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15 Jun 17. Malaysia adapts Russian-built jets to drop US-made bombs. Malaysia has adapted its Russian-built Sukhoi Su-30 multi-role combat aircraft to drop U.S. laser-guided bombs, with a successful release of a live weapon at the end of last year. A video by the Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia, or Royal Malaysian Air Force, to celebrate its 59th anniversary showed a brief clip of a Su-30MKM dropping a 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bomb, with the accompanying caption stating that the event happened in November 2016 at the service’s weapons range at Kota Belud in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. The segment of the Su-30 dropping the GBU-12 has since been deleted from the video. It was unclear how the Air Force guided the weapon during the successful weapons release. Malaysia possesses the Thales Damocles surveillance and targeting pod for its Su-30MKMs, which it uses in conjunction with the Russian KAB-series of laser-guided bombs and Kh-29TE air-to-surface missile. Alternatively, Malaysian special forces on the ground are able to designate targets using hand-held designators. The country also acquired six Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared pods in 2012 under a capability upgrade program for its eight Boeing F/A-18D Hornets. Malaysia operates a fleet of 18 Su-30MKMs alongside its Hornets as the Air Force’s primary combat aircraft. The service’s Sukhois are fitted with a mixture of Russian and Western systems, while Malaysia’s Hornets have previously employed the GBU-12 successfully against armed militants from the southern Philippines who had taken over the town of Lahad Datu, Sabah, in 2013. (Source: Defense News)
15 Jun 17. Joint Targeting School Marks Milestone. Fourteen coalition and multinational officers had the opportunity to go through the same level of targeting training as their U.S. counterparts for the first time through the newly established “Targeting for Partners Course” at the Joint Targeting School at the Dam Neck Annex here.
The school is conducted by the Joint Staff’s Joint Force Development directorate and the first class completed their week-long course June 9. The class included students from Finland, France, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
The course provides U.S. and multinational students — officers and enlisted — with a familiarization of the joint targeting cycle. According to the course manager, the course aligns with the guidance of Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to enhance alliances and partnerships and reaffirm the chairman’s position that U.S. allies and partners are central to how the joint force operates globally and effectively.
Improving, Strengthening Capabilities
“Both the joint force and our allies are eager to improve and strengthen their capabilities, as well as their knowledge of the targeting process,” the course manager said. The school, he added, took a critical look at its current curriculum and worked to adapt and make it usable to international students.
“Students have the opportunity to interact with each other, learn the joint terminology and how other students conduct operations in their own country and how they view targeting as a whole,” the course manager said.
He said the goal is to prepare students who are supporting combatant commands or service targeting positions by providing instruction aimed at the operational level of war.
After completing the course, “the students will have the same level of understanding as our U.S. students going through the Joint Targeting Staff Familiarization Course,” the course manager said.
“Overall, the course is a very good introduction to the process of joint targeting, which will effectively allow us to work efficiently with U.S., coalition and al