German Gen. Erhard Drews on Sept. 9 took over the command over the NATO-led mission in Kosovo (KFOR), as the tense Serb-majority north remained the main challenge for the peacekeeping force.

Drews replaced fellow countryman Gen. Erhard Buhler at a ceremony in the KFOR headquarters in Pristina.
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KFOR should continue to be "a preventing force for all those extremists who by violence want to achieve political goals," Kosovo president Atifete Jahjaga said at the ceremony.

The handover came a day after a top NATO official warned that the situation in Kosovo's tense north remained the main challenge for the Alliance troops on the ground.

Tensions have been running high in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo since a trade row in July spilled over into violence at two flashpoint border posts with Serbia, when Pristina forcibly replaced ethnic Serb border guards attached to the Kosovo police with ethnic Albanian officers to enforce the trade ban with Serbia.

An ethnic Albanian police officer was killed and four injured in clashes that ensued as angry Kosovo Serbs reacted, forcing KFOR to step in.

NATO peacekeepers have maintained security in Kosovo since the end of 1998-1999 war between Belgrade-backed forces and ethnic Albanian pro-independence guerrillas.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008 and has since been recognized by more then 80 countries. However, Serbia still considers it to be its southern province.

Source: Defense News

A rare look into Israel’s unmanned weapons capabilities was revealed on Tuesday with an announcement by Germany’s Rheinmetall that it had jointly developed with Israel a loitering weapons system based on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

The system, called WABEP, which in German stands for “Weapons system for standoff engagement of individual and point targets,” was developed by Rheinmetall together with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a world leader in the development of UAVs and loitering weapons.

The combined, unmanned reconnaissance and attack system developed under a collaborative program between Germany and israel has recently passed an important milestone, demonstrating the integration of two unmanned aerial systems – the Rheinmetall Defense KZO aerial reconnaissance drone and IAI’s loitering weapon – the Harop. The highlight of the test was to demonstrate the WABEP ‘system of systems’ approach – the interoperability of two unmanned aerial systems as a combined reconnaissance and strike asset, slated to become the Bundeswehr’s next unmanned air vehicle system.

This milestone, contractor trials mandated by the German ministry of defense as a critical phase of the program, demonstrated the transfer of tactical data, target information and sensor imagery between the two ground control stations of the two systems. In addition, live video was transferred from the Harop, employing data relay installed on board the KZO and a manned Opale (DA-42) aircraft. As part of the test the ‘networked’ KZO recce drone was used to map an area of responsibility, detect and identify landmarks and infrastructure installations, stationary and moving targets.

Relevant target data was transmitted to the Harop segment using a dedicated battle management network designated WABEP. In line with future operational protocols, final authorization for engagement of the target followed a target verification procedure conducted at both the ground control stations. The demonstration concluded the current phase of the testing, a follow on phase is planned with participation of the German military.

The WABEP is a combination of Rheinmetall’s KZO drone and IAI’s Harop attack drone, which according to media reports, is already in operational use in India and Turkey.

The Harop was developed as a weapon to suppress enemy radar systems used together with surface-to-air missiles or other similar high-value targets.

The Harop can fly to a designated loitering position where it searches for electromagnetic signals from surface-to-air missile batteries and then dives in to destroy them.

Source: Defense-update

Germany plans to sell 200 Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia after lifting a decades-long ban on selling heavy weaponry to the Persian Gulf kingdom, the Der Spiegel said Saturday.

The federal security council approved the sale last week, the weekly news magazine said without citing sources.

The Saudis want to buy 200 Leopard 2A7+ tanks in an order potentially worth billions of euros to companies Kraus-Maffei and Rheinmetall, Der Spiegel said.

Saudi officials held talks with the Spanish subsidiary of the US military-industrial complex corporation General Dynamics about buying their version of the Leopard tank, but a larger portion of the order will go to German companies Kraus-Maffei and Rheinmetall, the magazine said.

Under the deals announced by the German government, Saudi Arabia will receive 200 of the last generation of Leopard 2A7+ tanks -- the upgraded version of the German battle tank first presented in 2010.

Since the 1980's, Germany has blocked the sale of Leopard 2 tanks to Saudi Arabia, afraid the equipment would be used against Israel.

The Saudis are also in talks with US companies for 60 billion dollars worth (41 billion euros) of defence equipment that would become the largest US contract ever.

The order is to include 84 new F-15 fighter jets and 178 combat helicopters.

Length: 10,97 m; Width: 4.00 m; Height: 2.64 m. Weight: 67,500 kg. Motor power: 1500 horsepower; Speed: 72 km/h.
Operating Range: 450km. Armament: 120 mm / L55 smoothbore cannon, 12.7 mm machine gun, 40 mm grenade launcher and 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun.
Distance to destroy targets: 2,500 m; Crew: 4 peoples.