(Moscow) For the second year running the Russian dictator for life Putin has had to cancel the customary Red Square May day parade due to the threat of Kyiv spoiling the day instead he has ordered his minions to set up a static display of captured Ukrainian vehicles and armour in a pale imitation of the huge display of destroyed and captured Russian weaponry that can be found in Kyiv:
 |
| Leopard 2 A6 |
 |
| BTR4 |
 |
| Bushmaster |
 |
| Mamba |
 |
| Cougar |
(Russia) This past year we have been regaled to numerous stories of military targets deep inside Russia getting hit, presumably by Ukrainian drones, the thing that many found baffling was the distances involved , resulting in much speculation as well as rumour and rife such as the strike on Soltsy 2 airbase over 400 miles from the Ukraine, but only 40 from Estonia. A strike on a factory in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan (700 miles from the Ukraine border) where Russia is making copies of the Iranian Shahed 136 suicide drone on the 2nd of April revealed a small light aircraft crashing into the factory.
Well things have become a lot clearer when pictures of another such aircraft surfaced which had crashed landed somewhere inside Russia revealing that the Ukrainians have jury rigged a small light aircraft (Ukrainian produced Sky Ranger Nynja,) for remote control and simply added a small bomb underneath. (OFAB-100-120)Sources say, it was not a regular drone , rather a low speed modified Ukrainian Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat LSA (Light Sport Aircraft) that was used to hit Alabuga in Tatarstan region of Russia. pic.twitter.com/gP92To2401
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) April 2, 2024
(Krasnodar Krai) Overnight on the 26th and into the morning of the 27th April 2023, Ukraine carried out a number of UAV strikes in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia , which is situated to the east of the Crimea on the otherside side of the Kerch bridge.
Ukrainian strikes on Krasnodar Krai partially affected Russian aerial bombardment storage — at the airbase in the town of Kushchyovskaya, Krasnodar Krai, a UMPK warehouse was destroyed.
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 27, 2024
— The UMPK is a wing kit/guidance module installed on general-purpose “dumb” bombs and… pic.twitter.com/P0yIPFPhLU
(Athens) Greece has a fairly large tank force consisting on paper of:
 |
| Greek Leopard 1A5 |
 |
| Centauro 2 |
It also involves updating the tank's turret
and hull with advanced systems and technologies whilst retaining the 105mm
cannon, which will allow for the large stockpile of existing ammunition to not
go to waste. For protection (with lessons learnt in the Ukraine) the latest
reactive and passive armour will be fitted, which will be backed up by an active protection sensor suite all of
which will increase the weight of the tank to 46 tonnes.
(Donbas) So during a roulement change over on the front line between the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade and its replacement the 115th Mechanized Brigade for some reason or other left the defensive positions the 47th had been holding empty, Russian forces noticing that error, cashed in by quickly sending forces to rush forward and take those positions before the 115th took over, which resulted in the Russians advancing 5 kilometres into Ukrainian territory, only a counterattack by the Ukrainian 100th Mechanized Brigade stopped the Russians from advancing from the now captured village of Ocheretyne another 7 miles west to the town of Prohres. Huge mistake by the Ukrainians which no doubt will see some heads roll back in Kyiv.
(London) The Uk has selected the German Remote-Controlled Howitzer 155mm (RCH 155) 52 calibre Wheeled Artillery Systems
(Iskandariya) A military base in Iraq housing a pro-Iranian militia has been damaged in an explosion, killing one and wounding eight. At this moment in time nobody knows who targeted the base, but naturally all eyes will be looking at Israel.
Footage has been released showing the Scale of the Damage to the Kalsu Base of the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) in the Babylon Governorate of Eastern Iraq, after last night’s Explosions caused by what is claimed to have been several Missile Strikes; it is Difficult to tell if… pic.twitter.com/R2mAITrKuZ
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 20, 2024
(Niamey) Niger like many other recent central African countries which have seen a overnight change in government by the
bullet and the bomb rather than the ballot box has had no problem turning its
back on the West (other than for handouts in the form of aid) and gotten into
bed with…Moscow and surprise, surprise, the new government in power has
informed the US to remove its forces from the country which comes months after
the new government (for life) informed France to remove its forces in the country.
What is most interesting here is the
western powers who operated across the Sahel using their advanced weaponry whilst
able to keep something of a lid on Islamist terrorism which plagues the region,
never got the upperhand. Yet in replacing the West for Russia which is
currently occupied inside the Ukraine, they have sided with a country which will
be unable to divert resources (military) to combat the
rise in terrorism across the Sahel for a good few years and even if it prevails
in the Ukraine will still be hard pushed to support its new African besties
other than allowing the new military leaders for life to pad out their private
bank accounts, I cant see any other reason why these countries have sided with
Moscow.
(Stavropol) On Friday a video was released showing a Russian TU-22M bomber tumbling out of the sky whilst on fire. strategic bomber has gone down over Stavropol Krai, in the North Caucasus region of Russia.
(Isfahan) So the world woke up on the morning of Friday the 19th April 2024 to reports of Israel bombing Iran. Whilst the western media was acting like Chicken Licken proclaiming the sky was falling in, Iran very calmly was stating the very opposite, that there had been a small drone attack (As in short rage quadcopters) and its air defence system had taken care of it and that life across Iran was getting along as normal. Anyway, satellite photos have revealed that a S300 missile system based at the north west corner of Isfahan International Airport was taken out:
(Nevatim Air base) So as the entire world and their dog knows, Iran in retaliation for the targeting and killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus on the 1st of April 2024 by the IDF on the evening of 13th of April launched 300 UAVs, 30 cruise missiles and 170 Ballistic missiles at Israel these were supported by rocket fire from Lebanon by Hezballah in which to occupy and downgrade the ability of Israel's defensive systems so as to allow the Iranian weaponry to get through and do their stuff. Well that didn’t go exactly as planned for Tehran as Israel (with a little help from friends) managed to knock out the majority of that Iranian incoming ordnance with only 7 Ballistic missiles getting through and impacting at the major IDF Nevatim airbase in the south of the country.
Interestingly the very airbase where the aircraft which carried out the attack on the Iranian consulate which started this whole affair took off from. Israel claimed that little damage had been caused and the base remained operational , however that claim could not be verified until Satellite photos became available and available they have and as the IDF stated, very little damage was caused with just one missile impact site on a taxiway, which has been repaired.
The actual impact point and damage can be found just below the lower runway around 2/3rd from the left and in-between the small apron and said runway on the taxis way in-between as can be identified by the small patch of new tarmac
For the amount of ordinance launched by Iran and her proxies , Israel was very lucky, don't get me wrong, its defensive systems did exactly as they were meant to do, but 170 Ballistic missiles in anybody's book is a huge amount to defend from and whos to say next time Tehran learning from this, wont launch 340 missiles.
(Gaza) At 1900hrs on Tuesday 17th Oct 2023. Hamas reported that Israel had carried out a airstrike on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City killing 500 people.
The location of the explosion, the small footprint of the damage gravitated the finger of blame away from the IDF and towards the terrorists based inside Gaza and which naturally raised questions regards how quickly the medias pointed the finger of blame at Israel, but also questioned the veracity of Hamas’s claim that 500 people had been killed, It resulted in a lot of red faces across numerous media outlets for not verifying the facts before reporting. I must admit I was surprised how the BBC tried to claim that it could be the aftermath of a Hellfire missile, yet nobody there has asked the question of how a anti-tank missile fitted with a 7Kg shaped charge warhead could kill 500 people.
This people is how propaganda works and how the so called impartial media is more than happy to swallow falsehoods for a
sensational headline.
(Sevastopol) Early Wednesday morning (14/09/23) the Ukraine struck 2 naval targets - Rostov-on-don a Kilo type Submarine and the Minsk a Project775 Ropucha-class large landing ship. The targeting was somewhat easy as both were in dry dock undergoing maintenance for the Rostov-on-don and repairs for the Minsk after it had been damaged by an earlier Ukrainian attack on the 3rd of August 2023 and so the Ukrainians knew exactly where they were.
New Sevastopol dry dock higher resolution satellite image shows heavy damage on both ships hit; Ropucha landing ship and Kilo submarine.#Sebastopol https://t.co/snrsyfdIY4 pic.twitter.com/xbvVAdhzG5
— Tom Bike (@tom_bike) September 13, 2023
The loss of both ships and the blockage of two major
drydocks until both wrecks are cleared will
impact on the Russian Navy’s ability to conduct offensive operations for a while.
The loss of the Kilo Submarine will be the largest loss as it is the major launch vehicle for the Kalibr cruise missiles which it has been doing with impunity since the war started in Feb 2022. The Russians started with 2 kilo class submarines in the Black Sea, with usually 1 at sea and the other 1 in dock. The loss of 1 will now impact Moscow ability to launch missiles, not only that but due to Kyiv’s lethal strikes on the Russian fleet in and around Crimea, and after the sinking of the Moskva April 2022 by the use of Anti-Ship missiles, Moscow has relocated most of its Black Sea fleet to the port of Novorossiysk as far away from Ukraine as possible in which to keep them out of harm’s way. That said, the Captain of Krasnodar the other Kilo class submarine in the Black Sea, was gunned down and killed on the 10th of July 2023 apparently in revenge for the missile launched by his submarine on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia in July 2022 of which killed 27 civilians, including three children.
The loss of the Minsk landing ship, may not
be felt now, but if the Ukraine manage to take out the Kursk bridge, then its
loss will be felt. Also if the Ukrainian army makes progress in its march towards
the sea, it would also allow the Russians to quickly redeploy troops from the sea,
but that is something of a guess seeing as of the 6 Project 775 Ropucha-class
large landing ships Moscow had in the Black sea at the start of its invasion of
Ukraine in Feb 22,1 (Minsk) has been destroyed
and another 3 are currently undergoing repairs after been badly damaged by
Ukrainian attacks . Meaning the Russians understand only too well how these
ships are vulnerable and as we have seen, they have become somewhat adverse to
putting them in harms way.
(London) At the 2023 Defence & Security
Equipment International show currently taking place in London, many new weapon systems
designed from feedback from the ongoing war inside the Ukraine have shown their
face for the first time, one such weapon system is the Hydra 400 which is a pioneering new generation of heavy
lift drone using hybrid propulsion technology. Compact and portable, the drone
can be transported in the back of a Hilux or similar and assembled ready for
flight in six minutes. The drone is powered by single spool jet turbines,
producing 500N (50kg) thrust providing a maximum lift of 400kg and can be armed
with up to 3 Brimstone anti-tank missiles , the British army hopes to have a working
prototype carrying out trials by the end of the year and hopefully the weapons system
will be taken on strength in 5 years time.
(Kerch Strait) one of the reasons Putin launched his invasion of the Ukraine was to capture a land bridge to the Crimea which he failed to do when he annexed the Crimea in 2014. This resulted initially in everything been flown and shipped in (at great expense) which was alleviated somewhat when at great expense Russia constructed the 19km Kerch Bridge
The Bridge is the major supply route into Crimea
for everything, which is why the Ukraine targeted in last Oct knocking the road
bridge out till feb 2023 and the rail bridge to May. Well last night the
Ukraine targeted the bridge yet again knocking out one of the road bridges.
(Gulf of Oman) The Iranian navy has released a video of its commandos landing on and capturing a Chinese-registered oil tanker in the gulf of Oman. The excuse Tehran has given for doing so is they claim the 159058 tonne Advantage Sweet carried out a hit and run on an Iranian Ship injuring seven crew members
The only problem there is, huge oil tankers are usually afforded the right of way at sea simply because they are that big, it takes time and distance for them to change direction, never mind stop. So there is an international hierarchy regards the rules of the road at sea and by the looks of things the Advantage Sweet should have been at the top of the pecking order.
But as this is Iran, they haven’t provided
any evidence of a damaged ship, so basically it appears that the mad mullahs in
Iran are playing silly buggers yet again.
(Bloemfontein) South Africa is not planning to quit the
International Criminal Court (ICC) as suggested earlier by President Cyril
Ramaphosa, his office says, citing a communication error from his ruling ANC
party. Hours earlier, Ramaphosa had said the African National Congress had
decided to withdraw South Africa from the court, which last month issued an
arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The presidency wishes to clarify that
South Africa remains a signatory”
to the ICC, Ramaphosa’s office said on
Tuesday in a late-night statement. It said the “clarification follows an error
in a comment made during a media briefing held by the governing African
National Congress”. The ICC warrant means South Africa – due to host this
year’s BRICS summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – would
have to detain Putin on arrival.
(Bloemfontein) South Africa is part of the
5 nations economic group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) who
refer themselves by the acronym BRICS formed by the first letter of each
country. In June, South Africa is hosting a BRICS summit and as such it leaves South
Africa in a dilemma. You see South Africa signed up to the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court in 1998 ratified in 2002, became law in 2002 and
so if the leader of Russia happens to attend the June summit, it would legally
have to enforce the arrest warrant issued for Putin by the ICC over his
invasion of the Ukraine. In response South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa
shas stated that he is going to have South Africa leave the ICC. Well I suppose
that’s one way to be able to invite Putin for tea.
 |
| Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa attend a signing ceremony on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa July 26, 2018. |
(Moscow) The Russian media has revealed that it has deployed its latest Main Battle tank to the Ukraine, albeit in an indirect fore role and not in a tank offensive capability. The news report states that the tank crews have undergone extensive training before hand and that the tanks have received additional protection.
Initially seen as a game changer when
revealed to the world in 2015, that POV has slowly dissipated after Moscow
suffered numerous set backs resulting in the 2500 tanks Moscow was supposed to
have received by 2020, getting pushed back with no set date for said delivery, as of 2023 , Russia is said to
have received 40.
The problem that Moscow faces, is if the
Ukrainians manage to knock out the T14 tank and display its wreckage to the
world, then that will be a huge blow to the Russian arms industry which this past
year has already suffered a huge setback due to the poor showing of Russian
weapons inside the Ukraine.
The current bunfight inside the Sudan is between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) a paramilitary force set up by Bashir in 2013 out of the Janjaweed militias who ran riot inside Darfur Since its birth, it has seen combat in Libya and Yemen. Interestingly the RSF has the support of the UAE and Wagner and on the other side of the table we have the Sudanese military.
Sudan has been in political turmoil after the ousting of Omar al-Bashir (who ruled Sudan from 1993 to 2019) in 2019 which saw him removed by a coup that year, followed by an attempt by his supporters in Sept 2021 and a successful one a month later in Oct which included the RSF
The military seeing that the RSF was a loose cannon set in motion a plan for it to be fully absorbed into the Sudanese military in Feb this year. Whilst the RSF publicly agreed to this, they started recruiting heavily paid for by goals mines they had captured in Darfur and started massing forces at strategic points around the country, on the 15th of April the RSF carried out a pre-emptive strike at Sudanese military bases across the country and here we are today.
Both sides of the bunfight are heavily armed, which includes aircraft and anti-aircraft weaponry, with reports that civilian aircraft have been fired upon (Saudi airliner on the 15th, a Indian one which saw 3 people killed)
The situation inside the Sudan has been on a downward spiral since Bashir was removed from power in 2019. Which explains the battle for hegemony which whoever wins, won't be the last
(Nablus)
Sunday morning saw Palestinian gunmen open fire on a Israeli patrol at a
road junction. Unfortunately for them, the people they tried to ambush were the
better shots, resulting 3 gunmen taken out and a fourth on realising he had
picked the wrong people to ambush decided to surrender.
The Palestinian terrorist group "Lions Den" have admitted they were behind the attack and that the 3 dead terrorists belonged to them
The Lions' Den issued a communique acknowledging the death of three fighters during an ambush on Israeli troops Sunday morning. The IDF says gunmen opened fire at an IDF post near the Jit Junction and soldiers returned fire. pic.twitter.com/xj7UhFfve2
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) March 12, 2023
