Russia

Russia’s Tu-95 Bear long range bombers are not an entirely uncommon presence near American or allied airspace. These long range, heavy payload bombers are often flown within other country’s Air Defense Identification Zones, prompting a response from domestic intercept fighters tasked with identifying and escorting the Russian aircraft away from their sovereign airspace. While not […]

Last week, a Russian Su-27 fighter intercepted an unarmed U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance plane while flying in international airspace over the increasingly contested Baltic Sea. The intercept, like many before it, was characterized as “unprofessional” by American Defense Officials, but received little fanfare in the American media. Why? Well, in short, it’s because these sorts […]

Russia has been providing Bashar al Assad’s Syrian regime with direct military support throughout the past seven years of the nation’s ongoing civil war, which has provided Russia with a testing ground to feature some of their more advanced weapons systems and platforms. Everything from Russia’s latest cruise missile, the Kalibr, to their oft-touted but […]

Responding to an Iranian missile attack on their troops in the Golan Heights, Israel launched a major airstrike targeting Iranian bases in Syria. Of the 20 rockets fired at Israel, four were shot down by the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system and the rest landed in Syrian territory. In a statement, Defense Minister Avigdor […]

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the culminating piece of the guerrilla war fought between the French and the Viet Minh from 1949 until the garrison was overrun and the French withdrew from the country. After fighting a losing guerrilla war, the French dropped paratroopers and Foreign Legionnaires into Dien Bien Phu, a small […]

In September of 2011, the U.S. Navy’s Second Fleet was stood down after 65 years of patrolling and defending the northern Atlantic and America’s East Coast. Most of its personnel were absorbed into U.S. Fleet Forces Command as a part of a restructuring that aimed to reduce costs in the face of ongoing anti-terror campaigns […]

Few rifles have achieved the legendary status of the Soviet rifle of choice: the Kalashnikov AK-47. Its price, reliability and .30 caliber stopping power have made it a favorite among gunslingers everywhere from Third World dictatorships to high-end gun collections. Its legacy even continues to thrive in the Russian military today, in the form of […]

(Managing Editor’s note: This was published last year.  But since Russian propaganda and super hero flicks never get old, here you are.) Russia, like many countries all over the world, tends to import a fair amount of culture from the United States.  Whether you hate American “imperialism” or benefit from an alliance with our government, […]

In the days following the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria that prompted the United States, France and the UK to launch a joint air strike offensive in response last week, a predictable Russian effort was put into motion to control perceptions of the event throughout the world on social media. In the face of […]

Russian military troops will soon be fielding new weapons systems, the AK-12, and AK-15 rifles will replace the Cold War era AKM which is based on the venerable AK-47 design. Russian soldiers currently carry the AK-74M assault rifle. This 5.45-millimeter rifle is descended from the 7.62-millimeter AK-47, which was introduced in 1947. The AK-74 was […]

Mike Pompeo, the newly confirmed Secretary of State for the United States, found himself singing a familiar tune to NATO allies in Brussels this past week: calling on America’s allies to meet their financial obligations to the alliance and cut their financial reliance on America’s defense apparatus. Each NATO member nation is required to devote […]

As the United States Navy works to address looming concerns about the capability gap created by Chinese and Russian hypersonic capable anti-ship missiles, the solution to their problem may actually come from the U.S. Air Force. Advanced anti-ship missiles capable of traveling at speeds in excess of Mach 5 (the “hypersonic” barrier) are too fast […]