US military chief to offer help to Mexico in violent drug war

America’s top military officer heads to Mexico this week to offer help to a government battling powerful drug cartels, amid alarm in Washington over escalating violence across the border.

With the death toll at 5,300 last year and Mexican cartels armed with automatic weapons and billions in cash, the crisis has become a full-blown national security concern for the United States.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was due in Mexico later this week as the United States signalled it was ready to step up military and other assistance to tackle the heavily armed drug rings ravaging the country’s north.

“The cartels are retaliating,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told NBC on Sunday. “It clearly is a serious problem.”

But he said Mexico has dropped its traditional reluctance to cultivate ties with the US military.

“I think we are beginning to be in a position to help the Mexicans more than we have in the past,” Gates said. “Some of the old biases against cooperation between our militaries and so on, I think, are being satisfied.”

The United States started sharing intelligence with Mexico in November and under a new program plans to provide helicopters, maritime surveillance aircraft and other equipment, Pentagon spokesman Commander Jeffrey Gordon said.

In hard times, China eyes smaller defense boost

China announced a nearly 15 percent rise in military spending on Wednesday — a smaller boost than in previous years — as the national legislature prepared to open its annual session with a focus firmly on overcoming the country’s brewing economic crisis.

The 14.9 percent increase in defense spending is the lowest in three years, a possible reflection of shifting priorities amid plans for a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package and a 850 billion yuan ($124 billion) spending boost to expand and revamp an inadequate health care system.

“There seems to be concern with the slowing economy. … They may want to keep down spending as a percentage of the economic output,” said Christian Le Miere, senior Asia analyst at Jane’s Country Risk in London.

Allen: State of the Coast Guard is strong

In his third State of the Coast Guard speech Tuesday, Commandant Adm. Thad Allen assured fellow Guardians that the service is strong, but not without challenges.

“The good news is, there has never been a bigger demand for our services. The bad news is, there has never been a bigger demand for our services,” Allen said.

During his 30-minute speech, Allen referenced the strength of the service five times while discussing its broad responsibilities. He praised service members for accomplishing a record number of drug seizures and the deterrence of “mass migrations.” He talked about the service’s global efforts, specifically mentioning its involvement in anti-piracy efforts off the Horn of Africa; the cutter Dallas’ extended deployment to the Black Sea, where it delivered humanitarian supplies to the Republic of Georgia following the South Ossetia conflict; and the cutter Boutwell’s around-the-globe deployment, during which it will work under four Navy combatant commanders and with numerous world navies and coast guards.

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General Dynamics Names Retired Admiral as Next CEO

General Dynamics Corp., the U.S. Navy’s second-largest shipbuilder, will turn to retired admiral and former U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Jay L. Johnson for leadership as its next chief executive officer.

Johnson, 61, will become vice chairman in September and then on July 1, 2009, will replace Nicholas Chabraja, the longest-serving leader among the five largest U.S. defense companies. Chabraja, 65, will remain chairman through May 2010, Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics said yesterday.

Report: Hizballah received 35 new Iranian speedboats shortly before current crisis

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that three weeks before Hizballah seized western Beirut, the Shiite terrorist group took delivery of 35 fast speedboats for use with explosives from Iran. The craft can threaten US Sixth Fleet and Israel Navy shipping close to Lebanese shores, reach Israel’s Haifa and Ashdod Mediterranean ports and raid its coastal oil installations.

The speedboats were tailor-made for Hizballah by Iranian Revolutionary Guards shipyards at Bandar Abbas as the only marine terror fleet operating in Mediterranean waters. Our military sources report the boats are capable of carrying chemical, biological and radiological weapons systems.

They were delivered in mid-April by an Iranian freighter at the Syrian port of Latakia and trucked to Naimah port south of Beirut. There they were hidden in the subterranean hangars belonging to Ahmed Jibril, head of the Palestinian Liberation Front-General Command. Today, the PLF-GC is financed and directed by the Revolutionary Guards. The hangars were constructed in the seventies by East Germany engineers with a protected Mediterranean anchorage and made virtually impenetrable by sea or air.

US warship heads back to Mediterranean

A US warship, which was deployed off Lebanon in February amid concern over Beirut’s political crisis, crossed Egypt’s Suez Canal on Sunday on its way to the Mediterranean, an official with the canal authority told AFP.

“The USS Cole has crossed the Suez Canal and is headed to the Mediterranean,” the official said, adding he did not know its exact destination.

The United States sent the guided-missile destroyer to waters off the coast of Lebanon on February 28, in what US officials said was “a show of support for regional stability” amid concerns over Lebanon’s protracted political crisis.

India To Acquire Six More Submarines: Naval Chief

India will soon float global tenders to acquire six submarines but would like to see indigenous development of this technology in the future, Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said here Friday.

These six submarines would be in addition to the Scorpene submarines, which the Indian navy is expected to acquire soon.

“In accordance with the plan to keep a certain number of submarines in the force, we will be acquiring six of one type (Scorpene) and six of another type,” Mehta was quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI) as saying at a press conference, marking the end of a two-day-long naval commanders’ conference held here on Friday.

The development of Scorpene submarines had been delayed and it was now time to look for a second type of submarine, he said.

Mehta said: “We need to have indigenous capability for building these submarines and Indian Navy has been a strong proponent of indigenous development. Therefore, we would expect that our shipyards take over the technology from some of these companies and thereafter build it themselves.”

The submarines for which tenders would be floated could also have vertical missile launch capabilities, he added.

French Sends Aid Ship To Myanmar – Foreign Min

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday that a French navy ship loaded with 1,500 metric tons of humanitarian aid for cyclone victims was en route to Myanmar and should arrive by next Thursday.

Te Mana arrives in Arabian Gulf

The Navy frigate HMNZS Te Mana has arrived in the Southern Arabian Gulf to begin patrolling the region’s waterways against possible terrorism attacks.

The frigate, which sailed from Devonport in Auckland via Singapore, has 173 personnel on board and will operate within a 20,000 square mile area, conducting maritime support and security operations for the Italian-led Coalition Task Force 152.

Defence spokesman Captain Zac Prendergast says the crew of Te Mana will liaise with other vessels in the area and mentor local navies about seacraft. The frigate is expected to return to New Zealand in August.

Narco subs pose new challenge for US coast guards

The first time they found one, authorities dubbed it “Big Foot.” They had heard rumors that such things existed, but nobody had actually seen one.

It was late 2006, and Big Foot was not lurking in a forest, but at sea, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Costa Rica. And it was not an ape-like creature, but a hulking, blue vessel resembling a submarine and carrying several tons of cocaine.

Nor was it a solitary beast.

Authorities say they are detecting more and more seacraft like Big Foot — known as self-propelled semi-submersibles — carrying larger and larger loads of drugs.

Chugging around the southern curve of Central America and up towards the United States, they have formed a kind of illicit fleet and become a major drug trafficking tool.

“It’s significant. We believe they can carry upwards of eight or 10 tons of cocaine,” said Rear Admiral Joseph Nimmich, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West, Florida, where military and government agencies track drug shipments.

“It’s in fact a logical progression,” he added. “As we get better at interdiction, they move to try to counteract our success.”

Experts estimate 25 to 40 semi-subs left South America last year laden with cocaine, and they expect that figure to double in 2008.

Sri Lanka military says rebels sink navy ship

The Sri Lankan military says Tamil Tiger rebels have bombed and sank a navy cargo ship at the eastern port town of Trincomalee. A navy spokesman said no crew members were on board at the time. Earlier, a bomb-blast in a café in the eastern town of Ampara killed at least 11 people and injured 29 others. The government has also blamed that bombing on Tamil Tiger rebels. The two attacks came just hours ahead of local elections in Sri Lanka’s eastern province scheduled. These are the first polls to be held in the region in 20 years. The government wrested control of the country’s east from the rebels last July.

Pirates holding French yacht shoot at militia

Pirates who hijacked a luxury French yacht off Somalia last week have opened fire at local gunmen who stopped them from coming ashore in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation, witnesses said on Monday.

The Ponant was seized on Friday with its 30-strong crew as it sailed through the Gulf of Aden. Of the ship’s 30-strong crew, 22 are French, and most of the others are Ukrainian or Korean. Six are women.

Somali Officials Back Assault on Pirates

Somali officials on Monday urged tough action against pirates holding a French yacht after an elite French paramilitary unit was placed on standby to intervene if negotiations fail.

The local governor in Somalia’s breakaway northern region of Puntland, Musa Ghelle Yusuf, said he would be “happy… to see the pirates killed” as a small French warship, the Commandant Bouan, maintained permanent surveillance of the vessel.

“The French and American ships must attack the pirates. They have our blessing,” Ghelle told AFP by phone, adding that the hijackers have been encouraged by ransoms paid in previous ship seizures.

“These pirates are terrorists and there is no need to negotiate with them,” Ghelle said. “Attacking them will solve future piracy plans.”

In Paris, a defence source said troops from the gendarmerie’s elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit were sent to Djibouti where they will remain until further orders.

Navy lifts drinking ban for Yokosuka

Five days after ordering all beer and alcohol pulled off store shelves and instituting a 10 p.m. off-base curfew, a top Navy commander is lifting the no-alcohol restrictions as of Monday night.

The latest revision to Navy liberty rules here, however, imposes a midnight cutoff for drinking alcohol on or off base, two hours earlier than what liberty rules traditionally had permitted.

Rear Adm. James D. Kelly, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Japan, had ordered the alcohol ban and a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for all Navy personnel attached to Yokosuka Naval Base.

“We are removing the curfew. That will go back into effect today,” Kelly said during a Monday afternoon interview at his office. “We are allowing alcoholic beverage sales, and we’re asking for people to maintain non-public consumption of alcohol between midnight and [6 a.m.]. So that is into play starting tonight.”

Kelly also ordered a weeklong standdown for Yokosuka-based sailors for training in preventing violence.

Carrier George Washington departs Norfolk for Japan

The carrier George Washington departed Norfolk Naval Station amid scattered rain and dense fog Monday morning, en route to its new home port of Yokosuka, Japan.

A Navy band gave the hundreds of sailors manning the rails a spirited sendoff. The ship is making history as the first nuclear-powered carrier based in the only nation ever to be attacked by nuclear weapons.

The ship will replace the Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s last conventionally powered carrier, which is due to be decommissioned. Without the Kitty Hawk’s need for constant refueling, the George Washington can cover greater distances through the region at higher speeds.

It also will be on higher alert once it arrives in Japan as part of the Navy’s new maritime strategy. Technically, the ship could arrive one day and deploy the next.

Navy ships deploy to North Atlantic for warfare exercise

Four Navy ships are headed to the North Atlantic to participate in a warfare exercise with navies from nine other countries.

The guided missile destroyers Donald Cook and Barry, the guided missile cruiser Anzio and the fleet replenishment oiler Big Horn will be joined later this week by the frigates Nicholas and Taylor, according to a Navy news release. The Taylor’s home port is Mayport, Fla.

The multi-warfare exercise will improve “interoperability between allied navies” and provide an opportunity for ships to be certified for upcoming deployments, the release says.

Indo-German naval exercises to begin today

A three-day Indo-German joint naval exercise will begin on Tuesday, on the country’s western coast.

The two countries had signed a defence cooperation agreement in 2006.

From the German side, the exercises will see the participation of over 700 personnel from the German Task Force comprising the Federal German Ship (FGS) Hamburg, an air-defence ship; frigate FGS Koeln; and replenishment tanker FGS Berlin. The vessels arrived at Kochi on Saturday.

Two frigates of the Indian Navy, apart from a helicopter and training ships — INS Tir and INS Krishna — will represent India in the exercises.

Addressing mediapersons on board FGS Hamburg here on Monday, the Task Force Commander, Captain Michael Budde, said the German and Indian warships from the Naval Base here would jointly leave Kochi harbour on Tuesday for the joint exercises.

“Seamanship, replenishment at sea and exchange of ships’ personnel and flying exercises will be held in the sea off Kochi. More advanced manoeuvres like surface and submarine warfare will be held further northwards, where the Indian frigates from the Western Naval Command will join.”

Coast Guard cutter officer relieved of command

The U.S. Coast Guard has temporarily dismissed the commanding officer of the Cutter Mobile Bay at Sturgeon Bay.

The Coast Guard says Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Smith was relieved of his command after he was found to lack leadership.

Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier says such moves are rare and are typically made because of alleged misconduct or a specific incident. Lanier says that’s not the case here. He says Smith is not under investigation.

Mobile Bay is a 140-foot icebreaking tug.

Statement by the President on Admiral William Fallon

Admiral William Fallon has served our Nation with great distinction for forty years. He is an outstanding sailor — and he made history as the first Naval officer to serve as Commander of Central Command.

From the Horn of Africa, to the streets of Baghdad, to the mountains of Afghanistan, the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen of Central Command are vital to the global war on terror. During his tenure at Centcom, Admiral Fallon’s job has been to help ensure that America’s military forces are ready to meet the threats of an often troubled region of the world, and he deserves considerable credit for progress that has been made there, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With service in Vietnam and as Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Commander of Pacific Command, and many other positions, Admiral Fallon has served this country with honor, determination, and commitment. I thank his wife, Mary, who knows that military service involves the whole family, and I wish them all the best as they begin the next chapter in their lives.

White House rejects charges it quashes military dissent

“Nonsense.” That’s what the White House is calling charges that it tries to stifle dissenting views in the military.

The accusations are coming in the wake of Navy Admiral William Fallon’s resignation as commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East. In a statement yesterday, Fallon said press reports suggesting a disagreement between his views and President Bush’s policies on Iran had become a “distraction at a critical time.”

That prompted Senator John Kerry to issue a statement saying during the Bush presidency, “those who toe the company line get rewarded and those who speak inconvenient truths get retired.”

Coast Guard delays acceptance of cutter

The Coast Guard has delayed accepting the first in a series of massive ships being built by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman that are the cornerstone of the agency’s troubled multibillion-dollar fleet modernization.

Coast Guard officials said recent testing identified problems with a number of the ship’s systems, including those dealing with safety, launch and recovery applications, and communications. Because of some of those issues, the agency won’t accept the first 418-foot, 4,300-ton National Security Cutter until late April or early May.

The Coast Guard last summer acknowledged that the combined cost of the first two cutters more than doubled to roughly $1.14 billion under the agency’s so-called Deepwater program.

The agency projected then that the first ship’s final cost would be $640.7 million. That price tag should not increase unless acceptance is delayed beyond May, Rear Adm. Gary Blore, assistant commandant for acquisition, said in a Tuesday afternoon conference call with reporters. The agency said the call was prompted by inaccurate media reports on the ship’s status.

The second cutter, which is expected to cost $495.7 million, had been slated for acceptance in October, but also will be pushed back as lessons learned from the first ship are applied to it, said program executive officer Rear Adm. Ronald Rabago. After the first cutter is accepted, the agency will run operational trials for an additional 18-24 months.

“The industry team is working closely with the Coast Guard to deliver the NSC on time according to the mutually agreed upon schedule,” said Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. awarded the original Deepwater contract in 2002.

Security affecting new Coast Guard fleet

U.S. Coast Guard officials Tuesday disputed claims in an article published by The Washington Times that faulty radios delayed the launch of its newest cutter.

The Times reported Tuesday that “faulty radios” installed on its new 418-foot USCGC Bertholf pushed its projected launch of February into the summer because its radio systems were susceptible to eavesdropping by drug traffickers.

Northrop Grumman developed the Bertholf’s software and other systems as part of the $25 billion “Deepwater” plan to boost the counter-terrorism capabilities of the Coast Guard fleet, but the program has been hit with technical problems, budget concerns and various scandals.

Coast Guard officials acknowledged the program had many “challenges” in the past but said the U.S. government officially accepted the cutter for operation Monday.

Navy asks judge to clarify sonar use in Hawaii waters ahead of anti-submarine exercises

The Navy on Tuesday asked a federal judge to clarify and modify an injunction placing restrictions on the service’s use of sonar in Hawaii waters.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement that it will go ahead with planned anti-submarine warfare exercises this month in accordance with an order issued late last month by U.S. District Judge David Ezra.

Officials will then determine whether to seek additional clarifications and modifications.

“If we determine the restrictions impede our ability to conduct realistic training and assessment, the Navy will report these concerns back to Judge Ezra and ask for necessary relief,” said Capt. Scott Gureck, U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman.

Ezra’s injunction says the Navy cannot conduct exercises within 12 nautical miles, or 13.8 miles, of Hawaii’s shoreline. That’s where species that are particularly sensitive to sonar, such as the beaked whale, are found.

He also ruled the Navy must look for marine mammals for one hour each day before using sonar and employ three lookouts exclusively to spot the animals during sonar use.

CG relieves CO amid relationship allegations

The captain of the seagoing buoy tender Willow has been temporarily relieved of his command after allegations that he was having “an inappropriate relationship” with a subordinate, the Coast Guard announced Tuesday.

Cmdr. Jeffrey Dow, skipper of the 225-foot Newport, R.I.-based ship, was relieved Friday by Rear Adm. Timothy Sullivan, commander of the Coast Guard’s 1st District. The Willow’s executive officer, Lt. Mark Crysler, has temporarily taken over command of the cutter.

New Maritime Strategy Plan Meets Congressional Doubts

The top four-star leaders of the U.S. Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy heard the first widespread congressional reaction Dec. 13 to their newly unveiled maritime strategy report — and lawmakers were skeptical across the political aisle.

Members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), almost to a person, repeated calls for greater and better shipbuilding, but also noted historical acquisition problems there. And they remained apparently unclear — despite a 16-page multicolor brochure titled “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower” — on how the services would better integrate.

“It’s a nice, really slick brochure — at the end of the day, it didn’t do so much for our country,” HASC seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee chairman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) told the chief of naval operations and the commandants of the Coast Guard and Marines.

But the admirals and general — who requested the hearing to discuss the strategy — defended the document, asserting that it establishes overarching maritime domain awareness (MDA) philosophy, particularly for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) of the world’s oceans, coasts, rivers and ports.

U.S., Japan tighten missile-defense ties

The U.S. and Japanese navies have worked out common rules for their advanced warships designed to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles, the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet said on Friday ahead of a milestone test.

more stories like thisUnderscoring growing missile-defense ties, Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman for the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii-based fleet, said areas of cooperation included “operational activities.”

The cooperation described in the statement fell short of missile-defense integration, a thorny issue for Japanese concerned about their post-World War Two constitution’s ban on collective defense.

“Operationally, the dialogue between the two navies extends from the four-star level to the ship-to-ship level as crews share common tactics, techniques and procedures for use while under way with the Aegis” anti-ballistic missile gear, Yoshishige said in an email response to questions from Reuters.

Record cocaine year for Coast Guard; newer, costlier smuggling techniques in evidence 

The Coast Guard says it’s netted a record 355,000 pounds of cocaine over the past year.

And officials say that has forced smugglers to transport their drugs through costlier methods like semi-submersible vessels and liquefied drugs.

Coast Guard officials are set to announce Thursday that they seized cocaine with a street value of roughly $4.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended September 30th.

The previous Coast Guard record for cocaine seizures, set two years ago, was 303,000 pounds. In fiscal 2006, the Coast Guard seized 287,000 pounds of cocaine.

Federal court orders Navy to reduce effects of sonar on marine life

A federal appeals court is telling the Navy to reduce the effect of its high-power sonar on whales and other marine life off the Southern California coast.

A three-judge panel ruled the sonar needs to be fixed before the Navy’s next planned exercise in January.

The court says it made the ruling because the Natural Resources Defense Council will likely win a lawsuit it filed against the Navy over the sonar system.

US ships make first north Vietnam stop since war

Two US Navy ships on Wednesday became the first since the war ended to dock in northern Vietnam, the US embassy said, reflecting growing bilateral ties.

The USS Guardian and the USS Patriot would stay in Haiphong port until Sunday to allow their crew to tour the city, visit schools and meet Vietnamese authorities, it said.

Their presence “reflects the growing cooperation between the two countries, including in the area of military-to-military relations,” the embassy added in a statement.

It is the fifth port visit by US Navy ships to Vietnam since the two former enemies normalised relations in 1995, but the first to a northern city.

Coast Guard officer removed from oil spill response post

The Coast Guard officer overseeing the response to last week’s oil spill has been replaced.

Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen announced the move at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Captain William Uberti, the Coast Guard commander for the bay region, had been overseeing the agency’s response to the spill. He’ll be replaced by Captain Paul Gugg.

Navy secretary: Offshore power indispensable

Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter on Wednesday voiced his strong support for modernizing and expanding the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ capability to wage expeditionary warfare throughout the world.

“Maritime dominance, the cornerstone of naval operations since World War II, is still indispensable to America’s national security,” Winter said in a speech at the 12th annual Expeditionary Warfare Conference at Bay Point Marriott Resort.

“The health of our economy depends on safe passage through the seas,” Winter told the audience of more than 600 defense industry executives and military officers.

While Winter and other conference speakers stressed the importance of the U.S. military working with its traditional allies and coalition partners, the Navy secretary confirmed that in any number of scenarios, the nation might have to go it alone. That, he indicated, underscores the need to develop an autonomous “sea basing” concept that will employ customized logistics ships which can support a combat operation without reliance on shore bases and seaports.

North Korea Committed To Creating Peace Zone In West Sea: Report

North Korea is committed to easing inter-Korean military tension in the West Sea by creating a peace zone, but insists that a disputed sea border line be redrawn, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan said Thursday.

In their second-ever summit in early October, North and South Korea agreed to create a joint fishing area in the West Sea to avoid armed conflicts around the disputed inter-Korean sea border. Called the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the western sea border was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but has never been recognized by Pyongyang.

“A situation to reach a peaceful resolution is gradually being built … North Korea is firmly committed to its intention of making the West Sea a sea of peace,” said the Choson Sinbo, the newspaper of pro-Pyongyang residents in Japan that is largely seen as reflecting North Korea’s views.

U.S. Coast Guard to monitor Arctic shipping routes

A U.S. Coast Guard reconnaissance team is heading to the far north this week to scope out a new frontier that the warming Arctic climate is opening to ship traffic.

The Coast Guard could set up an operations base in Barrow as early as next spring to monitor waters that are now free of ice for longer periods of the year. Weather permitting, a scouting crew will fly 1,900 kilometres Thursday from Barrow, the northernmost U.S. town, to the North Pole.

“This is a new area for us to do surveillance,” said Rear Adm. Arthur E. Brooks, commander of the Coast Guard’s Alaska district. “We’re going primarily to see what’s there, what ships, if any, are up there.”

Thinning ice has made travel along the northern coast increasingly attractive, said Adm. Brooks, who plans to accompany the crew in the C-130 flight. Tankers and even cruise ships are beginning to venture into the domain once travelled only by indigenous hunters and research vessels, such as the Coast Guard ice-cutter Healy.

China gives Cambodia more patrol boats

China is giving Cambodia nine naval patrol boats to safeguard oil installations in the Gulf of Thailand, another sign of Beijing’s deepening ties with the Southeast Asian nation, military officials said on Thursday.

“These boats will enable us to prevent maritime crimes such as terrorism, but also to protect natural resources within our sea territory,” said General Nim Sovath, who attended a signing ceremony in the Chinese city of Guangzhou this week.

An army-run Cambodian TV channel heralded the deal as evidence of stronger military cooperation with China, which provided Phnom Penh with six naval patrol boats in 2005 to help combat people and drug smuggling.

Colombia arrests navy captain for aiding drug smugglers

A Colombian navy captain was arrested Tuesday in connection with aiding drug smugglers, the country’s deputy attorney general, General Guillermo Mendoza, announced.

Jorge Ahumada, who captained a corvette class warship, is charged with handing over route information to Eduardo Jaramillo, alias The Condor, a businessman who supplied coastguard uniforms and worked as a drug smuggler’s go-between.

The attorney general’s investigations into the navy have also raised suspicions about rear admiral Gabriel Arango, who has enjoyed a glowing career in the navy. Arango has denied all charges.

Officials Say Navy hospitals ship could be in Peru quickly

U.S. officials say a U.S. Navy hospital ship, equipped with a staff of 800 and 12 operating rooms, is in Ecuador and could quickly sail to Peru if asked.

Doctors in Peru have been struggling to help the more than 1,500 injured by yesterday’s earthquake that officials say killed at least 450 people — including at least one American. The United Nations says the death toll is expected to rise beyond that number.

Peru’s President, Alan Garcia, has declared a state of emergency in Peru’s southern desert, where the 8.0 earthquake devastated cities.

U.S. collaborates on Pacific maritime network

The United States and five other countries, including China and Russia, are quietly developing a maritime network to battle drugs, human trafficking and poaching fishermen.

One exercise involves the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Boutwell, which recently sailed from Honolulu to Shanghai to pick up a Chinese law-enforcement officer. It will then sail on to the northwestern Pacific to look for vessels engaged in illegal fishing.

During the patrol, the ship is scheduled to call at Yokosuka, Japan, and Petropavlovsk, Russia.

Boutwell”s voyage reflects what a Coast Guard officer called “a developing network for maritime security” that includes the U.S., Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

US Coast Guard ties smooth sailing with China

Even at times when they can’t see eye to eye on economic and trade issues, China and the United States can still find common ground when it comes to law enforcement on the sea.

Visiting Vice Admiral Charles Wurster, commander of the Pacific Area and Defense Force West of US Coast Guard, was optimistic yesterday when discussing expanding exchanges and relations with China.

“The purpose of my visit is to reinforce the areas that we already began cooperation,” Wurster said.

The vice admiral was in Shanghai, where he joined the USCG’s cutter Boutwell, on a port call there until August 20.

It will take part in law enforcement exchanges with Chinese counterparts in the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum (NPCGF).

Canada troopers assert Arctic sovereignty

The largest ever military exercise in the Arctic is underway this week to firm Canada’s disputed claim to this lonely region.
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Of late, the international rivalry has heated up, with Russia planting a flag at the North Pole and Denmark reportedly on its way, as melting polar ice caps make the region more accessible to economic activity and shipping.

As part of Canada’s Operation Nanook, Aurora surveillance aircraft track the wayward ship “Rusty Bucket” and its connecting flight smuggling narcotics from Mexico into Quebec, via an abandoned runway on Resolution Island in the Arctic.

In the Hudson Straight, the Navy submarine Cornerbrook shadows the vessel, waiting for the patrol frigate HMCS Fredericton and Coast Guard vessel Martha L. Black to intercept it, while CF-18 Hornet fighter jets force the aircraft to land in nearby Iqaluit.

Search continues for 3 aviators missing after crash

The Navy says there’s still an “active search and rescue mission” in the Atlantic, off the coast of North Carolina, following the crash of a Navy surveillance plane during a training exercise.

Three aviators were on board the twin-engine turbo prop.

It crashed in clear weather at around 11 p.m. yesterday, shortly after taking off from the aircraft carrier Harry S Truman.

The Truman and another carrier are taking part in the search, along with a Coast Guard cutter, plane and helicopter.

Army college fires Navy captain

A Navy captain in charge of the Navy Element of the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., was relieved of command last month.

Capt. Gary Noble was fired July 20 by Rear Adm. Gary Jones, head of Naval Education and Training Command, after an Army investigation. The reason cited for Noble’s dismissal was a “poor command climate,” said Naval Education and Training command spokesman Ed Barker. The Navy transferred Noble to Naval Station Great Lakes July 21 for temporary duty.

The sea service plans no disciplinary action against Noble, Barker said.

Noble declined comment through a Navy spokeswoman.