ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

This combat footage was reportedly taken in the area of Bambari in the Central African Republic (CAR) earlier in January. According to reports, it was recorded during a major operation that included 50 hours of heavy clashes between Portuguese paratroopers and local militants. The operation led to the seizure of a rebel base in the area of Bambari.  Portuguese personnel are operating under the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the CAR. The Portuguese operation came in respnose to an allegd attack by members of the Union for Peace in the CAR (UPC) on the town of Bambari, in about 400 km from the capital Bangui. The goal of the attack was to seize resources and extort the local population by collecting taxes. The Portuguese military said that the operation was successful and its forces suffered no casualties.

On January 22, Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate Admiral Essen of the Black Sea Fleet held air defense drills in the Black Sea; On January 21, Steregushchiy-class corvettes Boikiy and Soobrazitelnyy of the Baltic Fleet tracked USS Gravely and USS Porter entering the southern Baltic Sea; On January 19, Krivak-class frigate Pitliviy of the Black Sea Fleet started tracking USS Donald Cook; On January 18, Buyan-class corvette Orekhovo-Zuyevo of the Black Sea Fleet conducted a training session on missile firing at a surface target in the Black Sea naval training ground; On January 17, first-of-class patrol ship Vasily Bykov of the Black Sea Fleet started to submit course tasks from the Novorossiysk military naval base. Click to see the full-size image

Two corvettes “Boiky” and “Soobrazitelnyy”, a part of the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet, escorted the USS Gravely and USS Porter destroyers, which had entered the Baltic Sea,  the Russian National Defense Management Center told reporters on January 21 st . The USS Gravely is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer and is the flagship of NATO’s First Permanent Naval Group. In addition to guided missiles, the destroyer is armed with a missile defense system. It became the flagship of the Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG) 1 during a ceremony in  Copenhagen, Denmark, January 14 th , 2019. Gravely was previously in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in May 2018 to participate in exercise Joint Warrior 18-1, an 11-day, semi-annual training exercise conducted in the coastal waters of the United Kingdom. The USS Porter is also an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer. On April 7, 2017, the destroyer participated in the strike with Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian

In January 2019, the U.S. military has finally released  a unclassified version  of the Missile Defense Review. The report outlined plans to improve and expand the US missile defense shield, as well as add additional layers with space-based sensors and interceptors, technology to track and defeat hypersonic weapons, unmanned aircraft with lasers to shoot down threats and missile-hunting F-35 stealth fighters, among others. “Missile defense is accorded a high priority in our investment plans because the need to do so is evident from our rigorous diagnosis of the strategic environment and  detailed intelligence forecast of potential adversaries’ emerging and projected offensive missile developments. They seek to use offensive missile threats to coerce us, our allies and partners, and are adding new and unprecedented types of offensive missile capabilities to their arsenals. In the past several years, for example,  North Korea rapidly advanced and expanded its intercontinental bal

If there’s one thing everyone in today’s Washington can agree on, it’s that whenever an official or someone being paid by the government says something truly outrageous or dangerous, there should be consequences, if only a fleeting moment of media fury. With one notable exception: Arguing that the US should be quietly working to promote the violent disintegration and carving up of the largest country on Earth. Because so much of the discussion around US-Russian affairs is marked by hysteria and hyperbole, you are forgiven for assuming this is an exaggeration. Unfortunately it isn’t. Published in the Hill under the dispassionate title  “Managing Russia’s dissolution,”  author Janusz Bugajski makes the case that the West should not only seek to contain “Moscow’s imperial ambitions” but to actively seek the dismemberment of Russia as a whole. Engagement, criticism and limited sanctions have simply reinforced Kremlin perceptions that the West is weak and predictable. To curtail Mos

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE Written by  Finian Cunningham ; Originally appeared on  strategic-culture.org With unseemly haste, US news media leapt on the killing of four American military personnel in Syria as a way to undermine President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw troops from that country. The deadly attack in the northern city of Manbij, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, was reported to have been carried out by a suicide bomber. The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group reportedly claimed responsibility, but the group routinely makes such claims which often turn out to be false. The American military personnel were said to be on a routine patrol of Manbij where US forces have been backing Kurdish militants in a purported campaign against ISIS and other terror groups. An explosion at a restaurant resulted in two US troops and two Pentagon civilian officials being killed, along with more than a dozen other victims. Three other US military persons were among those injured.

A newly released Pentagon unclassified intelligence report authored by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) comes to some shocking and alarming conclusions concerning China’s rapid advances in advanced military technology in answer to the question:  “What are Beijing’s strategic intentions?” The report finds that as a result of  “acquiring technology by any means available”   —  especially in the areas of naval and missile systems, including intermediate range missiles and hypersonic weapons, capable of allowing missiles to travel at many times the speed of sound  —  China’s defense tech is not only at the cutting edge but  “In some areas, it already leads the world.” The “by any means available” charge leveled at Beijing is a reference to what American political leaders and businesses have slammed as unfair Chinese domestic laws forcing foreign partners to divulge secrets as the cost of doing business in China, with its massive population and ever expanding markets. The 140-