On February 21, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık announced that Turkey will likely reach a final agreement with Russia to purchase the S-400 Triumf (NATO codename SA-21 Growler) long-range air missile defense system. According to Işık, “Turkey certainly needs a missile defense system and started a program with the aim of developing [it’s] domestically produced...
On February 16th, Senators Tom Cotton, (R-Arkansas), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) introduced the Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Preservation Act. This piece of legislation, along with a companion piece introduced by Congressmen Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) into the House of Representatives, calls for the United States to develop an...
On February 14, a senior military official reported that Russia has deployed a battalion of intermediate-range ground-launched cruise missiles, violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The missile has been referred to as the SSC-X-8 since it was first reported as a potential INF violation in 2014. The missile is likely a ground-launched variant of...
On February 1, NATO announced that it would indefinitely suspend a meeting with Ukrainian officials regarding NATO’s missile defense system. As Ukraine is not a member of the alliance, NATO’s Aegis Ashore site would not be used to defend the country. However, this meeting would have addressed concerns about debris falling on Ukrainian territory if Iran...
On January 17, 2017, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had conducted a successful test of its SS-27 ‘Topol-M’ ICBM. The Topol-M was fired from the Plesetsk launch site on Monday and reportedly hit its intended target on the Kamachatka peninsula “with high precision,” according to the Defense Ministry. The test was reportedly conducted to...
Reports from January 6, 2017 indicate that the Israeli satellite EROS B recently captured photos of at least two Russian-made road-mobile SS-26 “Iskander” missile launchers located at the Syrian army’s airbase in Latakia. Although stationed at a Syrian military base, it is believed that the launchers are manned and operated by Russian forces, which are...
Russia appears to be building permanent structures to house its SS-26 Iskander missile systems in the Kaliningrad enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania. These reports come from arms control experts who have used satellite imagery to pinpoint the location of the Iskanders and are now beginning to see the construction of permanent structures to shelter these...
Ukraine’s military announced that its two-day missile test, beginning December 1, 2016, will avoid Crimean airspace in an attempt to address Russian concern. Ukraine will conduct the exercise in its southern Kherson region on the border of Crimea, formerly a part of Ukraine until it was annexed by Russia in 2014. In anticipation of the test,...
On November 21, 2016, it was reported that Russia has stationed two K-300P Bastion missile launchers, equipped with P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles, in the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea. The Oniks has a range 300-450 kilometers, threatening freedom of navigation in the Baltic Sea. The deployment of Bastion missile launchers to this strategic region,...
On November 15, 2016, the Russian frigate the Admiral Grigorvish fired long-range 3M-14 “Kalibr” (SS-N-30A) cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea into Syria. The ship-launched missiles targeted ISIS and al-Nusra Front strongholds in Idlib and Homs provinces. The offensive was accompanied by Russian air strikes on the city of Aleppo, as well as from mobile P-800...
