ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Eric Margolis Russia’s dispatch of a ten-ship flotilla to the Syrian Coast has raised some outrage and sneers aplenty in the West. Particularly when one of its embarked MiG-29K fighters crashed on takeoff from Russia’s sole carrier, the obsolescent Admiral Kuznetsov which lacks catapults. Joining Kuznetsov are believed to be two ‘Akula’ class nuclear-powered attack submarines that are much feared by Western navies. On the surface will be the powerful, missile-armed battle-cruiser, ‘Peter the Great.’ Unlike Western warships, which are essentially fragile tin cans packed with electronics, `Peter the Great’ is armored and built to withstand punishment. Other Russian missile frigates and supply ships are also off Syria. Washington just hates it when the Russians dare do what the US has been doing since World War II: conduct gunboat diplomacy, however limited. As a student of Russian naval affairs, I’m watching the current deployment of warships from the Red Banner Northern Fleet with m...

This is the newst update of the ‘U.S. Carrier Strike Groups Locations Map’ exclusive series showing the approximate locations of U.S. Carrier Strike Groups on a weekly basis. SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence tracks locations of U.S. aircraft carriers using the available open-source information. No classified information was used in production of the map. Click to see the full-size map Carrier strike group (CSG) is an operational formation of the United States Navy. It is centered on an aircraft carrier and a carrier air wing (CVW) of 65 to 70 aircrafts. It’s composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two destroyers and/or frigates. A carrier strike group also, on occasion, includes submarines, attached logistics ships and a supply ship. Carrier strike groups comprise a principal element of U.S. power projection over the world’s oceans.

The Russian Aerospace Forces have used the new Kh-101 cruise missiles against terrorists in Syria for the first time. The Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bomber (Photo: Air Team Images / Artyom Anikeev) The Russian Defense Ministry published a video of missile strikes of the Tu-95MS strategic bombers on positions of Syrian terrorists. This is the first official evidence of usage of the new Kh-101 cruise missiles. Before that, only the Tu-160 heavy strategic bombers used these weapons. The Kh-101 missile is one and half meters longer than standard weapons of the Tu-95 , the Kh-55 cruise missile, and does not fit in its weapons bay. For this reason, the bomber, showed on the video, were carrying two missiles on its external suspension (we can see this on the 14th second of the video). In all, judging by the number of carrying piers, the upgraded aircraft can carry up to eight Kh-101 (six Kh-55 can be charged into a cylindrical launching device). The Kh-101 is a high-precision long-ran...