Sunday, 4 September 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

The goal of this list is to comprehensively catalogue the current inventory of drones, rockets and missiles of the Houthi rebels as well as clarify their origin. The part within apostrophes refers to the designation given by Houthis to foreign-delivered equipment. A year in square brackers after the designation refers to its perceived date of inception in Yemen. The year is only added to armament delivered or produced after the Houthi takeover of Yemen in 2014/2015.
 
(Click on the equipment to get a picture of them in Houthi service.)

Saturday, 3 September 2022

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As many observers of the Russo-Ukrainian War are awaiting the possible debut of Iranian drones with the Russian Armed Forces, relatively few know that Iranian-made and Iranian-procured armament is already in active use on the battlefields of Ukraine since at least April 2022. Rather than being used by the Russian Army, these weapons systems are deployed by Ukrainian forces in their fight against the Russian Army. The story of how these weapons ended up in Ukraine is perhaps just as fascinating as the fact of their actual presence in Ukraine, and requires us to first delve into the topic of Iranian arms trafficking to Yemen and the efforts of Western countries to combat it.

Friday, 2 September 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
It is not often that a weapon system is proving so popular that countries are waiting in line to buy it. Ironically, this appears to be the current situation with the Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). Already in service with or on order by 31 countries other than Türkiye, the TB2's commercial success currently looks to be without bounds. With new export agreements being signed with more countries to this day, there is little doubt that the TB2 will go down in history as world's most successful UCAV both in terms of export clients and numbers sold. In this capacity it is now consistently beating its main two competitors on the drone market of China and Israel, whose products though more attractive than expensive (and exclusive) Western wares or underperforming and politically-laden Iranian ones have shown their own deficiencies. The TB2's success should come as little surprise to those that examined the system in combat, as the TB2 is arguably the first UCAV that manages to combine reliability and affordability with devastatingly effective results on the battlefield: a capability keenly looked for in the 21st century.

Thursday, 1 September 2022

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Contrary to popular perception, Germany has delivered significant amounts of arms and equipment to Ukraine to aid the country in its fight against the Russian military. In fact, the volume of arms deliveries by Berlin exceeds that of every other country safe for the United States. Nonetheless, Germany has faced severe criticism and even mockery for its perceived lack of support to Ukraine and its ill-fated attempts to keep its relationship with Moscow intact. While ultimately positioning itself as a reliable partner of Ukraine, it can be argued that Berlin's communication to affirm its Ukraine stance and explain foreign policy goals has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.

Saturday, 27 August 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
The following photos were taken during a Libyan National Army (LNA) parade to commemorate the 7th anniversary of Operation Dignity at Benina airbase in Benghazi on the 29th of May 2021. Even though the LNA of warlord Khalifa Haftar was to merge with the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) as part of the newly-established Government of National Unity (GNU), the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR) passed a no-confidence motion against the unity government in September 2021. Khalifa Haftar subsequently announced his candidacy for the presidential election in December 2021 before it was postponed. The May parade was aimed at showing the LNA's (and thus Haftar's) strength to both internal actors and the outside world. In doing so, the LNA showed off a large number of equipment types inherited from the Gaddafi-era and received from Russia, the UAE, Jordan and Egypt since. [1]

Saturday, 20 August 2022

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While many NATO member states have duly answered Ukraine's call to supply it with heavy weaponry, for other countries President Zelensky's plight has offered a stark realisation what decades of defence cuts have come to. For no country is this true more than for Belgium, which in March 2022 had to come to the painful conclusion that it had no heavy weaponry to send from its own stocks. This staggering feat is the result of years of chronic underfunding that had eroded the Belgian Army to the point it could not even pay to operate man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) any longer, leaving an entire army without any form of ground-based air defences. Although Belgium has since announced additional investments into its military, it will take years for these investments to actually have effect.

Friday, 19 August 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
After years of having to delay new acquisitions due to the Greek government-debt crisis, the Hellenic Air Force has recently enjoyed a series of new acquisitions. In 2018, Lockheed Martin was contracted to upgrade 84 F-16C/D Block 52+s to the latest F-16V Block 70/72 (Viper) standard. Two years later, the Greek government signed for 18 Dassault Rafales from France (with a further six ordered in 2021) along with an advanced weapons package consisting of SCALP cruise missiles and AM39 Exocet anti-ship missiles. [1] In June 2022, Greece's prime minister confirmed that the country had sent a request to the Unites States for the purchase of 20 F-35s slated for delivery in the late 2020s. [2]