ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Iran has revealed two new-generation radar stations, which became further developments of the Meraj and Matla ul-Fajr series of radar units. Photo: YouTube / Persian_boy A demonstration of new developments in the field of the latest-generation radar stations of the Meraj and Matla ul-Fajr series took place in Iran . The latest developments of the Electronic Industries Organization of Iran were presented in the presence of Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan in the city of Shiraz, which is the main center of the Iranian electronics industry, where similar ceremonies are traditionally held. The Meraj-4 mobile three-coordinate radar station has already been showed, but for this time it was officially presented. It is assumed that the new radar station may become a part of the perspective air defense system of Iran. The Matla ul-Fajr-3 new mobile three-coordinate radiolocation station, which became a further development of the Iranian Matla ul-Fajr series of radar units , was also pre...

One of the key sectors of Russian military modernization is its tank fleet, which still includes many unmodernized T-72B and T-80U tanks. In order to close the tank quality gap with NATO, Russia opted to upgrade the T-72B to the T-72B3 standard, a modernization that yielded a modern tank comparable to the T-90 at a fraction of the cost of buying a new T-90. The T-72B3 tank, which entered service in 2011 at the rate of about 200 a year and which became widely known thanks to the annual Tank Biathlon competitions, was intended to be a stop-gap measure until the T-14 of the Armata family became operational. According to the statements by the Uralvagonzavod, Russian procurement plans entailed the purchase of 2,000 T-14 MBTs. These plans appear to have been modified due to several factors which appeared in the last two years. The first was the crisis in Ukraine and the heightened state of conflict with NATO. The crisis raised the need for a truly modern MBT comparable to NATO’s tanks to bec...

Written and produced by SF Team: J.Hawk, Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson When the “end of history”, meaning the establishment of a permanent Western hegemony over the entire international system, was proclaimed in the early 1990s, it was not yet obvious how the pursuit of said hegemony would evolve over the succeeding decades. The “velvet” expansion of the 1990s into the post-Soviet vacuum gave way to the “iron fist” for which the 9/11 terror strikes provided the excuse and which meant invading whichever country Washington desired. However, the “iron fist” efforts in the post-9/11 world demonstrated West’s weakness , as sustaining operations in Iraq and Afghanistan proved too much for NATO. This failure ushered the post-“post-9/11″ world, and the “Arab Spring” became the first, though far from the only, demonstration of the evolved Western strategy which fuses the earlier approaches. The “velvet” aspect is still there: Western entities claim they are promoting “universal human values” whic...

The recently released ethnographic map of the Iraqi city of Mosul, controlled by the ISIS terrorist group, explains the military developments in the area. This week Iraqi security forces (ISF) have easily sieged the Kurdish village of Gagjali in Mosul’s western outskirts (some sources even describe Gagjali as a Mosul neighborhood, but it is not true). This sucess allowed pro-government media outlets claim a rapid success in the operation to liberate Mosul and to ‘forecast’ significant advances in the coming days. But ‘signficant advances’ have not been made. This situation can be easily explained if somebody wants to take a look at the ethnographic situation in the city. In its propaganda ISIS aims mostly the Suni Arab population of Syria and Iraq. And Kurds are a minority among the terrorist group’s members. This is why some initial success by ISF is expected in the western Kurdish populated outskirts of the city. However, when the ISF reaches the first non-Kurdish (non-Assyrian or ...

The KPV heavy machine gun, which is actively used by terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) group and the Peshmerga forces against each other, has become one of the most brutal weapons during the Iraqi war. A member of the Kurdish Peshmerga with the KPV heavy machine gun (Photo: Reuters) The KPV heavy machine gun, designed to shoot down aircraft, is one of the most brutal weapons that is used by both sides of the Iraqi war: by soldiers of the Iraqi Army and fighters of the popular forces, as well as by terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) group . The 14.5×114-millimeter KPV, whose weight is about 50 kilograms, is not as pervasive as the smaller DShK heavy machine gun, but, nonetheless, it is a big and extremely dangerous threat for the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi Army during their offensive on the city of Mosul. Dozens of KPVs were seized by IS terrorists in Syria and Iraq and mounted onto their pickup trucks that allowed to increase mobile and intermediate range firepower of the ter...

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks with Saudi Arabia's King Salman © Kevin Lamarque / Reutersudi Arabia has become by far the number one purchaser of US weapons, with $115 billion deals under the Obama administration alone. Congress has just rubber-stamped every single one, says author and activist Medea Benjamin. Chris Hedges discussed US-Saudi relations with Medea Benjamin. Saudi Arabia carried out 158 executions, 63 for non-violent drug crimes last year, often through public beheadings. Early this year, it executed 47 men for terrorism-related offenses, including the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. It practices gender apartheid against women, who are not allowed to drive, are banned from most jobs, and are controlled by male guardians. It prohibits freedom of expression, including freedom of religion. Homosexuals can be put to death. It promotes a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam throughout the Muslim world known as Wahhabism, which sanctifies violence aga...

The Russian general staff announced on November 2 that President Vladimir Putin had ordered a humanitarian pause in Aleppo from 9am to 7pm on November 4. General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff reported that joint militant forces failed to break the government forces’ defenses in the city and lift the siege from militant-controlled areas. “Considering that our American colleagues were unable to separate the opposition from terrorists, we are addressing all militant leaders directly, urging them to cease hostilities and leave Aleppo with their arms,” he said. “Two corridors will be opened, from which Syrian troops and weapons would be pulled back.” The corridors for militants will lead to the Turkish-Syrian border and the province of Idlib. Six additional corridors will be opened for civilians. Since November 1, the fighting in the area has become stationary. The western part of the al-Assad Neighborhood is contested. The al-Nusra led coalition, Jaish al-Fatah...