Kepastian Hibah F-16 Belum Dapat Jawaban AS

YOGYAKARTA - Kepala Staf Angkatan Udara Marsekal TNI Imam Sufaat mengatakan, kepastian hibah pesawat tempur F-16 dari Amerika Serikat kepada Indonesia masih menunggu jawaban negara adikuasa itu.

"Kami berharap segera ada jawaban mengenai hal itu," katanya di sela rapat pimpinan Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) Angkatan Udara (AU) di Akademi Angkatan Udara (AAU) Yogyakarta, Senin (24/1).

Ia mengatakan, pihaknya telah mengajukan permintaan kepada Amerika Serikat (AS) terkait dengan hibah 24 pesawat tempur F-16 pada 2009, tetapi hingga kini belum ada jawaban dari negara adidaya itu.

"Belum adanya jawaban dari AS kemungkinan karena banyak negara yang juga mengajukan permintaan hibah pesawat tempur F-16. Mereka juga ingin mendapatkan hibah pesawat tersebut," katanya.

Oleh karena itu, menurut dia, pihaknya melakukan pendekatan khusus kepada pihak yang berwenang di AS agar permintaan Indonesia mengenai hibah pesawat tempur F-16 disetujui dan direalisasikan secepatnya.

Ia mengatakan, TNI AU juga berencana membeli pengganti pesawat OV-10 Bronco, helikopter, dan pesawat angkut, karena ada dana tambahan percepatan pengadaan alat alutsista sebesar Rp4 triliun.

"Dana tambahan tersebut selain digunakan untuk pengadaan alutsista juga dipakai untuk perawatan dan pembelian suku cadang alutsista. Hal itu sesuai dengan program perencanaan strategis pembangunan TNI AU 2010-2014," katanya.

TNI AU Siap Lakukan Penyelidikan

Terkait dengan munculnya lingkaran besar yang muncul di areal pesawahan Dusun Rejosari, Sleman, pada Minggu (23/1) TNI AU menyatakan siap jika diminta meneliti dan menyelidikinya.

"Kami akan menunggu perkembangan lebih lanjut. Jika diminta untuk terjun meneliti fenomena itu, kami siap melaksanakannya," kata Kepala Staf Angkatan Udara Marsekal TNI Imam Sufaat di sela rapat pimpinan TNI AU di Akademi Angkatan Udara (AAU) Yogyakarta, Senin.



Menurutnya, jika melihat bentuk lingkaran besar yang muncul, itu kemungkinan besar tercipta oleh teknologi canggih.

"Fenomena tersebut memang bisa dimungkinkan oleh bekas jejak pendaratan UFO, karena banyak orang yang meyakini makhluk luar angkasa itu ada. Namun, kekuatan dan kemampuan kita mungkin belum mampu menjangkau teknologi makhluk asing tersebut," katanya.

Ia mengisahkan, saat dia bertugas di Madiun, Jawa Timur, pernah mendapat laporan ada makhluk asing berupa cahaya biru dengan kekuatan tinggi, tetapi tiba-tiba menghilang.

"Waktu itu masih pagi, tetapi ada kilatan cahaya aneh yang kemungkinan juga akibat teknologi tinggi, dan banyak orang yang meyakini fenomena itu adalah UFO," katanya.

Lingkaran besar di pesawahan Dusun Rejosari itu diketahui warga pada Minggu (23/1) usai hujan dan angin kencang di kawasan tersebut.

Beberapa warga meyakini lingkaran besar itu bekas pendaratan pesawat UFO dari planet lain, sementara lokasi penampakan diduga UFO itu terus dipadati warga yang ingin melihat fenomena langsung fenomena itu.

Sumber : ANTARA

JAGM Completes Flying Qualities Tests on Navy’s F-18 Aircraft

Lockheed Martin has successfully completed a comprehensive series of tests to demonstrate the flight characteristics of the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F while carrying the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM). The flying qualities test series consisted of six flights from Patuxent River Naval Air Station, MD, between October 5 and November 2 with a total flying time of 11.2 hours.
The aircraft flew at altitudes ranging from 5,000 feet to 35,000 feet and at speeds approaching Mach 1.0. During each flight, the Super Hornet was refueled in the air by a support tanker to enable the aircraft to reach all the required speeds and altitudes at which JAGM had to be tested.
The JAGM test articles were six instrumented measurement vehicles (IMVs) equivalent in weight, size and dimensions to tactical JAGM rounds and outfitted with resistive temperature devices, acoustic sensors and accelerometers to measure the flight environments experienced by the launchers and the missiles.
Three IMVs were loaded onto each of two new Navy fixed-wing triple-rail launchers designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Marvin Engineering to carry JAGM on the F/A-18E/F. Fully outfitted, the Super Hornet could be configured to carry 18 JAGMs, as opposed to just four of the Maverick air-to-ground missiles that JAGM will replace.
For the flight series, the two "three-packs" of JAGM IMVs were carried at the most challenging stations -- outboard and midboard -- in varying load-out combinations with other weapon systems including bombs, anti-radiation missiles and air-to-air missiles, as well as external fuel tanks.
"The F/A-18E/F presents some of the most challenging environments for JAGM," said Hady Mourad, JAGM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Collecting vibration, acoustic and shock data in these environments for 11.2 hours of flight with no anomalies or problems represents a very successful beginning of flight test efforts that will continue into the EMD phase to integrate JAGM on the Super Hornet."
Lockheed Martin's Deputy Program Director Rick Packard, who is responsible for integrating JAGM with Navy platforms, said the company was very pleased with the results of the flying qualities tests. "When you couple the highly successful outcome of these flying quality tests with our previous hot and cold temperature missile motor tests, we remain confident in our ability to provide our customers with a single-missile-motor offering for JAGM, a critical capability voiced by all three Services since the inception of the joint program."
"One of the key tenets of the JAGM program is to replace three aging weapon systems and their associated parts, supply and logistics networks with one weapon to increase operational flexibility and reduce support costs," Packard said. "We remain steadfastly committed to meeting that requirement."
Threshold aviation platforms include the U.S. Army's AH-64D Apache attack helicopter, the Army's Extended Range Multi-Purpose (ERMP) Sky Warrior unmanned aerial system, the U.S. Marine Corps' AH-1Z Super Cobra attack helicopter, the U.S. Navy's MH-60R Seahawk armed reconnaissance helicopter and the Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighter. The tri-service Joint Strike Fighter also is under consideration as an objective platform.
The initial operational capability of JAGM on the AH-64D, AH-1Z and F/A-18E/F is scheduled for 2016, and the IOC for the MH-60R and ERMP is 2017.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 133,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's 2009 sales from continuing operations were $44.0 billion.

DEFENCE TALK

What the Pentagon’s Top Tester Said About the F-35B

Two weeks ago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the Marine Corps’ version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is in trouble. While “two of the JSF variants, the Air Force version and the Navy’s carrier based version, are proceeding satisfactorily,” Gates said, “by comparison, the Marine Corps’ short take-off and vertical landing variant is experiencing significant testing problems.”
What are those testing problems? A recently issued Pentagon report details many of the problems that led Gates to put the Marine’s variant on “probation” and recommend its cancellation after two years if it does not get “back on track.”
But first, to get a sense of how truly serious this all is, let’s revisit a few more things the SecDef said on January 6.
Testing of the F-35B has uncovered issues that “may lead to a redesign of the aircraft’s structure and propulsion—changes that could add yet more weight and more cost to an aircraft that has little capacity to absorb more of either,” Gates said.
Because of the problems uncovered by the testing so far and the risks involved with redesigning the F-35B, Gates said he is “placing the STOVL variant on the equivalent of a two-year probation.”
“If we cannot fix this variant during this time frame and get it back on track in terms of performance, cost and schedule, then I believe it should be cancelled,” Gates said. “We will also move the development of the Marine variant to the back of the overall JSF production sequence,” he added. “And to fill the gap created from the slip in the JSF production schedule, we will buy more Navy F/A-18s.”
Gates’ announcement came after “the Joint Strike Fighter program received special scrutiny given its substantial cost, ongoing development issues, and its central place in the future of U.S. military aviation,” Gates said. The special scrutiny was an in-depth “Technical Baseline Review” (TBR) that thoroughly examined numerous aspects of the F-35 program.
The FY2010 annual report by the Pentagon Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E)—most of which was obtained and made publicly available by POGO this week—has a section that fleshes out some of the TBR’s findings and many of the testing issues encountered by the JSF program, which by the way, has been estimated to reach a total cost of $382 billion (this figure represents a higher end estimate for all three variants; ultimately the program’s cost could vary greatly).
To help readers get right to it, we’ve cut and pasted the passages relevant to the troubled F-35B variant, although there is some material below related to the other two variants as well. Warning: The language is fairly technical. But there’s a lot to chew on…

• * “[P]rogress in testing the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft was less than planned.”
• * “Immaturity of STOVL design and unexpected component deficiencies limited successful accomplishment of test points in areas critical to short take-off and vertical landing capability. Development of mission systems software continued to experience delays that affected flight test progress.”
• * “Low fly rates on STOVL flight sciences aircraft and unanticipated deficiencies in the design had begun to emerge in flight test. Analysts during the review indicated STOVL flight sciences was becoming the critical path to complete [System Development and Demonstration ] SDD flight test. The program acknowledged later ferry dates for remaining SDD test aircraft. The estimates of SDD flight test completion was extended to July 2015.”
• * “During the months since the last program review, more problems with STOVL design and mission systems software arose.”
• * “The TBR also determined more time was needed for completion of all remaining software increments. The result is a completion of developmental flight test in late 2016, with STOVL flight sciences completing later than the other two variants.”
• * “In FY10, STOVL Flight Sciences aircraft flew 130 of 173 sorties; the test team accomplished 1,467 of 1,678 planned test points. However, the test team accomplished only 10 of 42 planned vertical landings between March and November 2010; these are key to the shore-based build-up to testing on L-class amphibious ships at sea. In the first two months of FY11, STOVL flight sciences aircraft flew 54 sorties, 5 more than planned; the test team accomplished 356 of 506 planned test points. From mid-August until early November, the test team flew CTOL-mode configurations due to limitations of the vertical-lift capability of the STOVL system. STOVL –mode flight test operations began again in BF-1 in November 2010.”
• * “Discoveries during STOVL Flight Sciences testing this fiscal year include transonic wing roll-off, greater than expected sideslip during medium angle-of-attack testing, and problems with reliability and maintainability of key components.”
• * “The program anticipates ferry of BF-5 in late March 2011 and CF-3 in May 2011; these deliveries to the test centers are approximately four and five months later than planned, respectively.”
• * “Results for a loading equivalent to one aircraft lifetime (8,000 hours) were expected in mid-FY11 for the STOVL aircraft and early FY12 for the [Conventional Take-off and Landing] CTOL aircraft. However, a major fatigue crack was found in the STOVL test article at approximately 1,500 hours flight hours. Failure of the bulkhead in flight would have safety of flight consequences. The program stopped fatigue testing on both the STOVL and CTOL test articles and began root cause analysis in November 2010. The STOVL bulkhead is constructed of aluminum alloy. The CTOL and CV bulkheads have a similar but not identical design and are made of aluminum. The difference in bulkhead material is due to actions taken several years ago to reduce the weight of the STOVL aircraft.”
  (Remember Gates’ comment about the potential for redesigning parts of the F-35B’s structure? One of the possible redesigns may involve an aluminum bulkhead located where the F-35B’s main landing gear attaches to the airframe, according to Defense News. However, Lockheed Martin, the F-35’s prime contractor, told reporters days after Gates’ speech that this isn’t a problem after all. “A redesign of the bulkhead is completed and an implementation plan has been developed. No cracking was found in any of the flight test aircraft, and flight testing has not been affected. Other locations of similar design are also being assessed,” a company spokesman John Kent said in an e-mailed statement to Defense News on January 11.)
• * “[T]he STOVL design emerged as the highest risk of all variants and the most difficult to progress through flight test. This is due in part to the difficulty in making progress in vertical lift operations compared to that planned. The analyses also revealed that the F-35 mission systems software development and test is tending towards familiar historical patterns of extended development, discovery in flight test, and deferrals to later increments. The modifications recommended by the TBR (lower fly rates, more regression and re-fly margin, more nights, and other resource additions) that result in completion of SDD flight test for Block 3 in all three variants later than previously estimated are realistic and credible. Completion of STOVL flight sciences in this timeframe is dependent on whether or not the necessary changes to STOVL design can be implemented and tested. It will also depend on whether these changes result in fewer aircraft operating limitations and greater aircraft availability for test. The program will potentially need as much as a year longer than the other two variants to complete this variant's Right sciences and ship integration testing. The expectations approaching 10 to 12 flight sciences sorties/month/aircraft in previous schedules are not achievable in the flight test program until changes are made to all variants that improve reliability and maintainability in flight test operations, Additionally, the process must begin to reduce the aircraft operating limitations, which inhibit flight test progress particularly in vertical lift STOVL testing.”

DEFENCE TALK

KC-10 marks 20 years of deployment, nearly 30 years of operations

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE: Jan. 17th was a special day for the KC-10 Extender community. It marked the day KC-10s, aircrews and maintainers have been on continuous deployment for 20 years -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year -- to Southwest Asia in support of combat operations.
Facts show the KC-10 will pass a second milestone in March: 30 years of operational service. The KC-10 first entered the Air Force inventory in 1981 and was assigned to Strategic Air Command, or SAC. It remained a SAC asset until 1992 when it was reassigned to the then newly created Air Mobility Command. Today, KC-10s are based solely at Travis AFB and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
Despite its small numbers -- there are only 59 in the inventory -- and now lengthy time in service, Air Force warfighters routinely rely on this tanker for both air refueling and airlift, operating them at a steady pace all around the world supporting U.S. operations. One such location is with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron at an air base in Southwest Asia. KC-10s have been deployed to this specific location for nearly all of the 20 years of continuous deployment.
"We've multiplied our KC-10 presence there several-fold since the time I first deployed in 1996 and we're now staying three times as long," said Lt. Col. Johnny Barnes, 9th Air Refueling Squadron commander at Travis AFB. "We have numerous crewmembers with more than 10 deployments under their belts and more than 300 combat sorties."
Following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces in August 1990, U.S. military forces and their allies initiated Operation Desert Shield, history shows. This marked the beginning of the KC-10's unbroken deployment string. SAC planners deployed seven KC-10s to assist in the massive buildup of U.S. troops and equipment in the Persian Gulf region and the air refueler has been there ever since.
SAC officials later increased the number of tankers along the route that included New England, the Azores, Egypt and Guam. And although the KC-10 was constantly hauling cargo and troops, statistics also show it consistently achieved the highest mission-capable rates -- above 95 percent -- of any coalition aircraft.
"Without the phenomenal tanker support we had for the war, we could not have accomplished what we did," said retired Lt. Gen. Pat Caruana during an August 2009 Tanker Living Legends Speaker Series at Scott AFB, Ill. The general served as a U.S. Central Air Forces' air campaign planner and commander directing strategic forces in Saudi Arabia for both Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
The aircraft did more than provide just air refueling, General Caruana said.
"The KC-10s were providing a majority of the airlift, especially early on," he said.
Gen. Kenneth Keller, who also participated in the 2009 speaker series, said the KC-10 played an integral role in getting forces and aircraft to the theater. General Keller was SAC's director of command and control and, for two months of Desert Shield, served as the headquarters' director of operations.
"When we were first pushing fighters in to the theater of operations, there was no refueling capability in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea," General Keller said. "So we pushed tankers into that area to build that (air) bridge."
Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm resulted in the largest air refueling operation ever conducted. The KC-10s and KC-135 Stratotankers were credited with a total of 51,700 refueling operations, delivering more than 125 million gallons of fuel. When the actual fighting began Jan. 17, 1991, tankers were flying missions not previously seen.
"I can remember we had tankers refueling F-15 (Eagles) at 3,000 feet right before the operation began," General Caruana said. "They were flying low to avoid radar.
When Operation Southern Watch was launched in 1991 to enforce the Iraqi no-fly zone, KC-10s also were flying combat support sorties. Since then, they have participated in operations Restore Hope (Somalia), Deny Flight (Bosnia), Desert Fox (Iraq), Allied Force (Kosovo), and tens of thousands of individual airlift and air refueling missions.
When terrorists attacked the United States on its own soil on Sept. 11, 2001, almost immediately KC-10s from JB McGuire were airborne supporting the combat air patrols protecting U.S. skies as part of Operation Noble Eagle. Tankers flew more than 350 sorties in that operation with nearly one-third of those flights occurring within the first three months after the attacks.
Now, nearly 10 years after the first of the Twin Towers fell in New York City, KC-10s continue to play a vital role in protecting the United States against attack. KC-10s have logged more than 106,000 flying hours. In 2009 alone, the tankers flew more than 4,700 sorties, offloading more than 422 million gallons of fuel and supporting nearly 3,000 troops in contact events.
KC-10s also have been instrumental in operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn.
"We couldn't do what we do without the KC-10," said Lt Col LeRoy, 9th ARS director of operations. "The KC-10's ability to offload the amount of fuel that it does is one of the key reasons the Navy is able to fly from an aircraft carrier to Afghanistan."
However, this forward projection of airpower comes with a cost to both man and machine. Planners with the 9th ARS say the KC-10s, maintainers and crew members have sustained their heaviest deployed operations tempo since 2006. Currently they fly about 35 sorties during a 70- to 77-day deployment.
"The Air Force is asking a lot from us, but that means we're able to make that much more of a difference for the troops on the ground needing air cover," Colonel Barnes said.
While KC-10s don't directly provide air cover, they refuel the fighters and bombers that do provide close-air support to ground units. Without air refueling support, these aircraft could not loiter, on-call, in support of U.S. and coalition forces, Colonel Barnes said.
"Last year, we had 1,400 incidents where KC-10s and their aircrews supported U.S. and coalition troops in contact with the enemy, and that's just from the 9th ARS," he said. "There are four active-duty squadrons supporting troops in contact, in addition to four Reserve units. Together we are making a huge difference and truly saving lives overseas."
Deployed KC-10 aircrew members with the 908th EARS also know the impact they have supporting deployed air refueling operations.
"It is extremely rewarding knowing that we play a critical and pivotal role in the ongoing war in Afghanistan," said Capt. Sean Flynn, a KC-10 pilot deployed from the Air Force Reserve Command's 514th Air Mobility Wing at JB McGuire. "With the constant supply of tanker gas, we can enable our fellow service members on the ground and in the air to continue to do their mission.
"We often fly long hours and in extreme weather conditions," he said. "You really see the big picture while working in the area of responsibility. It takes everyone from the base support staff, to the bus drivers, to the maintainers to help get us to the end result which is a successful mission in which we can deliver well needed gas to help the fight."
Capt. Michael Jackson, also a KC-10 pilot with the 908th EARS, said having the opportunity to support the recent surge and overall operations in Afghanistan continues to be "humbling."
"I have friends -- Marines and Airmen -- from high school who are on the ground currently in Afghanistan," said Captain Jackson, who deployed from the 9th ARS at Travis AFB. "I still keep in contact with them to this day. Each time I fly, I try to think of them and the support they need. I also realize that my part is such a small piece in the overall sacrifice that many of my childhood friends are making down there. I'm just glad to be a part of their support and I do it for them."
The pace of work while deployed and at home station, and the age of the planes, also mean the tankers have to be repaired more often, according to Colonel LeRoy.
"Sustaining the KC-10 grows more difficult each day," he said. "Generating the aircraft requires more time with each hour flown and with each passing day. Maintenance is a challenge but our maintainers do an awesome job with the airplane."
The KC-10 is projected to have a structural service life beyond 2043. With no immediate plans to replace the KC-10, Air Force officials likely will rely on the tanker through its golden anniversary in 20 years.
(Courtesy of 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs; Capt. Randall Heusser, 6th Air Refueling Squadron, and 1st. Lt. Elizabeth Yost, 660th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, at Travis AFB, and Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol, Air Mobility Command Public Affairs, contributed to this article)

DEFENCE TALK

Russia, U.S. to discuss Afghan helicopter deal in Washington

Mi-17

18:30 21/01/2011

© RIA Novosti. Alexey Kudenko

Talks on the delivery of Russian helicopters to Afghanistan will take place later this month in Washington, a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.
A group of experts, including Foreign Ministry and Rosoboronexport state arms export agency representatives, will meet with U.S. officials, Zamir Kabulov of the ministry's Asia department said.
Russia has said it is ready either to supply 21 Mi-17 multipurpose helicopters under a NATO contract or to be part of a U.S.-run tender to supply helicopters to the Afghan military.
The contract is estimated at $400 million, including spare parts.
The Mi-171 is an export version of the Mi-8 Hip helicopter. Currently in production at two factories in the Russian Volga area city of Kazan and the East Siberian city of Ulan-Ude, it features more powerful turboshaft engines and can transport up to 37 passengers.
In May, the United States lifted sanctions against Rosoboronexport, blacklisting it from tendering for U.S. arms deals. The sanctions were imposed in 2006 after the U.S. government accused Rosoboronexport of violating the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Despite the ban, dozens of Mi-17s have been bought by the United States for Afghanistan and Iraq over the past four years via intermediaries as commercial items, thus avoiding direct contacts with Rosoboronexport.
MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti)

RIA NOVOSTI

Ini Dia Alasan Kekhawatiran AS Atas Iran

Dosen Universitas California, AS, Profesor William Robinson mengatakan, program nuklir Republik Islam Iran hanya alasan AS dan apa yang sebenarnya dikhawatirkan oleh Gedung Putih adalah independensi Iran. Profesor Robinson kepada kantor berita IRNA, Ahad (23/1), menuturkan, dunia dikuasai oleh undang-undang arogan dan beberapa kekuatan menggunakan sanksi bukan untuk melaksanakan keadilan, tapi demi mengejar kepentingannya. Ditambahkannya, "Jika kita hidup di sebuah dunia, di mana seluruh negara punya kekuatan yang sama dan semua menghormati undang-undang internasional, maka sanksi dapat menjadi sarana yang baik untuk menegakkan kedaulatan dan kemerdekaan negara-negara, tapi sayangnya tidak demikian."
"AS secara ilegal menginvasi Irak dan melakukan tindakan yang bertentangan dengan aturan internasional di berbagai sudut dunia. Aksi ini juga masih berlanjut di abad 21," kritiknya.
"Karena kita hidup di dunia yang tidak berimbang, maka tidak ada pihak yang mampu meratifikasi sebuah sanksi atas AS. Pelanggaran undang-undang internasional oleh negara-negara kecil sangat tidak sebanding dengan aksi negara adidaya itu," jelasnya.
Masih menurut profesor AS ini, lembaga-lembaga internasional seperti PBB dan G-8 serta lembaga dunia lainnya ketika mensahkan sebuah resolusi, tidak mengindikasikan pelaksanaan keadilan, tapi sepenuhnya mencerminkan ketidakadilan dan menunjukkan ketidaksetaraan, yaitu memanfaatkan sanksi untuk memukul pihak yang lebih lemah. Penulis buku "Latin America and Global Capitalism" ini menjelaskan, jika selama ini ada keadilan, rezim Zionis Israel harus berada di bawah sanksi terberat PBB.
Seraya membandingkan serangan Israel terhadap konvoi bantuan kemanusiaan Gaza dengan kekejaman Adolf Hitler, keturunan Yahudi ini menegaskan, Israel telah melanggar hampir semua undang-undang internasional. Ditambahkannya, tidak adanya berapa jumlah resolusi yang disahkan di PBB, karena Israel kebal dari sanksi.
"Ketidakseimbangan dalam undang-undang internasional telah menyebabkan kekebalan Israel dari sanksi, sementara Iran dan Irak berada dalam pusaran sanksi," protesnya. Sanksi di Irak, lanjutnya, lebih dari 500 ribu anak telah tewas dan ini adalah sebuah genosida yang dilakukan AS.
Menurut profesor Robinson, AS telah menjalankan kebijakan yang bertujuan untuk melumpuhkan Iran, Venezuela dan Kuba. Tujuan dari strategi ini adalah memperlemah struktur ekonomi dan mengguncang negara-negara tersebut. Ditambahkannya, dengan memperlemah dan menghancurkan infrastruktur yang menjadi kebutuhan dasar warga, Washington ingin menciptakan perpecahan di tengah warga dan menjatuhkan pemerintah.
Lebih lanjut profesor Robinson menandaskan, isu nuklir hanya alasan untuk menarik dukungan internasional. Menurut saya, AS secara spesifik tidak mengkhawatirkan program nuklir Iran. Dikatakannya, Iran telah menunjukkan kerjasamanya dengan Badan Tenaga Atom Internasional (IAEA) dan telah berupaya cukup dalam masalah ini. Oleh sebab itu, alasan sanksi bukan karena kekhawatiran AS atas program nuklir Iran, tapi ingin menciptakan instabilitas di negara itu. (IRIB/RM/SL)

IRIB

Hadapi Kapal AS, Iran Kirim Kapal Perusak ke Mediterania

Dalam beberapa hari ke depan, tentara Republik Islam Iran untuk pertama kalinya akan mengerahkan kapal perusak ke Laut Merah dan Mediterania. Wakil Panglima Angkatan Laut Iran, Laksamana Gholam-Reza Khadem Bigham kepada kantor berita Fars, Ahad (23/1), menyinggung mekanisme pengiriman unit permukaan dan bawah permukaan angkatan laut Iran ke perairan jauh. Dikatakannya, misi angkatan laut Iran senantiasa dibarengi oleh dua hingga empat kapal, dua kapal perang dan dua lainnya sebagai pendukung. Bigham menjelaskan, unit bawah permukaan angkatan laut Iran punya kekuatan untuk bertindak mandiri dalam berbagai jarak dan tidak memerlukan kapal pendukung, namun dalam misi yang sangat jauh, unit pendukung juga akan menyertai operasi mereka.
Seraya mengkonfirmasikan bahwa pengiriman unit bawah permukaan ke tempat yang jauh sebagai program kerja angkatan laut, Bigham menandaskan, rencana ini akan segera direalisasikan dan secara alamiah unit pendukung akan menyertai misi jauh unit bawah permukaan.
Sebelumnya, situs Debkafile yang berafiliasi dengan rezim Zionis Israel, memberitakan pengerahan kapal-kapal perang Amerika dan Perancis ke perairan Lebanon. Menurut situs ini, dua kapal perang Amerika dan Perancis yang berada di Laut Mediterania mulai bergerak menuju perairan Lebanon. (IRIB/RM/AR) 

IRIB