Page 4 - Aerotech News and Review, May 18 2018

BRIEFS, from 2
Two Marines shot during live-fire training exercise
The U.S. Marine Corps says two Marines were shot during a live-fire training exercise at a Southern California base involving hundreds of troops.
The military says both were airlifted May 6 from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at the Twentynine Palms base east of San Diego to an unnamed California hospital.
Second Lt. Samuel Banks says one Marine was later released and the other remains hospitalized in serious condition.
He says the Marines are stationed at Twentynine Palms. The Ma- rine Corps says in a press release that officials are investigating the circumstances of the accident. Banks says the military is not releas- ing any details at this time. AP
U.S., Philippines launch largest military drills under Duterte
MANILA, Philippines—U.S. and Philippine forces have be- gun their largest annual military exercises under President Rodrigo Duterte, who had wanted to scale down America’s military pres- ence and involvement in combat drills as he sought closer ties with China and Russia.
The Balikatan exercises opened May 7 and were to involve com- bat drills in mock urban settings to train special forces in battling terrorists in cities following the Islamic State group-linked siege on southern Marawi city last year.
After rising to power in 2016, Duterte vowed to scale back the presence of U.S. troops involved in counterterrorism training in the country’s south and once threatened to end the annual drills with American forces.
These will be the largest joint drills since Duterte took office, though Filipino officials stress they’re not aimed at China. AP
U.S. prosecutor to investigate Kosovo war crimes
The European Union has appointed U.S. prosecutor Jack Smith to head the special prosecutor’s office that investigates former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army for crimes against ethnic Serbs in Kosovo’s war for independence.
A statement on May 7 said Smith succeeds David Schwendiman,
who stepped down at the end of March when his term as a U.S. foreign service officer expired.
The special prosecutor is part of the Hague-based Kosovo court which the country’s government agreed to set up in 2015 following U.S. and European pressure to confront allegations that KLA fighters committed war crimes from 1998 to 2000.
Kosovo’s bloody war for independence ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign in June 1999, stopping a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.
The court has yet to hear any cases. AP
NATO: Russia uses Syrian war to boost Mediterranean
presence
NATO’s southern Europe commander says Russia has taken ad- vantage of its military role in Syria to bolster its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, making the region “very crowded.”
U.S. Navy Adm. James Foggo told The Associated Press that Rus- sian President Vladimir Putin had used the desperation of Syrian President Bashar Assad to expand Russian military power beyond Syria’s borders.
Noting some “unsafe or unprofessional” incidents involving Rus- sian aircraft, Foggo said May 7 the eastern Mediterranean was be- coming “congested” with Russian vessels but that “it’s something that we have to deal with as professional navies.”
Washington and Moscow say a hotline established in 2015 to pre- vent incidents between their militaries in Syria has worked well, but recent U.S., British and French missile strikes against Syrian chemi- cal facilities has raised tensions. AP
Navy wants to triple size of training range in Nevada
The Navy wants to more than triple the size of its training range near Fallon in west-central Nevada, a move that would cut off public access to the federal land in five counties.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the Bureau of Land Management is gathering input on the plan to expand the cur- rent 224,000-acre (90,652-hectare) range to nearly 770,000 acres (311,615 hectares) by adding federal land in Churchill, Lyon, Min- eral, Nye, and Pershing counties.
The Navy’s proposal comes as the Air Force seeks to add 302,000 acres to the Nevada Test and Training Range that now covers more than 2.9 million acres in Clark, Lincoln and Nye counties.
The services say they need to enlarge ranges to conduct realistic combat exercises using the latest weapons systems. AP
Congressman says military base closures may be con- sidered
A congressman in Virginia says Congress may consider a proposal to allow military base closings but only if localities approve.
The Virginian-Pilot reports U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman said May 3 that he would support a proposal addressing the military’s concern of money being wasted on unnecessary facilities. He said the plan would be limited to small bases or “tangential facilities” identified by the Pentagon. He says communities would have to agree to the closures.
The Pilot reports that Hampton Roads officials and lawmakers historically have been wary about the idea of military base closures. The region has 40 percent of its economy tied to defense and other federal spending. Wittman says the plan could be an amendment to the 2019 defense spending bill. AP
China denies using lasers on U.S. aircraft in Djibouti
China is denying allegations that its forces targeted U.S. military aircraft with high-powered lasers near China’s military base in Dji- bouti, resulting in minor injuries to two pilots.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said May 4 that China had informed the U.S. that it had verified it was not behind the alleged incidents.
The Defense Ministry issued a similar denial. China opened its Djibouti base last year, joining the U.S. and a number of other coun- tries with military installations in the Horn of Africa nation.
The U.S. issued a formal complaint to the Chinese government over the use of lasers that targeted aircraft on several occasions in the last few weeks. The Pentagon said the incidents represent a se- rious threat to U.S. airmen, and that the U.S. has asked China to investigate. AP
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Aerotech News and Review
May 18, 2018
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