A Russian jet which crashed into the sea after a reconnaissance  mission in Aleppo ran out of fuel, according to reports.

The MiG 29 was forced to circle the Admiral Kuznetsov carrier after an emergency affected two planes in front of it and the runway had to be repaired.

While it was in the holding area waiting to land, both the plane's engines cut out, and it plummeted into the Mediterranean on November 13.

The pilot, who has been described as experienced, had to use his ejector seat to escape. The wreckage was later recovered from the sea.

India's eastern neighbor Bangladesh acquired two diesel-electric submarines from China on November 14. After they enter service in 2017, they will become the first and only submarines in the Bangladeshi navy.

"It is difficult to fathom why Bangladesh, which does not encounter any conventional maritime-military threat, has inducted submarines in its navy," said Gurpreet Khurana, an Indian Navy captain and executive director of the National Maritime Foundation.

"Submarines are offensive weapons of sea denial and their only use would be to pose a threat in being for India and to complicate the latter's maritime security paradigm,"

Prakash also believes that the sale is a step in a long-standing Chinese policy of encircling India with client states who are dependent on China. Both India and China are significant weapon manufacturers, with India seeking to become one of the world's largest arms exporters, according to Bloomberg. Snatching regional markets from India is a logical act of competition.

In 2016, the active component of the U.S. Army of 479,000 soldiers shrank to the smallest it has been since before World War II, when it had some 269,000. The number of Army combat brigades is scheduled to decline to 30 by 2018, one third fewer than there were just in 2013. The U.S. Navy, with 273 ships, is about the same size as it was prior to America’s entry into World War I.

The U.S. Navy, with 273 ships, is about the same size as it was prior to America’s entry into World War I. At approximately 5,000 total aircraft, the U.S. Air Force is both the smallest and oldest it has been since its inception in 1947. The number of active duty squadrons in the Air Force is slated to decline to 39, less than half of the 70 that were available during Operation Desert Storm.

The number of active duty squadrons in the Air Force is slated to decline to 39, less than half of the 70 that were available during Operation Desert Storm. Army, Navy and Air Force end strengths are each about 40 percent smaller than they were at the end of the Cold War.

This is one of the main reasons why the Pentagon had to rely on more than a hundred thousand private contractors to provide the necessary logistics, sustainment and communications for its deployed forces when it went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. maintained a two-and-a-half-war strategy: major, simultaneous wars against the Soviet Union and China plus another nation.

The Nixon Administration changed the sizing criteria to one-and-a-half-wars: a major war with the Soviet Union plus a second, possibly related, conflict in the Persian Gulf or on the Korean peninsula

Thus, a two-MRC U.S. force would consist of 10 Army divisions, two or three division-sized Marine Expeditionary Forces, 11 aircraft carriers, 120 large surface combatants, 38 large amphibious warfare ships, 200 strategic bombers, 60 tactical fighter wings, 400–500 tankers, 250 airlifters and some 75 maritime support ships.

Even the fight against Islamic terrorism strained the military’s capacity in some ways. The Army had to add nearly 75,000 active duty personnel and mobilize a large fraction of the National Guard just to handle the ongoing demands of Iraq, Afghanistan and its other worldwide commitments.

The civilian and military leadership of the Department of Defense (DoD) have publicly declared that the U.S. now faces five strategic threats: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and global Islamic terrorism. Conflict with either of the first two would constitute a major war, not a regional contingency.

Both Russia and China have invested heavily in so-called anti-access and area denial capabilities (A2/AD) that are designed to counter erstwhile U.S. advantages, particularly in air and naval power. Russia is deploying its A2/AD capabilities in ways that could preclude U.S. and NATO military operations in the Baltic, Black and eastern Mediterranean Seas.

North Korea, a nuclear weapons state, has already deployed over a thousand ballistic missiles -- three hundred of which have the range to strike Japan and U.S. bases in the Western Pacific. Iran has ballistic missiles that can reach most of the Middle East. Tehran just received its first Russian S-300 air defense system. Hezbollah, the Shiite terrorist group, is reported to have an arsenal with tens of thousands of rockets and ballistic missiles. ISIS has employed Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles capable of destroying U.S.-made M-1 tanks operated by the Iraqi Army.

Yes, the U.S. military can penetrate current A2/AD defenses, but at what price? Let’s remember that the Air Force only has 186 F-22s, the plane that was designed to penetrate advanced air defenses, and there are no more where those came from.

The reality is that the U.S. military today is too small, with too few technological advantages and facing too many threats. There is now a very real possibility that in a future conflict, even one with a regional adversary, U.S. forces could suffer such high casualties that, regardless of the outcome, this country will lack the capabilities needed to deal with any other major contingency.

China has become the latest country to successfully test fire a hypersonic missile, it has been claimed.

A Chinese J-16 strike fighter test-fired the giant missile earlier this month, successfully destroying the target drone at a very long range, according to Popular Science.

Its experts analysed pictured of the launch, and concluded the missile was  19 feet long, and roughly 13 inches in diameter, meaning it could hit targets up to 300 miles away.

The pair analysed photos of a J16 taking off with two of the very long range air to air missile (VLRAAM)

'Reports are that the size would put into the category of a very long range air to air missile (VLRAAM) with ranges exceeding 300 km (roughly 186 miles), likely max out between 250 and 310 miles.'


'Additionally, the VLRAAM's powerful rocket engine will push it to Mach 6 speeds, which will increase the no escape zone (NEZ), that is the area where a target cannot outrun the missile, against even supersonic targets like stealth fighters,' they said.

A 2015 study in a Chinese scientific journal revealed the missile's potential flightpath.

It showed a VLRAAM, flying 15 km upward once it is released by a fighter jet, reaching a 30 km altitude.

And in recent months, four of the 400-foot-long warships—half of the Littoral Combat Ships currently in commission—have suffered serious engine breakdowns, possible signs of systemic problems with the ship’s design and operating procedures.

The 80-year-old, British-born Giles filed suit, via the company he founded, Fastship, in 2012. But the legal challenge has gone largely unnoticed in the mainstream press. He alleged in his complaint that the Navy violated two Fastship patents granted in 1992 and 1993 and which, taken together, describe a novel design for a faster, more efficient ship, one that essentially glides across the water—“semi-planing” is the technical term—rather than plowing through it.

The trick, according to one of Fastship’s patents, is to build a hull with a flattened rear underside and, while the ship is underway, shoot high-pressure water across the flat section. The combination of flat hull and water-jets creates “a dual component of lift,” the patent explains. And as the hull partially lifts out of the water, it moves faster than can a ship with a traditional V-shape hull that digs more deeply into the sea.

Lockheed apparently wanted to make use of Fastship’s speedy-vessel concept. In 2002, the two companies formed what Giles described as a “strategic partnership.” Fastship handed over its design specs and test data, Giles told The Daily Beast, adding that Fastship had previously supplied the Navy with similar information in confidence between 1998 and 2000.

Lockheed dropped Giles’s company from its Littoral Combat Ship design team in 2004, after it had proposed to the Navy—and the Navy had agreed to buy—a vessel design that Giles said matched Prelude’s patented parameters but was too long and skinny for maximum efficiency. Since cutting the first contracts for Littoral Combat Ships in 2004, the Navy has spent billions of dollars on the Lockheed version of the class. USS Detroit, the fourth and latest Lockheed ship, commissioned on Oct. 22.

The lawsuit has dragged on for four years and could last months longer. In October, the Justice Department’s lawyer rolled out as an expert witness Donald Blount, an authority on high-speed vessels who claimed that any knowledgeable ship-designer could come up with Giles’s semi-planing system—and therefore Fastship’s patents were invalid.

To counter the government’s experts, Fastship’s lawyer deployed a secret weapon—Garwin, an 88-year-old physicist who, among other historic accomplishments, helped to design nuclear bombs and America’s first spy satellite.

A fighter jet sent spectators at an airfield running for cover when it swooped within metres of them when flying past.

Two planes are seen coming into the landing strip at a military facility before one swerves to the left and heads straight for a congregation.

Members of the crowd are seen scattering away as the SU27 approaches, before it pulls up and straightens, then continues on its way.

The United Engine Corporation (UEC), part of Rostec state holding company, successfully conducted the first ground-based ignition of the second stage of the engine for the Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA T-50 aircraft).
The United Engine Corporation (UEC), part of Rostec state holding company, successfully conducted the first ground-based ignition of the second stage of the engine for the Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA T-50 aircraft).

In order to carry out the testing, gas generators had to be prepared for it, in addition to the demonstrator engine.

What is the PAK FA flying with now?

Currently, the PAK FA is using a first stage engine, a modernized Al-41.

According to Pavel Bulat, avionics specialist and head of the Kupol Group of Companies, the AI-41 is an updated version of engines used for the Su-27, Su-30 and other models in that series.

“The engine for the T-50 was significantly upgraded from the original models, incorporating the latest control system, compressors, etc. Nevertheless, it still falls short of the 5th generation model, and is very noticeable on radar screens,” said the expert.

The new second-stage engine is one of the most advanced in the world, said Bulat. It enables the T-50 to accelerate to supersonic speed, and maintain that velocity throughout the flight, without using afterburners.

“The speed will be as much as Mach 1.6 (about 1,200 mph), depending on the terrain over which the flight is taking place. The engine will also significantly improve the stealth properties of the PAK FA, thanks to the use of new composite materials,” said Bulat.

The designers expect to start testing the new engine on fighter jets in 2018, and for the motor to be fully integrated in 2020.

“In addition to the engine, a radar station also needs to be modified, and engineers need to remove the last deficiencies in the airframe concept, which, among all the aircraft flying today, is the most modern in the world,” said the analyst.

Dear readers,

A report by Izvestia online newspaper entitled, “Russia’s Armata tanks to be equipped with reconnaissance drone,” published on this page on Nov. 24 was incorrect. A representative of the Moscow Aviation Institute, Darya Strunkina, informed RBTH that the report published by Izvestia is false. Therefore, the report has been removed from the RBTH website.

Using their ZilZal-2 missile designed in Yemen, the Houthi forces scored a direct hit on a Saudi military camp in the Jizan Region on Wednesday.

Footage of this Houthi missile strike was captured by Hezbollah's official media wing; it shows the moment this missile hit the Saudi military camp.

TEHRAN (Sputnik) — Sheikholeslam added that "the airbase is fully owned by Iran."

"If Russia has such a need and the issue is agreed with the Russian side, Russia's Aerospace Forces will be able to use the base to carry out their military mission in Syria, but, I stress, under strict control of our armed forces," Sheikholeslam told Sputnik.

"If the situation in Syria requires, then, like last time, we are ready to allow the Russian side again to conduct flights from that airfield and refuel its aircraft," he said.

In the late 1980s, the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force decided to replace its aging 7.62-by-51-millimeter Howa Type 64 battle rifles. The JGSDF selected a lighter, modern assault rifle — the Howa Type 89 — in 1989.

It’s a solid weapon, but one with a few weird features. Its biggest problem, however, is that there aren’t enough copies of it in existence.

The Howa Machinery Company, Ltd. had previously produced the Type 64 and also manufactured a licensed copy of Armalite’s AR-18. The Japanese Defense Agency and Howa developed a series of prototypes during the 1980s — and the JGSDF eventually adopted the HR-16 prototype as the Type 89.

The new rifle represents a vast improvement in ergonomics over the Type 64. It chambers the NATO-standard 5.56-by-45-millimeter round and feeds from a 20- or 30-round magazine. The rifle features a short-stroke gas piston system with a rotating bolt derived from the AR-18.

The Type 89 is significantly handier than the earlier Type 64. It weighs 7.7 pounds and measures 36.1 inches from muzzle to butt. Its fire selector has four positions in an unconventional order — safe, full auto, three-round burst and semi-automatic.

Another unusual feature of the rifle’s fire control group is the inclusion of a separate, three-round burst mechanism.

The Type 89’s gas system is designed to lower the recoil impulse. This extends parts-life and improves the rifle’s handling. The rifle has a stamped receiver combined with forged aluminum parts and polymer furniture.

Like the Type 64, the Type 89 comes with an integrated bipod. The Type 89-F variant has a shorter overall length and a side-folding, variable-length stock.

The Type 89 can be fitted with a canvas cartridge-catcher and a bayonet. It can fire the Type 06 rifle-grenade without additional attachments. It’s possible, with an adapter, to also fit the M203 40-millimeter under-barrel grenade launcher.

The rifle’s top cover has a mounting point for rails in order to attach optics. The JGSDF issues a few unmagnified red-dot optics, and personnel are allowed to purchase their own optics, if they wish.

The JGSDF is currently updating the Type 89 with a quad-rail system as part of Japan’s Advanced Combat Infantry Equipment System program.

Through a “crowdsourcing experiment” on Geo4nonpro.com, Lewis and his colleagues have been examining satellite imagery of Kaliningrad. According to Lewis, the results are disturbing.

Instead of a routine deployment with routine drills, Lewis sees the Russians “knocking buildings down like crazy and building new buildings,” in what he considers an attempt to permanently house the nuclear-capable missiles in Europe.

“I think construction at the missile base is consistent with permanent deployment. We found the missile base using Russian social media and found the training area. Every time there are reports that there’s an exercise we go take a look at the missile base,” said Lewis of his methodology.

The military bases in Kaliningrad seem to be undergoing a change to accommodate the missiles and vehicles that accompany them.

The Type 73 is an intriguing design, virtually unheard of outside North Korea. Little information about the gun’s origins has escape the reclusive communist country.

“Even within the mist of secrecy regarding North Korean firearms, the Type 73 is still clouded in mystery,” Dan Shea and Heebum Hong wrote in Small Arms Defense Journal in 2013. “Refugees who escape North Korea via China sometimes have information, but that information might have some problems.”

From what details and images are available, the approximately 23-pound gun appears to be a hodgepodge of ideas taken from various Soviet and Warsaw Pact designs. The Type 73 blends the basic layout of the Russian PKM with the feeding system from the Czechoslovakian Vz.52.

The arrangement allows gunners to load the weapons with belts of ammunition or large magazines. When fitted, the magazines stick out of the top, giving the firearms a distinctly dated appearance.

Unusual for a machine gun, the Type 73 has a special barrel attachment so soldiers can fire rifle grenades. With this feature, it is not entirely clear what role the North Koreans envisioned for the gun.