ about this was “so high that we [we]re not able to write anything on paper.”

There was also support for the marchers outside Afghanistan. Afghans living in Belgium and other European countries, “some hundred” according to organisers, gathered in front of NATO headquarters in Brussels on 22 July (videos here and here). A 25-kilometre peace march has been planned in Italy for August, with the participation of some of the Helmandi marchers. (The movement’s Facebook page is here.)

On 9 August the marchers are planning a huge gathering in Chaman-e Huzuri for which they expect convoys (“karwans”) from Nimroz, Kandahar, Helmand, Kunduz, Maidan-Wardak, Paktia, Nangrahar, Kunar, Khost and Logar provinces to join those who are currently in Kabul. Watandost told AAN that on the following day later, “ten to 15 people” would start a barefoot march to Balkh province, while others would escort them on vehicles and possibly motorbikes. Once in Mazar-e Sharif, they plan to meet people from the northern provinces and decide on next steps.

Conclusion: Rays of hope

The Helmand Peace Movement emerged at an auspicious time. It came about in response to the Afghan government’s proposal for ‘unconditional talks’ with the Taleban, made public during the the Kabul Process meeting on 28 February 2018, which included an offer to discuss the withdrawal of foreign troops, and the Taleban’s subsequent lack of official response. Since then, new momentum in the search for peace seems to have been gathering: a fatwa issued by the participants at an international conference of ulema in Riaydh in July, in which intra-Muslim violence – without mention of the Taleban –  was called “strictly forbidden under Islam”; reports that the White House had ordered US diplomats to seek direct talks with the Taleban to break the deadlock, and that first contacts had already taken place; reports that the Taleban leadership might have ordered a stop to terrorist attacks in populated areas – which were quickly denied; and that the Afghan government will reportedly announce another unilateral ceasefire during Eid-ul Adha in late August.

Claims by the Helmandi marchers that these developments were triggered by their initiative are somewhat exaggerated. However, their march arrived in Kabul during Eid, when the Afghan government and the Taleban implemented their ceasefires, which, as AAN wrote then, “allowed Afghans to imagine their country at peace”. The march and their occasionally unorthodox ways of protesting could be a catalyst for helping the complex Afghan conflict onto a path towards a peaceful solution, particularly when the marchers manage to remain impartial. If their claims are correct and leading Taleban family members are in touch with them, the Helmand marchers may even be able to build a bridge between the Afghan government and the Taleban.

Edited by Sari Kouvo

 

 (1) Here the protestors’ letter to the US, first its unedited English version, followed by the Pashto and Dari versions:

To the respected people of America and the Congress:
First of all we would like to share you our Afghans’ good wishes and greetings. As you better know a large number of your troops have come without any permission to Afghanistan after a bleeding incidents of September, 11. Just we would like to thank that you shared your own pities as a public and you supported us from your monthly salary and incomes. As the result of your cooperation we have gotten freedom of speech, rehabilitation cycle have been started, education level have grown, agricultural system slightly developed, and we also have experienced quite good changes in other parts.

Despite all these improvements, unfortunately, your troops and political representatives have not performed their promised about peace, they promised us a peaceful Afghanistan, rather than their existence have brought many wars and day to day it is increasing and extending. To the year 2003 all the warriors and insurgents particularly Taliban were peacefully submitted, due to the worst plan and policies of your governments they enforced Taliban to fight again. Despite of this your troops and some money-preferred-Afghans have gathered, they haven’t just made them to fight again but also made them a hand-devices of neighbors. Still today they have abducted Taliban’s’ family and enforced them to fight.

Dear respected people of America: Afghans are not people who forget benefaction. At the kingdom of Zahir Shah Baba, America have worked truthfully and Afghans were loving them too much and it is a popular notice about your engineer who were working in Helmand, Lashkargah. The story was: At the time that American were busy at rehabilitations’ projects an engineer whom belong to you has misplaced, a shepherd has found him unconscious and he kept him in his tent until he recovered healthy, at that time after his health recovery all Americans freely traveled to every area of Afghanistan, Afghans loved them because they see their truly cooperation but unfortunately Afghans hatting America too much now, even if they find an American engineer they are killing him. We are not naturally born with this abhorrence, but it has come from your troops’ bad behaviors. American troops carelessly have bombardment our Mosques, weddings, madrasas, homes, schools, hospitals, funerals, and markets. They have killed some Taliban with their bomb but in each bomb they have created hundreds numbers Taliban because they have received many casualties to civilian. Civilians are joined with Taliban to take their revenges from Americans’ troops. So this is the point that day to day Taliban become powerful and also due to the worst polices of your government warrior groups are increasing and they are ruining our schools, bridges, civilian, and other public places. Sadly we are going to say in each fourteen minutes we have one victim of war, war objects are that much common in every places that less amount of people may be without of guns. Unfortunately, even our child have access to guns.

Fight is a revenge in Afghanistan now, people are moving toward fight, the atmospheres are full of gun’s powder, civilians are infected mentally illness, and poverty has increased too much even people hardly find bread in Ramadan for their fasting. We have started these demonstrations in Afghanistan to send you our truly images and make you civilian (American-civilian) to ask your governments why they didn’t performed their promises? Your governments are able to destroy and eliminate the whole government in 15 days but they cannot bring peace in seventeen (17) years? We were trusted too much to the year 2003 and hoped we will be core of technology with the help of America like Japan and Germany, because America made these countries as the core center of technology and education. Ask them why we still witness these fight in our country? We don’t want anything except peace. If you people work beside Afghans for eliminating of fight and violence so you will witness that America will get their successful name again from this losing name. Abhorrence will end and we will return to story of Lashkargah again, deserts will become green, gardens will give us fruits again, the birds and animal will return to mountain, and immigrants will return to their villages and cities and will continue our life again. If you people do not so, no one will eager for your friendship, our own and world generation will hate you more. We should re-emphasize, if you people don’t care about our pain and sorrow, we will accept your aids and assistances wasted. We will infer that your help wasn’t truthfully, at the end Afghans will be displeases from you people and will force to sit at the door of your embassy and will ask you to leave your job here and go out.
#PPM ( People’s Peace Movement)

دامريکا ولس او کانګرسه!
په پيل کي درته درنښت وړاندي کوو.
تاسو ته ښه معلومه ده چي د سپټامبر د یوولسمي نېټې له خونړۍ پېښي څخه وروسته ستاسو پوځونه افغانستان ته په لوی شمېر کي نابللي راغلل.
فقط ستاسو څخه مننه چي د ولس په ډول مو زموږ سره د خپلي خولې ګوله شریکه کړه او د خپلو معاشاتو یوه اندازه مو موږ ته راولېږله.
ستاسو د همکاریو په پایله کي افغانستان کي د بیان آزادي رامنځ ته سوه، د بیا رغوني چاري پیل سوې، پوهني وده وکړه، کرهڼه څه ناڅه ښه سوه او په نورو برخو کي هم د پام وړ بدلون راغلی.
د دې ټولو پرمختګونو سره، سره له بده مرغه ستاسو پوځونه او ستاسو سیاسي نمایندګیو هغه ژمنه پر ځای نه کړه چي په افغانستان کي به دایمي سوله او امن راولي، بلکي د دوی په شتون کي ناامني او جګړې ورځ تر بلي پراخي سوې.
تر ۲۰۰۳زېږدیز کال پوري ټولي جنګي ډلي په ځانګړي ډول طالبان پر کورونو ناست وو، له بده مرغه ستاسو حکومت د ناسمو پالسیو له مخي طالبان جنګ ته اړ کړل.
همدا راز ستاسو پوځیانو د یو شمېر پیسه خوښه افغانانو په ګډون په طالب مشرانو پسې څراغونه راواخستل او له بده مرغه هغوی ئې نه یوازي دا چي جګړې ته اړ کړل، بلکي د ګاونډيو هیوادونو غېږې ته ئې واچول.
همدا اوس د یو شمېر طالب مشرانو کورنۍ برمته دي او هغوی جګړې ته اړ ایستل سوي او کېږي.
د امريکا ولسه!
افغانان احسان هېرېدونکي نه دي، د ظاهرشاه بابا د واکمنۍ پر مهال امريکايانو په افغانسان کي رښتنی کار کاوه، نو ځکه ټولو افغانانو د زړه له کومي مينه ورسره درلوده.
په لښکرګاه کي ستاسو د هغه وخت د انجينرانو په تړاو يوه ډېره مشهوره کيسه ده: هغه مهال چي امريکايانو په هلمند کي رغنيز بنيادي کارونه ترسره کول يوه ورځ په دښت لګان کي ستاسو يو انجينر ورک سو، بيا زموږ يوه پوونده پيدا کړی و چي بې هوښه پروت و، خپلي کېږدۍ ته يې د درملني له پاره بېولی و او تر رغېدو وروسته ئې بيرته خپلي کورنۍ ته سپارلی و.
هغه مهال ټول امريکايي پرسونل ازادانه د افغانستان هري سیمي ته تللای سول، افغانانو په دې خاطر د زړه له کومي مينه ورسره کوله چي ښېګڼه ئې ليدله خو له بده مرغه اوس په عامو افغانانو کي دامريکايانو په وړاندي دومره زياته کرکه سته چي که کوم امريکايي انجينر په لاس ورسي ژوندی به پاته نه سي.
دا کرکه زموږ په ذات کي نه وه، بلکي دا کرکه د امريکايي ځواکونو له بد چلنده را وزېږېده.
امریکايي پوځيانو دلته پر ودونو، مسجدونو، مدرسو، کورونو، ښوونځیو، روغتونونو، جنازو، کورونو او بازارونو بې پروا او بې درېغه بمبارۍ وکړې.
د هر بم په غورځولو ئې که يو شمېر طالبانو ته مرګ ژوبله اړولې وي، خو په سلګونو نورطالبان يې ځکه بيرته زېږولي چي د بم له غورځولو سره نورو عامو افغانانوته هم مرګ ژوبله اوښتې ده.
نور عام افغانان د انتقام اخستلو په خاطر د طالبانو ليکو ته تللي او تر اوسه پوري د بهرنیو ځواکونو په وړاندي جنګېږي.
په همدې خاطر خو دا پنځلس کاله کېږي چي د طالبانو لیکي ورځ تر بلي پياوړي سوي او کېږي.
همدا راز ستاسو د حکومت د غلطو پالسیو له کبله نورو جنګي ډلو ته زمینه برابره سوې چي ښوونځي، پلونه او پلچکونه، عوام او عامه تاسيسات او نور ځایونه له منځه یوسي.
له بده مرغه بايد ووايو چي هرو څوارلسو دقيقو کي يو افغان د جنګ له امله وژل کېږي، جنګي وسايل تر دې کچي عام سوي چي ډېر کم شمېر کورنۍ به وسلې نه لري.
له بده مرغه اوس زموږ ماشومانو لا وسلو ته لاسرسی موندلی دی.
په افغانستان کي جنګ په بدۍ بدل سوی، خلک مو ورو، ورو په جنګ روږدي کېږي، هوا مو يو مخ د بارودو بوی نيولې ده، ولس مو يو مخ په رواني ناروغيو اخته دی، په کليوالي سيمو کي غربت دې کچي ته رسېدلی چي حتی په روژه کي هم خلک روژه ماتي ته شلومبې په سختۍ پيدا کوي، نور خوراکونه خو پر لویه لار پرېږدئ.
موږ په افغانستان کي دا لاريونونه ځکه پیل کړي چي تاسو عام ولس زموږ له اصلي انځوره خبر سئ او تاسو له خپلو حکومتونو څخه وپوښتئ چي ولي مو خپلي کړي ژمني پوره نه کړې؟
دا چي په پنځلس ورځو کي يو نظام نړولای سئ، ولي مو په اوولس کاله کي امن رانه ووست؟
تر ۲۰۰۳زېږدیز کال پوري موږ سخت باوري وو او تمه راته پيدا سوه چي د امريکا په راتګ به زموږ هيواد لکه د جاپان او جرمني غوندي د ټيکنالوژۍ مرکز وګرځي، ځکه هلته د امريکا په ورتګ هغه هيوادونه د پوهي او تکنالوژۍ مراکز وګرځېدل.
دا چي دلته بيرته ولي جګړه راپيل کړل سوه، دا تاسو ورڅخه وپوښتئ!
موږ نور هيڅ نه غواړو، يوازې جنګ ورک کول غواړو، که تاسو د امريکا ولس د افغانستان په مسئله کي مداخله وکړئ جنګ او تشدد ورک کولو کي کار وکړئ نو په سيمه کي به امريکا خپل بايللی نوم بيرته ترلاسه کړي.
نفرتونه به له منځه ولاړسي، بيرته به د لښکرګاه د کيسې ژوند ته وګرځو، وچ فصلونه به مو بيرته راشنه سي، وران باغونه به مو بيرته ورغېږي، له غرونو تښتېدلي څاروي او الوتونکي مارغان به بيرته راسي، تیت او پرک مهاجر افغانان به بيرته خپلو کليو او بانډو ته ستانه سي او ژوند به مو بيرته عادي سي.
که تاسو عام ولس داسي ونه کړئ بيا به هیڅ څوک د امريکا ملګرتوب ته زړه ښه نه کړي، زموږ راتلونکی او د نړۍ راتلونکی نسل به له تاسو سخته کرکه او نفرت کوي.
بايد بيا ټينګار وکړو، که تاسو عام ولس د افغان ولس په درد، دردمن نه سئ په غم ئې غمجن نه سئ، ستاسو را استول سوې مرستي به ضايع وګڼو.
موږ به و انګېرو چي ستاسو مرستي حقیقي نه وې او په پای کي به افغان ولس له تاسو هم خپه سي او مجبور به سي چي ستاسو د سفارت د دروازې مخ ته داسي کښېني چي نور ئې خپل کار ته پرېنږدي.
#PPM

 

2 Dari Version of letter to Americaمردم عزتمند و کانگریس ایالات متحده امریکا!

اول تر از همه با ابراز احترامات فایقه؛
طوریکه می‌دانید بعد از سانحه ۱۱سپتامبر، نظامیان بی شمار شما خود سرانه به افغانستان داخل شدند. فقط از شما مردم امریکا سپاسگزار هستیم که لقمه های خود را با ما شریک ساخته و مقداری از مالیه و معاشات خود را به ما ارسال مینمودید.
در نتیجه همکاری های شما آزادی بیان تهداب گذاشته شد و کار عمران و بازسازی کشور آغاز گردید، معارف بطور قابل ملاحظه رشد نمود، تا جایی زراعت هم رو به ترقی نهاد و در قسمت‌های مختلف آثار تغییر قابل لمس بوجود آمد.
با این همه پیشرفت ها، بدبختانه با حضور نیروهای نظامی و نمایندگی های سیاسی شما، بعوض آوردن صلح و امنیت دایمی، دامنه جنگ و نا امنی ها گسترش قابل ملاحظه یافت.
تا ۲۰۰۳تقریبا تمام مخالفین نظامی دولت بخصوص طالبان در خانه های خود نشسته بودند ولی نظر به پالیسی های نادرست تان آنها را به جنگ مجبور ساختید و دوباره به میدان جنگ کشانیدید.
یک تعداد نظامیان شما به همکاری یک تعداد افراد پول پرست افغان، برای پولدار شدن چراغ بدست خانه به خانه عقب طالبان می‌گشتند و آنها را نه تنها مجبور به جنگ می‌نمودند بلکه در افتیدن آنها در دامن همسایه ها نیز کوشش نمودند. همین حالا فامیلهای یک تعداد از سران طالبان در گروگان است و آنها مجبور به جنگ شده و میشوند.
ملت امریکا!
افغانها مردم احسان فراموش نیستند، در زمانه حکومت محمدظاهر شاه، زمانیکه در اینجا امریکایی ها واقعا برای عمران افغانستان کار مینمودند، امریکایی ها محبوب ترین دوستان افغانها بودند. در لشکرگاه در مورد انحنیران شما این قصه مشهور است؛
حینیکه امریکایی ها کار پروژه های اساسی و تهدابی را در هلمند اجراء می‌نمودند در دشت لگان یک انجینر شما مفقود گردید، یک چوپان وی را در حال ضعف باز یافته بود، او را به غژدی محقر خود برای مداوا برده و بعد از صحت یابی به فامیلش باز گردید.
در آن وقت امریکایی ها بطور آزاد در تمام حدود جغرافیایی افغانستان گشت و گذار می‌کردند، این بخاطری بود که در آن زمان امریکایی ها صرف برای خدمت و آبادی افغانستان کار می‌کردند، ولی حالا بدبختانه نفرت و انزجار مردم در حدیست که شاید در حالت دستگیری هیچ امریکایی بطور زنده از مردم نجات نیابد.
این همه نفرت در سرشت مردم افغانستان وجود نداشت و این همان عکس العمل مردم در مقابل کار کردهای نظامیان امریکاییست.
بمباران نظامیان امریکایی بالای مساجد، مدرسه ها، مکاتب، محافل عروسی، جنازه ها، خانه ها و بازارها بنام محو طالبان با گذشت هر روز به تعداد طالبان از لحاظ کمی و کیفی افزودند و آتش کین افغانها را شعله ور تر از قبل نمودند.
انتقام در فرهنگ ما میراث جدید نیست و انتقام از تلفات بمباردمانها هر روز صفوف طالبان را قوی و قویتر می‌سازد. تجربه تاریخ نگاری افغانها و تجربه۱۵ساله حضور نظامی شما در افغانستان شاید این حقیقت را به شما ثابت ساخته باشد.
پالیسی های ناخردمندانه ادارات و نظامیان شما منتج به آن گردیده که نیروهای جنگی دیگر نیز دست به تخریب تاسیسات عام المنفعه، مکاتب، پلچک ها وغیره بزنند.
بد بختانه در هر پانزده دقیقه یک افغان کشته میشود و فرهنگ تفنگ و اسلحه آنقدر رشد یافته که هیچ فامیل بدون اسلحه را نمیتوان سراغ یافت و حتی کودکان ما نیز دسترسی به اسلحه دارند.
در کشور ما جنگ به یک انتقام مبدل شده و با گذشت هر روز اعتیاد جنگ قوی و قویتر میگردد، فضای طبیعت زیبای ما را دود و غبار بارود به سر گرفته، امراض روانی رو به گسترش است، فقر و بیکاری در شهر ها بیداد می‌نماید.
مردم روستاها در ایام رمضان در این همه گرمی حتی دسترسی به دوغ خالی را نداشتند.
ما این همه تظاهرات و راهپیماییها را برای آن آغاز نمودیم تا شما از تصویر واقعی افغانستان و مردم آن با خبر گردیده و از حکومت تان بپرسید که چرا تعهدات تانرا بجا نیاوردید؟
شما که در ۱۵روز یک نظام را از صحنه تاریخ نابود کرده می‌توانید! چرا با گذشت ۱۷سال امنیت و ثبات را آورده نتوانستید و یا نیاوردید؟
تا ۲۰۰۳ما به این باور بودیم که با آمدن امریکایی ها به این سرزمین، افغانستان همانند جاپان و جرمني به مراکز ترقی و تکنالوژی مبدل خواهد شد، زیرا آن کشور ها بعد از رسیدن امریکایی ها به مدارج عالی ترقي انسانی رسیدند. اینکه اینجا چرا جنگ بار دیگر شروع گردید؟ از آنها بپرسید!
ما جز توقف جنگ خواسته دیگری نداریم، اگر شما مردم امریکا در مساله افغانستان مداخله نموده و برای امحای جنگ و خشونت کار نمایید، شما میتوانید نام باخته شده امریکا را بار دیگر در این خطه احیاء نمایید، ابر نفرت‌ها را می‌توانید زدود و می‌توان به مناسبات زمان قصه فوق در لشکرگاه روح جدید داد، فصل های خشکیده ما بار دیگر جوانه خواهد زد، باغ‌های خشکیده و دود زده روح تازه خواهد یافت، حیوانات و پرندگان وحشي فراری به دیارهای خدا داد شان خواهند برگشت، مهاجرین سرگردان افغان به خانه وکاشانه های غریب ولي با غرور خویش باز خواهند گشت و زندگی ما بار دیگر به حالت عادی و انسانی خود باز خواهند گشت.
اگر شما مردم ایالات متحده امریکا به تعهدات خود عمل نکنید، شاید هیچ کسی در دنیا با شما رفاقت و دوستی را ادامه نخواهند داد و با شما صرف نفرت خواهند کرد، کارکرد شما در این باره روابط آینده شما را با سایر ملل تعیین و ترسیم می‌نماید.
یک بار دیگر بالای مردم ایالات متحده امریکا صدا میکنیم که:
اگر شما مردم امریکا در غم و اندوه ما غمگین نه شدید و این آواز صلح خواهانه ی ما را نه شنیدید، کمک های ارسالی شما را ضایع می‌دانیم، ما خواهیم پنداشت که این همه کمک ها حقیقی و راستین نبوده و در نتیجه مردم افغانستان از مردم امریکا آزرده خواهد شد‌. ما مردم افغانستان مجبور خواهیم بود تا در نتیجه ی آزرده بودن از شما در راه های سفارت شما نشسته و دیگر اجازه ی کار برای شما در کشور ما نخواهیم داد.
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The UK Ministry of Defence has opened a competition to find a new in-field temporary fortification for small groups of dismounted soldiers. This will focus on protection from ballistic threats, directed energy, blast, and fragmentation caused by weapons such as small arms, grenades, mortars and

National armaments directors and heads of capability development and defence research and technology (R&T) from across the European Union will in September-October examine the results of the six-month trial Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) completed by the European Defence Agency

Key Points Saudi tankers have belatedly conformed with the suspension of oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandab strait. Three tankers that have clustered off Oman could be convoyed through the strait. Three Saudi very large crude carrier (VLCC) tankers that were heading towards the Red Sea have

Key Points A USAF officer wants to leverage new space capabilities to improve equipment mobility The goal is to decrease the time and cost of moving Pentagon equipment around the world The US Air Force’s (USAF’s) top mobility officer is seeking ideas from industry on how to best use

The US Navy (USN) is looking to find the right mix of quantity and quality with its guided-missile destroyer DDG 51 Flight III, which will include the AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defence Radar (AMDR), Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) CEO Michael Petters said. “The navy came to this

The Uruguay Defence Ministry recently approved several acquisitions and transfers to reinforce and recover at least some of the degraded capabilities of the country’s navy, focusing mostly on aerial search, rescue, and general patrol missions. The Navy Aviation branch will be reinforced with

The US Coast Guard (USCG) is holding off on commitment to a specific plan to deploy National Security Cutters to the Western Pacific as the new USCG and regional US commanders discuss the best way to employ naval resources to the region. Admiral Karl Schultz, the USCG commandant, and Admiral Philip

Take a look at these amazing clips filmed at 120 frames per second. On Jul. 31, the first prototype of the V-280 Valor, registration N280BH, performed a flight demo for invited media and dignitariest at Bell Helicopter Amarillo Assembly Center. The V-280 Valor is Bell’s submission for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) […]

Americas

• L-3 Chesapeake Sciences Corp. is being tapped to provide the Navy’s submarine fleet with passive sonar equipment. The awarded contract modification has a value of $27.5 million and provides for the production of TB-29X towed arrays. The TB-29X is a thin line towed array passive sonar receiver installed aboard Navy submarines. The TB-29X array is in the same form factor as the TB-29 array; however, it offers increased capability, greater reliability and reduced obsolescence. These arrays can be used for back-fit on Los Angeles (SSN-688 and SSN-688I) submarines and forward-fit on the Virginia (SSN-774) class. Passive sonar is a method for detecting acoustic signals in an underwater environment, usually the ocean. The difference between passive and active sonar is that a passive sonar system emits no signals; instead, its purpose is to detect the acoustic signals emanating from external sources, such as enemy submarines and surface vessels. Work will be performed at multiple locations inside the US, including Liverpool, New York; Millersville, Maryland and Ashaway, Rhode Island. Work is scheduled for completion by November 2019.

• The Navy is contracting General Electric to provide its fleet of Super Hornets and Growlers with more thrust. The awarded firm-fixed-price-advance acquisition contract provides for the full-rate production of Lot 23 F414-GE-400 engines at a cost of $10.5 million. The F414-GE-400 is a 22,000-pound class afterburning turbofan engine. The engine features an axial compressor with 3 fan stages and 7 high-pressure compressor stages, and 1 high-pressure and 1 low-pressure turbine stage. At a weight of 2,445 pounds, the F414-GE-400 has a thrust-to-weight ratio of 9. The F414 delivers 35% more thrust than the original F404, which significantly improves the range, payload and survivability of the Super Hornet and Growler. Work will be performed in Lynn, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed in December 2019.

• The shipbuilding firms tasked with delivery of conceptual designs for the US Navy’s future FFG(X) frigate are all being awarded with firm-fixed-price modifications to exercise further options for the Guided Missile Frigate Conceptual Design. Huntington Ingalls is receiving an additional $7.99 million, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works an additional $7.95 million, Fincantieri Marinette Marine $7.98 million, Lockheed Martin $6.97 million, and Austal is receiving a further $6.39 million. This modification is for additional Guided Missile Frigate Conceptual Design efforts. Huntington Ingalls will be maturing their proposed ship design, which is based on the National Security Cutter, to meet the FFG(X) System Specification. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi and Ocean Springs, Mississippi and is expected to be completed by June 2019.

• The US Army is procuring a number of holsters for its new M17 and M18 pistols. Atlantic Diving Supply will provide the Army with Modular Handgun Holsters under this $49 million firm-fixed-price contract. Fielding of the M17 and M18 Modular Handgun System (MHS) started in November 2017. The M17 is a variant of SIG Sauer’s P320 handgun, while the M18 is a compact version of the M17. According to the Army, the MHS program is the first in a line of modernization efforts that the service will pursue over the next few years. The new handguns also have an external safety, self-illuminating sights for low-light conditions, an integrated rail for attaching enablers and an Army standard suppressor conversion kit to attach an acoustic/flash suppressor. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion expected by July 29, 2023.

Middle East & Africa

• The government of Kuwait is set to receive counter-measure equipment for its fleet of Super Hornets as part of a US foreign military sale. Raytheon will procure a total of 38 Integrated Multi-Platform Launch Controllers (IMPLCs) at a cost of $34.6 million. The ALE-50(V) consists of a launcher and launch controller attached to one of the aircraft’s weapon pylons, containing one or more expendable towed decoys. These trail behind the aircraft when deployed, attracting radar-guided missiles to themselves instead. Each decoy and payout reel is delivered in a sealed canister, and has a 10-year shelf life. The IMPLC is the standard launch controller for all future installations. It’s a component of the AN/ALE-50(V) countermeasures decoy dispensing set, and the IDECM integrated defensive electronics countermeasure system. In addition, this contract provides for the induction and repair of IMPLC assets, in support of the US Navy. Work will be performed at multiple locations, including Goleta, California; Forest, Mississippi and Andover, Massachusetts. This contract combines purchase for the Navy ($2,5 million) and FMS to Kuwait ($32 million). Work is expected to be completed in March 2021.

Europe

• The Swiss Army is reportedly introducing a modernized version of its Duro 4×4 tactical vehicle. Duro is a high-mobility military tactical vehicle initially developed by Bucher-Guyer in the mid-90s. vehicles are available in 4×4 and 6×6 configurations and are built with both protected armor and non-armor, and with overall weights ranging from 7t to 25t. The vehicle designed as a modular vehicle that could be easily fitted with interchangeable bodies, including fully-enclosed bodies and various shelters. The Duro can be equipped with a variety of self-defense measures ranging from 7.62 mm machine gun to 40mm grenade launchers. Switzerland is currently in the process of upgrading some of its 3000 Duro vehicles which it received between 1994 and 2002. General Dynamics European Land Systems will modernize about 2200 of those vehicles through the second quarter of 2022.

• The German Luftwaffe will have its first A400M in intensive care aeromedical evacuation (ICAE) configuration on standby starting from 1st August 2018. The “flying intensive care unit” can carry up to six medical patients to safety, including two in critical condition. That capacity will be expanded to reach 10 patients in time, surpassing the capability of the existing fleet of C160 Transall transports. Germany, which is the largest buyer of the multinational A400M, has received 20 of the 53 A400M aircraft it plans to buy. It has taken years to add certain capabilities to the aircraft, and officials are still working on enhanced protective measures. Introduction of the A400M in MEDEVAC configuration will complement the capability currently provided only by the Luftwaffe’s A310 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT), which can also treat up to six patients in addition to providing intermediate care to 16 others and 22 less serious cases.

Asia-Pacific

• Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force has now the first of its 27DDG-class destroyers in its fleet. Named the Maya, the guided-missile destroyer is equipped with the Aegis Baseline J7 combat system and the Northrop Grumman AN/SPQ-9B radar system, which provides the capability to detect and track low-flying, high-speed, low-observable anti-ship missile targets in heavy-clutter environments. Aegis Baseline J7 is the Japanese equivalent for the current Aegis Baseline 9/BMD 5.1 standard. The vessel is also equipped with Raytheon’s Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) – a sensor data sharing tool currently fielded only on US and Royal Australian Navy ships. Powered by two combined gas turbine-electric and gas turbine (COGLAG) engines, the ship and 300 crew are propelled to a maximum stated speed of 30 knots. The Maya is slated for commission into the JMSDF in 2020.

Today’s Video

• Watch: US Army equips its Bradley with Stinger missiles

Russian RPO PDM-A Shmel-M Thermobaric Rocket Launcher

A monsoon hit Luke AFB, Arizona, yesterday. These shots show F-35s being moved to shelters. Not only are airfields in Afghanistan (such as the former UK’s main strategic base in the southwest Camp Bastion, Helmand) or Niger affected by sandstorms. For instance, fast moving dust storms, able to darken large areas in a very short […]

New short article up on War on the Rocks. Here’s a preview….

Last summer, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russia will continue to strengthen its forces around the Black Sea in order to “neutralize the security threat in the Black Sea region from NATO.” This rhetoric highlights the change in threat perceptions that has taken place on both sides in the region in recent years. Just 10 years ago, the Black Sea was touted as a model of naval cooperation among former adversaries. Collaborative naval activities such as BlackSeaFor and Black Sea Harmony, as well as regular Russian participation in NATO’s Active Endeavor, promised a future where all Black Sea littoral states worked together to ensure regional security and mitigate security threats such as smuggling. This cooperation started to falter after the 2008 Russo-Georgian war but was maintained through the combined efforts of Russia and NATO members – especially Turkey.

The situation changed radically after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, with NATO leaders expressing concern that Russia could turn the Black Sea into a Russian lake by devoting significant resources to the modernization of the Black Sea Fleet and strengthening Russian military forces in Crimea more generally. Russian political leaders, naval commanders, and policy experts have been open in explaining why they have prioritized the Black Sea Fleet in their naval modernization efforts. Part of that has to do with the parlous state of the fleet prior to 2014. Due to tensions with Ukraine and a general lack of investment in military procurement, Russia had sent only one new combat ship to the fleet between 1991 and 2014. As a result, by 2014 the fleet was barely functional and ships from other fleets had to be used to carry out Russian naval missions in the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Read the rest here.

F-16 Viper Demo Team display at EAA AirVenture as you’ve never seen it before. Piloted by Maj. John “Rain” Waters, an operational F-16 pilot assigned to the 20th Operations Group, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina and the United States Air Force F-16 Viper Demonstration Team commander, the F-16 of the Viper Demo Teaam performs […]

An Italian Navy “Jump Jet” landed aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) in the Med Sea. On Jul. 18, 2018, an AV-8B+ Harrier II belonging to the I GRUPAER (Gruppo Aerei Imbarcati) of the Marina Militare (Italian Navy), from Grottaglie, landed aboard USS Iwo Jima as the amphibious assault ship […]

The Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) has reported that in 22 of Afghanistan’s provinces, cumulative rain and snowfall during the ‘wet season’ – October 2017 to May 2018 – was 30 to 60 per cent below average. The northwest of the country has been particularly hard hit. AAN’s Jelena Bjelica (with input from Obaid Ali and Kate Clark) reports on drought and displacement there and looks at the underlying problems – climate change and government neglect.

A closer look at the consequences of the drought in the northwest

Locals from the northwest Afghanistan say this year’s drought is the worst they remember. “I don’t remember it being this dry,” former Badghis MP Mullah Malang told AAN, “since I was 14 or 15 years old. That was in 1964.” Available reports show that drought there has crippled the local, mainly rainfed agriculture and left people without the basic means to survive. The World Food Programme (WFP) reported on 24 July 2018 that it plans to distribute urgent food assistance to 441,000 people in the drought-affected provinces of Badghis, Faryab, Ghor, Herat and Jowzjan. Some people have already been forced to leave their homes in these provinces.

The United Nations (UN) Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in July 2018 (see here) that approximately 7,400 families, or over 50,000 people, have moved in the past months to Herat city from neighbouring Badghis and Ghor provinces as a result of drought and conflict. Badghis’s population is a little over half million people, according to the Afghan Central Statistics Organization 2017/18 census estimates (see here), of which over 496,000 people are from rural communities. Similarly, of a total of over 738,000 people in Ghor province, only some 7,700 live in urban settlements.

The 7,400 displaced families, according to the Norwegian Rescue Committee assessment, reside in 174 sites on the outskirts of Herat city on the road to Badghis. The number of families at each site ranges from 20 to several hundred. 1,760 families have received tents, while others live in makeshift shelters on open land in high summer temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius. The humanitarian workers in the area said they have never seen people living in such disheartening conditions. They said they are living on bread and water, as they do not have enough money to afford rice or meat. OCHA, in its report, said that “children show visible signs of malnutrition and illness, including skin diseases and eye infections due to dust.” None of the children in the displacement sites attend school, it said, and in rural villages the dropout rate is high for boys and girls.

Sher Aqa, a landowner from Faryab, confirmed Mullah Malang’s assessment that this is the worst drought seen in decades and said some men from his province had migrated even further away than Herat to Iran, Pakistan and Turkey in search of work. According to the OCHA report, this traditional coping mechanism, ie labour-driven migration, may be less effective than in previous years. The report quotes an Afghan from Badghis who sent two sons to Iran. “One got arrested and deported, and the other is still hiding in Iran but has not found any work,” he told the UN. The latest reports also show that the number of deportations from Iran is on the increase (see here). This coincides with an Iranian currency devaluation by some 40 per cent over recent months (see here).

Another UN report seen by the author reports that families from areas where the impact of drought has been compounded by conflict have said they will not return to their villages, “even if they received food assistance in the areas of origin.” (1) This is because “they expected the conflict would still be ongoing for at least six months.” Instead, these families have chosen to stay in the overcrowded camps in and around Herat city. Some international organisations have reported increased tensions between long-term and newly-arrived Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and between IDPs and local residents in some locations. The same report said “there were a few incidents of killing, maiming and abduction of children reported by the families in the sites,” adding that “displaced people in informal settlements in Herat city live amongst poor host communities,” in which “sharing of resources, as an expression of solidarity, is something few families can afford.”

Various north and north-west provinces– Samangan, Balkh, Sar-e Pul, Faryab and Badghis, as well as the northern parts of Ghor and Herat – generally suffer more than the rest of the country from extended dry spells, localised drought, and above average temperatures (see this report by the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). (FEWS covers 36 countries around the globe, rather than being a local natural disaster management authority).

The extended dry spells and drought in the northwest are related to local changes in climate in this part of Afghanistan that have been triggered by deforestation during the four decades of war and, subsequently, a lack of planned development and adequate management of natural resources. The Afghan government said in 2015 in its Paris Climate Change conference documents that between 1990 and 2000 the country lost on average 29,400 hectares of forest per year (see AAN analysis here). In Badghis province, for example, climate change has also been caused by extreme deforestation over the last forty years. The WFP reported in 2017 that, based on Department of Agriculture records in Badghis, there were 90,000 hectares of pistachio forest before the war, ie before 1978, and that drought and cutting of firewood has left the province with only some 28,000 hectares, one third of the original forest. The Independent newspaper, described Badghis in 2014 as a province where “grain has become the only currency that matters,” and was then in “its fourth year of a drought, which has destroyed the rural economy.”

In these provinces, opium poppy cultivation has increased at the expense of wheat (see AAN analysis here). One reason for this switch might be the scarcity of water, as opium poppy is relatively more drought-resistant. Usually, however,  the reasons behind a farmer’s decision to cultivate opium are multiple, as reported in a number of studies (see here; here and here). (2) Nevertheless, in the northern region of Baghlan, Balkh, Faryab, Jawzjan, Samangan and Sar-e Pul, the United Nation Office for Drug Control (UNODC) has noted a rapid expansion of opium poppy cultivation since 2014 (see this AAN analysis). The FEWS June 2018 outlook found that opium poppy cultivation in this zone in 2018 had increased by approximately 10 to 15 percent when compared to the 2017 figures. The report also reported a decrease in the area under wheat. The report offers a rather grim economic prospect, “the brief poppy harvest generates some local employment opportunities, often paying several times the wage rate of other sectors for a period of roughly two weeks.”

According to the FEWS outlook, licit agriculture production in this zone in 2018 is expected to fall below the production levels of 2017 – then already below the national average – while, “the availability of drinking water and fodder for the livestock are significantly worse than normal.” The FEWS reported:

Field reports indicate that June livestock prices are 30 to 40 percent lower than last year. Many drought-affected households are selling their livestock in unusual high quantities due to the need for cash and due to inability to properly care for the animals.

AAN interviews with farmers from Faryab and Sar-e Pul provinces confirmed that livestock prices have dropped in the north because of the drought and shortage of summer pasture, and that animals are being sold for almost half the usual price. Shortage of rainfall has badly affected the farmers in these provinces, where the prices for wheat, rice and other staple food have all gone up. Sher Aqa, the landowner in Faryab, told AAN that

… some wheat always grew, not as tall as usual, but it grew, and also poppy. Humans could not use the crops, but at least the animals could. They had fodder. This time, we don’t even have that.”

Both he and former Badghis MP Mullah Malang pointed to the steep drop in the price of sheep in their provinces, from around 7-8,000 Afghani to 1,500 Afghani. For Malang, this was an unquestionable sign of trouble yet to come. Selling livestock because there is not enough grazing to keep flocks alive or because of the need for cash for food means is a survival strategy of last resort. Malang said worse is to come:

In two or three months’ time, the pressure will be much greater. Winter is coming, food stocks will be finished, and the number of people escaping the province will go up.

The people are from the provinces of Badghis, Faryab and Ghor and left their homes and farms because of drought. Now, most are living in hot, harsh and dusty conditions beneath flimsy shelters made of sheets, blankets and tarpaulins. Many claimed that their livestock had died. As has been the case for other crises in western Afghanistan over the years, people gravitate toward the population hub of Herat City believing there will be resources and organisations to assist them. Photo: Andrew Quilty, 2018.

Changing climate conditions in Afghanistan

Climate change and climate hazards in Afghanistan were well-documented in the 2009 National Capacity Needs Self-Assessment for Global Environmental Management (NCSA) and National Adaptation Programme of Action for Climate Change (NAPA) Afghanistan final report. This document identified the key climate hazards for the country as periodic drought and a rise in temperature (see also this the 2017 Guardian report from the Afghanistan’s central highlands). Since 1960, the document said, the country has experienced regular droughts: two in the 1960s, in 1963-64 and 1966-67; one in the 1970s, in 1970-72; and the longest and most severe drought in Afghanistan’s known climatic history between 1998 and 2005/6 (see also AAN analysis here). The Stockholm Environmental Institute said in 2009 that “drought is likely to be regarded as the norm by 2030, rather than as a temporary or cyclical event.”

In June 2018, the FEWS warned that below average wet season precipitation levels will lead to a reduction in yields for rainfed staple crops, lower quality grazing pastures and poor livestock conditions and lower animal prices. In February 2017, FEWS released a similar warning as the October–December 2016 precipitation had been below average throughout most of the country. This shows that, for the second year in a row, Afghanistan is facing below-average precipitation levels during the wet season (October to May). These have coincided with the global atmospheric condition called La Niña. (3)

The two dry spells combined resulted in the lowest detected ‘snowpack’ in Afghanistan in February 2018 since 2001, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA’s) earth observatory reported. Snowpack is made up of accumulated layers of snow, compressed and hardened by their own weight, and are an important source of irrigation in much of Afghanistan. The above-average spring temperature in 2018 has also led to a roughly one month earlier than normal melt and depletion of snowpack in most basins. The snowmelt and increased precipitation levels late in the season resulted in deadly floods in Panjshir province in early July 2018 (see here, here, and here).

For Afghanistan’s agriculture, which is 80 per cent rainfed, low precipitation is potentially disastrous. The FEWS Food Security Outlook in June 2018 estimated that there will be a 2 to 2.5 million metric tonne national deficit in wheat, with most crop losses occurring in rainfed areas in the north, central, and western provinces. The domestic production of staples is already below average, particularly in rainfed production areas, FEWS reported, adding that most grazing pasture in the central highlands and northern Afghanistan had not regenerated as normal and that this would likely lead to poor livestock conditions and lower animal prices. As was reported above, this is already the case.

FEWS also found that on-farm labour demand and wages in June 2018 were lower than normal in most parts of the country and especially in the northern, north-eastern, and north-western rainfed wheat growing areas. Among the most likely food security outcomes for the whole country, the FEWS outlook from June 2018 reported that:

The prevalence of acute malnutrition at the national level is likely to deteriorate over the scenario period [July 2018 to January 2019], because of seasonal peak of diarrheal diseases from June to September. Furthermore, constant conflict, particularly in western, southern, eastern, northern, and northeastern regions, is also likely to limit access to health and nutritional services and access to agriculture products and food.

In April this year, the spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority in Kabul, Hashmat Khan Bahaduri, told Reuters that “this year drought has reached a level that we will have to announce an emergency in several parts of the country.” It seems, though, that the emergency warning has not been issued yet, not even for the north and northwest of country which have been so hard hit this year.

Nevertheless, OCHA recently launched the revised 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan asking for an additional 84 million USD for food assistance to drought-affected people (see here). Currently, only 29 per cent of the 546.6 million USD 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan is funded.

Conclusion

Prolonged dry spells, compounded with the fighting in the northwest, have taken their toll on the lives of ordinary people. It is evident that the situation there calls for the relevant government authorities to take a more proactive and engaged role. However, the government’s lack of initiative or preparedness to deal with the consequences of natural disasters is striking. Afghanistan is one of 168 countries who are signatories to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005 – 2015 that states a need for member states to “identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning.” Yet, the government has failed to respond to the early warnings provided by FEWS.

Afghanistan does have a body which should be doing this. The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) was established in 2007, following the 2006 London Conference Communique, which stated, “[B]y end‐2010, an effective system of disaster preparedness and response will be in place.” The ANDMA has received an abundance of funding from a number of international organisations, including capacity-building from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Today, its website is still under construction and offers only one news-related item concerning the current situation in the northwest, ie the distribution of food items in Faryab province in June 2018.

The WFP, in its June 2018 Afghanistan update, reported that the Central Statistics Organization, and not the ANDMA, was leading a post-harvest emergency food security assessment with support from WFP, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster. This suggests that the Central Statistics Organization is the lead for drought response assessment. The ANDMA has not been mentioned at all in any of the recent drought-related reports and appeals.

As to the country’s latest national disaster management plan, it is four years old, dating from 2014 (Dari version here; see here for related documents and plans). According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) 2017 guidelines on national disaster risk assessment, such plans are usually produced in time horizons of three to five years. However, as the Afghan plan does not stipulate which timeframe it covers, its relevance for the current situation, caused by the relatively recent La Niña conditions, is questionable.

Finally, AAN sources in the northwest said that most government offices in this part of the country are not open, indicating that local early warnings through the relevant ministries probably also did not happen.

Yet the desolate situation in ‘remote’ provinces such as Ghor, Badghis, Samangan, and parts of Faryab is also a consequence of a lack of development. As AAN recently reported on the state of aid and poverty, around 40 per cent of the country has not been privy to donor funds. Badghis province, in particular, has suffered from a lack of development funding (see this AAN analysis). There has been a lack of targeted development to mitigate the effects of regular and expected climatic crises such as droughts. This raises the question of whether displacement from the northwest is only a consequence of natural disaster or is also a result of government neglect and lack of planning.

Edited by Sari Kouvo and Kate Clark

 

(1) Report: Inter-Cluster Coordination Team Mission Herat and Badghis 7 – 11 July 2018. Seen by author, not available online.

(2) An Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) paper (quoted here), for example, points to a combination of factors beyond infrastructure that feed into farmers’ decisions to grow opium poppies as opposed to alternative crops. These include the following: (i) the position of key elites vis-à-vis poppy cultivation, (ii) food security, and (iii) social equality. This means that, where key government officials or power-holders are opposed to poppy cultivation, their opposition could prevent farmers from planning the crop, even where conditions otherwise seemed ripe for it. In addition, AREU found that greater food security and social equality lead to reduced poppy cultivation. Ultimately, the study found that that “the absence of opium cultivation was more than a matter of water.” Therefore, the report suggests that water availability is a necessary, but insufficient, condition to enable a switch to alternative crops. In fact, under certain conditions, strong irrigation systems may incentivise poppy cultivation.

See also this AREU paper from 2007 which states:

For the poor, opium poppy is attractive because it is a low-risk crop in a high-risk environment, not because it allows them to maximise economic returns. Some crops — particularly as part of mixed cropping systems and combined with non- farm income opportunities — can compete in terms of financial returns with opium poppy when opium prices are lower, but no crop can offer the same qualitative attributes, including: relative drought resistance, a non-perishable product, an almost- guaranteed market, and traders who offer advance payments against the future crop.

A word of caution related to opium prices; UNDOC found that, during years of high production, eg 2006 to 2008, the average price decreased (137 USD in 2006 to 91 USD/kg in 2008), whereas, following a supply shortage (for example, the Taleban ban on opium in 2001), the average price strongly increased (295 USD/kg in 2001; 382 USD/kg in 2002; 355 USD/kg in 2003). In 2017, an average price of opium was 155 USD/kg. For more see here.

See also this 2006 AREU case study on Balkh and Kunduz’s opium cultivation and water management, which says: “It is also unlikely that there is any one single determinant for whether or not opium poppy is cultivated – there are multiple reasons and farmers’ decision-making is contingent on context and time.”

(3) La Niña, the direct opposite of El Niño, occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean drop to lower-than-normal levels. The cooling of this area of water near the equator, which typically unfolds during late fall into early winter, yields impacts around the globe. (see here).

La Niña conditions in the atmosphere tend to push the jet stream northward over Central Asia and reduce the frequency of storms over Afghanistan, leading to a reduction in precipitation totals and an increased risk for dry spells. This anticipated weather pattern generally occurred over Afghanistan, particularly through the winter and early spring. Although precipitation improved late in the season, seasonal totals in some areas remained 50 percent below average according to satellite-based estimates, with extended periods of dryness and drought in much of the northern part of the country, particularly the northwest. Accordingly, peak snow water equivalent in most hydrological basins was well below average. Low total snowpack and above-average spring temperatures have led to early depletion of snowpack in most basins, roughly one month earlier than normal. FEWS NET’s Seasonal Monitor report from June 6, 2018 provides further summary of the 2017/2018 wet season.

According to the Environmental Science website El Niño and La Niña change or affect climate change in the future is now of tremendous importance thanks to the known effects over the last century or more. However, “the conditions are still not very well understood, though the phenomenon has been known since the early 1600s.”