Brazil Goes Swedish

From International Business Times:

After a decade of discussion, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff announced Wednesday the acquisition of 36 Gripen NG fighter jets, from Sweden’s Saab (STO:SAAB-B), for the FX-2 program of the Brazilian Air Force.

Defense Minister Celso Amorim and Gen. Juniti Saito, the air force's chief of staff, said at a press conference after the official announcement that the planes will be delivered in 4 years. The total cost of the deal will be $4.5 billion.

"The choice took into account performance, technology transfer and cost, not only for acquisition but also for maintenance. The decision was based on the best balance of those factors," Amorim said. 

The decision puts an end to 10 years of speculation and delays on the transaction, which started as a plan under former President Luiz Inácio (Lula) da Silva. Three contenders stepped up to the bid: France’s Dassault (EPA:AM), with the Rafale model; Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), with the F/A-18 e/F Super Hornet; and the eventual winners, with the smaller Gripen. In the early stages of the negotiation, Lula expressed preference for the Rafale, but the French contender fell out of favor at the end of Lula's second and last term in 2010, and was finally rejected on Tuesday due to its high cost.

The article goes on to cite the NSA scandal as the reason for Brazil picking Saab over Boeing who was offering the Super Hornet. Regardless, congratulations to Saab as this decision is a decade in coming and is well deserved in my opinion. 

Panama Intercepts NorK Ship Carrying Missile Parts (Updated)

     From the Daily Mail:

Panama has detained a North Korean-flagged ship after it was found to be carrying undeclared weapons hidden underneath sugar containers, the country's president said. 

President Ricardo Martinelli said the ship, the Chong Chon Gang, was intercepted as it approached the Panama Canal from Cuba and as it was stopped the 35-man crew rioted and the captain tried to kill himself. 

The 'sophisticated missile equipment', hidden in containers of brown sugar, were detected after Panamanian authorities stopped the ship, suspecting it was carrying drugs. 

Martinelli said the undeclared military cargo appeared to include missiles and non-conventional arms and the ship was violating United Nations resolutions against arms trafficking.

Panamanian authorities have only searched one of the ship's five cargo holds so far, said Luis Eduardo Camacho, a spokesman for the president. 

'This material not being declared and Panama being a neutral country, a country in peace, that doesn't like war, we feel very worried about this war material and we don't know what else will have... passed through the Panama Canal,' Martinelli said. 

The governments of North Korea and Cuba have so far not commented on Martinelli's remarks. 

Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the seized ship is called Chong Chon Gang and has been on the institute's suspect list for some time. 

He said the ship had been caught before for trafficking narcotics and small arms ammunition. It was stopped in 2010 in the Ukraine and was attacked by pirates 400 miles off the coast of Somalia in 2009. 

Griffiths' institute has also been interested in the ship because of a stop it made in 2009 in Tartus - a Syrian port city hosting a Russian naval base. 

The vessel was pulled over near the port of Manzanillo on the Atlantic side of the canal.

We're going to keep unloading the ship and figure out exactly what was inside,' Martinelli told Panamanian television late on Monday, without giving further details.

'The world needs to sit up and take note: You cannot go around shipping undeclared weapons of war through the Panama Canal.'

Griffiths also said the institute earlier this year reported to the U.N. a discovery it made of a flight from Cuba to North Korea that travelled via central Africa. 

'Given the history of North Korea, Cuban military cooperation and now this latest seizure, we find this flight more interesting,' he said. 'After this incident there should be renewed focus on North Korean-Cuban links.' 

Martinelli said the captain had a heart attack and also tried to commit suicide during the operation.
He said authorities had been tipped off some days ago that the ship might be carrying drugs.

He posted a picture of what appeared to be a green tubular object sitting inside a cargo container or the ship's hold.

A spokeswoman for the canal said she did not have any more information and referred questions to the attorney general and the office did not immediately return requests for comment.

Javier Caraballo, Panama's top anti-drugs prosecutor, told local television the ship was en route to North Korea. 

The Communist country is barred from importing large weapons under United Nations sanctions. 

The UN strengthened sanctions against the country in March following it nuclear tests that set tensions rising in the area. 

About 15,000 ships pass through the canal every year. 

     A normal shipping container is about 12.5m with the largest container being about 17m. The cylindrical objects in the container (see photo above) stretch for most of the length of the container. That would put them in excess of 10m, possibly more. If I had to guess those are parts for some North Korean IRBM, which one, I cannot guess. Congrats to the Panamanians for intercepting these parts.

Update: SMS Msgt over at Elements of Power points out that the cylindrical objects are more similar to parts to a Fan Song radar system. The Fan Song is associated with the SA-2 Guideline.

A Strategy For The 21st Century, Part 5: Central & South America

     This week we come to the U.S.'s backyard, South and Central America. These two regions are key to our national security, as they are so close to home, and harbor a number of threats for the U.S., both domestically and overseas. These threats range from drugs to Venezuela to Cuba.

     Drugs. In the last 40-odd years drugs have become extremely widespread throughout American culture, and because of the demand for drugs the cartels are making an enormous amount of cash. As has been seen, the drug cartels which lie just to the south of the border with Mexico, are becoming increasingly violent, with decapitation, executions, and other crimes becoming almost a daily occurrence. And with Operation Fast and Furious, which gave the cartels more than 2,000 rifles, including AKs, ARs, M4s, the drug cartels are becoming increasingly better armed. In this case there are a number of things which must be done to curtail drug violence in the U.S. and keep it from our shores. 1. Stop looking the other way while assault rifles continue to flow to drug cartels, when our own people have  to get background check to buy a rifle. 2. Secure our border (and get out of NAFTA to). 3. Allow the Coast Guard to do it's job, and get the Navy out of drug interdiction.

     Venezuela. The Barack "Dear Leader" Obama's best friend Hugo Chavez, has over the last few years, begun making a lot noise, ranging from Russian Tu-160 "Blackjacks" conducting exercises, to the purchase of Su-30MK2s, to an overall modernization of the Venezuelan military. However, while Hugo makes a lot of noise, he recently was diagnosed with cancer, and in is in failing health (this is the only guy you can wish would die of cancer), and will hopefully expire by the end 2012. Once Hugo is dead, either a power struggle ensues, or a somehow Venezuela become a democracy. Either way Venezuela does not pose a major threat at the moment, but it would be prudent to keep an eye on them.

     Cuba. Cuba is at the moment falling apart, their military is in a decrepit state, and Fidel Castro is dying. When Communist Cuba finally collapses, the U.S. must be ready to step in and give the Cubans a democracy. Until then, we must maintain the economic sanctions we have on Cuba, as they are strangling the  Cuban economy, and weakening Cuba further.

     Overall, the strategy in Central and South America is the same as Africa, keep out! Central and South America is a pit full of quicksand, if you step in you are screwed. This said, the U.S. would be wise to maintain friendly relations with countries like Panama and Brazil, as Panama controls the Panama Canal (mainly because of Jimmy Carter), and Brazil because they are an emerging economic powerhouse. And with a strong economy comes the need for a strong military. But, as I said before the overall strategy must be keep out!