Pakistan claims first airstrike with indigenous UAV

The Pakistan Army on 7 September claimed to have successfully used an indigenously built armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to target a Taliban location for the first time.
A terrorist compound was hit and three militants were killed in the Shawal valley of north Waziristan close to the Afghan border. The air strike was carried out by the indigenous Burraq UAV.
The strike was the first time that a Pakistani UAV had demonstrated an offensive capability in the battlefield, departing from the country's known use of UAVs for reconnaissance purposes.
The Burraq and Shahpar UAVs, both of which can be armed, were designed and built in country, although few technical details have been revealed.
Analysis of the two UAVs' platforms shows a close resemblance to China's CH-3 UAV..
Pakistan has a close working relationship with China for joint development of military hardware.
janes

Taliban claim they shot down US AC-130 warplane in eastern Afghanistan

The Afghan Taliban claimed that their forces hit an US Air Force AC-130 gunship with antiaircraft fire and forced it to land in the eastern province of Logar.
The Taliban released a video purporting to show their forces hitting what appears to be a US Air Force C-130 aircraft. The AC-130 is a heavily armed ground attack variant of the C-130 airframe.
The video "was posted on the Facebook page of Bot Shikan on April 27, 2014, and was promoted on the Twitter account of an Afghan Taliban website representative on April 29.
The video shows a group of Taliban fighters firing antiaircraft machine guns mounted on the backs of pickup trucks. The video then shows tracer rounds fired at what appears to be a C-130. Several rounds appear to hit the aircraft and bright flashes are seen underneath the plane. The video then shows what the Taliban claim is the wreckage of the aircraft as well as footage of the plane as it lands on or near an airbase in Logar province. At the end of the video, the Taliban show a helicopter and another aircraft being fired upon.
The International Security Assistance Force has not reported that any of its aircraft have been shot down or crash-landed, and would neither confirm nor deny that the aircraft shown in this video was fired upon by the Taliban.
The release of video of the C-130 coming under attack took place just one day after the Taliban claimed to have shot down a British Army helicopter in the southern province of Kandahar. ISAF confirmed that a helicopter crashed and five ISAF soldiers were killed on April 26.
The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence denied that the Taliban shot down the Lynx helicopter, which is used by the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing to ferry troops such as the SAS and SBS on missions, and are also heavily armed for supporting fire. The Ministry of Defence instead claimed that the helicopter was likely brought down by a technical problem.
On at least one occasion, ISAF has denied a Taliban claim to have shot down a Coalition helicopter in Afghanistan, only to backtrack on the statement. In December 2013, the Taliban claimed to have shot down a US Army Blackhawk helicopter in the southern Afghan province of Zabul and killed six soldiers.
ISAF quickly denied the report.
longwarjournal

NATO plans major east European exercise, reassures Russia

After years of fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, NATO plans a major exercise in eastern Europe in November to brush up its conventional warfare skills, but insists it is not practicing with Cold War foe Russia in mind.
Exercise "Steadfast Jazz" in Latvia and Poland from November 2-9 shows the 28-nation alliance refocusing on its core task of defending its own territory as it winds down its long combat mission in Afghanistan.
reuters

US drones strike again in South Waziristan

The US again launched airstrikes in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today, killing 17 people. The drone attack is the fourth this year, and the first since the US killed influential Taliban leader Mullah Nazir.

The remotely piloted, CIA-operated Predators or the more deadly Reapers struck three separate compounds in the Babargarh area in South Waziristan. The area is close to the neighboring tribal agency of North Waziristan. According to Dawn, 17 people, whose identities have not been disclosed, are reported to have been killed.

longwarjournal