ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Illustrative image On December 6, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played down Hezbollah missile capabilities and claimed that the Lebanese group has only several dozens of precision-guided missiles. “According to Hezbollah’s plans, they were already supposed to be equipped with thousands of missiles, but right now they only have a few dozens. The reason that they only have a few dozen is, among others, sitting here in this room,” Netanyahu said at an award ceremony for exceptional Mossad operatives, according to the Times of Israel. Netanyahu went on to claim that the efforts of the Israeli military and intelligence prevented Hezbollah from accruing a higher number of precision-guided missiles. “It is the combination of the Mossad, the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces], and our entire security system. We are depriving them of that weapon as well, not absolutely, but to a very impressive extent,” said the Israeli PM. These remarks contradict with most of the previ...

The text below is a full version of the anlysis entitled “ The Place and Role of Sniper Teams in Modern War “, which was originally released by SouthFront on February 26, 2018: The ongoing conflicts of varying level of intensity have significantly increased the importance of the combat role of snipers. Experience shows that even a few well trained and equipped snipers can decisively influence a battle on the modern battlefield. Many armies of the second half of the 20th century did not focus on training snipers, believing that in a large-scale conflict the decisive role would be played by large armored formations, supported by powerful airstrikes. The Russian Army, which during WW2 had the best sniper schools in the world, was forced to start almost from scratch in developing training programs for and aptitude in a new breed of snipers, after hard learned lessons in the conflicts in Chechnya. In the course of these conflicts, the military realized it had made a major mistake in...

In April 2018,  the head of Russian Special Operations Command, Gen. Raymond Thomas, complainted  that the Russians are using their electronic warfare (EW) capabilities in Syria in order to deter actions of the US-led coalition there. “Right now in Syria we are operating in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet from our adversaries. They are testing us everyday, knocking our communications down, disabling our EC-130s, etcetera,”he started ignoring the fact that the US-led coalition had illegally invaded the country while the Russians are in Syria upon request from its legal government. Click to see the full-size image On November 30, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) a US-based think tank affilated with large defense contractors, released a fresh report, which also complains about the Russian decision to expand its EW capabilities in Syria and repeats remarks that it has a negative impact on the situation in the country. In particular t...

Alex Younger British media, as well as the MI6 security services refuse to allow anybody to forget of the alleged Skripal case and  efforts of the 75,000 alleged Russian spies in London. Alex Younger, the current head of the MI6, on December 3 rd  warned adversaries and mostly Russia to not attempt and meddle in the British “way of life,” CNN reported. Younger reiterated the speech of the new Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, Gen. Mark Carleton-Smith who said that  Russia is a “far greater threat” than ISIS  and that the UK  “cannot be complacent about the threat Russia poses.” “The Russians seek to exploit vulnerability and weakness wherever they detect it,” he added. Young also spoke of the evolution of intelligence work as new technologies make for a  “blurred line between the cyber and physical worlds.” “The era of the fourth industrial revolution calls for a fourth-generation espionage: fusing our traditional human skil...

IMAGE: Su-57 Russia’s 5 th  generation fighter jet Su-57 will possibly be equipped with hypersonic missiles similar to the Kinzhal, but smaller, according to an anonymous aircraft industry source  cited by TASS. “In accordance with Russia’s State Armament Program for 2018-2027, Su-57 jet fighters will be equipped with hypersonic missiles. The jet fighters will receive missiles with characteristics similar to that of the Kinzhal missiles, but with inter-body placement and smaller size,” the source said. The source provided no details regarding the characteristics of the missile to TASS. No timeline as to when the missile will be tested or ready for use was given. The Russian Ministry of Defense’s Zvezda TV reported  that the Director General of Tactical Missiles Corporation JSC Boris Obnosov said that a hypersonic missile was under development for the Su-57. According to him the weapon’s development would be finalized in the next decade. “In the future, of...

Taliban spacial forces, illustrative image On November 29, the British security company G4S acknowledged that five of its employees were killed in  the recent attack by the Taliban on its headquarters  in the Afghan capital of Kabul. G4S said that thirty-two other employees were injured, five of them are still in a critical condition. “We are committed to our security role in support of the people of Afghanistan, and we are determined that incidents such as this will not prevent the vital work that the international community conducts from continuing,” G4S said in an official statement. British media identified one of the casualties as 33-year old Luke Griffin, a veteran infantryman of the British military who worked for G4S as a close protection specialist. According to the Sun, Luke saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan during his service in the army. Besides G4S employees many personnel of Afghan security forces and even civilians were killed and injured in the w...

On November 28, several fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who were recently captured by ISIS, were killed and injured in an airstrike by the US-led coalition on a prison of the terrorists group in the town of al-Khasmah in the middle Euphrates River Valley. On November 29, the ISIS-linked news agency, Amaq, released a video showing the aftermath of the US-led coalition airstrike on the prison in al-Khasmah. In the video, several injured captives can be seen confirming that they are fighters of the SDF. “The [US-led] coalition carried out the airstrike to get rid of us,” an injured SDF fighters said in Amaq’s video. ISIS captured dozens of SDF fighters and commanders during its  recent attacks  on the group’s positions in the Euphrates Valley. All the captives were Arabs, some of them had been forced to join the ranks of the SDF. The SDF was widely criticized by many Syrian activists for deploying mostly Arabs on the frontlines against ISIS....

On November 29, the media wing of the Houthis released a video showing Houthi fighters destroying two military vehicles of the Saudi military in the Kingdom’s southern province of Jizan with Iranian Toophan anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). This was the first time this Iranian weapon was seen in the Yemeni battlefield. According to experts, the Toophan is the Iranian copy of the US-made TOW ATGM system. Some variants of the Toophan ATGM have a range of more than 3.5km and can overcome reactive armour then penetrate 900mm of rolled homogeneous armour (RHA). Just like the TOW, the Toophan is guided by semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS). While this is the first time the Toophan is documented in the hands of the Houthis, the Saudi-led coalition foiled an attempt by Iranian intelligence to smuggle missiles of this type to the Yemeni group three years ago. Click to see full-size image In the last few months, the Houthis destroyed dozens of vehicles of the Saudi-...