BMW RELEASES NEW DETAILS ON UPCOMING I3 ELECTRIC CAR

The hotly anticipated 2014 BMW i3 electric car is set to be revealed on July 29. If eighteen days seems like too long to wait, you're in luck, as BMW has released a slew of new details on the vehicle, including a ballpark price and on-sale date.

The rear-wheel drive electric car will be powered by a rear-mounted electric motor, which BMW says will produce 170 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. With moderate driving, the i3 should be able to go 80 to 100 miles on a full charge. BMW says using the i3's ECO PRO setting, which greatly increases regenerative braking, can improve range by as much as 12 percent.
The i3 will also be available with a range-extending engine, which will keep the battery powered after it is depleted below a certain level. It's a similar powertrain strategy to that employed by the extended-range electric Chevrolet Volt.
BMW has included some impressive connectivity features with this car as well. For instance, an embedded SIM card unlocks a world of exclusive apps for navigation, concierge and emergency services that make EV transportation as easy as possible. One interesting feature we're looking forward to testing is the intermodal route planning, which includes options for public transportation, in addition to driving, when planning a trip in your i3.
The i3 will also come with the BMW iRemote app, which will allow owners to remotely access all kinds of information. With iRemote, drivers can turn on heat/AC, send their car a driving route, get charging information and find EV charging stations from their smartphones.

MRF adds muscle to IAF Sukhoi

MRF is set to emerge as a major supplier of tyres for the Indian Air Force (IAF) as the country’s leading tyre maker has now created yet another record of supplying aircraft tyres for the defence.
After successfully producing and supplying tyres for Indian defence helicopters, the company has now started supplying indigenously developed tyres for Sukhoi 30 MKI, the most advanced fighter aircraft group in the IAF fleet. The main wheel tyre for the Sukhoi was unveiled on Saturday.
The development marks one of the significant steps in defence’s indigenisation programme. MRF’s supply is to result in significant savings as its tyres will be priced 30-40 per cent lower than the tyres the IAF used to procure from outside the country.
“We are the only Indian company to make tyres for Indian defence helicopters and aircraft, and with this, we will be among the very few global tyre OEMs that supply aviation tyres,” said Arun Mammen, Managing Director, MRF Ltd.
Though MRF has been supplying tyres to various vehicles of Defence Forces, its journey to supply aviation tyres began in 2001. After meeting all requirements and securing approvals from various authorities, it started supplying helicopter tyres for Chetak fleet in 2008. In the same year, it took up the project of developing main wheel tyres for Sukhoi 30 MKI. By working with various entities of Defence Department, the company came up with indigenously developed fighter tyres, which have been tested for ground speeds of up to 420 kmph with loads in excess of 18 tons per tyre.
After completion of the tests, the product has been cleared by CEMILAC (The certifying authority for Military aviation) for commercial production in 2012. These tyres are being produced at its facility at Medak (Andhra Pradesh).

Russia offers to develop supercomputer with India to counter Chinese supremacy

Russian supercomputing company RSC group and the Russian Academy of Sciences have proposed collaboration with India to set up advanced supercomputing facilities that willrivalChina’s Tianhe-2, the world’s fastest supercomputer.

“India has many skills for building supercomputers. It is very strong in software,” said Alexey Shmelev, co-founder and chief operations officer of RSC group and delegate to the Russian Academy of Sciences. “I am ready to share technology with India. I guess there would not be many players

who are willing to do so.”

In a letter last month, Boris Shabanov of the Russian Academy of Sciences has invited a delegation from the Indian Institute of Science and the Karnataka government to explore the possibility of a supercomputing centre in Bangalore. CNR Rao, a Bharat Ratna awardee who heads the scientific advisory council to the prime minister, said it is difficult to assess a potential collaboration right away, but was of the view that “the Chinese are way ahead”.

Tianhe-2, developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, retained its position as the world’s number one system according to TOP500 project which ranks the most powerful computer systems in the world. It beat TitanBSE -2.70 %, a US supercomputer which briefly held the world speed crown. India’s supercomputer Param Yuva-II is ranked at 83 while Russia’s Lomonosov supercomputer is ranked at 37.

If the joint cooperation between Russia and India is found viable, it can result in a computing system as big as a basketball court that can perform approximately as many operations per second as several million personal computers.In 2009, India had taken a huge leap in supercomputing with EKA which was then the fourth fastest supercomputer in the world and fastest in Asia. “But in the next few years, China took over and it has retained its position as the world’s number one system,” said Vipin Chaudhary, former chief executive of ComputationalResearch Laboratories, a subsidiary

of Tata Sons that built the EKA supercomputer.

U.S. Defense Secretary Hagel gets Aircraft Carrier Tour on First Visit to China

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will get a rare tour of China’s first aircraft carrier a day after warning the Communist Party-led nation not to use coercion to settle territorial disputes with its neighbors.

Hagel will be the first foreign visitor to get such access to China’s aircraft carrier, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The ship, Liaoning, is based at Qingdao naval base.

A day before leaving for China, Hagel met in Tokyo with his Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera to assure him that the U.S. would stand by him if China forcefully grabbed Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea claimed by China. He linked Russia’s annexation of Crimea to the island dispute.

“You cannot go around the world and redefine boundaries and violate territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations by force, coercion and intimidation, whether it’s in small islands in the Pacific, or large nations in Europe,” Hagel said while in Japan. Hagel called China a “great power” and said that with such power “comes new and wider responsibilities as to how you use that power.”

Hagel leaves Tokyo today for China, his first visit there since becoming U.S. defense secretary last year. He is arriving in Qingdao, southeast of Beijing and home to China’s North Sea fleet on the East China Sea. Later, he goes to Beijing for two days of meetings with his counterpart and other Chinese officials. Hagel’s visit to the aircraft carrier was closed off to U.S. news media traveling with him.

Aircraft Carrier China built its Liaoning aircraft carrier from an unfinished Soviet-era hull and commissioned the ship in September 2012.

The ship has undergone sea trials and the People’s Liberation Army has landed its J-15 aircraft on the carrier deck.

China is building up its navy as President Xi Jinping seeks to position his country as a maritime power. China’s second aircraft carrier will be completed in 2018, the South China Morning Post reported Jan. 19, citing a regional Communist Party chief. Liaoning is some way from combat-readiness, General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, commander of U.S. air forces in the Pacific, said Feb 9.

In November as Liaoning was deployed to the South China Sea area, China unilaterally declared an air defense zone over parts of the airspace used by South Korea and Japan. In December, the U.S. Navy’s guided-missile cruiser USS Cowpens got too close to Liaoning in the South China Sea, according to China’s Global Times newspaper.

“America is clearly right up against the front door of China,” the Global Times said in its editorial. “The American ship coming close to the Liaoning for reconnaissance is already not ‘innocent passage’ — it is already a threat to China’s national security.”

India refused to consider Devyani Khobragade episode as closed

Ignoring the US viewpoint, India has refused to consider the Devyani Khobragade episode as “closed”, saying there are “residual” issues which need to be addressed.Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said India has made its expectations clear to the US on the issue and hoped that it will be resolved.

“There are residual issues,” she told PTI in an interview when asked whether the Khobragade episode was a closed chapter as was being treated by the US. However, she refused to elaborate further on what steps were needed from the US to satisfy India.

Singh said the US interlocutors were conveyed India’s expectations on the issue and expressed unhappiness over the filing of second indictment against Khobragade on charges of visa fraud. “We would have preferred that it (second indictment) did not happen,” she said.

A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade was arrested in New York on December 12 last and was strip-searched, triggering a row between the two countries with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats among other steps.

Khobragade was released on a USD 250,000 bond and was later granted full diplomatic immunity following which she flew back to India on January 10. She has since been transferred to the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

Though, the first indictment against her was rejected by a US Court, prosecutors last month re-indicted her on visa fraud charges and accused the diplomat of “illegally” underpaying and “exploiting” her domestic maid.

The US State Department has officially said, “This has clearly been a challenging time in the US-India relationship.

The US State Department has officially said, “This has clearly been a challenging time in the US-India relationship.

We expect and hope that this will now come to closure and the Indians will now take significant steps with us to improve our relationship and return it to a more constructive place.”

On whether the incident had affected relationship between the two countries, Singh replied: “To an extent, yes. But that is the strength of the relationship that in spite of having something like the Khobragade incident, you can sit down and talk to each other.”

The Foreign Secretary said as strategic partners both the countries were interacting with each other “too closely” on a number of issues and that their will be “differences” in such a relationship.

Asked whether there was a breakdown in Indo-US relationship following the episode, Singh said, “When you are actually in the business of interacting and in the business of continuing that relationship you don’t get into all these terms warmth, cordiality.

“You just carry on, not withstanding what has happened. You are conveying your views, you are trying to get a resolution and that you continue with other business as usual and try to insulate the rest of relationship from it.”

However, she insisted that there was no any diminution in cordiality in ties. “Otherwise how we would have dealt with it in the manner that we did.

We got her back and dealing with all these issues.”

Rejecting that India and US was moving apart compared to the cordiality they had following signing of the nuclear deal, she said, “The closer you are the more differences you have”.

“As strategic partners you interacting with each other too closely on such a number of issues that their will be differences,” she said.

Talking about broad contours of the Indo-US ties, Singh said economic issues have come to the fore and the two countries are expanding deepening cooperation in diverse areas including defence and energy.

“Issues related to the pharma companies, issues related to not just the Americans but foreign investors wanting a further opening in the Indian economy, tax issues, domestic content issues. So all this issues have come to the fore and the focus has shifted.

“At the time of the civilian nuclear deal emphasis was on something else but don’t forget that after that India-US bilateral partnership in itself grew enormously in terms of everything that followed after that and all that is still progressing very well,” she said.

Chinese ship searching for missing MH370 jet detects signal

A Chinese ship searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 detected a “pulse signal” in the southern Indian Ocean on Saturday, state media said, but it was not yet clear whether it was linked to the missing plane.The signal had a frequency of 37.5kHz per second — identical to the beacon signal

emitted by flight recorders.

A black box detector deployed by the Chinese search ship Haixun 01 picked up the signal at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east

longitude, the official Xinhua news agency said.

It is yet to be established whether the signal detected by Haixun 01 was related to the missing jet.

Malaysian authorities believe satellite readings indicate MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean, far off Australia’s western coast, after veering

dramatically off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. But no proof has yet been found that would indicate a crash site.

Authorities still have no idea how or why the plane vanished, and warn that unless the black box is found, the mystery may never be solved.

Auto Expo 2014: Mahindra unveils Mojo 300cc bike

Mahindra Two Wheelers has unveiled two bikes at the Auto Expo. The much-awaited 300 cc Mojo premium bike has been showcased at the Auto Expo and will be launched later this year.

Quite different from the original concept, this 300cc motorcycle will be the manufacturer's flagship bike in the country. The engine that the Mojo gets is a liquid-cooled, 4 stroke, single cylinder engine that puts out 27bhp. The Mojo also gets a 6-speed transmission.

The Mojo also gets radial brakes, USD forks and Pirelli Sport Demon tyres. As expected, Mahindra has given the Mojo a digital speedometer with an analogue tacho with a shift light and low fuel warning indicators.

Mahindra plans to launch the Mojo in June 2014 and we will see it pitted against the likes of the Duke 390 and the Ninja 300.

Mahindra also showcased the Mojo 300 race version. The bike features a two-toned white and red paint scheme from Mahindra racing and while the performance figures are not out yet, the race version is sure to be track scorcher. The bike gets race spec exhaust, sticky tyres and an upgrade to the 295cc engine.

Mahindra Mojo 300 will be launched by June this year, while prices will be declared nearing the date. Expect the motorcycle to carry a price tag of Rs. 1.5 lakhs and will be competing against the KTM Duke 390, Honda CBR250R and the Ninja 300 when launched.

Pentagon to Test Hypersonic Missile in August

Lt. Gen. David L. Mann, commander, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command announced that US will

conduct the second test of one of its hyper-sonic missiles in August.

The Advanced Hyper-sonic Weapon (AWH) is part of the U.S. military’s conventional prompt global strike (CPGS)

program, which aims to give Washington the ability to strike any target on earth with a conventional warhead with a

speed of Mach 5 or about 3,600 mph within an hour’s time.

The AWH was first tested back in November 2011. It was launched at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai,

Hawaii and traveled about 2,500 miles in about a half hour before reaching its target at the Reagan Test Site, U.S. Army

Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

At the time of the test back in 2011, the Pentagon said: “A three-stage booster system launched the AHW glide vehicle

and successfully deployed it on the desired flight trajectory. The vehicle flew a non-ballistic glide trajectory at hyper-sonic speed to the planned impact location at the Reagan Test Site. Space, air, sea, and ground platforms collected vehicle

performance data during all phases of flight.”

The AWH missile would be an integral part of the U.S. military’s efforts to overcome China’s anti-access/area denial

(A2/AD) strategy, given its ability to operate at far distances, penetrate contested environments and strike with

precision. However, the U.S. also has to contend with Chinese and Russian programs to develop hyper-sonic missiles.

Holden Colorado prototype being build

Holden's design future will be top secret to most people - and many of the multi-million dollar one-off cars it creates will never be shown publicly.

Futuristic concept cars largely designed for General Motors top brass have replaced Commodores and motor show concept cars as the main line of work for the centre that first opened in 1964.
Speaking at an unprecedented deep dive into the brand's Port Melbourne-based design studios - which will continue beyond the planned 2017 shutdown of local engineering and manufacturing operations - the Australian-based vice president of GM international design, Mike Simcoe, said most of the vehicles now produced in the advanced Victoria design centre would never be seen by the public.

"Its unlikely the public will see a lot of what we do," said Simcoe, who this week gave media exclusive access to the top secret facilities.
"The majority of the work we do won't be seen by the public. The stuff will be seen as influence on other design and production products or, if we're given a very specific job to do like a (motor) show vehicle ... obviously that will be seen."
Simcoe said the Australian design team had evolved from a studio that would follow a car from its original inception through to the production line - typically a Commodore or one of its derivatives - to one that now focuses almost entirely on advanced design.

As well as sketching and conceiving cars that could be a decade or more from sale - or cars never planned to go on sale - the designers can also build clay models, do advanced graphics, react to the latest colour and materials trends, and model a car in three dimensions digitally. It is also one of only two General Motors facilities - the other being head office in Detroit - to build the one-off concept cars used to test public opinion.
The Holden design team - now officially known as GM Australia Design - employees 140 people, including about 25 designers, support staff, some engineers and fabricators.
It's so secret most Holden employees can't access the design areas and scrict protocols are put in place; camera phones have their lenses blocked by a tamper-proof sticker, design drawings are not sent via email and video linkups with other GM design centres are encrypted.

Simcoe conceded the thrill of seeing a car designed locally on the roads would be missed, particularly by younger designers. But he said Holden would still play a crucial role in developing next generation vehicles for brands as diverse as Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and Holden.
"It's always nice to see something your team has designed drive on the road, but the difference now is that rather than doing Commodores we're influencing a number of vehicles for a number of brands."
He said the opportunity was to work across a wider variety of projects and deliver the results quicker.
His comments were backed up by the Australian design chief, Richard Ferlazzo.
"This is actually pretty inspiring for us because there's so much more we can explore into, not just Commodores and Holdens," said Ferlazzo.
"There are so any brands, so many different flavours - Cadillacs, Chevrolets and Buicks, they're all very different, with different expression and surface language - so we can explore different surface languages now, not just a Holden.
"We like creative expression, that's what makes designers happy."
Ferlazzo said success would be measured differently now many of Holden's designs won't ever reach the showroom.
"It doesn't have to be shown (publicly) every time to be successful ... just to show the guys around the world, our peers, our management around the world, that's the success.
"They will come back here as products we import. It will have an impact on production cars."
Simcoe also pointed to the variety that "There's a number of projects were doing right now which are kind of exciting and very different to what we've done before," he said.
Simcoe added that the design studio had the full support of recently appointed GM CEO Mary Barra and global design boss Ed Welburn.
"We're continuining to so the projects with the quality of execution that makes us a valuable studio, we happen to have (the fabrication department) that makes it possible to take it through (to a concept car)."
He said the reason Holden's design studio would remain open in light of the imminent shutdowns of local manufacturing was because of the skill of the team and the mentoring role it plays with younger design studios in Korea, China and India.
"It's because we're good, simple as that."

BMW M4 Convetible revealed

BMW’s new 317kW M4 convertible has been revealed in a series of official photographs, ahead of a planned public premiere at the New York motor show later this month.

Set to go on sale in Australia before the end of the year, the four-seat open-top is the third in a new generation of turbocharged six-cylinder powered M division models, following on from the M3 saloon and M4 coupé shown at the Detroit motor show back in January.

The basis for the latest M4 is the recently introduced 4-Series convertible. The new car receives a series of traditional styling changes, including a more heavily structured front bumper with larger cooling ducts for the engine and front brakes, altered kidney grille treatment, more heavily contoured bonnet, wider front fenders with integrated air breather elements to smooth airflow through the front wheel houses, new exterior mirror housings, wider rear fenders and a lower rear bumper with four round chromed tailpipes.

At 4670mm in length, 1870mm in width and 1386mm in height, the new car is 56mm longer, 65mm wider and a scant 4mm lower than its predecessor. It also rides on a larger chassis whose 2812mm wheelbase and 1579mm front and 1693mm rear tracks are up by respective 52mm, 39mm and 63mm.

The three-piece metal roof opens automatically at the press of a button, taking 20 seconds to fold and stow behind the rear seats at speeds up to 18km/h. Nominal boot capacity is put at 370 litres with the roof in place and 220 litres with it folded down – figures which represent a respective 20 litre and 10 litre increase on the M3 cabriolet.

Power for BMW M division’s latest open top comes from the same turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder engine already confirmed for the upcoming M3 saloon and M4 coupe. The direct injection petrol, assembled at BMW’s specialty engine plant located in Munich, unit kicks out 317kW and 550Nm of torque.

This is an 8kW and 150Nm increase on the naturally aspirated 4.0-litre V8 engine used by the old M3 cabriolet. Its keenest rival, the Audi RS5 cabriolet, continues to run a naturally aspirated 4.2-litre V8 with 331kW and 431Nm.

Channeling the new six-cylinder engine’s reserves to the rear wheels is a newly developed six-speed manual gearbox or optional seven-speed dual clutch auto gearbox.

At 1750kg in standard six-speed manual guise, the M4 cabriolet tips the scales 60kg below its predecessor, endowing it with a power-to-weight ratio of 181kW per tonne. Official performance figures put its 0-100km/h time at 4.6 seconds in manual form – 0.6 seconds faster than the M3 cabriolet and 0.3 seconds inside the time quoted for the 1920kg RS5 cabriolet.

The optional seven-speed dual clutch auto gearbox shaves a further 0.2 seoncds off the benchmark sprint, lowering it to 4.4sec, 0.7sec faster than the similarly specified M3 cabriolet. Top speed continues to be limited to 250km/h, while combined cycle consumption has improved to 9.1L/100km to provide the latest M car with average CO2 emissions of 213g/km. Those figures drop to 203g/km and 8.7L/100km with the seven-speed DCT.

BMW says it has tuned the M4 convertible's suspension set-up for maximum precision, response and fuel efficiency. The car features a double-strut arrangement at the front, with an aluminium five-link set-up at the rear. Drivers can select from Comfort, Sport and Sport+ driving modes as part of the Adaptive M suspension package.

Indigenous Aircraft Carrier

The project for an Indigenous Aircraft Carrier took shape in 1979. Under the terms of the Indo–French MOU of 1988, an agreement was signed with DCN of France for assistance by its design group, STCAN, in the concept design of the Sea Control Ship (SCS) and for transfer of technology.

An Indian Naval Design and Liaison Team (INDLT) of Naval architects was deputed to DCN for participating in the design process, for ascertaining the major areas of design work to be entrusted to selected consultants during subsequent stages of design work, and to audit Cochin Shipyard for its

capability to build the carrier.

By 1990, the concept study by France’s DCN, assisted by the INDLT, had evolved designs for a 25,000 ton catapult version and a ski jump version and confirmed that the carrier could be built in the Cochin Shipyard. The financial crisis of 1991 precluded sanction for a carrier of that size and the

next few years were spent in juggling designs for a smaller carrier. The grey area was the type and number of aircraft that the carrier would operate.

In the mid 1990s, Russia offered India the Gorshkov along with the carrier-borne version Mig 29 K. Meanwhile, development had also commenced of the carrier-borne version of the indigenous land-based Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA).

These developments helped to finalise the types of f combat aircraft that would fly from the ADS. The carrier would embark:-

1. V/STOL Sea Harriers already in service.

2. Seaking MK 42-B ASW/ASV helicopters, already in service.

3. The Russian STOBAR MIG 29 Ks (to be inducted with the Gorshkov).

4.The indigenous Naval LCAs (when eventually developed by HAL).

5. The indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).

The staff requirements were finalised for a gas turbine propelled, 28-knot, 37,000-ton carrier with an angled deck and a ski jump, to operate an air

group of 30 combat aircraft and helicopters and manned by 1400 personnel.

CCS approval for IAC was accorded in 2003 and Cochin Shipyard commenced construction in 2005. Meanwhile, the nomenclature of the carrier project had changed from Sea Control Ship (SCS) to Air Defence Ship (ADS) and finally to Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC). The IAC is expected

to enter service by 2015.

Pakistan, Afghanistan, India all want leftover U.S. MRAPs

The U.S. military has more Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in Afghanistan that it can bring home — and Afghanistan, India and Pakistan are locked in a three-way competition for them, a former senior defense official said.

“Those people in U.S. government who want to support the Pakistani counterinsurgency say we should give [MRAPs] to them; the people who are

concerned about the future of Afghanistan, the people who are principally concerned about India say we shouldn’t give [MRAPs] to them,” said David Sedney. “What we’re actually going to do is not clear.”

MRAPs initially were fielded in Iraq to protect troops from roadside bombs after insurgents discovered that the undersides of up-armored Humvees were vulnerable to buried explosives.

Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates made building the MRAPs and getting the vehicles downrange a top priority, even though he understood the vehicles were designed for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, not necessarily in future conflicts, said Sedney, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia from 2009 to 2013.

Now the U.S. military has thousands of MRAPs in Afghanistan that neither the Army nor Marine Corps want, Sedney said. Since the U.S.

government has considered MRAPs too sophisticated for the Afghan military to use, it has been shipping some vehicles back to the U.S. while

destroying others that have battle damage, Sedney told Military Times on Tuesday.

But some members of Congress have objected to destroying the costly vehicles, he said. Meanwhile, the companies that build MRAPs — and the lawmakers that represent states where the vehicles are built — want to encourage other countries to use MRAPs because building spare parts for the

vehicles is a “lucrative business.” Pakistan has said it wants a lot of MRAPs and some U.S. government officials think the vehicles could help the Paksitanis fight their own insurgents,

Sedney said. “As soon as the Indians even got hint of this, they became upset because they said, ‘Hey look, these MRAPs, they’re of limited utility in the worst

areas of Pakistan but they could be really useful in an offensive action [by Pakistan] against India,’” Sedney said. “The Indian government started lobbying against MRAPs to Pakistan.”

Afghan officials also were concerned that the Pakistanis could use MRAPs against them, and Afghan military leaders felt many of their troops who were killed by roadside bombs in 2013 could have survived if they had been in MRAPs, he said.

“The Afghans realized that and they said, ‘Wait a second … you’re saying that we have to absorb much higher casualties than you ever were willing to? Why don’t you give us the MRAPS?’ But of course, they didn’t have the money.”

Last week, U.S. Forces Afghanistan issued a statement that it has no plans to provide Pakistan with excess MRAPs used in Afghanistan. The U.S.

Embassy in Pakistan then issued a statement on Monday saying the U.S. government is considering Pakistan’s request for excess military equipment.

That prompted the State Department to release a statement on Monday clarifying that while the U.S. government is considering giving military equipment to Pakistan, none of it would come directly from Afghanistan.

“To be clear, the United States has not refused Pakistan’s request regarding EDA [excess defense articles] sourced from the worldwide pool (to include any request that might involve MRAPs),” according to the statement. “The United States continues to assist Pakistan through many security

cooperation programs to build partnership capacity, including through the provision of worldwide available EDA.

“U.S. military equipment leaving overland from Afghanistan through Pakistan or via the Northern Distribution Network is part of the overall process of removing equipment as our forces draw down in Afghanistan. We have not and do not intend to transfer this equipment to the governments

neighboring Afghanistan.”