ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Brazilian Navy has selected MBDA's Sea Ceptor to provide the local area air defence for its next generation Tamandaré class corvettes. After the UK's Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), Brazil's is now the third navy to have chosen Sea Ceptor. With discussions also well advanced with other leading navies around the world, Sea Ceptor is rapidly establishing a significant user community. A production contract was awarded by the UK MoD in September 2013 for Sea Ceptor to provide the next generation Air Defence capability and so replace the Seawolf system on the Royal Navy's Type 23 frigates from 2016 onwards. Sea Ceptor will subsequently be transferred to the Royal Navy's new ships as they start entering service, when the Type 23s are replaced by the future Type 26s. This long term commitment to Sea Ceptor by the Royal Navy is a solid assurance to each new member of the weapon's user community of the longevity of this new system over the y...

Armed men, believed to be Kurdish fighters, run after an explosion during fighting against Islamic State militants at a location west of Kobani November 23, 2014 (Reuters / Osman Orsal) An attack by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) jihadists on the Syrian border town of Kobani has come from Turkish territory for the first time, a Kurdish official said. IS forces advanced from the Turkish territory to attack the border crossing between Kobani and Turkey, according to Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria's prominent Kurdish Democratic Union Party. The Islamic State "used to attack the town from three sides. Today, they are attacking from four sides,"Khalil is cited as saying by AP. The assault began with an armored vehicle suicide attack on the border crossing, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Heavy fighting also took place southwest of Kobani, where the IS militants used tanks to reinforce their ground troops. At least eight Kurdish fighters and 17 ji...

Reutets/Shawn Nickel/U.S. Air Force The Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has not been weakened since US-led airstrikes began in September, Syria’s foreign minister said, adding that nothing will change until Turkey increases security at its borders. "All the indications say that [the Islamic State] today, after two months of coalition air strikes, is not weaker," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV on Friday. US-led airstrikes in Syria against the IS began as part of a larger effort to battle the jihadist group after it had seized vast amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria. Despite carrying out airstrikes in Syria, Washington has refused to work with the country’s government, stating that it wants to see Bashar Assad ousted. Turkey shares the latter stance with the US. Muallem noted that until Ankara is forced to step up security at its borders, the Islamic State cannot actually be defeated. "If the Security Council and Washi...