Russia has called in 134,000 new conscripts to begin 12 months of military training in the fourth quarter of 2017. The schedule is such that new recruits begin in the second and fourth quarters, and together with the spring draft the total number for 2017 is up to 276,000 conscripts. Although that is a very […]
Archives for September 2017
Worrying initiatives to improve navigational safety in US Navy
The US Navy attempts to improve navigational safety in the wake of a series of accidents involving ships from the Pacific Fleet, reports Geoff Ziezulewicz for Navy Times after obtaining a command message outlining some of the initiatives. The list of revised procedures does give grounds for some worry, though. It starts off well enough. […]
Russia destroys its last chemical weapons
Russia has destroyed the last chemical weapons from its arsenal. The occasion was announced by Putin personally, and the president was not slow to point out that Russia beat USA in reaching the milestone. That reports postimees.ee (in Estonian). In fact both Russia and USA have failed to meet the 2012 deadline for the destruction […]
Winter warfare is loosing its peculiar charm
Charlsy Panzino for Army Times Researchers are working on a way for soldiers to generate heat in cold environments instead of piling on multiple bulky layers to their uniforms. By applying a silver nanowire coating to the uniforms, troops could theoretically dial up the heat to keep themselves comfortable, according to researchers at U.S. Army […]
Zapad perhaps smaller than expected
Mathieu Boulègue for Chatham House: Western commentators were obsessed with the numbers of Russian troops being mobilized during the course of exercise and stuck firmly to the “100,000 servicemen” narrative. But Russia proved them wrong by keeping the drills small, managed, and contained. The real numbers are still unconfirmed, but the actual number of troops […]
Election fraud story, German edition
Maks Czuperski has a fascinating look at the role of Russian botnets in the propagation of fake stories about election fraud in Germany: Comments from the fringe on the eve of the German election took various forms, including official posts, posts from probable fake accounts, and bot amplification. While no evidence of fraud was presented […]
Russia growing non-nuclear deterrence
Speaking of Russia’s military transformation Kristin ven Bruusgaard has a terrific article in War on the Rocks called The Myth of Russia’s Lowered Nuclear Threshold: Non-nuclear deterrence involves both military and non-military assets that can convince an adversary that the costs of aggression against Russia would outweigh any benefit. These include precision strike capabilities, effective […]
Russia’s strategic transformation in the light of Zapad
Thoughtful points about the strategic transformation that Russia’s military is going through in this article by BBC in the wake of Zapad 2017: It is interesting that while much of the Western media discussion of [precision-guided munitions] rests upon their use as air-launched weapons in bombing campaigns, intended to increase accuracy and reduce the level […]
NATO needs exercises like Zapad
John R. Deni for Carnegie Europe: One area where the West has struggled though is in mounting the kind of capability display similar to Zapad 2017. That is, deploying large-scale combat power from across the continent and across the Atlantic for the purposes of conducting corps-level training, maneuvers, and live fire, all to achieve tactical, […]
UK without anti-ship missiles for a decade
Robert Beckhusen for War is Boring: In 2010, Britain’s sailing branch opted not to replace the Harpoon, and one year ago it was revealed the missiles were set to retire at the end of 2018. In September 2017, IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly announced that the U.K. Ministry of Defense has delayed the retirement until 2020. […]