New drones and fighters could fry enemy hardware from a distance. Russia will arm its sixth-generation combat drones with microwave weapons. These weapons, which disable an aircraft’s electronic equipment, already exist today “and can hit targets within a radius of tens of kilometers,” said Vladimir Mikheev, a director of state-owned Russian electronics firm KRET, in…
Category: Fourth Gen Warfare
OPSEC Tradecraft: Modern Clandestine Groups Face New Challenges
There were no mobile phones or recording devices allowed at this bizarre encounter. The digital era is perceived as posing new threats to the security of terror groups in Ireland in terms of their being tracked and covertly recorded. Source: The Guardian Bottom Line Up Front Compartmentation via unlinking Strict anti forensic practices to mitigate…
Examining Terrorist Tactics: The Machiavellian Method of ISIS
Like communists of yore, the soldiers of the caliphate are seeking to ‘exacerbate the contradictions’ of those ranged against them. PARIS — Saudi King Salman bin Abdelaziz sounded at once angry and plaintive as he marked the end of this blood-drenched month of Ramadan. The so-called Islamic State, ISIS, had just staged attacks in three…
Europe’s Forgotten War
Fighting in the Donbas Has Never Stopped Despite the existence of a ceasefire agreement, fighting in eastern Ukraine continues and is increasing. On July 5, three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and thirteen were wounded. The uptick in fighting began this past January, when Ukrainian officials reported up to seventy-one attacks a day and the OSCE’s…
Military History: Was The Russian Military A SteamRoller From WW2 Until Today?
Joseph Stalin supposedly claimed that “quantity has a quality all its own,” justifying a cannon-fodder mentality and immense casualties. The problem is, Stalin never actually said that, but it fits our stereotype about the Russian military so neatly that everyone believes he did. When it comes to war, Russia is commonly perceived as favoring quantity…
Crusader Corner: The Attack On The ISIS Convoy Is a Tactic As Old As War
Personally, I got a lot of satisfaction watching these ISIS camel turds get wiped off the face of the planet, I hope you do too.-SF Killing retreating soldiers has a long — and totally legal — history As the Iraqi army overran the last of Fallujah’s neighborhoods remaining in the Islamic State’s hands this week, more than 500…
Modern War: How Tactics Used in Iraq and A-Stan Can Make The U.S. More Vulnerable in Future Wars
We need to ask ourselves which lessons are worth retaining versus which do we think we should retain but make us more vulnerable. Editor’s Note: This article is drawn from a talk given by the author to the Special Operations Medical Association Scientific Assembly in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 24, 2016. Question: Do the…
Modern War: Drone Choppers Help Hunt Top-Tier Terrorist in Africa
On Jan. 14, 2014, USS Elrod left her home port in Norfolk, Virginia for what, to outsiders, might have seemed like a routine six-month trip to the Mediterranean. Carrying a detachment of four MQ-8B Fire Scout drone helicopters, the nearly 30-year-old frigate would visit various ports and train with America’s allies, according to an official…
Guerilla Warfare History: The Ties That Bind… Chairman Mao, Che Guevera and Al-Qaeda
Mao Tse-tung borrowed the revolutionary vanguard from Vladimir Lenin, Ernesto “Che” Guevara liked Mao’s ideas about sanctuaries, and Al Qaeda valued Guevara’s focoist approach to global insurgency. At first glance, the revolutionary strategies of Mao, Guevara, and the intellectuals who devised Al Qaeda’s doctrine for jihad have much in common. They integrated violence into the…
Cyber-War: The Big Hack of NYC
A scenario that could happen based on what already has. On December 4, 2017, at a little before nine in the morning, an executive at Goldman Sachs was swiping through the day’s market report in the backseat of a hired SUV heading south on the West Side Highway when his car suddenly swerved to the…