Showing posts with label Royal Jordan Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Royal Jordan Army. Show all posts

September 26, 2017

New German H145M in Jordan






April 21, 2017

King Abdullah II of Jordan joins the Jordanian Special Forces in a live fire exercise






March 26, 2016

Jordan's king accuses Turkey of sending terrorists to Europe



King Abdullah of Jordan = Fastest Rat smeller

European leaders use French perfume to hide the smelling rat.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jordans-king-accuses-turkey-sending-terrorists-europe-1687591648








King Abdullah of Jordan accused Turkey of exporting terrorists to Europe at a top level meeting with senior US politicians in January, the MEE can reveal.

The king said Europe’s biggest refugee crisis was not an accident, and neither was the presence of terrorists among them: “The fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy and Turkey keeps on getting a slap on the hand, but they are let off the hook.”

Asked by one of the congressmen present whether the Islamic State group was exporting oil to Turkey, Abdullah replied: ”Absolutely.”

Abdullah made his remarks during a wide-ranging debriefing to Congress on 11 January, the day a meeting with the US president, Barack Obama, was cancelled.

The White House was forced to deny that Obama snubbed one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East, attributing the cancellation to "scheduling conflicts," although Obama and Abdullah met briefly at Andrews Air Force Base a day later.

Present at the meeting in Congress were the chairmen and members of the Senate Intelligence, Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, including Senators John McCain and Bob Corker, and Senators Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority and Minority leaders respectively.

According to a detailed account of the meeting seen by MEE, the king went on to explain what he thought was the motivation of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Abdullah said that Erdogan believed in a “radical Islamic solution to the region".

He repeated: "Turkey sought a religious solution to Syria, while we are looking at moderate elements in the south and Jordan pushed for a third option that would not allow a religious option.”

The king presented Turkey as part of a strategic challenge to the world.

"We keep being forced to tackle tactical problems against ISIL [the Islamic State group] but not the strategic issue. We forget the issue [of] the Turks who are not with us on this strategically."

He claimed that Turkey had not only supported religious groups in Syria, and was letting foreign fighters in, but had also been helping Islamist militias in Libya and Somalia.

Abdullah claimed that "radicalisation was being manufactured in Turkey" and asked the US senators why the Turks were training the Somali army.

The king invited the US politicians present to ask the presidents of Kosovo and Albania about the Turks.

Abdullah said that both countries were begging Europe to include them, before Erdogan did.

Abdullah was supported in his remarks by his foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, who said that the Albanian president (Bujar Nishani) was a Catholic married to a Muslim, and that that was a model which should be protected in a Muslim majority country.

Judeh said that when the Russian bombing campaign prevented Turkey from establishing safe zones in northern Syria to stop refugees from coming to Turkey, "Turkey unleashed the refugees onto Europe”.

Both Judeh and Abdullah bridled at the $3bn deal offered by Europe to Turkey, noting that Turkey had only 2m Syrian refugees out of a population of 70m, whereas Jordan was facing “a bigger problem proportionally".

Jordan and Turkey are officially allies. The Turkish prime minister, Ahmed Davutoglu, cancelled an official visit to Jordan after the latest bomb attack in Turkey, which on 13 March killed 34 people in Ankara.

The Kurdish Freedom Falcons (TAK), an offshoot of the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The postponed visit is due to take place this weekend and Davutoglu will be mindful that Abdullah told senators that Turkey was using the Kurds as an "excuse" for its policies in Syria.

Galip Dalay, research director at Al Sharq Forum and senior associate fellow on Turkey and Kurdish Affairs at Al Jazeera Center for Studies, said it was wrong to portray Turkey as having a strategic goal of establishing an Islamist government in Syria.

He said: "Turkey did its best in the first eight months of the Syrian crisis to find a political solution to the crisis, which would have included [Syrian President] Bashar Assad. Back then, Turkey was criticised in the region and the West for being too soft on the Assad regime and being too optimistic about the possibility of reform. When it became clear, after eight months of arduous attempts, that Assad had no intention of initiating a political and democratic process to meet the demands of the protestors, Turkey threw its weight behind the opposition."

Dalay said that the claim Turkey was buying oil from the Islamic State group was a Russian fabrication concocted by Moscow after Turkey shot down the Russian fighter. "Turkey is not the only one saying there is no evidence to support this claim. The United States said it too."

The Turkish government would not comment officially on Abdullah’s reported remarks on 11 January. But a senior Turkish source accused the king of becoming "the spokesman for Bashar al-Assad".

He said the portrait emerging from these remarks was not one of a king speaking but of a "Western journalist with a fuzzy state of mind and little familiarity with the region".

He said: “Turkey is definitely carrying out an intense struggle against Daesh [a reference to the Islamic State group]. Bombings take place in Turkey, not in Jordan. When this is the case, groundless accusations by King Abdullah are totally unacceptable.

"Moreover, his tackling of the Daesh issue with such unfounded information also raises the question about whether Jordan could play a meaningful role in the fight against Daesh.”

He said the king’s claims that IS was selling oil to Turkey were not only absurd but showed that Abdullah did not have the slightest idea about what was going on in Syria.

"The king's statements and accusations against Turkey are not the first. Unfortunately, all of his allegations are the same as the slanders frequently expressed by the Assad regime.

"It would be to Jordan's and the region's interest if Jordan, as a friend of Turkey, were to work for a strategic cooperation with a strategic power like Turkey, instead of acting like the spokesperson of Assad.”


January 25, 2016

Jordan Armed Forces military drill in Aqaba









His Majesty King Abdullah II, the Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces- Arab Army, Saturday attended a joint naval military drill in Aqaba, carried out by personnel of the Royal Naval Force and Joint Special Operations forces, backed up by helicopter gunships.

Upon his arrival at the site in the southern port city, King Abdullah was greeted by his adviser for military affairs, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as His Royal Highness Prince Faisal Bin Al Hussein and senior officers of the Armed Forces General Command and the Royal Air Force and Naval Force.

The Supreme Commander and the officers watched the progress of the exercise, which simulated potential threats within the forces’ areas of jurisdiction and how to deal with these. It featured anti-terrorism naval combat, inspection of ships, rescue and evacuation and handling sea mines.

Throughout the various stages of the drill, watched by a number of princes and civic and military officials, participants displayed high professionalism and skills in performing their assigned tasks and close coordination among the various units involved.

The Supreme Commander expressed his admiration of the distinguished combat level and morale of the Royal Force’s and Joint Special Operation Forces’ troops.

Also in Aqaba, the King, accompanied by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, inaugurated the Jordan Armed Forces- Arab Army chalets and toured their various facilities.

Upon royal directives, the Military Works and Housing Corporation had carried out construction work for the expansion of the armed forces’ guest apartments and chalets in Aqaba City, with the aim of providing best recreational and tourism services to serving and retired army officers and their families.


November 22, 2015

Jordan receives 3 Blackhawks from USA







Jordan has received three Blackhawk helicopters from the US out of eight allocated for the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF), Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani said Wednesday.

In a statement to The Jordan Times, he commended the “ongoing” military cooperation between Jordan and the US, describing the delivery of the helicopters as a “reflection of the strategic interdependence between Jordan and the US.”

Momani, who is also minister of state for media affairs and communications, said that these helicopters will contribute to the Kingdom’s plans to enhance its army’s capabilities in the face of threats and in its efforts to safeguard its border.

He noted that Jordan’s military armament system has now become one of the best in the world, stressing that the Kingdom will continue to upgrade the capabilities of its armed forces.

In a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday, the US embassy said the three helicopters were delivered last week.

“The Blackhawks will provide the JAF [with] an increased capability to respond to border threats around the country and are the latest example of our partnership and unwavering security commitment to Jordan,” the embassy said.

The US has provided additional military assistance to Jordan this year, including the eight Blackhawks, firearms, ammunition for F-16 fighter jets and other equipment.

August 17, 2015

Israel’s first ever arms deal with an Arab country – drones for Jordan to fight ISIS


http://www.debka.com/article/24813/


Israel has sold Jordan 12 advanced unmanned aerial vehicles of the Heron TP and Skylark types. They are urgently needed by the Jordanian Royal Air Force to beef up the counter-terrorism campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in which the Hashemite Kingdom is locked across its borders in Iraq and Syria.

The Heron TP drone is an assault vehicle. Its speed is 370 kph at an altitude of 7,400 km and it can stay aloft for 70 hours at a height of 14 km. The Heron is needed for air strikes against Islamist targets deep inside Iraq or Syria and also as an effective weapon for halting enemy forces advancing on Jordan’s borders through the deep crevasses of the eastern Syrian Deir E-Zour region or from Iraq’s Anbar Province to the east

Skylark, which weighs 7 kg, will gather intelligence for Jordan’s special forces in both arenas. Its cameras beam down a full picture in real time of an active battle field.DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Jordanian commandos have thrust 200 km deep into Iraq. They have reached the important town of Ar Rutbah, which commands the No. 1 freeway connecting the Iraqi and Jordanian capitals Baghdad to Amman, and prevented ISIS from cutting it off.

Israeli and Jordanian officials decline to reveal details about the financial scope of the sale, how the new Israeli drones will enter service in Jordan and whether Israel has set up an operations center in the Royal Air Force for deploying them. Operating the Herons and Skylarks requires personnel especially trained in their use.Many secret operations against ISIS are run by the joint US-Jordanian-Israeli war room at US Central Command Forward – Jordan north of Amman. Officers at this center may also be managing the UAVs’ operation.

Another aspect of Israeli-Jordanian military cooperation was revealed last week when the American Foxtrot Alpha website reported a group of five Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16s flying alongside Israeli Air Force KC-707 fuel tankers heading west towards Lajes Field, a mid-Atlantic transit point for military aircraft.The fleets were heading for Nellis Air Force base in Nevada to take part in the Red Flag air-to-air training exercise from Aug. 17 to 28. The Israeli Air Force’s appearance in the exercise comes when relations between Washington and Jerusalem are apparently at a low point.
Although Israel and Jordan are security partners, Israeli tanker aircraft escorting Jordanian F-16s across the world alongside IAF F-15s, is a special event that indicates a new level of military cooperation operation between the two nations. This disclosure shows that the partnership between the Israeli and Jordanian air forces is deep and extensive enough for the two air arms to work together in a long-range training exercise.

This development comes shortly after the news, revealed on July 23 by Pentagon sources, that Israel had donated AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters to Jordan to withstand ISIS threats.,This week also saw the first anniversary of the US-led coalition campaign launched against ISIS in Iraq and Syria just a year ago. The US aerial operation against the Islamist terrorists has been too diluted to be much use in curbing their advance, especially when American bombers often return to base with two-thirds of their ordnance unused. The only two armies actually fighting ISIS on the ground – where it really counts - are the Jordanian armed forces and the northern Iraqi Kurdish republic’s Peshmerga, joined by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
Amman has kept its campaign against ISIS in neighboring countries under very tight wraps, including its aerial dimension. 

July 24, 2015

Israel gives Jordan helicopters for border security






Israel has given retired U.S.-supplied Cobra combat helicopters to Jordan to help the Hashemite kingdom fend off insurgent threats on the Syrian and Iraqi borders, a U.S. official with knowledge of the deal said.The handover, initiated last year, was approved by Washington, which provided mechanical overhauls for the aircraft before they were incorporated free of charge in Jordan's existing Cobra fleet, the official said.

"These choppers are for border security," the official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters.Asked how many Cobras were transferred, the official said: "Around 16, though some may have been used by the Jordanians for spare parts" rather than kept intact.Jordanian and Israeli officials declined comment, as did the Pentagon.Israel and Jordan, as well as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, this week hosted U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who offered reassurances about the regional fight against Islamic State and the July 14 international deal curbing Iran's nuclear programme.Israel originally had two Cobra squadrons - each consisting of around 30 of the aircraft, which are designed to back ground troops with aerial surveillance as well as machine gun and rocket fire, and to be nimble enough to elude surface-to-air missiles.

One of the squadrons was disbanded in the mid-2000s and the other in 2013, with Israel's air force preferring the more powerful, U.S.-supplied Apache helicopters also in its fleet and an expanded role for its thrifty and versatile pilotless drones.The Jordanian air force has 25 Cobras in service, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. The Cobra's manufacturer is Bell Helicopter, a Textron company.Following Egypt, Jordan made peace with Israel in 1994. But the countries had maintained discreet security ties dating back to the early 1970s and Israel has pledged to step in should Amman be threatened by Islamic State or other insurgents rampaging elsewhere in the Middle East.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...