Wednesday, 22 March 2023

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By Stijn Mitzer, Joost Oliemans and Kemal
  
Those expecting the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to be a spectacle of Russian military might were soon left sorely disappointed. Yet the degradation of its combat abilities has continued apace, and one year into its war the cracks in the Russian military machine are starting to widen into chasms. Sustaining losses that meanwhile number over 1800 tanks and more than 2000 IFVs, the Russian Army has already reached the point at which it is no longer able to replace lost equipment with armament that is at least roughly equivalent to the combat worth of the equipment lost. [1] In order to replace its lost T-72B3 Obr. 2016s and T-80BVMs MBTs, the Russian arms industry hasn't churned out any of the much anticipated T-14 Armatas, but rather begun introducing hundreds of refurbished or upgraded variants of the antiquated T-62 MBT and even 1950s-era T-54s in an unmodified state. [2]
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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
After decades of bidding for peace, Japan is now once more preparing for the possibility of war, for the first time truly introducing offensive capabilities to the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and installing long-range anti-ship missiles on islands near Taiwan. Despite its post-Cold War hopes of diplomatically resolving its territorial conflicts, it now finds itself perched at the edge of an increasingly assertive China and Russia (which still occupies four of Japan's southernmost Kuril Islands) and a nuclear-capable North Korea. As part of its attempts to strengthen its military posture, Japan is also seeking to increase the capabilities of Asian countries against Chinese interference and enhance sea surveillance, most notably the Philippines and Malaysia.

Tuesday, 21 March 2023

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
The People's Socialist Republic of Albania was a Marxist-Leninist one party state that existed from 1946 until 1991. Throughout much of its existence, the country was led by Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania by establishing a Stalinist style of governance known as Hoxhaism. Despite far-reaching similarities with North Korea, Albania and its authoritarian ruler arguably constitute a forgotten chapter of the Cold War period. Albania's close ties with the Soviet Union until the Albanian–Soviet split in 1961, then with China until the Sino-Albanian split in 1978 and ultimately its almost complete international isolation from 1978 onwards had a profound effect on the equipment inventory and operational readiness of the Albanian People's Army (UPSh). To this day, the UPSh remains the only European military to have been mostly equipped with Chinese-made weaponry, aircraft, ships and other equipment.

Monday, 20 March 2023

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
Transnistria owes its existence to a brief war in 1992 between Moldova and Russian-backed separatists who feared that Moldova would become part of Romania after the collapse of the USSR. The war ended when the Russian 14th Army, stationed in what was then the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, intervened on behalf of Transnistria and defeated the forces of the newly independent Republic of Moldova. Despite the fact that armed conflict ceased the same year, the situation in Transnistria remains extremely complicated, with the breakaway state wishing to join the Russian Federation while remaining reliant on Moldova for exporting the limited produce its economy outputs.

Monday, 6 March 2023

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By Joost Oliemans and Stijn Mitzer
 
The goal of this list is to comprehensively catalogue North Korea's current inventory of vehicles and equipment. In an effort to streamline the list and avoid unnecessary confusion, civilian trucks towing military trailers and military trucks on which missiles, rockets or radars are based are not included in the list. If several configurations of a vehicle with one designation are known, they are added as such. The part within apostrophes refers to an unoffical name, such as the US DoD M-xxxx designation system (referring to the first year the system was identified). A year in square brackets after the designation of a vehicle refer to its perceived date of inception. When available, the range (of missiles) are added in square brackets. All vehicles listed are presumed to still be in use with the Korean People's Army. This list is updated as additional vehicle types are uncovered.

Friday, 3 March 2023

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
  
February 2023 marks one full year of epic struggle on Ukraine's part to preserve its very existence. Rather than succumbing to the invaders beleaguering the country from the North, South and East, it has managed take the initiative in a conflict that was heavily stacked against it. Yet one year also marks the point where the war is beginning to surpass perhaps any conflict since WWII in terms of ferocity and, necessarily, losses. Though these losses are skewed to the Russian side, attrition on the Ukrainian side is also unprecedented, and sustainable only through material support from its allies. With new contingents of Western armament on the way, this list now attempts to denote what types of heavy equipment are known to be in use on the battlefield that have not yet been confirmed destroyed or captured. As opposed, to the Russian counterpart of this list, we might thus expect this list to grow rather than dwindle down as time progresses.

Thursday, 2 March 2023

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
  
Russia's one year anniversary of its special military operation in Ukraine marks a pivotal point not just for its symbolic significance, but also because it coincides with a sudden realisation on our part. That being that keeping track of the types of armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) and aircraft in use by the Russian Armed Forces that have been destroyed has become considerably harder than listing those that haven't been, and subtracting from that list as time progresses. Hence, the list that follows.