For one lucky battalion of American soldiers stationed in Germany, Christmas came more than once this year. On Dec. 26, the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team stationed at the Grafenwoehr Training Barracks rescinded a ban on “prohibited behaviors” among Army personnel detailed in an […]
Tom note: Here is the fifth entry in our 10 Long March posts for 2018, the 6th most-read item of the year, which originally ran on April 1, 2018. These posts are selected based on what’s called ‘total engaged minutes’ (the total number of time spent reading and commenting on an article) rather than page views, […]
A Russian reporter nearly got her head taken off during a live shot of a Russian TU-160 bomber landing in Venezuela. Maria Finoshina of Russia’s RT cable news network was standing on the runway as one of the two bombers sent to Venezuela was about to touch down. As she walked toward the landing aircraft, […]
As the Russians send bombers to Venezuela, the Pentagon is stopping just short of firing a pistol into the air and yelling “Liberación!” SEE ALSO: Video Of Exploding ‘Attack’ Drone Emerges As Venezuela Cracks Down WATCH NEXT:
The Marine Corps has said goodbye to Romania as it doubles down on its footprint in Norway. “U.S. European Command re-deployed the Marines from Romania and put in place a joint and multi-domain force that brings unique and appropriate capabilities to complement Romania’s military forces,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Hontz, a spokesman for U.S. […]
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Air Medals to four Swedish air force pilots in recognition of their decisive actions during a once-classified encounter with a crippled SR-71 Blackbird during the waning years of the Cold War. SEE ALSO: An Air Force Pilot Describes What It’s Like To Fly The Legendary SR-71 Blackbird At Mach 3 […]
May 2024 was a lot like the summer that preceded it 85 years earlier. The Russians knew as much, which is why their secret name for the operation was assigned the sobriquet ‘Molotov.’ The very public China-Russia non-aggression pact the year before between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Moscow was another warning sign, […]
Following a collision with a civilian vessel on Nov. 8, the captain of the Royal Norwegian Navy frigate HNoMS Helge Ingstad made the brilliant decision to deliberately run the vessel aground to prevent the warship, among the most capable in the NATO fleet, from sinking outright. Five days later, the Helge Ingstad is now almost completely submerged, effectively ruining the Norwegian military’s […]
An in-flight emergency caused the crash of a Ukrainian SU-27B in October, killing an American and Ukrainian pilot, the head of the Ukrainian air force said on Thursday. “While the SU-27 fighter jet was performing its climb, there was an emergency situation that to a catastrophe,” Ukrainian Col.-Gen. Sergii Drozdov said through a translator. “The […]
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty. The Russian and Ukrainian release of a Hollywood action film in which U.S. soldiers rescue a Russian president during a coup attempt has been postponed, and some reports suggest it could be banned in both countries due to its content. Released in the […]
Even with artificial islands cropping up in the South China Sea, it’s not just Chinese isles that are worrying Western militaries: reportssuggest that the Russian government has increasingly gobbled up tiny islands in Finland in recent years as secret staging areas for Russian military assets. Update: WATCH NEXT:
U.S. troops landed in Iceland last week ahead of the start the largest NATO military exercise since the Cold War, and apparently, they left their mark in the most appropriate way possible: by drinking every last beer in the nation’s capital. A significant number of bars in downtown Reykjavík were forced to make emergency beer runs […]
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty. KYIV — Fifty-five years ago, on September 11, 1963, a plane took off from Kyiv for Vienna. On board was Julien Galeotti, a French citizen accused of espionage and expelled from the Soviet Union. Recently released documents from the KGB archive in Kyiv have […]
U.S. special operations forces are looking to manufacture their own own Russian-style firearms domestically — and the Russians have responded with an oh hell nyet. In April 2017, U.S. Special Operations Command dropped a solicitation for a defense contractor with the capability to produce “functioning facsimiles of foreign-made weapons that are equal to or better than what […]
On a recent Saturday morning, residents of Skwierzyna, a sleepy town in western Poland, awoke to news that a local dentist and his two sons had been viciously assaulted during the night by a trio of English-speaking toughs. Now, investigations are underway to determine whether the assailants were American service members. “We take any allegations […]
The status of a U.S. pilot remains unclear after a Ukrainian fighter crashed on Tuesday during joint exercises in western Ukraine. A Ukrainian Sukhoi SU-27B went down in the Khmelnytskyi region, killing both the pilot and co-pilot, the Ukrainian military’s general staff announced on Tuesday. Initially, the general staff announced that an American was one […]
Russia has become so good at information warfare that American and allied military leaders are (rightfully) starting to freak out about it. “The Russians are really good at this. Better than us,” UK Army Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney said at the AUSA Conference, according to Defense One. “We saw a very clever, assiduous information campaign […]
Russian special operations forces are adding a silent-but-deadly new weapon to their arsenal. According to a report from Jane’s 360, the Russian Ministry of Defense plans on acquiring new “silenced” mortar systems to help its commandos remain undetected downrange. The Jane’s report, published during Russia’s Army 2018 defense expo at the end of August, indicates […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin would never invade western Europe. Lets game it out, just for fun. Russia invades with thousands of tanks, aircraft, and infantry. Europe, beholden to years of low defense budgets, folds. Shortly afterwards, Russia’s economy collapses due to the massive cost of mobilizing it’s military and occupying now refugee-filled, and probably insurgency […]
In the worst reboot of The Hunt For Red October we’ve ever heard, Russia has lost a secretive nuclear-powered cruise missile at sea during a failed test in the last several months, CNBC reports. A satellite image of the Barents Sea, featuring an image of the Russian cruise missile and a WC-135.NASA Obviously, the cruise […]
A pair of stealthy fifth-generation U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor air superiority fighters squared off against a pair of Royal Norwegian Air Force Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighters during a one-day training exercise over Norway on August 15 . There are very few details available about the exercise, but some inferences can be made about […]
In 2014, Russia was on its way to filling a major capacity gap that emerged during the 2008 Russo-Georgia conflict; namely, a significant lack of amphibious assault capability. During the short conflict, Russia deployed three ancient landing ships with a combined displacement of over 8,000 tons to the Black Sea, landing troops in the uncontested […]
Call it Grand Theft Auto: Abkhazia Following the military invasion of Georgia in August 2008 to “liberate” the self-proclaimed independent republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russian forces turned up an unexpected prize: five U.S. Marine Corps Humvees. The Humvees, belonging to the 6th Communications Battalion detachment of the 4th Marine Logistics Group’s Military Police […]
When Russia first unveiled the T-14 Armata tank to the public in 2015, western militaries took note of next-generation juggernaut’s futuristic and flexible design, which was built to replace several armored ground units. But unfortunately for the Russian armed forces, a sluggish economy hit by sanctions and massive corruption doesn’t appear to be able to produce the […]
So reports Army Col. Liam Collins in the August issue of ARMY magazine. Here’s how it works: “The Russians are adept at identifying Ukrainian positions by their electrometric signatures,” writes Collins. One would expect that, but the thing that impressed me what came next. “In one tactic, soldiers receive texts telling them they are ‘surrounded […]
