ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The  US military budget is $824.6 billion . US military spending is larger than the  next nine countries combined . The 2018 year budget of the Russian Defense Ministry  will total $46 bn . Despite the huge difference in expenditure, the military potentials of the two great powers are compared without offering indisputable conclusions. This is a very interesting phenomenon and many people wonder how it is possible. Launching a program of developing a new weapon system is a great responsibility – success is never guaranteed and there are always snags on the way. It’s an open secret that Russia’s R-30 Bulava submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) has been plagued with problems. It was not design but rather production quality. Thorough study has been done to overcome the  difficulties . It’s all over now as the recent tests show and the missile with enhanced ability to evade enemy anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defenses has entered service.  Another major program - the PAK FA, n

Written by  Wayne Madsen ; Originally appeared at  strategic-culture.org One of the more welcomed outcomes of the paring back of the US State Department bureaucracy is the elimination of scores of “status quo enthusiasts.” Since the end of World War II, the State Department’s ranks have been populated by foreign service officers and career diplomats who have championed the international status quo. These minions of Foggy Bottom received encouragement for their protective stance on post-World War II and Cold War in President George H. W. Bush’s speech on September 11, 1990, which was titled, “Toward a New World Order.” Under the “new world order,” regional and global security concerns would supplant democratic independence movements. The immediate effect of this “order” was brutal crackdowns on secession in the periphery of the former Soviet Union, including Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, as well as in Somalia, the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Turkey, Sudan,

Click to see the full-size image On January 13, Saleh Muslim, a leader of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), revealed during an interview with the Hawar News Agency (ANHA) that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is planning to enter the northern Idlib governorate to fight “terrorism”. “The plan to enter Idlib is on the agenda of many countries and forces, including our forces [the SDF], and Idlib is a geographical area characterized by mountains, valleys and plains, and we will be up to the responsible of expelling all terrorist forces from it,” Muslim told ANHA. Muslim predicted that all forces in Syria will participate in Idlib’s battle and claimed that Turkish-backed armed groups will not fight against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) unless Turkey directly participated in the fight. Moreover, the SDC leader stressed that no one can stop the SAA from capturing the strategic Abu Duhur airbase in the eastern Idlib countryside as it is a Syrian land. Muslim also cla

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 Antonio Gute

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 defend against  drone at

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)