Viper JAWS pistol Made in Jordan / USA

The Viper pistol is a recent joint development between the American Wildey Guns company and the Jordan King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau (KADDB). Pistol was designed by the American citizen Wildey Moore (designer of the famous Wildey pistol), and is now produced in Jordan. Apparently this pistol will become the standard issue pistol for Jordan Armed forces, hence the another designation - JAWS, or Jordan Arms & Weapons System.

Viper JAWS is a solid and well made pistol with several interesting features, such as simple and robust design and modular construction. VIPER pistol can be easily reconfigured for several pistol calibers simply by replacing the barrel, breech face insert, the extractor and the magazine. This reconfiguration, as well as a standard field-stripping procedure, requires no tools. Grip panels also can be easily replaced with another unit with different shape or dimensions.

 Type: Double Action
Calibers: 9x19mm Luger/Parabellum; .40SW; .45ACP
Weight unloaded: n/a
Length: n/a
Barrel length: n/a
Capacity: ? rounds

 Viper is a short recoil operated, locked breech pistol with rotating barrel. On recoil, barrel rotates to unlock from the slide, by following the curved track on the frame. The double action trigger with its linkage is easily accessible for maintenance and cleaning via removable side plate, inserted into the cut cat the right side of the frame from the top. The ambidextrous safety lever is located on both sides of the slide and also acts as a decocker when safety is engaged. Both front and rear sight are dovetailed into the slide and can be easily changed if required.
Asian Defence News

Fighting between the Jordanian and Syrian armed forces at the border of the two countries.

Syrian governement forces fired with small arms against refugees trying to cross the border between Jordan and Syria provoking a response from the Jordanian soldiers. Initial reports indicated there were no casualties on their side, said a Jordanian military source. 


A Syrian opposition activist who witnessed the fighting said armored vehicles were involved in the clash in the Tel Shihab-Turra area, about 80 km (50 miles) north of the Jordanian capital Amman, that occurred after Syrian refugees tried to cross into Jordan.

Western nations and regional powers fear the Syrian conflict could spill into neighboring countries. The 17-month uprising has turned into a civil war with a sectarian angle that has the West lining up with Sunni Muslim nations behind the mainly Sunni rebels and against President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Syria's long border with Jordan has been an escape route for opponents of Assad, including Prime Minister Riad Hijab who defected this week.

Jordan is straining to build more camps to accommodate refugees from Syria's south, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad's government began in March 2011. An estimated 4,000 Syrians arrived in Jordan on one recent night alone.

A team of French military doctors headed to the Syria-Jordan border on Thursday, August 9, 2012, to set up a mobile hospital to treat refugees fleeing Syrian violence. The medics aim to be operative by the end of the week and to perform up to 10 surgeries a day on those wounded in fighting. 

 Asian Defence News

Jordan Wins $ 371m to Train Iraqi AF Staff

Royal Jordanian Air Academy, Amman, Jordan, is Being Awarded a $ 370,779,589 firm-fixed-price contract to provide statement Requirements Type I special training for English language and aviation technical training for Iraqi Air Force technical personnel.

Work To Be Completed by is Aug. 8, 2013.

The AETC CONS / LGCI, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, is the contracting activity (FA3002-12-D-0006).

(Source: U.S. Department of Defense; Issued August 7, 2012)
Asian Defence News

The Hunger Games: what would a joint Turkish-Jordanian assault on Syria look like?

The rumors of a military strike on Syria have begun and those voices have only got louder in the last week. Informers in the Jordanian government say army generals have been training in Turkey for the past four weeks. Still the official Jordan government line is ‘nothing to see here.’ If it really happened - what would it look like? We run through the scenarios, from weapons of war to covert intelligence.
Saudi has already threatened Jordan with cutting off their aid money unless they provide military assistance to the FSA. Clearly they have the funds and they’re not afraid to use them to ensure another Sunni ally in the region. Qatar too has been happy to provide financial help for the rebels although not as aggressively as the desert Kingdom.
In our possible scenario, it looks like Saudi would provide the main source of money but channel it through the two neighbors: Jordan and Turkey.
The alliance would need a reliable source of information on the ground in Syria though and Saudi money wouldn’t be enough to guarantee this. Just this week, the BBC reported that Turkey was training Syrian female spies for the FSA and sending them to Aleppo.
But Turkey does not have a long and illustrious history of information gathering in the way that the UK or US do. The former is denying any such assistance but reports have leaked out that CIA agents are very much involved just over the border in Eastern Turkey.
For a successful assault, our potential Turkish-Jordanian alliance would need the CIA to move their network of spies into the key cities - Aleppo, Damascus and Homs - and stay there, at least until the bombs started landing.

The two neighbors - Jordan and Turkey - both come at the conflict from very different angles currently so a joint assault would need compromise from both.
Turkey has been relatively open about its support for the rebels and already has its downed fighter jet as reason enough for an assault on the Syrian regime. When Assad’s forces shot down the Turkish plane on their border, prime minister, Erdoğan called off the dogs. But with Assad in hiding and the FSA hitting at the heart of the capital, he has nothing to lose.
Jordan is more reluctant participant - denying clashes between Jordan and Syrian soldiers at the border despite mounting evidence to the contrary. But Saudi money is an essential part of their economy and resources in the Hashemite Kingdom are being stretched to the limit with the influx of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
Clearly for Jordan to get involved, the Kingdom will need a guarantee of victory (to clear the way for refugee resettlement) and the smallest body count possible (to reassure citizens that they are still the safe-house of the Middle East.)
All this points to a joint air strike and a hands-off approach. We are unlikely to get our alliance sending troops on the ground. With the proper intelligence, this could easily work on a beleaguered Syrian regime force.
Asian Defence News

Jordan Valley Brigade Reservists Simulate Urban Warfare

Hundreds of reservists participated in last week's advanced training, which included both briefings and drills
 Reservists of the Jordan Valley Brigade participated in advanced training in urban warfare last week. Hundreds of reserve soldiers and officers took part in the two-day event, which included both briefings and exercises.

Lt. Col. (res.) Shai Aviv, one of the reserve battalion commanders involved in the exercise, explained that during the day the soldiers participated in varied classes and briefings on urban warfare, and at night they carried out a training exercise in which each battalion represented a company, concluding with a paintball simulation of warfare.

"In the actual situation, the decisive power is the Reserve Formation. Without it, we could not fight, and it must maintain the highest level of fitness," he added.


"The exercise that we have carried out in the last two days has been carried out in an excellent manner," concluded Lt. Col. (res.) Aviv. "Since the training was well organized, the heat didn't even bother us, and the event contributed both to the soldiers' professionalism and to their cohesion – which are two of the most important components for the reserves."
 Asian Defence News

Syria and Jordan troops clash on border

JORDANIAN and Syrian forces have traded gunfire on their border.
According to a Jordanian security source, "brief" clashes broke out between the two armies in the Tal Al Sihab region after Syrian forces opened fire on some 300 refugees attempting to flee into Jordan. The Syrians had targeted Jordanian forces by mistake.
Jordanian soldiers returned fire, said the source, igniting a fierce 10-minute-long battle between the two sides.

Saudi Arabian news network Al Arabiya reported two Jordanian soldiers were injured, a claim both the source and Jordanian officials denied.
Jordanian government spokesman Smaih Maaytah denied any clashes broke out between the two sides. He said Syrian forces opened fire on refugees close to the Jordanian border, injuring several, including one child who died upon arrival at a hospital in the Jordanian border city of Ramtha.

Friday morning's incident marks the first full-scale clashes between Syria and Jordan and comes one week after Amman announced a military state of alert in the border region.
The issue of refugees has become a point of contention between Amman and Damascus, with Jordan having granted refuge to some 150,000 Syrians since the start of the conflict, including army defectors and opposition activists.

Asian Defence News