This recruitment music video for the Afghan National Army may sound far cooler than the translation suggests, but for a country that had previously lived under Taliban rule and remains mired in a never ending insurgency, you can’t be too hard on them.

The head of the parliamentary defense committee, Viktor Ozerov, said Tuesday that he estimated about 1,000 Russian military personnel would remain in Syria at the two bases. That's according to the Interfax news agency.

Ozerov says Russia would need a minimum of two battalions, a total of 800 troops, to protect the two bases. He says it will continue to conduct air reconnaissance, requiring some of the plane crews to remain, and the military specialists advising the Syrian army also would stay.

The estimate follows President Vladimir Putin's announcement Monday that some of the Russian aircraft and troops would be withdrawn. Russia has not revealed how many soldiers it has deployed to Syria, where it maintains a naval facility as well as an air base, but U.S. estimates of the number of Russian military personnel varies from 3,000 to 6,000.

“THAAD is a purely defensive weapon. It is purely capable of shooting down a ballistic missile it intercepts. And it is there for the protection of the United States,” Kerry said.

“If we can get to denuclearization, there’s no need to deploy THAAD,” he added.

Hishammuddin said he would meet Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne to ensure efforts are made to “hold China to their promise of not placing military assets in the area”.

“If the reports we’ve received from various sources regarding the build-up and placement of military assets in the Spratlys are true — this forces us in a pushback against China,” Hishammuddin told reporters.

“Invisibility cloaks” and other future advances in military camouflage techniques could violate the Geneva conventions, a top military lawyer has warned.

Refinements of technologies that are already used on stealth bombers could breach compliance with international laws regulating armed conflict if equipment is disguised or soldiers’ weapons are hidden, according to Bill Boothby, a former air commodore and deputy director of RAF legal services.

Scientists and military contractors are spending tens of millions of pounds researching methods for generating effective invisibility through more sophisticated “metamaterials” – substances designed to absorb or bend light and/or radar waves in order to conceal approaching aircraft or troops.

This Afghanistan National Army's Rapping Recruitment Video Isn't Totally Horror


http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/this-afgh...vide-1764909286

15 March 2016

Could the F-35 Finally Make its Way to Singapore?

Keiren Goh



Singapore’s acquisition of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II has shifted from an unlikely possibility to a plausible probability in recent months.

The F-35 is being touted as a state-of-the-art fifth generation fighter, described as only second to the U.S. Air Force’s prized F-22 in air-to-air capabilities and the best in air-to-ground abilities. While many Western and pro-West states, such as the UK and Japan, have already received the F-35, the tiny city-state of Singapore has been a financial contributor as a ‘Security Cooperative Partner’ in the F-35 programme since its launch in 2003, though they since remained characteristically tight lipped on any involvement.

This changed in 2013, when Minister of Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen announced that they were in the ‘final stages of evaluating the F-35’. In December last year, Dr Ng was given a tour of F-35 training facilities at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona where he told reporters that he was ‘pleased’ with the progress of the F-35 programme and that it continued to ‘tick boxes’ in evaluation. These recent developments, along with an appearance of a replica F-35 at the Singapore Airshow suggests that Singapore’s interest in the programme is higher than ever.

Singapore’s move for the F-35 is atypical; the state has exhibited a preference for depending on their own industry for military equipment. When required to look abroad, the usual defence procurement habit has been to purchase second-hand or slightly dated equipment, before refurbishing and modernising it. Recent examples of this include Singapore’s acquisition and refurbishment of second-hand Leopard II tanks in 2006 and the purchase of heavily upgraded F-15 fighters that became operational in 2013. Despite the tradition of obtaining hand-me-downs, Singapore’s military is already considered the most advanced in South East Asia. Thus, a move alongside Western states for the brand new F-35 is intriguing.

The F-35 would no doubt enhance the RSAF’s capability. The F-35 programme’s director of business development Steve Over said that the F-35 is equipped to handle ‘today’s developing advanced threat systems’ which fourth-generation aircraft, still in use by US and Singapore air forces, may not be able to handle.

Read more: http://foreignaffairsreview.co.uk/2016/03/...y-to-singapore/

Have the 35 improve recently,

All I know is that the f35 is unbelievably bad overall last time

Or sinkie buy to counter indon su35?

Or because want Uncle Sam happy happy?

In recent years Indonesia and Malaysia, along with the rest of Southeast Asia, have  increased their defence budgets and have started modernising their armouries. Malaysia’s air force suffers from being overly diverse, outdated, and expensive to maintain, and seeks to replace several aging aircraft with modern alternatives. Malaysia has already procured a number of modern Sukhoi Su-30 fighters from Russia, and is looking to further expand its fleet by forty modern aircraft by 2020. Indonesia’s air force is similarly outdated, but they have announced that they will be adding the multi-role Su-35 to their fledging fleet of sixteen modern Su-27 and Su-30 aircraft. The Su-35 is a 4++ generation aircraft, meaning that it is placed just below the F-35. However, even without the F-35 the RSAF still outmatches the new Malaysian and Indonesian air forces, but it is unsurprising that the RSAF is evaluating a fifth generation aircraft in order to maintain its defence premium in the face of their neighbour’s modernisation programme.

In recent years Indonesia and Malaysia, along with the rest of Southeast Asia, have  increased their defence budgets and have started modernising their armouries. Malaysia’s air force suffers from being overly diverse, outdated, and expensive to maintain, and seeks to replace several aging aircraft with modern alternatives. Malaysia has already procured a number of modern Sukhoi Su-30 fighters from Russia, and is looking to further expand its fleet by forty modern aircraft by 2020. Indonesia’s air force is similarly outdated, but they have announced that they will be adding the multi-role Su-35 to their fledging fleet of sixteen modern Su-27 and Su-30 aircraft. The Su-35 is a 4++ generation aircraft, meaning that it is placed just below the F-35. However, even without the F-35 the RSAF still outmatches the new Malaysian and Indonesian air forces, but it is unsurprising that the RSAF is evaluating a fifth generation aircraft in order to maintain its defence premium in the face of their neighbour’s modernisation programme.

lol... mig29 havent event find replacement yet still got $$$ buy up to 40?

the su-35 is a threat no doubt but the f-15s are at least on par with them... taking into acct training, shouldnt be a prob

doubt will purchase any until it reaches a certain level of maturity..

Israeli officials have privately said Russian forces sent in last year to help Syrian President Bashar Assad turn the tide against a now five-year-old rebellion also served to restrain his anti-Israeli allies - Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia.

Israel was further helped by a hotline to the main Russian airbase at Hmeymim in Syria, which let it continue covert strikes to foil suspected Hezbollah or Iranian operations against it on Syrian turf without fear of accidentally clashing with Moscow.

He clarified that the Russian decision was made in an effort to promote negotiations between the sides. "Russia is sending a clear message to everyone involved in the Syria crisis - it's time to give political dialogue a chance, a change for an internal Syrian dialogue between the government and the different factions in the opposition," he said. 

Zvi Magen, formerly Israel's ambassador to Moscow, told Ynet that "the discussion is not the withdrawal of troops, but the announcement that they will stop fighting, and that has a different type of meaning. Russia is probably not going anywhere, but it was more important for Putin to announce that he is now stopping the fighting."

Just set up 12 teams of light, portable ATGM...like Metis-M on the landing beach. After all 48 missiles fired...then withdraw to the next defense line.

Huge losses on the attacking side.

Have the 35 improve recently,

All I know is that the f35 is unbelievably bad overall last time

Or sinkie buy to counter indon su35?

Or because want Uncle Sam happy happy?

I have never heard of malaysia want to add more su-30.
Probably just to justify singapore need f35.

range of Metis doesn't fill me with confidence

range of Metis doesn't fill me with confidence

Metis-M has longer range than the original Metis...roughly equal to tank gun range. Enough.

I think you'll have to choose whether you use shorter-ranged portable light infantry-based ATGM like Metis-M or heavier, longer-ranged ATGM like TOW that are larger and much more difficult to carry around.

If your tactics depend of fast hit and run infantry tactics, a lighter weapon would probably be more appreciated. Heavy ATGMs are really suited best for vehicle mountings or fixed ambushes, not fast infantry action. You could always mount them on a truck or Humvee, but vehicles are easier to detect and destroy than small units of 3-4 soldiers.