Category: News

RUSSIA: Test of the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile

On 6 October, the Russian Navy released the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile from aboard the frigate ADMIRAL GORSCHKOW (Project 22350) for the first time and fired it at a maximum distance of 450 kilometres at eight times the speed of sound at a target in the Barents Sea. The entire sequence took less than five minutes. This meant that it was not even necessary to use the 24-hour time buffer in case something went wrong. Just in time for his 68th birthday the following day, Army General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of Defence, was able to present the report of the successful shot to his President in due form and with complete peace of mind....

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PHILIPPINES: two new Leonardo AW159 Wildcat ASW helicopters

To mark its 120th birthday last year, the island nation's navy treated itself to two Leonardo AW159 Wildcat ASW helicopters, which have now been ceremonially put into service at the Danielo Atienza airbase near Manila. From there, they will be used as on-board helicopters for the two South Korean-built JOSE-RIZAL frigates. Two further helicopters are to complete the quartet, but are still on the wish list. This makes the Philippines the second export customer for the Italian manufacturer after South Korea. Bangladesh will be the third in the group with two helicopters on order...

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PAKISTAN: Embraer Lineage 1000 as new MPA

Of the eight Lockheed P-3C Orion aircraft that were previously handed over to the Pakistani Navy free of charge by the USA 15 years ago and subsequently modernised, six at best should still be airworthy today after two aircraft were lost in a terrorist attack on the Mehran airfield in Karachi in 2011. According to Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, Commander of the Navy, these MPAs are to be replaced in future by ten Embraer Lineage 1000s, i.e. commercial aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer that have yet to be converted. A first type has been ordered and is to bear the type designation "Sultan of the Sea" with military equipment. Incidentally, Embraer is yet to confirm the location and...

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NORTH KOREA: Military parade in Pyongyang

To mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean Workers' Party on 10 October, the sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile Pukguksong-4s was also displayed at the obligatory military parade in Pyongyang. This is likely to be the improved version of the missile that was launched underwater a year ago on a test basis but is said to have only a limited range. With this designation, the underwater system joins the ranks of the actual long-range strategic land systems known as Pukguksong-1 and -2. So far, the only evidence of a carrier submarine as the basis for this voluminous missile is the graphic of an extended Kilo-class...

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COLOMBIA: A brief summary of the drug hunt

A brief summary of the drug hunt in the Pacific-Caribbean navy shows that a good 130 tonnes of cocaine and 35 tonnes of marijuana were caught in the first nine months - that's around 4.5 billion dollars in commercial value, which organised crime and armed gangs in the region would have used to support their illegal activities. Just at the end of October, another two-tonne catch with a street value of 65 million dollars was made on his way to Mexico. A highly motorised, self-built semi-submersible was used for this, in the belly of which were 120 watertight packages containing well over a thousand brick-sized, neatly pressed blocks of coke - for later collection with...

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