While watching this try to imagine a fleet of these (including Tanks, APC’s and Amphibs, like 50 or more) attacking at once…the “swarm” tactic is widely used in both Russian and Chinese Military doctrines, and not just with Armored Vehicles, but also with Drones and Attack Aircraft. -SF Russian, Chinese combat vehicles tackle obstacles, explosions, and even…
Category: Urban Warfare
Studies in Terrorism: Hamas The “Merchants of War” Who Seek to Destroy Israel
In the words of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the tunnels are being dug not only to “defend the Gaza Strip, but to serve as a launching pad to reach all of Palestine.” As one can see from any map of Palestine, “all of Palestine” does not mean living in peace alongside Israel; it means supplanting…
The Drug of War and Terrorism
Bottom Line Up Front: • Jordanian security officials killed 12 suspected smugglers along the border with Syria and seized 2 million pills of the amphetamine Captagon • This is only the latest in a string of Captagon seizures in the region; Lebanon seized two tons of the pills last October and another 15 million pills in…
6 Things You Probably Never Knew about Black Hawk Down
The 2001 movie about the Battle of Mogadishu is a modern-day classic war movie. The 2001 blockbuster “Black Hawk Down” is a favorite among service members and veterans alike. Depicting the 1993 raid to capture Mohamed Farah Aidid and subsequent Battle of Mogadishu, “Black Hawk Down” provided a pro-soldier narrative, a look into what happens…
These are the Wars that will Rage in Africa in 2016
By Peter Dorrie With the exception of Syria, African countries currently get the worst rep when it comes to violence and conflict. Virtually every story coming out of the continent seems to showcase one atrocity or another. This narrative is both true and false. In 2014, Africa experienced more than half of worldwide conflict…
NO! You can’t have my Civil Rights, I am Using Them Right Now!
“The ‘looters’ credo’ has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter, who simpers that he…
The Lessons of Debaltseve: Armored Vehicles Still Matter
After nearly fifteen years of counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, American advocates of heavy armored forces interpreted Ukrainian forces’ defeat at the battle of Debaltseve as an indication that “tanks still matter.” But the key lesson of the Debaltseve fight is a broader one: Combat vehicles of whatever kind must provide the mobility, protection,…
Crusader Corner: When Terrorist Assault Cities
To be prepared for these Terrorist eventualities, we, as Civilian Operators, have to STOP thinking in these very broad, ambiguous terms of “Preparing for Terrorism” and start narrowing our focus in how EXACTLY we are going to prepare for these attacks. In the vast majority of attacks in the past decade, several small teams of…
Peering into the Past and Future of Urban Warfare in Israel
I traveled recently to Israel to visit a state-of-the-art military training facility in the southern Negev Desert opened by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) last year. The facility, at the Tze’elim army base, is meant to simulate urban operations of the kind the Israelis have so often faced in their conflicts with Palestinian and Lebanese…