What's in the headlines?

Iran’s “real Iron Dome” air defence system

Iran has deployed its new national missile defence system. Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabifard, Vice Speaker of Iran’s Parliament dubbed the system the “real Iron Dome,” in reference to the joint US-Israeli Iron Dome missile shield, which demonstrated its capabilities in the recent conflict between Hamas fighters and the Israeli Defence force. Aboutorabifard went on to say “Today Iran's Air Defence System has provided our country with an Iron Dome in its real sense and Iran's airspace is the safest in the region,"

Iran first announced plans to create a mid-range and long-range national missile defence system back in August. However, Tehran has so far provided no footage that would prove the effectiveness of the air defence system. Aboutorabifard insisted that Iran's air defence system has “the highest deterrence power in the region.”

Iran’s military personnel and its scientists have been busy developing technology to further advance their strategic capabilities. Fars news agency reported that a UAV with abilities to evade missiles is in development, as well as testing a number of suicide drones (a type of cruise missile). Iranian Air Force spokesman General Hossein Chitforoush announced that Iran has started mass production of

Saeqeh (Thunder) fighter jets

What's in the Headlines?

Russia steps up military presence in the Arctic 

Six Navy ships, including the anti-submarine destroyer, two landing ships and support vessels, have set off for the New Siberian Islands, where an abandoned military base under reconstruction. The base was abandoned almost three decades ago and was reopened last year as part of Russia’s military build-up in the Arctic.

“The Arctic plays a very important role from the point of view of assuring security . . . because of that, first strike American nuclear submarines are concentrated there not far from the coast of Norway – the flight time of their missiles to Moscow is 15 to 15 minutes. But a significant portion of our naval submarine forces are there too.” President Vladimir Putin said in a speech to the Seliger patriotic summer camp.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has expressed his concerns about the growing military presence of Russia in the Arctic region. Though the Russia can be described as operating within international rules, Harper was clear that there can be no complacency about it. There have been reports of a fleet of nuclear-powered Russian submarines and icebreakers are patrolling the waters, and that Russian planes had transgressed the boundaries of Canadian airspace many times. Prime Minister Harper described Canada's position as being cautious. 

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed Canadian accusations as “nonsense”.“We have said many times that we will only act within the framework of international law [in the Arctic], as we have always done and are going to do in the future,” Putin said.

What's in the Headlines?

UK Military will now be relying on it's own media 

The British military devoting more of its resources to filming and photographing its own operations, leaving journalists who document the lives and actions of military personnel slightly out of the loop. It is argues that future conflict that will involve the British military will not likely be a boots on the ground situation like we witnessed in Afghanistan. Infrastructure will not be in place to support a mass of reporters, the documentation of these events will be in the hands of military journalists or “media operators” from the British Army’s Media Operations Group (MOG).

The MOG will be sharing its training facilities with 15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group under the banner of the newly-formed Security Assistance Group - a support Group for the British Army specialising in psyops, content creation, and propaganda. Although NATO's public affairs policy states that the two functions should operate separately. The move signifies a merger of the two contrasting military divisions, the MOG known for documenting objective truths and 15 PsyOps known for conveying what is known as the "dark arts", usually directing its material at an enemy's audience.