ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

When a small, $400 remote-controlled quadcopter drone landed on the grounds of the White House in February 2015, Obama administration officials were in full freak-out mode. Just 10 days before that incident, officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military, and the FAA huddled for a “summit” regarding a danger that they had been contemplating for years: Terrorists’ use of weaponized drones for attacks or assassination. As reported by  Wired , while the conference was open to the public it was not open to the press, but one attendee  told the online tech magazine  it was an eye-opening experience: The officials played videos of low-cost drones firing semi-automatic weapons, revealed that Syrian rebels are importing consumer-grade drones to launch attacks, and flashed photos from an exercise that pitted $5,000 worth of drones against a convoy of armored vehicles. (The drones won). However, the attendee noted, the most impactful visual aide was ...

Democrats, some Republicans and the government of Mexico have all criticized President Donald J. Trump’s proposed border wall, with many of them either vowing it won’t get built or, in Mexico’s case, it won’t be built with pesos. But special operations teams from the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. military prove without question  why  the wall  must be built  if we’re ever to get serious about  border security :  It’s impenetrable . For weeks these highly capable individuals have been attempting to breach all eight of the models/prototypes that have been built thus far for the Trump administration to choose. Over the course of these weeks,  The Associated Press  reported, teams attempted to breach “using jackhammers, saws, torches and other tools and climbing devices,” but were  unsuccessful every single time . In short,  any one of these designs  would make an effective anti-drug smuggling, anti-human smuggling, national secu...

Qaher 2-M missile Over 35 members of forces loyal to Saudi-backed President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed and over 20 others were injured in a missile strike at their military site in al-Khayami in the Yemeni province of Ta’izz on January 20, the pro-Houthi TV network al-Masirah reported. According to al-Masirah, the Houthis used a Qaher 2-M ballistic missile in this attack. Pro-Saudi sources claimed that al-Masirah overestimated the casualties of Saudi-backed forces and said that only about 10 people were killed in the attack. The incident allegedly took place during a military inspection. A deputy interior minister of the Hadi government, Naser Lakhshaa, was attending it. The official survived the attack.

258 fighters have finished training to joint so-called security forces of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the SDF’s media wing reported on January 23. The fighters likely finished the program developed by the US under its initiative to establish a 30,000-strong “border force” in northeastern Syria. The idea faced a strong resistance from Turkey and became one of the reasons behind the Ankara’s Operation Olive Branch in the SDF-held area of Afrin. On January 18, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Washington’s intentions had been “misportrayed” and it had no plans to establsih “a border security force”.  This statement clearly contradicted to the Pentagon’s official announcements. and does not mean that the program was really halted. Most likely, the “bordr security force” just changed its name as Kurdish YPG/YPJ militias were rebranded into the SDF. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-s...