Daan

Sweden has been reinforcing its garrison on Gotland over the weekend: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/k61RPQ/forsvarsmakten-har-soldater-i-oskarshamn Google Translation: https://www-aftonbladet-se.translate.goog/nyheter/a/k61RPQ/forsvarsmakten-har-soldater-i-oskarshamn?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

That is a debate from 1999 about a then already rather obsolete weapon system. 100 Paveway IIIs with modifications and training may well have been a good deal for the Saudis.

Military parade in Zanzibar: Calibre Obscura

Don't buy it:

Keeping the peace:

The Mirage is very nice 😉 The problem with Razbam is that it is relatively small team for the amount of projects they have taken on. I'd rather have them focus on one aircraft / map at a time.

Apparently, among its many projects, Razbam is doing a Pucara, some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/bCc0pmt#i7pqXJL

Interesting footage:

Mayyun and Socotra are two separate islands at a distance of 1000 km from each other.

The problem with the Indonesian Air Force forces is funding. Its main combat aircraft (F-16s and Flankers) are divided over two bases on Java and Sumatra.

Although theoretically all multirole aircraft, these three types seem to have somewhat different fortes. The first is primarily a large air superiority fighter, the final evolution of the Su-27 line, while the latter is an updated variant of an attack aircraft with a secondary air defense mission in less contested environments ('homeland defense') or in support of F-22s as a missile carrier. The Rafale is a smaller and lighter machine, more middle of the road, though also with an emphasis on strikes against land- and seaborne targets. What roles do you want these aircraft primarily to fulfill? In what system and environment should these operate? What is your relationship to the aircraft's supplier and its expected future? The recent experience of the Indonesian Airforce has not been particularly lucky with the older F-16 A/B fleet affected by sanctions in times of conflict, later self-inflicted logistical troubles, whilst I read somewhere the handful of Su-27/30s is not even airworthy. The most useful aircraft are the more recently acquired early block F-16C and Ds. Over the last twenty years Indonesia has announced multiple times that it was to buy this or that type, sometimes in the most fantastical numbers, but except for these older F-16s nothing has materialized.

It probably has to do with fears of mutual escalation and undesired attention from and posturing by outside powers. Currently, the conflict between Israel and Iran receives little coverage in the world's media even though it has involved thousands of individual actions over the last few years. Sinking a merchant ship, a rather unusual event, may push the other to make a similar move, leading to a steepening of the vicious spiral detrimental to both, thus a more profound lose-lose outcome in their prisoner's dilemma. In addition, the world's attention would be drawn to the conflict, such as that of the US and Russia. The party sinking the ships may be held to account, even if only by condemnation. Some early news items and commentators hinted at a prior Russo-Israeli agreement over the strike or at least Russian acquiescence, which took place surprisingly close to Russian facilities. For reasons of Russia not being overly charmed by diverging Iranian policy objectives in Syria and Iran's pathological tendencies to destabilize a country that is gradually coming out of a ruinous civil war. As this strike with its prolonged fire in the aftermath drew more attention, today we learned that Russia did not interfere 'because of a Russian plane landing at its nearby airbase' at the time of the strike i.e. unwanted posturing by a non-involved power from the Israeli perspective. If Russia is further publicly embarrassed by Israeli air strikes on its de facto protectorate, it may not be so cooperative next time or even actively oppose Israeli actions. Therefore, Israeli attacks near the Russian base areas in Latakia have been rather rare thus far. The targets of the recent strike must have been judged as high value.

More detailed imagery:

The containers were still burning today: Also interesting is the route the Iranian ships take to reach Syria: