The fictional scenario for Zapad 2017 has gone viral as a joke on social media, and that has led The Wall Street Journal to write a piece on the made-up settings that militaries use for training: The U.S., its NATO allies, Russia and other militaries around the world use fictional scenarios to make their military […]
Russia
Why would the Russians have four tank programs?
If you lost sight of current Russian tank programs, Petri Mäkelä at Vantage Point North has you covered: When these four parallel tank programs are looked at from a strategic perspective few alarming possibilities emerge. If the reason for the new modernization programs are either the delays in the T-14 Armata program on insufficient funds […]
Is Kaspersky a Trojan horse?
Reuters: Best Buy Co, the No.1 U.S. electronics retailer, is pulling Kaspersky Lab’s cyber security products from its shelves and website, amid concerns that the Moscow-based firm may be vulnerable to Russian government influence. Don’t use Kaspersky to protect your computer.
Fatal accident at Russian tank shooting
One military engineer is dead and five are wounded at a tank shooting in Leningrad Oblast, reports RIA Novosti citing an official message from the military. Apparently the accident occurred as a tank shell changed trajectory after hitting the ground and exploded near a shelter where the engineers were located. Now, this is a strange […]
Russia has a new naval doctrine
Interesting rundown of Russia’s new naval doctrine by Dmitry Gorenburg for War On The Rocks: Taken at face value, the doctrine appears to promote a vision of a revived Russian Navy that can maintain its superiority over up and comers like China’s navy, and even pose a serious threat to the U.S. Navy in certain […]
Rundown of the Zapad 2017 Scenario
Interesting rundown of Zapad 2017 by Anna Maria Dyner from the Polish Institute of International Affairs. It is interesting that Russia and Belarus use fictional adversaries but real geography for their own side. This seems like a good approach compared to the rather artificial scenarios you sometimes see at NATO exercises where participants end up […]
U.S. Army unprepared to deal with Russia in Europe
Great article by Wesley Morgan for Politico.com. All countries should make regular and honest analyses of their operational abilities like the one by the 173rd Airborne Brigade, but unfortunately this kind of candor is rare. Too many decision makers get amazed by the technologically impressive possibilities of new equipment, and under the constraints of tight […]
Should have left them in the garage
Robert Beckhusen for War Is Boring in a piece titled “Military Exercises Are Tearng Up Russia’s Infrastructure“: In recent days, 574 vehicles of the crack 74th Guards Air Assault Division set off at night from its base at Pskov near the Estonian border for a training site at Strugi Krasnye some 40 miles to the […]
Russia denies access for observers to Zapad 2017
Ben Hodges, the U.S. Army’s commander in Europe, accuses Russia of fiddling with the numbers in order to keep foreign observers away from the upcoming exercise Zapad 2017, according to The Baltic Times: “The Russians had not given us a lot of reason to trust the numbers that they say. But again, the exercise hasn’t […]
