ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  Brian Kalman  exclusively for  SouthFront ; Brian Kalman is a management professional in the marine transportation industry. He was an officer in the US Navy for eleven years. Like so many others that watched the unfolding U.S.-led cruise missile strike on Syria in the early morning hours of April 14 th , I was amazed by the brazen and ill-conceived nature of such an undertaking. Not only was the attack not based on any verifiable intelligence proving a chemical attack by Syrian governmental forces, the given reason for the justification of the attack, but it was extremely ill-advised from any military or political stand point. Was it imperial hubris on the part of the “leadership” of the sole “exceptional” nation, or a simple matter of poor military decision making that resulted in the approval of the strike?  A number of failures in executing the strike have come to light after the fact, not minor faults that have been magnified by Russian or Syrian government propagan

Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu stated that Mikoyan MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircrafts equipped with Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” hypersonic aero-ballistic missiles would take part in the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9. “Apart from advanced Su-57, Su-30SM and MiG-29SMT aircraft, upgraded MiG-31K fighters armed with the cutting-edge Kinzhal hypersonic missile systems will take part in the parade’s air component,” Shoigu said, commenting the Victory Day parade,  according to the Russian news agency TASS . Shoigu pointed out that 190 units of military equipment that “identify modern outlook of the Russian Armed Forces” would be shown at the Red Square. On March 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled the project of the Kinzhal hypersonic aero-ballistic missile platform. According to Putin, the Kinzhal missile can fly at more than 10 times the speed of the sound and is capable of maneuvering and overcoming existing and future air defense and anti-ballistic missile

DARPA is no longer satisfied with merely deploying drones to the battlefield. It wants swarms of unmanned aircraft and ground-borne robots that can work together to isolate an urban objective, according to  an article on  TechCrunch . The military research agency has announced the second “sprint” of its OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program. Sprints are periods in a program when DARPA announces a main theme and asks for related solicitations or prototypes in the hopes of getting faster technological breakthroughs. Whereas the first sprint focused on swarm tactics, this sprint’s theme is swarm autonomy. DARPA is fishing around for concepts that can allow drones to talk with each other and work as as a well-oiled team of lean, mean, killing machines with little in the way of human supervision. (Related:  Leaked DARPA Robot. Can You H.A.N.D.L.E. the Truth? ) These ideas could be built around more capable sensors, smarter software, or more efficient propeller blades. If

Military robots pulled off the very first robotic breaching operation during a joint training exercise in Germany. While their American and British minders supported them from a safe distance, the robots successfully removed various dangerous obstacles from the simulated battlefield,  according to an article on  ZDNet . During the Robotic Complex Breach Concept exercise, manned tanks and fighting vehicles provided covering fire for British-built Terrier engineering robots. The remote-controlled robots neutralized minefields and set up a heavy-duty bridge over a deep trench while their operators stayed inside American vehicles several hundred feet back. Other ground-based robots that saw action during the drill included a self-driving armored personnel carrier that deployed smoke to hide the Terries from sight. Several models of drones also flew over the pretend battlefield in search of possible chemical weapons. “This is a historic moment. This is a great step forward for the

By the Turkish Army, Click to see full-size image On May 6, Turkey’s President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish Army is ready to launch a new cross-border military operation against the “terrorist organizations” after the early Parliament and Presidential election that will be held in Turkey on June 24. “We will not give up on constricting terrorist organizations. In the new period, Turkey will add new ones to the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in order to clear its borders … We shattered the terror corridor being formed on our southern border with these operations. Our soldiers, who lastly wrote an epic in Afrin, are ready for new missions,” Erdogan said during a public speech in the city of Istanbul in which he revealed the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) manifesto, according Reuters. Turkey launched its first military operation in Syria, codenamed “Euphrates Shield,” in late 2016 and managed to capture large areas in the northern Syr

On May 6, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the northern Homs countryside pocket handed over at least two Chinese-made FN-6 man portable air defense systems (MANPADs) to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) under  the reconciliation agreement, which was reached on May 2 . According to local observers, this type of the MANPADs was supplied to the FSA in 2014 by Qatar that had acquired them from Sudan. FSA fighters also handed over two Soviet-made Konkurs and Metis anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) launchers and an RPG-29 anti-tank rocket launcher. These weapons were likely captured from the SAA as early as 2012. Click to see the full-size image Dozens of mortar cannons, heavy machine guns, units of military equipment and a sizable amount of ammunition were also handed over to the SAA. 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 Over the last four days, the SAA recovered four T-55 battle ta

Shots fired and three people stabbed in central The Hague which is the ‘political capital’ in the Netherlands. Three people have been stabbed in the western Dutch city of The Hague, according to local authorities. The suspect, who was described as being in a “confused” state, was arrested after being shot in the leg by police at the scene. Video footage from the arrest of the suspect with gunshots: Picture of the suspect who was shot by the Dutch police. Conditions of the injured are unknown. The suspect was known to police. MORE TO FOLLOW

Mohammed Alloush Mohammed Alloush has stolen a sum of $47m from Jaysh al-Islam before resignation from his position as the group’s political leader, the Iranian news agency Fars reported on May 5. The report said that Alloush is currently using the stolen money to run trade activities in Turkey, where he has been living for the past few years. Alloush announced his resignation from Jaysh al-Islam on May 3 claiming that he had taken this decision to give the youth of the opposition a chance to lead the “revolutionary and political action.” However, most Syrian opposition activists were not convinced by Alloush’s claim. Many Syrian pro-government activists believe that Alloush’s decision is a result of the humiliating defeat of Jaysh al-Islam in the Eastern Ghouta region battle. One of the main results of the defeat was the end of the financial support for Jaysh al-Islam, which could be the real motive behind Alloush’s decision. Many leaders of Jaysh al-Islam had been accus