Defence`s Feeds

A Saddam-era army commander, Yaseen al-Muadhidi, also known as Abu Taha, has been appointed as a ‘new war minister’ of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Photo: betanews.com

A Saddam-era army commander has been appointed as a ‘new war minister’ of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in order to replace former war minister, Abu Omar al-Shishani, who was killed this summer, a senior commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, Colonel Nazem al-Chuqaifi said on Tuesday.

“ISIL leaders at a meeting, held in the vicinity of Iraq’s Anbar province, chose former senior Iraq Army officer Yaseen al-Muadhidi, alias Abu Taha, as the terrorist group’s new war minister,” al-Chuqaifi said.

Abu Taha is one of the most senior commanders and emirs in the hierarchy of the IS, who has been fighting on the side of the group for about five years. According to intelligence data, Taha was one of the most prominent officers in the now-disbanded Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein and served as a lieutenant general in 2003.

The new IS war minister held a number of senior positions, including post of the commander of the special forces in Hussein’s Army, as well as other high-ranking security and military positions.

In July, the death of Abu Omar al-Shishani was eventually confirmed by the IS. The statement was published by the IS Amaq news agency four months after several sources publicly reported about the killing.

Abu Omar al-Shishani, a Chechen by nationality, who had a reputation of a top military adviser to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was born in 1986 in Georgia, when it still was a part of the Soviet Union. At birth, he was named Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili. Before to join Georgia’s military in 2006, the notorious terrorist fought as a rebel in Chechnya.

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The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will be supplied with the Zolfaqar missiles that were first presented on Wednesday.

Photo: Tasnim News Agency

Iran plans to supply the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces with a large number of various types of the Zolfaqar missiles, the Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, citing commander of the Aerospace Force of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (AFAGIR), Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

“The new Zolfaqar missile is being supplied to the IRGC Aerospace Force and a large number of this missile will be supplied to our units by the yearend,” Hajizadeh told Fars.

Answering the question if Iran has any plans to develop missiles, capable to hit targets at a distance more than 2,000 km, the Brigadier General said: “Our target is Israel and we don’t need missiles with a range of more than 2,000 km.”

On Sunday, mass-production of the domestically-designed Zolfaqar missiles, which are capable of hitting targets at a distance up to 700 km with a zero margin of error, was started in Iran. Iranian Defense Minister, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, and General Hajizadeh attended an opening ceremony of the production line.

The Zolfaqar mid-range missiles were first presented on Wednesday, during the nationwide parades of the Armed Forces.

In recent years, Teheran has made giant advancements in developing of long-range missiles. In March, two domestically-designed Qadr H ballistic missiles were fired from the Eastern Alborz Mountains at a target on Iran’s Southeastern Makran seashore, located at a distance 1,400 km. One missile had a message, written on it, that said in Hebrew: “Israel should be wiped off the Earth.” The missiles were fired during the main stage of the IRGC drills in Central Iran and various parts of the country.

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The first six upgraded F16 aircraft will arrive in Romania over from Portugal on Wednesday, September 28. The aircraft have been upgraded, have new engines and were painted in several shades of gray.

The F-16s have had their engines changed and went through a process of modernization, called mid-life upgrade – improvements at the mid-cycle of operations.
The Romanian pilots that will operate the F-16s were trained by the Portuguese specialists. After two years of training at the basis of Monte Real, our air forces have nine F-16 pilots and 80 engineers and technicians who will handle the maintenance of these aircraft.

Three years ago, Romania decided to buy twelve F-16 aircraft from the Portuguese Air Forces to replace part of its fleet of Russian built MiG-21 Lancer fighter aircraft. The initial intent was to buy 24 airplanes, but the final decision was for 12, for budgetary reasons. Beside the F16, offers were made by companies producing the JAS-39 Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon, the offers being for new aircraft. Furthermore, the offer for French Dassault Rafale planes was analyzed.

The aircraft package includes nine upgraded Portuguese Air Force F-16MLU aircraft, and three former US Air Force aircraft supplied to Portugal for the resale under the US Excess Defense Article program. The Portuguese military procurement agency DGAIED will buy those latter three F-16s and have the Portuguese Air Force upgrade them to the F-16 Mid Life Update (MLU) standard with assistance of OGMA-Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal prior transfer to Romania.

The price for the 12 F16 aircraft was set at 628 million euro, the planes going on to be stationed at the air bases in Fetesti and Campia Turzii, two airbases especially modernized for this type of aircraft.

However, experts say that Romania needs 48 multirole aircraft, meaning four squadrons. In 2015, Romanian authorities announced the intention to buy other F16 airplanes.
Minister of Defence Mihnea Motoc stated in February that Romania intends to buy another 12 F16 airplanes.

Tag: F-16Romania

Following the inicial success today in Aleppo, the Syrian army and Hezbollah have fully secured the Farafira Neighborhood and the area northwest of the Aleppo Citadel inside the city.

Click to see the full-size map

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The US-led coalition’s air power has bombed areas near the Syrian government-controlled city of Deir Ezzor 2nd time in September, reports said on September 27.

The coalition’s warplanes destroyed the Political Brigade, which crosses the Euphrates river, inside the town of Al-Mayadeen. Al-Mayadeen is located in the southeastern countryside of the Deir Ezzor province.

Earlier this month, the US-led coalition hit the Syrian army’s positions at the Thardeh Mountains outside the city of Deir Ezzor, killing and injuring over 100 Syrian servicemen. The ISIS attack followed the air strike.

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© REUTERS/ Kevin Lamarque

Moscow released the full text of the Russia-US deal on Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on September 27. Its full text is now aviable (in Russian) on the site of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“Only a few days ago – following the information ‘leaks’ in the Western media – the US State Department published on its website parts of the documents, not bothering to agree with us the date of the release,” theministry said in a statement. “On our part, we publish the texts of the relevant agreements in Russian.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry added that it had proposed to make the full package of documents public but Washington refused to do so. The move caused “some questions about whether the US is sincere or not.”

“The unwillingness to publicly confirm their commitment to separate opposition from al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and jointly conduct strikes against terrorists and their partners in crime who did not cease hostilities called for special attention.”

Moscow urged Washington to make public the mandate of the joint center on the coordination of airstrikes against terrorists, the agreement on the monitoring of a road to Aleppo and to fulfill its promise and separate “moderate” Syrian rebels and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra).

On September 9, Russia and the United States announced a new plan on Syria and a ceasefire came into force on September 12. However, the peace attempt was declared ineffective because of numerous violations of the ceasefire. Russia and the US blamed each other for sabotaging the deal.

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Turkish-backed militant groups, supported by the Turkish Armed Forces, have reverced almost all gains of the ISIS terrorist group in the northern part of Aleppo province. Today, Turkish-backed militants have attacked Tilalyan north of Marea and Mregel north of Dudiyan in northern Aleppo.

We recall last week ISIS terrorists seized over 20 villages from the Ankara-led forces in the province.

Click to see the full-size map

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In this issue: Key outcomes from this year’s NATO summit, lessons to be learned from the Iraq invasion, inside the smart HQ, managing the MoD’s joint contingency plans, industry majors team up for the UK’s new fighter trainer, the Royal Navy catches …

Originally appeared at RG, translated by Mario Kuoljok exclusively for SouthFront; Edited by Desi Tzoneva

In the framework of the state programme of armaments, research and production, corporation Ural Vagon Zavod (UVZ), will supply the Russian army with 2,000 tanks of the T-14 ‘Armata’ type, the head of UVZ, Oleg Sienko, told Interfax.

“There is an agreement, according to which we must supply the army with more than 2,000 units. And now we begin to supply the Defence Ministry with the first batch of 100 tanks,” said Sienko at the opening of the Baku arms exhibition, ADEX-2016.

The head of the UVZ said that now that the tank has passed the state tests, what remains is the completion of deliveries to the armed forces; training programmes and trained crews are also needed.

“It is clear that this is a machine for a professional army. The Ministry of Defence has embarked on a contract basis for the military. Therefore, we hope that more people will be trained and then the supply will be expanded,” said Sienko.

The ‘Armata’ is the first fighting vehicle of the third post-war generation. It is equipped with remote-controlled weapons in an unmanned tower and a four-level security system. Electronic warfare and special coatings reduce the visibility of the tank in the thermal and radar ranges, active protection intercepts all types of anti-tank ammunition, and a 125 millimetre (mm) gun fires guided missiles.

The first T-14s will go to armies at Voronezh and in Moscow.

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For the fifth time since its genesis in 2014, the Spanish Air Force successfully hosted the European Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Course (EAATTC) at their airbase in Zaragoza.  

The course, EAATTC 16-4, was held from 11 to 23 September 2016.  Five participating crews from the Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Rumania and Belgium followed and graduated from this demanding  course. Together with the support of a multinational team of tactical instructors, intelligence analysts and operational support officers and experts from the European Air Transport Command, the Spanish Air force was able to plan and execute 43 advanced training sorties with a total of 108 flight hours flown by a mixture of airlift assets: ES–C130, FR- C160, CZ-C295, PL-C295, RO-C27J and BE-130).  

The course falls under the remit of the European Air Transport Fleet (EATF) initiative, which is a Category A programme of the EDA designed to improve airlift fleet capacity and interoperability among twenty of the European Union’s Member States. The next EATF event will be the European Air Transport Symposium which will be held in Florence, Italy over the period 5-7 October 2016.

More information:

• EATF project page