ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Finian Cunningham T here was near-unanimous welcoming of the surprise peace talks this week between North and South Korean delegations. Even the bellicose US President Donald Trump put aside his fiery rhetoric to endorse the diplomatic engagement between the two divided Koreas, saying he “hoped something good would result”. The two Korean sides met for 11 hours of  discussions  in the “peace village” of Panmunjom near the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the states since the Korean War (1950-53). The cordial handshakes and friendly words exchanged raised hopes that a major breakthrough was underway – this after a year of mounting tensions and fears of an all-out war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula. Russia and China lauded the opening of talks this week – the first in nearly two years of impasse – saying it was exactly what they had been prescribing for the past several months in order to calm escalating tensions. The United Nations secretary general Ant...

Click to see the full-size image The media wing of the Iraqi Popluar Mobilization Units (PMU) has released a video showing how the PMU dealed with ISIS suicide bombers during an active phase of the anti-ISIS operations in Iraq.

As more and more countries around the world start to introduce UAVs, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, onto the battlefield, the development of technology that can effectively  counter  those UAVs is becoming increasingly important. Due to the fact that drones do not require an onboard pilot and can often be equipped with guns or even missiles, UAVs can be incredibly dangerous, forcing countries like the United States and Israel to  look for solutions . One solution that the Israeli company  General Robotics has come up with is to use conventional 7.62x51mm NATO M240s or 5.56x45mm NATO MGs in a Remote Weapon System, which would essentially allow soldiers to identify and shoot down drones using precision-guided machine gun turrets. General Robotics really isn’t creating anything new; rather, they have found an innovative way to use existing technology to counter a new and increasingly dangerous threat. The existing technology that the Israelis are now using to defen...

Sergei Bobylev/Russian Defense Ministry Press Office/TASS Originally appeared at TASS Russia’s Splav Research and Production Association has started developing a prototype of the next-generation wheeled-chassis heavy flame-throwing system dubbed Tosochka, CEO of Techmash Holding Company Vladimir Lepin said on Friday. “The Splav Research and Production Association is carrying out work to develop a prototype of the Tosochka new-generation heavy flame-throwing system for preliminary trials. The system with the improved characteristics will be mounted on a wheeled chassis,” he said. In 2017, Splav launched the Proryv (Breakthrough) project as part of its investment program to expand its production capacities. Under the new project, the Enterprise acquired a new workshop intended to go into operation in 2019. The new workshop will launch the serial production of shells for the latest Tornado-S multiple launch rocket system, the Techmash chief executive said. Simultaneously, Spl...

Click to see the full-size image On January 10, the Greek authorities seized the Tanzanian-flagged ship “Andromeda” that was carrying explosive materials on its way to the Libyan city of Misurat, according to Reuters. The Greek authorities reportedly found 29 containers carrying ammonium nitrate, non-electric detonators and 11 empty liquefied petroleum gas tanks while inspecting the ship after it had been intercepted near the Greek island of Cretet. Greek Navy Rear Admiral Ioannis Argiriou told reporters that the materials that were sized on the ship could be used “for all sorts of work, from work in quarries to making bombs and acts of terrorism”. The investigation revealed that the ship was loaded with the explosive materials in the Turkish ports of Mersin and Iskenderun. Moreover, the ship operators hid its real destination by providing a fake path toward Djibouti and Oman. The Libya city of Misurat is under the control of the Libyan Government of National Accord (LGNA) ...

An interesting theme concerning Syria is the involvement of the People’s Republic of China in the conflict. While China’s diplomatic and economic assistance has been constant, its military contribution to Syria is less known. It is important for China and Russia to contain and defeat the terrorist phenomenon in the Middle East, as well as to defang the strategists in the US deep state who are unceasing in their efforts to employ jihadism as a weapon to destabilize Eurasia’s integration projects. The Jihad International, under the economic and strategic guidance of the United States, has recruited tens of thousands of terrorists over the years and sent them to Syria. Among these, a significant number come from the Uighur ethnic group, situated in the autonomous Chinese province of Xinjiang, particularly from the city of Kashgar, geographically located in the extreme west and close to the borders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The employment of ethnic a...

The analysis of  unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) involved in the January 6 attack on Russia’s bases in Syria  has shown that they cannot be made in an improvised manner, Head of the Russian General Staff’s department for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles Maj. Gen. Alexander Novikov said on September 11, according to the Russian state-run media. “ The creation of drones of this class is impossible in an improvised manner. Their development and usage involved specialists, who had undergone special training in the countries manufacturing and using systems with unmanned aerial vehicles ,” Novikov said adding that assembly and usage of UAVs is an engineering task that demands “special training, know-how in various scientific areas and practical experience in creating these devices.” The UAVs also cannot be used without special software and such attack requires the info about exact target location of the targets and such parameters as altitude, flight and wind ...

Members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade during the Palmyra offensive in December 2016 Over 2,000 Afghans have been killed and about 8,000 have been injured fighting in Syria on the side of the Damascus government, according to media reports. “This brigade has given more than 2,000 martyrs and 8,000 wounded for Islam,” Zohair Mojahed, a cultural official in the Fatemiyoun Brigade, said in an interview to the Iranian newspaper Shargh. According to the official, members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade have been fighting in Syria for five years. The Fatemiyoun Brigade is one of the biggest and most effective Iranian-backed units operating in Syria.  Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards play role of military advisers within Fatemiyoun units. The brigade supported operations of the Syrian Army in the provinces of Homs, Hama and Aleppo.  Now, the group’s members assist army troops operating in Idlib province .