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Drill, Flashpoints, Military May 14, 2013

Azerbaijan Starts Military Exercises Near Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan has started military exercises near its mainly Armenian-populated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Defense Ministry announced on May 14 that Defense Minister Safar Abiyev was personally leading the maneuvers.

Azerbaijan’s land and air forces are taking part in the exercises, which are expected to last until the end of the week. Last week, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said publicly that his country wanted to restore its territorial integrity and resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in accordance with international law.

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Drill, GeoPolitics, Policy May 9, 2013

North Korea loses war of words as Bank of China halts funds

China is allowing anti-North Korean posts on its Internet sites. More importantly, the Bank of China is cutting ties with its key counterpart in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. The apparent back-down can be papered over by propaganda in North Korea but not in the rest of the world, said Denny Roy, a Korean expert at the East West Center in Hawaii. “The sharpest signal may be from the Bank of China,” Roy said. China’s action was “a huge signal to North Korea,” said Scott Snyder, Korean expert with the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Border Incursion, Drill, Flashpoints, Military May 6, 2013

Turkish Armed Forces staging drills near Syrian border

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is set to stage a 10-day long military drills in the southern province of Adana. Adana is neighbor to Hatay, a province bordering on Syria, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

The Yıldırım-2013 Mobilization Exercise will begin Monday, May 6 and end on May 15, according to an announcement posted on the official website of the Turkish General Staff. The exercise will test the army’s mobilization system and the coordination between public institutions and the armed forces in case of any mobilization, the statement said.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Strategic Interests April 22, 2013

Taiwan stages live-fire drill in contested Spratlys

Taiwan’s coastguards said Monday that Taipei had staged a live-fire drill within a hotly-contested island chain in the South China Sea, in a move that risks stoking regional tensions.

More than 2,000 rounds of ammunition were fired by garrison forces on Taiwan-administered Taiping, the largest of the Spratly Islands, Wang Chin-wang, chief of the Coast Guard Administration, told parliament. It was Taipei’s first live-fire drill in the Spratlys — claimed in whole or part by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei — since long-range mortars and artillery were shifted to Taiping Island in August last year.

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Drill, Military Buildup, News April 19, 2013

UK’s Carlisle airport becomes war zone as Dutch invasion force moves in

Attack helicopters circled as soldiers prepared for an invasion – at Carlisle Airport. Heavily-armed, camouflage-clad troops were loaded into the back of a Chinook helicopter, supported by the Apache gunships ready for a battle over the border. The battleground scenes were played out at the airport, but there was no reason for people nearby to be alarmed – it was all just an exercise. The Royal Netherlands Air Force were conducting a training exercise from airfield as they went through an imaginary scenario. The story read something like a video game – a central European country had invaded a another country over waters, and the Dutch Air Force were in the separation zone ready to strike.

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Development, Drill, Military, News April 19, 2013

Pentagon, NATO allies witness missile defense test in skies over Central New York

Military leaders from the Pentagon, Italy and Germany were in Central New York this week to witness a classified test of a missile defense system. As part of the test, a small plane and a simulated tactical ballistic missile were detected and tracked by the Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS, its developers said today. MEADS, developed in part by Lockheed Martin with partners in Italy and Germany, was tested using radars placed at Lockheed’s test range in Cazenovia and on its campus at Electronics Park in Salina. MEADS and Lockheed Martin officials said they could not release photos or videos of the test because of the classified nature, nor could they disclose the names of the NATO officials who witnessed the demonstration.

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Conflict, Drill, Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Military April 16, 2013

Moscow Fuming Over U.S.-Georgia Military Drill

More than 350 U.S. marines and several hundred Georgian Army troops angered Moscow by holding a month-long military drill in the former Soviet republic that ended on April 5. The U.S.-Georgia war exercise, code named “Agile Spirit 2013,” prompted the Russians to stage large-scale, unscheduled drills of their own.

In a snap response to the war drills, Russia held large-scale military exercises of its own in the Black Sea, causing great alarm in Georgia. “The current drills are unscheduled, unusual and go beyond the usual location of the armed forces in the spirit of the 2011 Vienna Document on Confidence and Security-Building Measures,”

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Drill, Military, Military Buildup April 12, 2013

UK to lead largest European military exercise, Joint Warrior

The east coast is to bear witness to one of the largest tactical military training exercises Europe has seen. More than 40 warships from the UK and its European allies, along with 30 fixed-wing aircraft and 30 helicopters, will storm the east coast in a massive training exercise starting on Friday morning.

The exercise, codenamed Joint Warrior, will kick off at 10am and will aim to put Nato’s Response Force Task Group to the test through a series of manoeuvres across the east and west coast of Scotland over the next three weeks.

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Drill, Military, Resources April 10, 2013

Israel and Cyprus to Hold Joint Military Exercise

Israel is set to send warships to the eastern Mediterranean for a joint military exercise with Cyprus, according to a report which appeared in the Cypriot Fileleftheros daily on Tuesday and which was cited by the Turkish Today’s Zaman. Cypriot Defense Minister Fotis Fotiou confirmed that the joint exercise, which will include the participation of four or five Israeli warships, is due to start on April 25, the report said. Fotiou also noted that the exercise will focus on the security of the eastern Mediterranean region and that of gas companies.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Stratagem April 3, 2013

Polska Times: Belarus to rehearse nuclear attack on Warsaw

The West is becoming more and more alarmed about Zapad 2013 war games. NATO troops will carry out military exercises in Poland practising defence of Estonia, while Belarus and Russia will repel an imaginary attack from Poland: They plan to rehearse a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Warsaw, Polska Times reports. Tension between Russia and NATO has been growing since the beginning of the year. The Alliance prepares for Steadfast Jazz 2013 military exercises that will take place in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, while Belarus and Russia will carry out Zapad 2013 war games.

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Analysis, Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Stratagem April 3, 2013

The messages of Russia’s military exercise in the Black Sea

It is probable to say that the respective exercise has an interregional message considering the agreement among the Black Sea riparian countries on the relationship and the preservation of the stabilization in Black Sea. On the ground that some new developments take place specifically in Middle East and Syria crisis, it is useful to draw attention to Middle East and Mediterranean rather than Black Sea. As a reminder, Moscow made a decision to permanently possess warships in Mediterranean due to the conflicts in Syria last month, and this decision sparked a debate.

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Drill, Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Military April 2, 2013

Georgia says it will further monitor Russian naval exercises

The Georgian Foreign Ministry has announced that Tbilisi expresses deep concern about the unplanned and sudden exercises of the Russian military which go beyond the territory defined by the Vienna Agreement.

Speaking at a briefing on Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani said that Georgia will continue to inform the international community on Russian military exercises being held near the maritime borders of the country. The Georgian side is distressed with the fact that near its borders large-scale exercises are conducted, with the date of completion and objectives not reported.

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Conflict, Drill, Flashpoints, Military March 31, 2013

U.S. Wargames North Korean Regime Collapse, Invasion to Secure Nukes

In a war game focusing on the fictitious country “North Brownland,” military experts from the Army’s forward-looking research arm, the Concept Development and Learning Directorate, assessed how many U.S. troops it would take to go into a North Korea-like place to secure the weapons after a crisis erupted, and how quickly those weapons could be secured.American troops would have to enter the country by air and sea, locate nuclear material in enormous storehouses and unknown underground bunkers, and figure out how to wrest control of nuclear materials and stop reactors. The challenges, Hix said, are significant.

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Drill, Military March 28, 2013

Putin Orders Suprise Black Sea Warship Exercises

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s Black Sea fleet to begin large-scale, unscheduled naval exercises involving dozens of ships and thousands of troops. The order was reportedly presented to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in a sealed envelope at 4am Moscow time as Mr Putin flew back from an international summit in South Africa. President Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the exercises would involve 36 warships and up to 7,000 troops, as well as an unspecified number of aircraft.

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Analysis, Drill, Military, Resources March 23, 2013

U.S. Stages Military Exercises In North and West Africa

Another military exercise led by the Pentagon was the Saharan Express 2013. The real purpose behind these exercises of course was revealed by Omar Wad, a spokesperson for the Senegalese Marine Forces General Command, who said “The safety of marine space is a main bet for Sahel countries because it will protect oil that passes everyday through the Atlantic Ocean. Commodities passing through the ocean, especially along the shores of countries participating in the exercise, represent 80 percent of world commodities.”

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Drill, Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Military March 19, 2013

Strategic U.S. bombers practice nuclear strikes over Korea in show of force

A U.S. B-52 bomber will fly over the Korean peninsula today for the second time this month as part of the Pentagon’s effort to send a signal to North Korea after it threatened preemptive nuclear strikes.

“Just having the B-52 near the Korean peninsula and pass through means that the U.S. nuclear umbrella can be provided whenever necessary,” South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok told reporters in Seoul, declining to disclose the flight time.

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Drill, Military, SpecOps March 8, 2013

Special Forces soldiers drop plan to ‘infiltrate’ Utah

Army Special Forces soldiers will not “infiltrate” Utah communities this summer — a plan that had riled residents suspicious of the government’s motives.Green Berets had planned to parachute into several central Utah counties, cross mountains and work with Utahns who would be playing roles as resisters to an enemy regime.

The Defense Department wants the soldiers to have fresh training in skills at the heart of Special Forces’ mission, such as covertly cultivating relationships with regular citizens and training resistance forces trying to liberate themselves from oppressive governments, said Col. Robert Dunton, a special projects officer for the Utah National Guard who was helping organize the exercise.

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Conflict, Drill, Flashpoints, Military March 8, 2013

Rising tensions in Yellow Sea

The North Korean military said that it would also cut-off direct phone links with the South Korea at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom. The North on 6 March 2013 has announced no-fly and no-sail zones off both the coasts. Whereas the South has threatened that it would target Pyongyang leadership directly should it attack the South. On 7 March 2013 North Korea threatened to launch a preemptive strike against the US. South Korean defense ministry said that it has concrete evidence that the North is conducting a series of military drills in preparation for a nationwide war rehearsal.

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Drill, Military February 26, 2013

North Korea leader monitors live-fire drill simulating ‘actual war’

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a live-fire artillery drill aimed at simulating an “actual war”, state media said on Tuesday, a day after South Korea swore in its first female president. “An endless barrage of shells were fired by artillery pieces on ‘enemy positions’, their roar rocking heaven and earth, and all of them were enveloped in flames,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. “Feasting his eyes at the ‘enemy positions’ in flames, [Kim] was satisfied,” the official agency added.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military February 13, 2013

Repressing China: Multilateral exercise Cobra Gold takes on a new look

Cobra Gold, the largest and oldest multilateral military exercise in the Asia-Pacific, began as a US-Thai bilateral exercise more than 30 years ago. It has now expanded to include regional partners as well and joining in this year are Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said: “Cobra Gold now is not what it used to be. In the Cold War, it was an anti-communist front.”But in the last two, three years, it has taken on a new face. It has become an US vehicle for engaging the region in military terms but also to keep some checks on China’s assertiveness.”

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Stratagem February 7, 2013

NATO doesn’t view Russia as threat but has defense plans against Baltic invasion

Rasmussen said he had no thorough information about the Russian-Belarusian war games Zapad 2013 planned for this year, adding that the exercise scheduled to take place in the Baltic states and Poland around that time were not aimed against third countries. Lithuania’s Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said earlier this week that certain elements of Russian-Belarusian military exercises Zapad 2013 planned to take place near Lithuania this year were directed against neighbors. NATO does not view Russia as a threat and does not constitute a threat to Moscow, however, the Alliance has all plans that may be necessary to protect its Allies, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Vilnius.

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Drill, Military, Policy January 18, 2013

Show of Force: PLA Navy in live-fire attack drills in East China and South China seas

The People’s Liberation Army’s naval air force has carried out attack drills in both the East and South China seas in a show of force directed at countries involved in territorial disputes with China, according to naval experts.

Photos posted on the website of the PLA Navy on Wednesday showed several J-10 fighter jets that had been sent by the East China Sea Fleet to the waters of the East China Sea close to the disputed Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, which are claimed by both Beijing and Tokyo.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News January 15, 2013

Taiwan gears up for military drills to counter any mainland threat

Taiwan would stage 62 military drills and mobilisation exercises this year to strengthen its defensive capabilities in the face of a growing military threat from the mainland, the island’s defence ministry said yesterday.

The exercises, including war games, troop and civilian mobilisations and electronic simulations, will start next month.

Officials said the island had no intention of engaging in an arms race with the mainland but said the military needed to stage exercises to ensure it was prepared for any potential attacks from the mainland.

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Analysis, Drill, Flashpoints, Military November 6, 2012

Israeli think tank simulates aftermath of ‘successful’ strike on Iran nuke facilities

An Israeli think tank with close links to the government has simulated what would happen in the Mideast and internationally if Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities — and concluded that reaction would be “in the direction of containment and restraint,” not the trigger for a larger war. The Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) says it held a “war game” several weeks ago — when “it appeared that the fall of 2012 would be a critical period”

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Drill, Military, Stratagem November 5, 2012

Washington’s War on Wargaming

The only thing that’s cheap about war is the gaming. The U.S. military services and their assorted war colleges, the Department of Defense, and various think tanks do quite a bit of wargaming of potential conflicts such as Iran. Now, to the military, wargaming doesn’t mean games. It’s actually an analytical technique in the Military Decision Making Process, which essentially means analyzing the likely outcomes of various choices and then making the best one

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Conflict, Drill October 25, 2012

Austere Challenge: fresh round of ME arms race?

Today we are doing a program focusing on the “Austere Challenge 2012”. And the Israeli commentators are saying that this is a unique military exercise with the ultimate purpose of exercising in the antimissile defense. And the question is that though the Israeli systems are considered to be among the best in the world, they are not quite certain that they would be able to counter the new Iranian technologies. Could you expand a little bit on that?

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military October 20, 2012

Armageddon scenario: US, Israel ready for huge joint drill in Iran’s shadow

One might call it the Armageddon scenario: a massive and coordinated missile attack on Israel from many fronts. As the rockets rain down, only the United States can save a nation from annihilation. And they have been warning about it long enough. Now, at last, the direst predictions will be played out. Now for the good news. Almost all of this will take place within the safe confines of computerized simulation for three weeks starting next week.

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Drill, Military October 7, 2012

Argentina rejects British military drills on disputed islands

Argentina on Friday strongly protested Britain’s plan to carry out more military exercises on the disputed Malvinas Islands, called the Falklands by the British.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had respectively summoned British and the European Union’s ambassadors to Argentina, Shan Morgan and Alfonso Diez Torres, to present “formal protests.”

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military September 24, 2012

Occupy Earth: U.S. Marines, GSDF ‘retake island’ in Guam drill

he Ground Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Marine Corps on Saturday held a joint drill on Guam aimed at bolstering their ability to defend remote islands.

The exercise was shown to the media and conducted amid rising tensions between Japan and China over the Senkaku Islands dispute. The uninhabited islets in the East China Sea are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.

Saturday’s drill on the U.S. territory and vacation spot in the Western Pacific, was the final part of a wider island-focused exercise combining Japanese and U.S. forces. The GSDF said it was not designed or carried out with any specific island or foreign aggressor in mind, and that about 40 of its troops took part.

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Conflict, Drill, Military September 19, 2012

Israel army in largest snap exercise to simulate war scenario

Israel’s military launched a surprise large-scale exercise on Wednesday on the occupied Golan Heights, testing its battle readiness amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear drive and civil war in Syria.

A military spokeswoman, appearing to play down any speculation the drill heralded imminent hostilities with Iran or Syria, said it was part of a routine training schedule. A similar snap exercise was held around this time a year ago.

Israel has urged world powers to set a red line for Tehran’s nuclear programme, saying time was running out to stop what it sees as its quest for atomic arms and raising international concern it could launch a go-it-alone strike against Iran.

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Crisis, Drill, Flashpoints September 17, 2012

Land Grab Convergence: China Military Drills Focus On Seizing Japanese Islands By Force

Amid a raging dispute with Japan over islands in East China Sea, Chinese army has scaled up its military exercises on all fronts including aerial drills by its air force in Tibet as well as by special forces.

Special operations forces from the PLA have began an annual set of military drills aimed at training reconnaissance capabilities and survival skills, state-run CCTV reported.

While its naval forces in the East China Sea practiced capture of islands, state media here carried picture of Air Force planes flying over Himalayas in a formation.

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Drill, Regime Change September 11, 2012

S Korea, U.S. practise occupying N Korea

South Korean troops practised a war scenario involving the occupation and stabilization of North Korea during a joint military drill with the United States last month, a report said Tuesday.

The two allies, who staged a similar stabilization exercise in 2010, upgraded it to strengthen the role of the South Korean army in the event of an “emergency situation in the North,” Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said.

It cited an unnamed senior government official, who said the maneuver—called Wind of Freedom—involved humanitarian assistance for North Koreans after occupying the communist state and restoring administrative services.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military September 2, 2012

Iran will hold large-scale air defense drill: commander

Iran will hold a large-scale military drill involving all its air defense systems next month, an Iranian commander was quoted as saying on Saturday, one of a number of military simulations it has carried out this year.

The air defense drill will include fighter jets and simulate emergency situations, said Farzad Esmaili, commander of the Iranian army’s air defense force, according to Iran’s English-language Press TV.

The drill will include both the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Esmaili said, and follows a series of large-scale military simulations such as the “Great Prophet 7” missile exercises in July.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military September 2, 2012

Russian Military In Abkhazia, Armenia Hold “Intensive” Exercises

Servicemen of the Russian military base in Abkhazia are learning how to fire howitzers at targets in the mountains, Interfax-AVN quoted
the press service of the Southern Military District.

“At the Russian military base in the Republic of Abkhazia intensive exercise involving firing and fire control with artillery subunits is under way,” said a statement received by the agency on 29 August.

It notes that the exercise is being carried out on simulators that imitate firing from Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers and Grad multiple
launch rocket systems.

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Drill, Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Military August 24, 2012

NATO Maneuvers: Officials concerned over optics of Arctic war fighting

It took the intervention of the assistant deputy minister of policy at National Defence to smooth the way for the army’s participation, reassuring senior government officials that were “no policy obstacles.”

Rob Huebert, an expert on Arctic defence and sovereignty, said the internal debate underscores clear divisions within the federal government about how to proceed in the North.

There are “very contradictory messages being conveyed here,” said Huebert, who teaches at the University of Calgary.

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Drill, Military, News August 16, 2012

British Warship Exercises with Middle East US Carrier Strike Group

‘HMS Diamond’ joins with ‘USS Enterprise’ to demonstrate the Type 45 destroyer’s outstanding air defence capabilities.

During the exercise warfare specialists in Diamond’s operations room helped to choreograph sorties of F-18 Super Hornets and other aircraft, which add to the Carrier Strike Group’s potency.

As her sister ship Daring did just a few months ago, Diamond joined forces with the ‘Big E’ to show how a Type 45 destroyer can shield a task group from air attack – exactly what she was built for.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Strategic Interests August 2, 2012

South Korea to stage military drill near disputed island

South Korea will stage a regular military exercise near a disputed island this month amid a renewed territorial claim by Japan, the defence ministry said Thursday.

The twice-yearly defensive drill near the Seoul-controlled islet in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) will be held in mid-August, a ministry spokesman told AFP without elaborating.

The island is called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima by Japan.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military August 1, 2012

Turkish Military Stages Tank Exercises Near Turkish-Syrian Border

Turkish military staged tank exercises near the Turkish-Syrian border on Wednesday after some border districts of northern Syria fell into the hands of Kurds, local newspaper Today’s Zaman reported on its website.

The exercises were held after a series of Turkish military deployments to the area.

Some 25 tanks from the Mardin 70th Mechanised Brigade took part in the exercises, which were overseen by commanders in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province just near the Syrian border, the report said.

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Drill, Military, News July 24, 2012

Taiwan: China vessels closely monitored during Han Kuang war games

Taiwan was closely monitoring the whereabouts of China’s military aircraft and vessels deployed near Taiwanese waters during last week’s computerized war games, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.

There were no military information leaks during the five-day computer-aided Han Kuang drills, the MND said in a released statement yesterday to refute a Chinese-language report that said Chinese Navy vessels were collecting confidential data on the drills.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News July 23, 2012

Israel: IDF Trains for ‘Arab Spring’ in Judea and Samaria

A large-scale IDF exercise in Judea and Samaria, the first in three years, is preparing soldiers in the Menashe Brigade for a possible “Arab Spring” rebellion. The brigade is based near Jenin, located in central Samaria between the Mediterranean Coast and the Jordan River.

“The drill tested main scenarios of a potential violent escalation in the region, including terrorist attacks on a local road, terrorists infiltrating a community and killing civilians, abduction of soldiers, numerous explosives set on a fence and more,” military spokesmen reported on the IDF Website.

Forces from the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), Israeli Police, Israeli emergency medical services Magen David Adom, regular and reserve units, and community security bodies participated in the drill.

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Development, Drill, Flashpoints, Military Buildup July 16, 2012

Taiwan tests new weapons in China war simulation

Taiwan for the first time tested how a fleet of advanced submarine hunting aircraft and attack helicopters would be utilized in the event of an attack by rival China, officials and media said today.

The weapons were included at the beginning of the five-day “Han Kuang No 28″ computer-aided wargame – the biggest of the military’s series of annual drills.

The defense ministry confirmed the drill started today but refused to provide further details.

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Crisis, Drill, Economy, Flashpoints, Military Buildup, Resources, Strategic Interests July 15, 2012

Turkey And Israel Display Military Mettle In Energy Rich Cyprus

Defence Minister Demetris Iliadis condemned Turkey for infringement of the freedom of navigation at sea as Turkish naval and airborne forces conduct military exercises within the island’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

British and Israeli forces will also be conducting military exercises within the island’s EEZ after having procured the consent of the island’s Defence Ministry.

Iliadis said that the government would be considering filing a complaint in international forums regarding Turkey’s provocative actions in the region.

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Analysis, Diplomacy, Drill, Flashpoints, Integration, Military Buildup, Policy, Stratagem, Strategic Interests July 9, 2012

China: US Uses Drills like RIMPAC 2012 to accelerate its eastward shift of strategic focus

First of all, the U.S. uses military exercise diplomacy to accelerate its eastward shift of strategic focus, and enhance its influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Since Obama took office, the U.S. has proposed a new approach to shift its strategic focus eastward, attempting to consolidate its dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and maintain its global dominance. Economically, the U.S. has set up an economic body outside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) by actively promoting the establishment of the Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP).

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Border Incursion, Crisis, Drill, Flashpoints, Military July 9, 2012

Syrian Navy Conducts Drills as NATO Ships Approach

Syria has announced it has carried out successful drills of its naval forces during the weekend, as news surfaced that NATO has sent three ships to patrol the area.

The Syrian military drills included the launching of rockets from ships with land-based support, aimed at rehearsing the repulsion of a supposed attack by sea.

At the same time, Russian newspaper Kommersant writes that NATO has sent three war ships to patrol waters near Syria’s border with Turkey.

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Analysis, Drill, Flashpoints, Military July 5, 2012

Fall 2012: Russia’s New Assault On Georgia?

The author analyzes the Kavkaz-2012 military exercises. These exercises, planned to take place in September 2012 in the Caucasus, are, according to the Kremlin, a preparation for an eventual Western attack on Iran. Due to the fact that troops stationed in Armenia and the Georgian breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia will participate, the huge military exercises have been considered by Georgia as a direct threat. The author argues that the Georgian fear is well founded and analyzes the resemblances and differences with the Kavkaz-2008 exercises that preceded the invasion of Georgia four years ago.

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Drill, Military, News July 1, 2012

US hosts world’s largest naval exercises in Hawaii

Some 25,000 sailors and other military personnel from 22 nations are converging on Hawaii starting Friday to practice hunting for submarines and catching pirates in the world’s largest naval exercises.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet is hosting the Rim of the Pacific exercises, which take place every two years in Hawaii and surrounding waters.

Countries from Japan to Tonga and Russia to Chile are sending 42 surface ships, six submarines and 200 aircraft to participate in the series of drills, which takes place over the next five weeks.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military Buildup, Stratagem, Strategic Interests June 29, 2012

Russia gets its armed forces ready in the Caucasus

“The Russian military and political leadership devotes considerable attention to strengthening of the country’s defence in the Caspian Sea region and the Caucasus. There can be no talk of demilitarization of the region. Moscow intends to defend its interests here by various means, including force “- Vladimir Mukhin is categorical on the pages of the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newsapper.

Acouple of weeks ago the same newspaper published an article by Sergei Konovalov “Syrian direction of the Russian troops” which, it is obvious, like the article by Mukhin, was written on instructions of the chief military body of Russia. It demonstrates that threats and demonstration of military power became part of the policy of the Russian government.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military June 29, 2012

King Abdullah puts Saudi military on state of high alert‎

Saudi King Abdullah has reportedly ordered the security forces to be on a state of high alert due to what Riyadh considers the tense situation in the Middle East.

The decree, calling for preparation against “foreign or terrorist attacks,” warns the Saudi security forces against any negligence in following the order.

The Saudi Defense Ministry consequently put all armed forces on high alert, saying all the forces inside and outside of the kingdom were ready to take part in an operation dubbed as “al-Farouq.”

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News June 22, 2012

US, South Korea say massive live-fire drills are warning against North Korea

A huge North Korean flag disappeared behind a tower of flames and thick black smoke Friday as South Korean fighter jets and U.S. attack helicopters fired rockets in the allies’ biggest joint live-fire drills since the Korean War.

The war games south of the heavily armed Korean border come amid rising animosity between the rival Koreas and are meant to mark Monday’s 62nd anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 war, which ended in a truce, leaving the Korean peninsula still technically at war.

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Conflict, Crisis, Development, Drill, Military June 13, 2012

Chinese military conducts North Korea destabilization drill

More than 100 Chinese soldiers took part in a river-crossing exercise on its Yalu River border with North Korea Tuesday, renewing speculation the Chinese military is preparing to defend against any influx of North Korean refugees following possible regime collapse in Pyongyang.

Uniformed soldiers wearing orange life vests could be seen building and rebuilding about a dozen pontoon bridges at various points along the Yalu River, which separates China and North Korea. Each bridge stretched 20 to 30 meters, made up of six or seven sections connected to each other.

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Conflict, Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News June 6, 2012

Disputed Territories: Navy helps Philippines’ sea defense

U.S. Navy Special Warfare sailors are helping the Philippine navy learn to control the waters around islands where they’re fighting Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

Special Warfare Combatant Craft crew and their MK V special operations craft and rigid inflatable boats have followed the Philippine navy on more than 4,000 “visit, board, search and seizures” since arriving in the Philippines in October, said Chief Petty Officer Michael Andre, a RIB detachment commander.

The crewmen and an accompanying group of Navy SEALs are based at Coronado, Calif., and are supporting the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines by training counterparts in the Philippine naval special operations units.

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Conflict, Drill, Military May 31, 2012

SCO Armed Forces to Stage “Peace Mission 2012″ Drill

Armed forces from Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states will hold the “Peace Mission 2012″ drill in Tajikistan from June 8 to 14, Ministry of Defense spokesman Yang Yujun announced Thursday.

The drill is a joint anti-terrorism military exercise launched under the SCO framework, Yang said, adding that the drill will involve more than 2,000 military personnel from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Yang said the drill will focus on the preparation and implementation of joint anti-terrorism action in mountainous areas in the context of a regional crisis incurred by terrorist activity.

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Border Incursion, Drill, Flashpoints, Military May 9, 2012

Massive Show of Force: Over 15 nations to join US-led military drill near Syria border

12000 soldiers from 17 countries carry out a US-led joint military exercise in Jordan amid the ongoing the crisis in Syria. ‘It has nothing to do with Syria. [The timing] is just a coincidence,’ a top US official says
Wounded Syrian soldiers are taken to hospital after a bomb attack which targets their convoy as they escort UN peace observers, including the Norwegian general. AP photo

The United States military said yesterday that 12,000 soldiers from 17 countries would be taking part in this month’s military exercises in Jordan, designed to enhance their ability to meet “security challenges.”

Special action troops, naval and air force units from countries including Turkey, France and Saudi Arabia will carry out the joint training operations, according to the Voice of Russia.

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Development, Drill, Military, Sci/Tech May 9, 2012

Military deploys VR NeuroTracker game to train special ops forces (video)

We’ve seen virtual reality used to simulate the experience of being in space, to train engineers and even to help patients regain mobility, so it’s no surprise that the military is recognizing VR’s potential, too. The US Special Operations Command recently announced that it will employ NeuroTracker — a system currently used to train athletes in the NFL and NHL — to assess and improve commandos’ response times and perceptive capabilities.

The VR setup tasks commandos with following the movements of four different balls projected on a 3D screen, the catch being that four “decoy” objects are also bouncing around. NeuroTracker assesses how well an individual can keep track of the designated targets, and also helps determine how he or she would be able to predict trajectories in the field.

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Border Incursion, Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News May 2, 2012

IDF Conducts ‘Lebanon Attack’ Drill

IDF forces carried out a series of contingency maneuvers along the Blue Line on Tuesday to prepare for a possible attack as it constructs a 6-meter high separation wall between Israel and Lebanon.

According to Lebanese sources, tens of Israeli soldiers were deployed in the defacto border region and were visible from the border town of Kfar Kila.

The troops – said to number in the “tens” – deployed using Hummers and asked the construction company to evacuate the area for practice.

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Conflict, CyberOps, Drill, Military April 25, 2012

Greece and 6 other NATO Countries To Join U.S. in Schriever CyberWargame

“The Schriever Wargame, set in the year 2023, will explore critical space issues and investigate the integration activities of multiple agencies associated with space systems and services. Schriever Wargame 2012 will also include international partners from Australia, Canada and the U.K.,” said a press release from U.S. Air Force Space Command.

“This is a significant development in what was predominately a U.S. event and reflects the need to cooperate and share information to develop future capabilities that benefit NATO collectively,” a NATO official said.

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Analysis, Drill, Flashpoints, Military April 23, 2012

Expert: Azerbaijan preparing for war against Iran

The exercises Azerbaijan conducted in the Caspian Sea in the period
from April 12 to 20 are preparations for a war against Iran, Nver
Davtyan, specialist in Iranian studies, told media on April 21.

The State Frontier Service of Armenia conducted tactical exercises
“Protection of the oil and gas recovery regions in the Azerbaijani
sector of the Caspian Sea, pipelines, organization of protection in
case of a threat to oil and gas platforms, rescue operations.”

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Drill, Military, News April 22, 2012

American troops deploy to Morocco

Troops from Texas, Utah, California and other states deployed to the northwest coast of Africa today to gather with a total of approximately 1,200 American troops in support of Task Force African Lion 2012, a U.S.-Moroccan military exercise.

These soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen will be conducting joint-combined training with the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces and providing humanitarian assistance aid in the form of medical and dental care.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News, Stratagem, Strategic Interests April 20, 2012

Taiwan tests ‘China invasion’ scenario

Taiwan Thursday tested its ability to defend one of it largest air bases against Chinese invasion, a scenario experts insisted remained relevant in an age of missile and cyber attacks.

About 1,500 soldiers took part in the drill, part of the island’s biggest annual war game “Han Kuang (Han Glory) No 28″, at Hsinchu Air Base in the north of the island, home to dozens of French-made Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets.

“Radars have detected enemy aircraft approaching from across the Taiwan Strait,” an officer told foreign and local journalists invited to report on the event.

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Drill, GeoPolitics, Military, Strategic Interests April 17, 2012

China, Russia plan naval exercises in Yellow Sea

State media say China and Russia will conduct a joint maritime drill next week in the Yellow Sea off China’s eastern coast.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that the April 22-27 drill will focus on maritime defense and protection of navigation. It said it will involve 16 vessels, including destroyers, frigates, support and hospital ships and two submarines.

Xinhua said four warships from Russia’s Pacific Fleet have left Vladivostok for the exercise.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military April 16, 2012

Russian Bombers Exercise Near Japan Border

Russia on Monday began a five-day aerial exercise in the country’s maritime territory near the Japanese border in which some 40 strategic bombers are taking part, the Defense Ministry said.

The long-range aviation exercise includes aerial bombings and launching of airborne cruise missiles from the Litovka test range, Russian state media quoted Ministry spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik as saying.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Risks April 16, 2012

Taiwan stages anti-China military exercise

Taiwan has begun its annual military exercise to simulate fending off air attacks and troop landings by communist China.

The Defence Ministry said the five-day Han Kuang, or Chinese Glory, exercise began Monday at air bases and along the island’s coasts. It said thousands of troops will participate in the drills but there will be no live firing.

Instead, officials say, soldiers will use computers to simulate shooting down Chinese drones and aircraft targeting Taiwanese military bases. Chinese drone use is increasing as the country seeks to economize on troop use.

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Development, Drill, Military April 11, 2012

Iranian Army, IRGC planning joint wargames

The Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) plan to stage joint military drills to boost their defense and combat capabilities in the current Iranian year (started on March 20), a senior Army commander announced on Wednesday, April 11.

According to Fars News Agency, speaking to reporters Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan announced that his forces plan to hold 8 wargames in different fields, among them specialized airborne exercises and joint drills with the IRGC.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Stratagem April 2, 2012

Saakashvili Links Russia’s Planned Military Drills with Elections in Georgia

Russia’s planned military exercises this fall was timed deliberately to coincide with Georgia’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for October, President Saakashvili said on March 31.

“It is not a coincidence that our neighbor scheduled its large-scale military exercises for second half of September, just several days before elections [in Georgia]. This timing is really not a coincidence,” Saakashvili said, apparently referring to Kavkaz-2012 military drills.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, Resources March 30, 2012

Greece Joins Israel-USA Military Exercise in Southern Mediterranean

At the same time the tripartite energy agreement will be signed between Greece, Israel and Cyprus on Thursday at Kavouri of Vouliagmeni, Athens, in the presence of Richard Morningstar, the special envoy of the US Foreign Affairs Ministry, a large-scale aeronautical military exercise will be taking place in the Southern Mediterranean.

According to defencenet.gr, Greece, Israel and USA will launch their joint military exercise from Crete to Haifa against “virtual enemy forces” that bear great resemblance to the Turkish aeronautical forces in this particular military operation scenario.

“Noble Dina” was initially planned to take place in April just like in 2011. However, it was decided that the military exercise should coincide with the date of the energy agreement signing between the three countries of the Southeastern Mediterranean. Thus, it would underline that the cooperation between Israel, Greece and the US does not only concern energy but military affairs as well.

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Drill, Military, News March 27, 2012

Sweden, Finland to Take Part in NATO’s Baltic Airspace Exercise

NATO forces will hold its 11th airspace policing exercise in Baltic skies on March 27 and 28 in conjunction with Finnish and Swedish air forces.

The units will practice establishing contact with airplanes that appear to lack communications and escorting such aircraft from sovereign airspace into NATO’s area of responsibility, midair transfer of escort procedures and coordination between air traffic control centers.

On the first day, a plane will be escorted from Swedish airspace to Lithuania and the next day the same scenario will be repeated in Finnish airspace.

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Drill, Military, News March 11, 2012

Military exercises Agile Spirit 2012 start in Georgia

US Marines and soldiers from the Georgian 4th Infantry Brigade will participate in a combined military exercise called AGILE SPIRIT 2012 in the Vaziani Training Area from March 10 – 24. The focus of the exercise, which will involve more than 300 Marines from the Marine Corps’ Black Sea Rotational Force 12 based in Constanta, Romania, and the Georgian Armed Forces, is to increase interoperability between the forces and exchange and enhance each other’s capacity in counterinsurgency and peacekeeping operations, including small unit tactics, convoy operations, and counter-Improvised Explosive Device training.

AGILE SPIRIT has become an annual exercise and supplements other elements of our military partnership with Georgia, such as the Georgia Deployment Program, which is a US Marine Corps program that prepares Georgian Armed Forces to deploy to Afghanistan in support of the International Security Assistance Force.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News March 3, 2012

India Holds Four-day Military Exercises Close To China Border

India has begun major military exercises close to the Chinese border, involving Special Forces of the Army and frontline fighters such as Su-30MKI as part of the endeavour to be battle ready in the inhospitable mountainous region.

Code-named as ‘Pralay’ (devastation), the day-and-night exercises are mainly dominated by the aerial manoeuvres with support by ground forces, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military, News February 28, 2012

India plans war games near Pakistan border

An official on Monday said the Indian military is to conduct one of its largest mock war drills – involving 20,000 troops – close to Pakistan’s border.
Army spokesman Colonel Jagdeep Dahiya told AFP that the manoeuvres, named Shoorveer or Brave Warrior, which will also involve 200 Russian-made tanks, are due to begin in the deserts of India’s state of Rajasthan next month.

“The exercise will be one of the largest manoeuvres conducted so far,” he said, adding that latest warplanes will also be used in the drills, which are scheduled to end in May.
In a separate statement the military said tanks, frontline combat vehicles, artillery, helicopters, fighter jets, drones, air-defence weapons and military radars will all be part of the exercise.

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Drill, Military, News February 8, 2012

‘Experts say’ drills stir up disputes

United States accused of seeking to isolate China by inviting neighbours to join annual Asia-Pacific military exercises:

Mainland analysts say Beijing should stay vigilant during US-led multinational military exercises in the Asia-Pacific and use a carrot-and-stick approach with neighbours involved in the drills.

Asian countries engaged in territorial disputes with China, including the Philippines, Vietnam and India, were all invited to take part in this year’s Cobra Gold drills. China has remained an observer since 2002.

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Analysis, Drill, Flashpoints, Military January 18, 2012

Russia’s Iran war games: responding to threats, or making them?

There’s been some interesting reporting on Russia’s annual ‘Kavkaz’ war games and their connection with the situation in Iran. Unlike previous years, the exercises – scheduled for the autumn – are explicitly designed with events ‘in the Persian Gulf’ (i.e. Iran) in mind. Specifically, they revolve around the scenario that a US-Israeli attack on Iran creates ‘spillover’, that old buzzword of the armchair general, in the Caucasus.

Significantly, this year’s exercises will probably not be confined to Russian soil: they will include components in the Georgia’s breakaway, Russian-backed territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and maybe in Armenia too.

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Development, Drill, GeoPolitics, Military January 17, 2012

‘Russia develops military infrastructure in Abkhazia and South Ossetia’

The Georgian Foreign Ministry accused Russia of targeting the militarization of the ‘occupied territories’. “Russia is constantly developing military infrastructure in the occupied territories of Georgia – Abkhazia and South Ossetia, attacking the character enters the equipment and is constantly trying to permanently provoke tensions both in Georgia and around the Black Sea region,”

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Drill, Military Buildup, Powerplay December 23, 2011

Syria fires new Russian missiles in exercise as ‘warning to Turkey and NATO’

The regime of President Bashar Assad has displayed its new
Russian-origin weapons during a military exercise.

Western diplomats said Assad’s military fired new missiles and other
weapons acquired from Moscow in late 2011 during an exercise that took place
on Dec. 20. They said the new weapons included the P-800 Yakhont cruise
missile, which arrived in November.

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Border Incursion, Drill, Flashpoints, Military Buildup December 2, 2011

India in war games on Pak border

At a time when Pakistanis are recovering from the shock of Nato attack on two military posts, thousands of Indian soldiers armed with hundreds of tanks, armoured carriers and fighter jets are getting ready for manoeuvres in Rajasthan sector along Pakistani border, reported Indian media on Thursday.

More than 50,000 Indian troops along with T-90, T-72, Arjun Tanks and BMPs are expected to take part in this gigantic military exercise code-named ‘SUDARSHAN SHAKTI’.

An Indian defence report says that “This exercise will be a trendsetter for the Integrated Theatre Concept”.

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Drill, Military, News November 29, 2011

IDF to hold exercises simulating WMD attacks

Israel will hold a series of exercises over the coming months preparing the country for potential biological, chemical and radioactive attacks. One of the exercises, called “Dark Cloud,” will be held in January and will be the first time the Israeli defense establishment and emergency services simulate a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack in northern Israel.

The exercise will be held in Haifa and will simulate a radioactive dirty bomb attack in the city and will involve the IDF’s Home Front Command, Israel Police and other emergency services. Road blocks will be setup throughout the city and hospitals will also be tested for their level of preparedness for such an attack.

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Drill, Flashpoints, Military November 9, 2011

Taiwan drill to simulate China invasion

Taiwan will conduct war games next week simulating the defence of the island against an attack by China, officials said Wednesday, in drills drawing on US military experience in the two Gulf wars.

The five-day drill beginning Monday will pit a marine brigade — acting as a mock enemy — against a motorised infantry brigade defending the island, the defence ministry said.

The marines will land in the southern Pingtung county and encounter the infantry in central Taiwan, it said.

Special combat units, supported with AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters, will back up the infantry who will use a road as an improvised runway for air force fighter jets, it said.

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