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 innocent civilians. (Re

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 Jonathan Conri

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

Written by  Elijah J. Magnier ; Originally appeared in English in  HIS BLOG Well informed sources have said the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp Brigadier General Haj Qassem Soleimani sent a verbal letter, via Russia, to the head of the US forces commander in Syria, advising him to pull out all US forces to the last soldier “or the doors of hell will open up”. “My message to the US military command: when the battle against ISIS (the Islamic State group) will end, no American soldier will be tolerated in Syria. I advise you to leave by your own will or you will be forced to it”, said Soleimani to a Russian officer. Soleimani asked the Russian responsible to expose the Iranian intentions towards the US: that they will be considered as forces of occupation if these decide to stay in north-east Syria where Kurds and Arab tribes cohabit together. The Russians are not against the US presence and can adapt to this after defining the demarcation lines to avoid any cl

A report of the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) revealed new details about the Water-Born Improvised Explosive Devices (WBIEDs) that the Houthis have used to attack several warships of the Saudi-led coalition over the last two years. The CAR inspected a WBIED captured by the UAE Navy. It was a 10-meter patrol boats powered by two 200 horsepower L200A Ymaha outboards engines. The boat was made in the UAE by Al Fattan Ship Industry. According to CAR, the UAE donated 60 boats of this type to Yemen before the outbreak of the war. Click to see the full-size image According to CAR report, the WBIED were guided by a DIY mission computer aided by a GPS antenna made by Garmin, an autopilot compass made by Nexus and remotely controlled turntable and gimbaled camera installed on the boat’s tower. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image The WBIED is steered via a hydraulic system

FILE IMAGE: AFP On November 28, SouthFront released a video analysis entitled “ Would Anyone Profit From a New War in the Middle East? ”. The video sated that the possibility of a new war in the region in the near future was relatively low because no regional player was interested in it. The only side, which could be interested in a new conflict, was the United States because such a war will contribute to interests of the American military industrial complex and lead to the growth of oil prices. High oil prices will impact positively the US shale oil production. However, it was hard to expect developments, which took place this week. On December 6, US President Donald Trump officially recognized the city of Jerusalem as Israel’s true capital and declared an official intent to move the US embassy there. The decision faced a condemnation from the regional powers, including Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Turkey, Qatar and Iran, and the international community. The observed reduc

On December 8, Yasser Dahla, a commander of the Arab al-Bagharah tribe forces in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), defected with its fighters and joined the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), according to opposition and pro-government sources. A field commander of al-Bagharah tribe forces named Abu al-Majad al-Rifi was also among those who had defected from the SDF, according to reports. The Al-Bagarah tribe is the biggest tribe in eastern Syrian and was one of the key Arab allies of the SDF. However, tensions between the tribe and the SDF erupted when SDF fighters looted the tribe’s villages on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Later, opposition sources reported that the tension between al-Bagharah tribe and the SDF reached a dangerous level when the SDF leadership ignored the the tribe’s leaders demand to put an end to the looting during a meeting on November 27. Dahla himself was reportedly arrested with four of his fighters on October 1 after refusing to obey the

Written by  James Petras ; Originally appeared at  The Unz Review Introduction Major changes are roiling the states, societies and ruling classes of the biggest industrial economies, oil regimes and military complexes. China is re-allocating its economic wealth toward building the most extensive modern infrastructure system in history, linking four continents. Saudi Arabia is transferring a trillion dollars of pillage from princes to princes, from old business parasites to up-to-date versions, from austere desert mirages to fantasies of new mega-cities. The United States is emptying the swamp of the Capital’s corruption and immediately replenishing it with the scandal of the day. One Cabinet Secretary is fired; another Secretary is hired; one enemy is embraced; an ally denounced; the stock market flourishes and trade agreements are abandoned. One tax is sliced and pleases the powerful; another is spliced and chokes the consumers. Turmoil, some would say; chaos, others