ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The future of warfare is starting to look more and more like something out of a  Terminator  movie. Military forces around the globe are increasingly looking toward robots to replace combat soldiers, hoping to keep boots off the ground, while minimizing collateral damage and limiting civilian casualties. Now, the latest breakthroughs in technology have led to the development of a small multi-rotor drone known as TIKAD, which has been modified to carry multiple different kinds of weapons, including grenade launchers and machine guns. Produced by a Florida startup called Duke Robotics, TIKAD was developed by the company’s co-founders, Lt. Col. Raziel “Razi” Atuar, a 20-year veteran of the Israeli military and a reservist in the Israeli Special Forces, and two of his fellow soldiers.  Defense One  reports  that the men were motivated by a desire to see the end of “chaotic street battles” that have unnecessarily taken the lives of their colleagues and countless...

Click to see the full-size image On December 10, the Israeli Army announced in an official statement that it discovered and demolished a tunnel under the Israeli territory east of the Gaza Strip. According to the statement, the tunnel was built by the Palestinian Hamas movement and its entrance is located in the central part of Gaza, near the city of Khan Yunis. The Israeli Army also revealed that it used a new system to detect and demolish the tunnel. The new system was developed thanks to a joint effort between combat, logistics, intelligence, and research units of the Israeli Army, according to the official statement. Map by the Israeli Army This was the second tunnel in a month a half discovered and demolished by the Israeli Army around the Gaza Strip. On October 30, seven fighters and a commander of Hamas were killed when  the Israeli Army demolished a tunnel also east of Gaza   while they were inside it. In a short video message,  Lieutenant Colonel ...

Colonel Turki al-Maliki, a spokesmen for the Saudi-led coalition, revealed during a press conference how the Houthis managed to turn Soviet-made R-27T and R-73E air-to-air missiles into ground-to-air missiles. Click to see the full-size image The Houthis likely got the R-27T and R-73E missiles from airbases of the Yemeni Air Force, which they captured during 2015. The Yemeni Air Force used to operate these types of air-to-air missiles and others like the R-27R on its Mig-29SMTs. The R-73E has a range of 30km, while the R-27T has a range of up to 70km. The Houthis likely chose these missiles because the both types are guided by infrared homing, and has the “fire and forget” feature. Other types of air-to-air missiles like the Soviet-made R-27R are guided by semi-active radar homing, which make them harder to turn into ground-to-air missiles, because this type of guidance system requires support from a separate guidance radar detecting the target for the missile. Click to see...