Haha suddenly CIA and MI6 figure this out?

Besides, who's gonna be the ground troops for this plan? Obviously no western boots on the ground and to use the SAA, NDF and various Iranian-backed militias is not kosher with western powers who spent the last 5 years seeking to dispose of Assad and limit Iranian influence..

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 22 2015, 08:41 PM

Hahaha SAA proven incompetent with armored ops. No wonder they lost already hundreds of tanks to ATGMs. No way Russia will allow any sort of modern armor to be shipped over there. Waste of money.

Apparently new Russian uniform not available in desert camo.


Also, quick guide to the Russian striped shirt (Telnyashka) and their service colors:

Black: Marines
Dark blue: Navy
Light blue: Paratroopers
Green: Border Guards
Black: Internal Security

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 22 2015, 09:51 PM

Russians have more older stuff that needs to be combat-proven. Even T-90s never found themselves in active combat anywhere.

Hybrid system with ZSU-23-2 AA guns and 9M333 'Strela-10' VSHORAD. Looks very steampunk.

Malaysia to grant PLA Navy use of Kota Kinabalu port facilities



Malaysia has allowed the Chinese navy to use its Kota Kinabalu port, close to the Philippines and the Spratly Archipelago, in what analysts say is an effort not to take sides in the territorial disputes in the region.

The agreement was made when Admiral Wu Shengli, commander of the PLA Navy, visited Malaysia last week. Chinese ships would be able to use the port in Malaysian Borneo as a “stopover location”, reported US magazine the National Interest.

Having ports as supply stops along significant routes has been a long-term plan for the Chinese navy, said Shanghai-based military analyst Ni Lexiong.

The plan includes building its own naval bases, like China has been doing on the man-made islands in the Spratly and Paracel islands, as well as acquiring access to ports in other countries in strategic locations.

In the South China Sea, Malaysia did not want to directly confront China, according to Hoo Tiang Boon of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. He said this was in contrast to the Philippines and Vietnam, which were strengthening ties.

It was a gesture of neutrality, Hoo said, since the same port was already open to international powers such as the US and the French.

Russia deploys Moskva missile cruiser off Syrian coast with orders to destroy 'any targets' threatening its planes



In the light of the recent shootdown of the Russian Su-24 attack plane, Russia is sending its Moskva missile cruiser closer to both the Turkish and Syrian coasts with orders to destroy 'any targets' that threaten its planes during bombing operations in Syria.

The Moskva is a Slava-class missile Cruiser which carries 64 S-300F (NATO: SA-20 Grumble) surface-to-air missile which can reach ranges up to 90km away at a maximum altitude of 25,000 feet.

Russia also announced the suspension of all Russia-Turkey military cooperation and has ordered all attack plane bombing operations is to be accompanied by fighter escorts.

That's a load of shite.

Turkish planes and UAVs cross into Syria constantly. Mostly as recon and intel-finders for Turkey's-friendly Syrian rebel brigades operating near Turkish borders. Also sometimes Turkish Air force also have raids attacking separatist PKK and PYD Kurdish forces hiding inside Syria. I think there was a recon F-4 shot down some time ago by Syrian AA systems.

Nobody cares before, though after this any caught by Russians will definitely be hammered by Russian air defenses.

Just token support for the sake of NATO unity. If Turkey is found out to have spilled first blood and Russia retaliates, some believe chapter 5 of NATO charter won't apply. NATO is a defense alliance, if one of its members go on the offensive and shoot at Russians, they're on their own.

Also, Turkey's version of the events just stinks. Even if they warned the Russians, as they claimed, 10 times in 5 minutes, when the Su-24 crossed into Turkish territory it was a strip of land just 3 miles wide jutting into Syrian territory. A jet fighter could simply cross that distance in less than 20 seconds. Even the German newspaper De Spiegel said it believed the Russian plane was over Turkish territory for less than 17 seconds, and it had no indication that the Su-24 had in any shape or form threaten any Turkish territory, just unlucky in that the little strip of land it flew on for a measly 20 seconds turned out to be Turkish territory.

Even if the Turkish version of the events are true, it would be unnecesarily excessive and aggressive to shoot down a plane that's just trespassed your airspace for less than 20 seconds. Even given the very minimum time it would take a typical pilot to lock onto a moving target and launch an air-to-air missile at it, all within the narrow 20-second window, the Su-24 would have most probably already left Turkish airspace the moment the Turkish fighter fired the missile.

If the Russians do employ the S-400 system (NATO: SA-21 Growler) in Lataqiyya, they could theoretically cover nearly 80% of Syria.

Also the S-400 system actually has 4 types of missiles that can be used by a missile battery:
The 40N6 ultra long-range missile (max range 400km),
the 48N6DM long-range missile (max range 250km),
the 9M96E medium-range missile (max range 120km)

A complete S-400 missile battery consists of 91N6E Long-range panoramic search radar (600km detection range, can display up to 300 targets), 92N6E tracking radar (400km tracking range, can track up to 100 targets), 55K6E command & control unit and up to 76 missiles of all types.

The S-400 system can also be integrated into the 'Morpheus' Air Defense system that consists of the S-400 system and the Tor M1 mobile short-range missile system to provide aerial protection at all ranges.


Pretty comprehensive system.

Russian airstrike hits Turkish aid convoy in Northern Syria



Russian warplanes bombed a Turkish lorry convoy at the Syrian border on Wednesday amid increasing tensions between the two countries over Turkey's downing of a Russian jet.

Video from Doğan News Agency showed the aftermath of the strikes near Azaz, a Syrian border town.

Turkish media said the trucks belonged to IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, an Istanbul-based humanitarian organization with connections to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. IHH said it has teams in the area but did not own the lorries.

Footage filmed at a crossing on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey's southern province of Kilis showed lorries burning. The head of the rebel-run border crossing in the same area said separately that air strikes hit a garage for commercial trailers, killing seven lorry drivers.

Anadolu news agency reported that 20 lorries were targeted, which were carrying cement and iron brought from Turkey in a regular procedure.

Seven people were killed and ten others injured in the air strike, Daily Sabah reported.

Russian media said Wednesday the air force had doubled its air strikes in the area, targeting Syria opposition groups al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army, which both have a presence in Azaz. Earlier, the activist monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Russian airstrikes in Azaz.

It will be a de facto NFZ if Russia deploys S-400. Anything larger than a pigeon flying over Syria, the radars will pick it up (and lock onto). Western powers will most likely scale back their air campaigns, out of fearing a nasty accident waiting to happen.

The fact that Russians are hitting targets that close to the Turkish/Syrian border barely 48 hours after the shootdown incident shows they don't give a crap on what Turkey has to say about its air campaign.



This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 26 2015, 11:17 AM

Leader of group who killed Russian pilot in cold blood is a Turkish citizen with right-wing paramilitary links


Alpaslan Celik (center)

THE rebel leader who boasted of murdering a Russian pilot shot down over Syria is a member of the Turkish Grey Wolves fascist paramilitary group.
The Morning Star can reveal that Alparslan Celik — deputy commander of the Turkmen Brigade that shot at the parachuting crew of the Su-24 tactical bomber downed in a Turkish ambush — is a Turkish citizen from Elazig province.

Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov — earlier incorrectly identified as Major Sergei Rumyantsev — was killed by Turkmen forces after ejecting from his jet on Tuesday.

His navigator Captain Konstantin Murakhtin was captured but rescued by Syrian and Russian special forces on Wednesday — the first known use of Russian ground forces in Syria’s civil war.

Mr Celik quickly claimed that his supposedly native Syrian Turkmen militia had killed both pilots.

But Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported last year that he is a Turkish citizen whose father Ramazan was mayor of Keban municipality for the ultra-nationalist National Movement Party (MHP).

The Grey Wolves is the paramilitary wing of MHP and has been linked to the murders of hundreds of left-wing and liberal activists since the 1970s.

Russian airstrikes hit Turkish/Syrian rebel-controlled border town



Residents said on Thursday that Russian warplanes bombed a rebel-held Syrian town along the Turkish border a day after hitting a truck depot near a crossing between the two countries.

One resident said the air strikes hit a busy main square in the town of Saraqeb in Idlib province, where hundreds of vehicles brought in through the nearby Bab al Hawa border crossing were being sold.

A second resident who was nearby and witnessed the bombing said several wounded people had been taken to hospital. Hundreds of drivers had raced away from the scene immediately afterwards in the vehicles they had hoped to sell, he said.

Residents and rebels in the area say it is easy to identify planes from factors including the altitude at which they fly and the number of planes in the sorties.

Jets, believed to be Russian, hit a depot for trucks waiting to go through a major rebel-controlled border crossing, Bab al-Salam, on Wednesday, the head of the crossing said.

Syrian jets have struck that area before but, if confirmed to have been carried out by Russia, it would be one of Moscow's closest air strikes to Turkish territory, targeting a humanitarian corridor into rebel-held Syria and an important transit point for Syrian civilians crossing to Turkey.

S-400 SAM missiles arrive in Syria in wake of Russian Su-24 shootdown







Earlier in the day, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported that Russia has delivered its S-400 missile defense system to its air base near Syria’s Latakia.

“Today, in accordance with a decision by the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, an S-400 air defense system was promptly delivered and deployed on combat duty at the Hmeymim air base in Syria,” ministry’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

The decision was made after Turkey’s Air Force downed an Su-24 Fencer bomber operating in Syria against the Islamic State.

Probably got a few units on standby in nearby Caucasus region bases, ready to be flown in if any untoward incidents occured.

So, unclear on how many units are actually deployed, but Russia seems to have a de facto A2/AD coverage of well over 80% of Syria.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 27 2015, 12:11 PM

Judging by the maximum range of S-400 missile should be enough to cover Russian forces in Western Syria from any significant aerial attack.

Russian defense firm introduces canine body armor in light of terrorist's fatal shooting of French police dog 'Diesel'





A Russian defence company has released a new design of body armour to keep terror-sniffing police dogs safe in the wake of the death of French police dog Diesel, who died during a police raid in Paris following the Friday 13th terror attacks.

In a new video Russian dog handler demonstrated the new design in a new video showing off the transformation from man's best friend to professionally protected police hound.

'At first, of course, the dog did not like the vest. Then gradually she realised that it was for her own good and protection,' Vladimir Khitrykh said in front of a pack of snapping photographers.

The armour has reportedly been designed by St. Petersburg-based Scientific Production Association of Special Materials (NPO), which was formed during the days of the Soviet Union as a specialist armoured materials laboratory.

The so-called 'Nord' body armour consists of two parts, protecting both the neck and chest of the brave pooch and additional armour is also available for the legs and head if required.

It comes as Russia showed its solidarity with the people of France by donating a new puppy to carry on the memory of Diesel, the police dog killed when police raided Paris hide out of terrorist planner Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Nov 28 2015, 02:30 PM