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...
Western officials report that a Russia has deployed Iskander ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave bordering the Baltic NATO states and Poland. Moscow has previously deployed the missiles to Kaliningrad for training exercises, but all indications suggests this deployment to a permanent, and in response to the U.S. / NATO Aegis Ashore missile defense system...
Over the weekend, Russia emplaced a new, modified version of the S-300 (SA-23) air defense system at its naval base at Tartus in Syria. The system expands the range of Russia’s anti-air capability into Turkey and eastern Syria and comes after the collapse of a U.S.-Russia brokered ceasefire and the suspension of talks with Moscow...
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter recently visited Berlin to assure allies that the US would deter aggression. NATO leaders are worried that Russia might invade the Baltics in a Crimea-style fait accompli, and then threaten nuclear escalation unless the alliance backs down. Moscow’s treaty violations and “nuclear sabre rattling,” Carter warned, raise “questions about Russia’s...
