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...

Donald Trump just said something that he was not supposed to say, and it is something that Barack Obama will never admit. Originally appeared at endoftheamericandream During an appearance on Sirius XM’s “Breitbart News Daily” on Tuesday morning, Trump stated that the Turkish government “looks like they’re on the side of ISIS more or less based on the oil”. This makes Trump the first presidential candidate to tell the truth about this to the American people. By now, just about everyone knows that ISIS is using Turkey as a home base , and I have previously written about how Turkey is “training ISIS militants, funneling weapons to them, buying their oil, and tending to their wounded in Turkish hospitals”. But a major U.S. politician, especially one running for the White House, could get into really hot water for saying these kinds of things about our NATO ally. You see, the truth is that the American people are not supposed to know that Turkey is actually on the same side as ISIS and has...

According to the President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani, the anti-IS coalition forces will need 3 months to get Mosul under their control. The military situation in and around the city of Mosul is unfolding quite differently than that of the other major militant stronghold – Aleppo (READ MORE: THE STRONGHOLD OF ALEPPO ). Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq, after Baghdad. It is a city of 1.5 million people (according to UN estimates). It is a city where Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Kurds, Yezidis, Armenians, Assyrians, Turkmens, and even some followers of Christianity have coexisted for a very long time. Mosul is also the informal political and economic capital of Sunni Iraq. An ethnically multifaceted city, it has the highest percentage of Christians of all the Iraqi cities. Fig.1 Ethnographic Map of Mosul City. Map source: @peshmerga_46/Twitter Economically, Mosul is a sufficiently large center of oil production. Before the Russian operation to target and destroy the oil car...

According to Ukrainian Media, the newest Ukrainian Grom-2 short-range missile system is capable to target Moscow and “change the strategic balance” between Ukraine and Russia. The Grom-2 short-range missile system (Photo: ukrmir.info) The new Ukrainian Grom-2 short-range missile system will allow Kiev to “change the strategic balance” between Ukraine and Russia, as well as to crush the self-proclaimed republics in Donbass region, the Ukrainian Apostrophe news portal reported. Reportedly, the new missile system, which is financed by Saudi Arabia , is designed to compete with the Russian Iskander short-range ballistic missile system. As local analysts told Ukrainian media, testing of the new Ukrainian system could be started already in next month, and the Grom-2 will be able to compete with the Russian system, and at a lower cost. According to the website, citing local experts, the Grom-2 system is even capable to target Moscow . The author of the article stressed that very soon “any a...

The first part of the video depicts the worst-case escalation scenario of the conflict in Syria. The last part of the video shows, we hope, the most possible developments concerning Syria. Possible Scenarios of the Conflict in Syria   In terms of the actual failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis, the threat of a direct armed conflict between Russia and the United States is becoming more and more of a reality. In simulating a possible armed conflict between the Armed Forces of the involved countries, we can state with some confidence that it will commence with a series of provocative actions. Possibilities include air strikes of “unknown aircraft” on civilians, the use of chemical weapons, destruction of humanitarian convoys, “shooting” at military aircraft or ships of the coalition forces, and possibly even encompassing their complete destruction. The United States and Western countr...

By Finian Cunningham US President Barack Obama has just given the Pentagon orders to assassinate commanders of the Al Nusra terror network in Syria. American media reports over the weekend say the new urgency arises from US intelligence fears that al Qaeda-affiliated groups are preparing to mount terror attacks against Western targets from strongholds in Syria. The purported US «kill list» will be acted on through drone strikes and «intelligence assets». The latter refers, presumably, to US special forces that are already operating in northern Syria alongside Turkish military. Last week, a similar announcement was carried in the British press, which reported that elite British SAS troops had received orders to kill up to 200 jihadi volunteers from Britain who are suspected to be active in Syria (and Iraq). Again, the same rationale was invoked as in the latest American plan. That the assassination program was to pre-empt terror attacks rebounding on Western states. A British defense ...