In a move that will surely make the volatile Black Sea region even more interesting, NATO will begin basing fighter jets in Romania in May, the United Kingdom announced this week. While it may not seem like much, it means NATO will further expand its reach into Russia’s southern flank, basing jets minutes from the…
Either the Kremlin intends to open up a Sea World franchise on the Black Sea, or they are diving back into the cetacean warrior business. Most likely it is the latter, and Russia is looking for five dolphins to make it happen.
This is what happens when you take a corner too fast with a 100,000-pound tank riding on your tractor trailer. It is amazing just how fast the truck goes from speeding along to literally rolling off the road. Physics is a stubborn SOB.
It seems that Russia’s interest in what kind of U.S. military hardware is operating in the Black Sea isn’t just limited to ships. CNN reports that a Russian fighter intercepted a USAF RC-135 electronic surveillance aircraft last month, roaring up to it at high-speed, with only ten feet to spare between the two…
Media outlets in Russia began crowing last week about an incident in the Black Sea, off the coast of the contested Crimean Peninsula. Russian fighters buzzed an American destroyer, sending it running scared after it entered Russian waters, they said. But the US Navy just verbally struck back, with video of the…
Once again, Russia has upped the air combat capability ante on the Crimean Peninsula with Tu-22M3 Backfires reportedly deploying there as part of widespread 'snap' readiness drills among Russian forces. This marks the first time a Russian strategic asset like the Tu-22 has operated from Crimea since the territory was…
One year exactly after Russian troops that definitely were in no way Russian invaded Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared February 27th Special Operations Forces Day. Happy Special Operations Forces day, everyone!
For what it lacks in beauty it sure makes up for it in character, Russia's 100 year old Kommuna is the world's oldest active naval vessel. Launched as a submarine tender back 1915, this pre-Bolshevik Revolution relic continues to serve as a salvage ship and midget sub tender as part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
As promised, Moscow is finally beefing up its air combat punch on the Crimean Peninsula. Sputnik news has pictures of Russia's new fighter regiment at Belbek Air Base, on the western Crimean coast. The base is stated to imminently house 10 highly upgraded Su-27SM and four state of the art Su-30 Super Flankers.
The buildup of Russian air combat capability in Crimea has been announced but only seen in glimpses. Yesterday, Twitter posts showed this militarization in vibrant color. The most stunning being a shot of Belbek AB. Once the home to mostly broken down Ukrainian MiG-29s, it now appears to bristle with Su-30 and Su-35…
The Ukrainian Navy has had a pretty miserable time as of late, and this dud OSA-M surface to air missile is just the start of it. The ship depicted in the video above, U-209 Ternopil, a Grisha Class corvette and one of the the newest ships in the Ukrainian Navy, was seized by Russia after their annexation of Crimea.
Within the last 24 hours, Russia invaded the city of Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov with a pair of armored columns, sending Ukrainian forces fleeing, in what is the most outright display of Russia's involvement in what has been deemed a Ukrainian civil war.
It's amazing how much candid video we are getting out of a rebel controlled rural war zone in Eastern Ukraine. In the video below, we see a guy cart off one of MH17s Black Boxes.
Though rebels in eastern Ukraine were warned not to tamper with the evidence at the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash site, U.S. officials report the rebels have seized control of the bodies recovered from the downed plane.
A video has surfaced that supposedly shows an SA-11 “Buk” SAM system being flat-bedded out of Eastern Ukraine and into Russia. Regardless of its destination, what’s interesting is that two of its missiles are missing.
Many people are asking: What was an airliner doing flying over a war zone? This is a valid question considering that many aircraft have been shot down over Ukraine recently and it was known that pro-Russian forces had recently seized advanced SAMs. Technically, MH17 was flying where it was supposed to, which indicates…
It seems clear that the Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile defense regiment A-1402 was overran and looted by pro-Russian forces on June 29th. This unit operated the SA-11/17 "Buk" medium-range mobile air defense system, an advanced cousin of the SA-6, that is thought to have been used in the MH17 attack.
In horrific news, Malaysia Air flight 17, a Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed after being shot down. People are suggesting it could have been shot down either by Russia's built-up air defense apparatus along its border with Ukraine or by pro-Russian separatists with a mobile radar-guided SAM…
Things are really heating up in Eastern Ukraine right now. After weeks of mounting chaos, and in some case violence, many government facilities in the region have been overrun by armed pro-Russian separatists. After days of looking for a way around military intervention, Kiev has launched a large military…
