N.R. Jenzen-Jones with Yuri Lyamin Update 151011: The Russian Ministry of Defence has recently uploaded a video to their YouTube channel, showing a Sukhoi Su-34 employing a KAB-500S PGM over Syria. Update 151006: A recent image from Pravda shows Russian technicians with a Su-34 carrying the KAB-500S PGM. Markings present on the munition indicate that
Ivan Kochin with N.R. Jenzen-Jones Recent images released by the Syrian Center for Demining & Rehabilitation (SCDR) feature Russian PMN-4 landmines which were found just west of Daraa, in Southern Syria. In a video dated 28 September 2015, a figure can be seen employing manual demining practices to remove a number of PMN-4 mines. The earlier
Kenton Fulmer Recent photos posted on social media channels have illustrated the proliferation of an unmarked variant of the Russian TM-57 AT blast mine, as well as an escalation in the sophistication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Yemeni conflict. This cache of munitions (documented here in early August) is observed to contain over 150 examples of the
George Zahaczewsky Recent photos taken in Aden, Yemen, and provided to ARES by the photographer, show detonator assemblies for the No. 36 series Mills Bomb. These were amongst a variety of munitions left behind by Houthi rebels as they retreated in recent weeks. The container depicted in the images appears to be Canadian in origin
Michael Smallwood An image posted to social media at the beginning of August shows Ukrainian troops atop a tracked 9K35 Strela-10 armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) (NATO reporting name: SA-13 Gopher), with two Soviet B-8 rocket pods fixed in an improvised turret arrangement. It appears Ukrainian forces have developed an improvised multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) on the tracked vehicle.
N.R. Jenzen-Jones Images recently posted to Twitter and Facebook appear to show the remains of an RBK-250 ZAB-2.5 incendiary cluster munition, apparently documented in Derna, in eastern Libya. ZAB (Zazhygatelnaya Aviatsionnaya Bomba; incendiary aircraft bomb) series weapons include a range of unitary incendiary bombs as well as cargo munitions. The RBK-250 ZAB-2.5 has a nominal weight of
The above screen grab from video filmed in mid-February shows a Ukrainian government-operated UMZ (Universalnyj Minnyj Zagraditel; universal minelayer) scatterable mine laying system, atop a ZIL-131 truck chassis, operating on Debaltseve road, Ukraine. Designed by the USSR in the late 1970s, the UMZ was adopted by the Soviet Army in the early 1980s, and consists of
Michael Smallwood UPDATED 19 February 2015 A recent report, allegedly from Shakhtersk city, within Ukraine’s Donetsk region, shows pictures of a Russian-designed 96K6 Pantsir-S1 (Панцирь; ‘Cuirass’) air defence system (NATO reporting name: SA-22 Greyhound). Designed by KBP Instrument Design Bureau, the Pantsir-S1 entered service with Russian forces in 2010, and is only known
Michael Smallwood A press release from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence details the military’s restoration of multiple 2S7 Pion (Пион; ‘peony’) self-propelled artillery systems which have been in storage for over 10 years. The video below shows a Ukrainian military-led team in Rivne working on a 2S7. Interviewed in the video above, Colonel Vadim Rudnitsky suggests
N.R. Jenzen-Jones Recent news reports indicate Russia’s intention to modernise much of its military in the coming years. The commander of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RChBD) troops, Maj. Gen. Eduard Cherkasov, announced a focus on so-called ‘flame weapons’ – incendiary, thermobaric and fuel-air explosive (FAE) weapons – describing a program of modernisation and development. “For the future
