ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

China’s government has been relatively vocal in transforming itself into a serious threat against the West — by modernizing its military in anticipation of future wars with Washington. It it therefore not surprising when the official  Xinhua  news agency reports that China will increase its defense budget by 8.1 percent in 2018, up marginally from last year’s 7 percent. China has undoubtedly given America’s military-industrial complex and clueless politicians in Washington a stern message,  by increasing its defense budget to the highest levels in more than three years, even as the country insists it does not mean harm. According to the annual budget report, submitted to the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress Monday, the 2018 defense budget will be 1.11 trillion yuan (approximately 175 billion U.S. dollars). In 2017, the country spent roughly 1.02 trillion yuan (approximately 161.87 billion dollars) on its military budget in 2017, or about 1.3 percent of its gr

The Sudan and the countries of the African Horn are not as well known as the Syria, Irak, Yemen or Libya as a springboard for confrontations, but no less important, and for the problems of water distribution of the Nile it is key. The alliance of the UAE and Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Israel, the USA and other external players confront each other in Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and such states of the African interior as Uganda and Ethiopia, where Islamist terrorist groups and Iran are active. The events taking place in the region are described based on materials from the Middle East Institute (MEI) expert A. Bystrov. Confusion in Somalia On January 3, the Somali Prime Minister Hasan Ali Khayre, upon the recommendation of President Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo” Mohamed, dismissed the ministers of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Garaad Omar, of Internal Affairs A.F. Sayyid and Trade K.A. Duale. They were replaced by the Somali Ambassador to the U.S. Ahm

A screenshot from the video showing Avangard missile system The Russian Defense Ministry has signed a contract on the serial production of the state of the art hypersonic missile system Avangard, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on March 12 in an interview with the defense ministry’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. The Russian state-run news agency TASS provided more details on the advanced weapon system ( source ): Maneuvering warhead According to open sources, the guided hypersonic warhead (the spacehead) of the Avangard intercontinental ballistic missile system is codenamed 15Yu71. It was developed as part of the R&D work “4202” by specialists of the Military and Industrial Corporation “Research and Production Association of Machine-Building” (the town of Reutov) under the guidance of Chief Designer Pavel Sudyukov. Russia’s Federal Space Agency acted as the customer for the R&D work “4202.” Compared to traditional warheads of intercontinental ballis

Illustrative image On March 11, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced in a statement released by its official news agency Iba’a that the Syrian Liberation Front (SLF) had broken  the 48 hour-long ceasefire agreement, which was reached on March 9 . HTS also accused the SLF of conducting a series of attacks against its fighters during the ceasefire. Later, several Syrian opposition sources confirmed that HTS had resumed its attack against the SLF around the villages of al-A’jil and Bsarton in western Aleppo. Iba’a agency reported that HTS fighters had destroyed a SLF vehicle armed with 23mm and had captured several SLF fighters. From its side, the SLF revealed in an official statement that HTS had rejected all the initiatives, which had been presented to it in order to end the ongoing conflict in northern Syrian peacefully. The SLF statement confirmed that HTS had only accepted the ceasefire agreement to reorganize its fighters and to launch a new attack. The SLF-linked news

On March 11, Houthi fighters conducted a hit and run attack against a border post of the Saudi Army in the N’ashau area in the Saudi province of Jizan bordring Yemen, according to the pro-Houthi al-Masirah TV. The TV channel said that the Houthis had killed over two Saudi Army soldiers and had injured many others. Moreover, the border post was burned down. Meanwhile, the Houthis media wing reported that Houthi snipers had killed four other soldiers of the Saudi Army in different areas of Jizan. Houthis fighters also targeted several fortifications of the Saudi Army in the al-Khubah border post in Jizan with a B-10 recoilless rifle, according to the movement’s media. Thw new wave of attacks in Jizan province came a day after  the Houthis had managed to storm a border post of the Saudi Army in the al-Dabiea area of Najran province . So far, the Saudi-led coalition has failed to secure the Yemeni-Saudi border in the southern part of the provinces of Jizan and Najran, although it has

Illustrative image On March 10, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) warned the militants in al-Qadam district south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, that it will launch a military operation against them in coordination with Russia if they do not agree on a reconciliation or evacuation agreement within 48 hours, according to the Syrian pro-opposition news outlet Enab Baladi. Enab Baladi reported that a reconciliation agreement will force the militants to join the SAA and attack ISIS in the Yarmouk camp south of the al-Qadam district. A Syrian opposition source from al-Qadam told Enab Baladi that the militants will not agree on this, but will likely accept an evacuation agreement, which will allow them to withdraw to other opposition-held areas. Currently, there are more than 600 militants south of Damascus, according to Enab Baladi. The militants there had not launched any attacks against the SAA, even before the de-escalation agreement was reached. Syrian opposition sources reported

Illustrative image. Source: MenaDefense Russia has given Egypt a license to assemble 400 T-90S\SK battle tanks locally, the Algerian MENA Defense blog that reported on March 9. MENA Defense’s report said that Egypt will begin assembling first T-90S battle tanks in the last quarter of 2019 after receiving the needed technology from the Russian Uralvagonzavod company, the manufacturer of the tank. The T-90S is an export version of the original T-90A battle tank, while the T-90SK is the command version of the T-90S. This model is equipped with a computerized day and night targeting system and is capable of launching the 9M119 Refleks anti-tank guided missiles via its 125mm 2A46M smoothbore gun. The battle tank is powered by a 1,000 hp (750 kW) engine made by the Russian Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. Egypt will be able to assemble 50 T-90S\SK battle tanks each year from 2019 to 2026 on the assemble line, which will be built by Uralvagonzavod. The same assumable line will serve as

On March 10, Taliban fighters ambushed a unit of the Afghan Army Special Forces in the Tapa Sadat area of the Bala Blok district in the western province of Farah, according to the Taliban news agency Voice of Jihad. Taliban fighters allegedly killed and injured more than 53 soldiers and destroyed two armored vehicles belonging to the army. Several weapons were also captured by the Taliban. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Head of Farah provincial council Farid Bakhtawar acknowledged that the Afghan Army Special Forces had been ambushed in the Bala Blok district and revealed that fifteen Afghan soldiers, including eight servicemembers of the Special Forces, had been killed, according to the Afghan TOLO TV. Three soldiers were captured by the Taliban, according to Bakhtawar. Voice of Jihad also reported that the Taliban had captured another checkpoint in the Birnghtut area around the city of Farah, the capital of Farah province on Mar