Tag: NATO

Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the long-troubled Admiral Kuznetsov, last saw action in 2016 in support of Pro-Assad forces in Syria. That deployment proved embarrassing for the Russian military, with its support mission marred by losing two aircraft as they attempted to land on the ship’s flight deck. When it’s rotation was over, the Admiral skulked […]

November 8th. At 0403 hours local time, the Norwegian frigate KNM Helge Ingstad, F303, collided with the Maltese-flagged ship Sola TS — a 60,000-ton oil tanker which had just taken on a load of crude oil at the Sture Oil Terminal on Alvøyna Island, twenty-two miles North-West of Bergen Norway. The Ingstad had been participating in […]

French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his calls for a unified European military force independent of U.S. support in a radio appearance on Tuesday. Macron went on to name potential threats to European security; the short list included the likes of Russia, China, and surprisingly, the United States. “When I see President Trump announcing that he’s […]

Tensions between the United States and Russia further escalated on Monday after a Russian fighter jet intercepted a U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft flying over the international waters of the Black Sea. With both a large scale NATO deterrence exercise ongoing and Russian ballistic missile tests expected any day in the region, the Russian fighter executed […]

NATO training exercise Trident Juncture, a massive two-week show of force being held in the North and Baltic Seas off the coast of Norway, is set to be the largest of its kind since the heyday of the Cold War — and with good reason. As Russia’s surface fleet suffers setback after setback, the redirection […]

Kabul, Afghanistan — The Taliban now control more territory than they ever did since 2001 and the U.S. led intervention. According to the quarterly report of the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the Kabul government and its international partners directly control or indirectly influence only 55.5 percent of Afghanistan’s districts. The Taliban control […]

November 1-3 — Russia will be conducting missile exercises off the coast of Norway, not far from where NATO is conducting its own Trident Juncture exercises with its military allies in the region. Both sides are aware of the drills and exercises conducted by each other, and have coordinated the events so as not to […]

The problem with foreign policy and geopolitics has never been about the mechanisms of international relations. For all intents and purposes, our global powers interact quite a bit like patrons at a crowded bar: trying to manage polite dialogue with familiar strangers, all the while maintaining closely held ulterior motives. That guy in the corner […]

Arctic Circle — Earlier in October, British Royal Marines and Dutch Royal Marines were conducting combat training exercises in the Arctic. The exercises were part of a training regime intended to enhance relations between the two European nations, establish interoperability between the two Corps, and signal that the Arctic is still depoliticised. But they weren’t […]

Reykjavik, Iceland — What happens when boatloads of American troops port-call in a small island nation? All the beer runs out. According to the Icelandic media, the around 7,000 U.S. servicemen, who briefly stayed in Iceland on their way to Norway, drained the whole city dry in just four days (October 24-28). Although the American […]

Footage and eyewitness accounts of an unidentified submarine surfacing near a sailing camp outside of Stockholm, Sweden, over the summer were released to the public earlier this week. The footage clearly shows a fairly small (by American nuclear submarine standards) submarine fitting military characteristics surface, where it remained for about 20 minutes before submerging once […]

London, United Kingdom — The Special Boat Service (SBS) will be getting new mini-subs from the United States. After the budget announcements for the next year, the British government approved the purchase of three MK 11 Shallow Water Combat Submersibles (SWCS) to replace the ageing MK VIII Mod 1 Swimmer Delivery Vehicle (SDV). The SWCS […]