IS militants capture ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, witnesses say soldiers and policemen fled after giving light resistance


Syrian soldiers guarding the ruins of Palmyra. IS militants have since captured the city on Wednesday.

Islamic State militants swept into the desert city of Palmyra in central Syria on Wednesday, and by evening were in control of it, residents and Syrian state news media said, a victory that gives them another strategically important prize five days after the group seized the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

Palmyra has extra resonance, with its grand complex of 2,000-year-old colonnades and tombs, one of the world’s most magnificent remnants of Roman and Byzantine antiquity, as well as the grimmer modern landmark of Tadmur Prison, where Syrian dissidents have languished over the decades.

But for the fighters on the ground, the city of 50,000 people is significant because it sits among gas fields and astride a network of roads across the country’s central desert. Palmyra’s vast unexcavated antiquities could also provide significant revenue through illegal trafficking.

Control of Palmyra gives the Islamic State command of roads leading from its strongholds in eastern Syria to Damascus and the other major cities of the populated west, as well as new links to western Iraq, the other half of its self-declared caliphate.

The advance, in which residents described soldiers and the police fleeing, wounded civilians unable to reach hospitals and museum workers hurrying to pack up antiquities, comes even as the United States is scrambling to come up with a response to the loss of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province.

The two successes, at opposite ends of a battlefield sprawling across two countries, showed the Islamic State’s ability to shake off setbacks and advance on multiple fronts, less than two months after it was driven from the Iraqi city of Tikrit — erasing any notion that the group had suffered a game-changing blow.

It's not only widely believed, but it was in fact an open secret that the Gestapu (gerakan September 30) movement to oust Sukarno and assasinate/arrest his top military generals was a blatant CIA-orchestrated coup to install a pro-west dictator in Suharto.

The thinly-veiled excuse that communists were grabbing power was all smokescreen. No coincidence Suharto was suddenly spared when virtually all his to top-ranking colleagues (read:potential rivals) was purged. The official reason that he was visiting his sick son in hospital and the soldiers sent to arrest /kill him couldn't find him at his home doesn't fly. Obviously the killers would know every movement of each of their targets on the night of the coup except, by magic, Suharto.

Russia updates the Buk missile system to Buk-M3 standard, manufacturers claim performance exceeds S-300 SAM system


A model of the Russian Buk-M3 TELAR vehicle displayed during a recent military expo in Brazil

The range of the newly developed Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile systems has been increased to 70 km -25 km more than of its predecessor, and by a number of parameters the new system has surpassed the long-range S-300 air defense missile system, a Russian Defense Ministry source told the press on Wednesday.

"The results of the state tests indicate that by a number of its characteristics, the Buk-M3 system has fully complied with the technical requirements and equalled the S-300, and by some of the parameters has even surpassed this system," the source said.

"First of all, the Buk-3M target-destruction probability has reached 0.9999, which the S-300 system does not have," the source said. "This means that the system is surely capable of destroying a target with one missile."

The Buk-M3 missile has been built from the ground up with new hardware & electronic components and is now is transported and launched from sealed protective tubes. An enhanced mobile radar and fire control system capable of engaging ICBMs is currently being developed for the Buk-M3, but the missile is still compatible for use with the older Buk-M2 radar and fire control systems.

A source in the Defense Ministry reported previously that the Buk-M3 system would be made operational before the end of 2015, and will start deliveries to frontline units from 2016.

Libya transforms into third front in IS expansion campaign with its capture of Sirte and Derna

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IS militants hold victory parade in Derna after capturing the city from rival militia forces

Libya, which has descended into near anarchy since NATO warplanes helped rebels overthrow Gaddafi in a 2011 civil war, is now the third big stronghold for the Sunni Islamist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which declared a Caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory it holds in Syria and Iraq.

Islamic State fighters became a major force last year after capturing Derna, a jihadi bastion in Libya's east, and quickly spreading to the biggest eastern city Benghazi, where they have conducted suicide bombings on streets divided among armed factions. By occupying Sirte they have claimed a major city in the center of the country, astride the coastal highway that links the east and west.

They made their presence known to the world in February by kidnapping and beheading more than 20 Egyptian Christian oil workers on a beach and posting the video on the Internet.

In Libya, the group deploys locally-recruited fighters and bands of Islamist fighters from nearby African countries led by envoys sent from Syria and Iraq. These include experienced Libyan militants returning from fighting for the Islamic State on the Syrian and Iraqi frontlines.

Their gains in Libya, just across the sea from Italy, are worrying European governments and north African neighbors. But so far Western countries, which are bombing Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq, have steered clear of that sort of intervention in Libya.

Point defense still the territory of rapid-fire guns. Air defense have to replace like-for-like or you risk getting caught out in point-defense ranges if enemy planes manage to penetrate mid-range defenses. You can't get long-range missiles only and at the same time neglect short and point defense AA systems. So have to develop good layers of air defenses if wanna get a comprehensive anti-aircraft umbrella.

As long as you have fighter planes to conduct long range interception, you probably could get away without long range SAM systems, but at least medium, short and point defense anti-aircraft systems, whether missile or gun-based, is a must. Once enemy planes get into ground-based air defense envelope range, your fighter planes have to disengage and get out of range, or you could risk friendly fire incidents.

One example is during the US Navy pacific campaign of WW2, US Navy fighters can only engage incoming Japanese bombers and fighters attacking US battlegroups until about 5 miles from a battlegroup because inside the 5 mile line, US AA gunners will literally shoot every plane they see out of the sky inside that radius.


Theoretical Russian air defense systems envelope ranges showing air defense layers (point zero is your position)

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 24 2015, 08:36 PM

Better decription would be 'speed boat with heavy gun turret'.

Unless it comes with significant armor (like you know...tanks) this 'tank boat' is crooked advertising.

Being that or getting shot full of holes.

US Navy riverine patrols is one of the most decorated branches in all of Vietnam war was not for nothing.

Russian and Chinese navy conclude first Mediterranean joint exercise


Chinese sailors salute the passing Slava-class cruiser Moskva at the conclusion of the Russia-Chinese Navy joint exercises in the Mediterranean

Russia and China concluded their first-ever joint naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday.

The naval drill code-named “Joint Sea 2015” was held from May 17 to 21 and involved nine ships from both countries.

On the Russian side, ships participating in the exercise were the Moskva, the leadship of the Slava-class of guided missile cruisers, the Burevestnik-class frigate Ladny, the Bora-class hoverborne guided missile corvette Samum, the Ropucha-class landing ship Alexander Shabalin (designed for beach landings and capable of carrying a 450-ton cargo), and an older ship of the same class, the Alexander Otrakovsky, as well as a MB-31 tugboat.

On the Chinese side, the vessels involved were fewer in number but consisted of more modern ships including two Type 054A frigates, the Linyi and Weifang. The third Chinese vessel to participate in Joint Sea 2015 was the Type 903 replenishment ship Weishanhu.

According to Interfax, the navies practiced underway replenishment and escort operations. Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman for the Navy Captain 1st Class Igor Dygalo told Interfax that, “the combined naval group of Russia and China practiced underway replenishment, cargo transfer and escorting missions during the daylight period of May 19.”

“Russian Navy and the Navy of the People’s Liberation Army of China ships held a joint practice of maritime escorts today, in a drill episode simulating the protection of safe shipping in remote areas of the World Ocean,” he added.

The Russian Navy’s deputy commander, Vice Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov, told reporters that the joint-task force accomplished their assignments with “excellent” marks.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 25 2015, 10:50 AM

PLA Ground Forces' second Amphibious landing ship under final stages of construction



Officially described as an Army Ro/Ro Transport, it is really a Landing Ship Medium (LSM), equipped with the with the typical kedging anchor of landing ships, even though the bulbous bow would preclude the ship from beaching. Unlike the normal Navy warships, this vessel is made especially for the PLA ground Forces.

The ship is equipped with both bow and stern ramps and a helicopter platform aft. The armament consists of four twin 14.5 mm guns, two forward and two aft. Twin funnels indicate twin-screw propulsion; in addition, it has a bow thruster for improved maneuvrability.The lifting capacity is probably a mechanised infantry company.

The ship is a striking departure from the Type 271III YUWEI class Landing Craft Tank (LCT) that has been building for decades for the Army, and of which there currently are some 85 in service with the Army’s landing craft units. The dark grey colour, too, is a departure from the usual blue of Army vessels.

China nearly completing its first MLP-type sea basing vessel without anybody noticing



The Chinese Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) H1138 is smaller than its USN counterpart; weighting in about 5,000 tons, The USNS Montford Point in comparison weighs in about 34,500 tons.

The Mobile Landing Platform concept calls for a large auxiliary support ship to facilitate the 'seabasing' of an amphibious landing force by acting as a floating base or transfer station that can be prepositioned off the target area. Troops, equipment, and cargo would be transferred to the MLP by large-draft ships, from where these can be moved ashore by shallower-draft vessels, landing craft like the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), or helicopters. To fulfill this duty, the MLP will be able to adjust its buoyancy so that the transport deck could be lowered to sea-level and landing crafts and LCACs could deploy straight off the transport deck into the water without any further preparations.

The small size of the Chinese vessel could suggest a limited role to only supporting float-on/float-off amphibious operations and not for long range force deployment and resupply.

USN’s MLP, on the other hand, is designed with those mission profiles in mind: it’s MLP1 and MLP2 provision 25,000 square feet of vehicle and equipment stowage space and 380,000 gallons of fuel storage in addition to the support of 3 LCAC lanes.

Saudi forces, Houthi militias trade mortar and artillery fire, Haradh border crossing complex heavily damaged



Saudi forces and Yemen’s Houthi militia traded heavy artillery fire which destroyed part of the main border crossing between the two countries overnight, residents said on Sunday, an escalation of the two-month war.

The Haradh border crossing, the largest for people and goods between the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and its impoverished neighbour, was evacuated amid shelling which razed its departure lounge and passport section, witnesses said.

Residents of several Yemeni villages in the area left their homes and fled from the frontier, which has turned into a front line between the kingdom and the Iran-allied rebels.

Arab air raids hit military bases and weapons stores in the capital Sanaa and local officials said a mid-level Houthi commander, Abu Bassam al-Kibsi, was killed in an air strike in the central province of Raymah.

Houthi rebels shows what they say is a wreckage of a downed Saudi fighter jet, Saudis denies claim




These 'wreckage' suspiciously look like jettisoned fuel tanks only....

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: May 25 2015, 05:04 PM

On average about 70% of MBT weight is in the turret armor & main gun. Because T-14 turret is unmanned, there is less armor there. So overall its weight is brought down although size is as same as larger and heavier western MBTs.

Cyprus supply Lebanese Army with small arms worth $10 million USD



As part of the Saudi military aid pledged to reinforce the Lebanese Army, Cyprus has supplied Lebanon with a significant amount of small arms amounting to $10 Million USD. The aid is part of the $3 Billion USD aid grant the Saudis took to strengthen the Lebanese Army and help erode the armed power base of the Shia Hezbollah militant group.

The amount of small arms in the Cyprus contract amounts to:

5500 Semi Auto Rifles
9400 Assault Rifles
1200 Light Machine guns
580 Medium machine Guns
30 Million rounds of ammunition in various calibres

Lebanon army traditionally follow french style, so berets fold right to left.