Tuesday, 11 October 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
The Republic of China, more commonly referred to as Taiwan, continues to invest billions into its domestic arms industry to safeguard R&D and production capabilities. While Taiwan is already self-sufficient in the design and production of most weapons systems or well on its way towards attaining such a capacity, the nation still makes regular purchases from the United States, its biggest supplier of arms and munitions. Recent purchases have included 108 M1A2T MBTs, 29 M142 HIMARS MRLs along with 84 ATACMS SSMs and 864 guided rockets, and Harpoon coastal defence missile systems. [1] [2] The latter two systems will serve alongside their Taiwanese-designed counterparts.

Monday, 10 October 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

Though home to elements of the 17th Army Corps of the Central Asian Military District, Kyrgyzstan inherited little in the way of (modern) military equipment after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In fact, it can be argued that Kyrgyzstan was the worst off of all post-Soviet states when it comes to the military assets they inherited (with the exception of the Baltic states). With little investments having been directed to the Kyrgyz Army since, the country's inventory in many ways resembles that of the Soviet Army during the late 1970s. The acquisition of three Bayraktar TB2 UCAVs for the State Border Guard in 2021 represents the biggest military investment by Kyrgyzstan so far, and these were used with high effect during the September 2022 border skirmishes with Tajikistan. [1]

Sunday, 9 October 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
Yurdumuzu dünyanın en mamur ve en medeni memleketleri seviyesine çıkaracağız – We shall raise our country to the level of the most prosperous and civilized nations of the world. (By Mustafa Kemal Atatürk)
 
Istanbul's intercontinental Marmaray Line has been hailed as a modern-day Silk Road. Connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul via a tunnel running underneath the Bosphorus, the Marmaray is a modern engineering marvel that has drastically improved transportation in the whole of Istanbul by the number of stations it attends to and its connection with other modes of transportation including the metro, tram, and bus rapid transit. The 76.6km-long commuter line has 43 stations, fourteen of which are located in the European part of Istanbul.

Saturday, 8 October 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

The Islamic Republic of Iran was one of the first countries in the world to operationally deploy unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 to 1988. Consisting of radio-controlled Mohajer-1s armed with up to six RPG-7, Iran's drone arsenal has since expanded to include copies of the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel, PGM-toting (stealth) UCAVs and highly accurate loitering muntions. These types set the stage for an increasingly effective replication of legacy aerial assets, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by an increasing number of customers for Iranian drone designs.

Friday, 7 October 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

The goal of this list is to comprehensively catalogue Iran's current inventory of ballistic missiles, guided rockets and artillery rockets. If several configurations of a missile, rocket or launcher are known, they are added as such. The part within the apostrophes refers to other designations or an unofficial designation. When available, the missile's range is added. As this list relies on OSINT, the range should be used as a rough indication rather than a precise estimate.

Thursday, 6 October 2022

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By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
The goal of this list is to comprehensively catalogue Iran'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. Vehicles captured or produced during the Iran-Iraq War and subsequently only used for a short period of time are not included in this list. To avoid confusion over the names of certain SAM systems, the names of the missiles used on these SAM systems are sometimes indicated. If several configurations of a vehicle with one designation are known, they are added as such. The part within the apostrophes refers to other designations or an unofficial designation. When available, the range (of missiles) are added. As this list relies on OSINT, the range should be used as a rough indication rather than a precise estimate.

Tuesday, 4 October 2022

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In August 2008, the militaries of Russia and the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia fought Georgia in a brief five-day war. On August 1, South Ossetian forces began shelling Georgia in spite of a 1992 ceasefire agreement. In response, the Georgian Army was sent into territory controlled by South Ossetia on the 7th of August, taking control over most of the city of Tskhinvali. Russia accused Georgia of committing genocide as an excuse to enter the war on behalf of South Ossetia, launching a full-scale land, air and sea invasion of Georgia on the 8th of August.