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The navies of Belgium and the Netherlands rely on Thales, Naval Group and KERSHIP shipyard to equip the 12 next generation Mine Counter Measures Vessels with NS50 radars for Air & Surface Surveillance with Fire Control capabilities.

Thales press release

The NS50 provides for the first time a complete and superior level of self-protection capability against air and surface threats for this category of high value MCM vessels. A strategic choice for small to medium vessels, the NS50 offers dual functions between air and surface surveillance and fire control.

The NS50 is the world’s most compact, affordable 4D multi-function naval radar in the market. It offers superior air and surface detection, tracking and classification performances providing highly accurate 4D target information required for rapid acquisition by short-range “fire and forget” Surface-to-Air-Missile Systems as well as fire control of ship-borne artillery against surface targets. It can defend against Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), low slow flying object, surface targets and in combination with small to medium caliber gun system.

A fully software-defined sensor, the NS50 features a modular and scalable hardware architecture, making it equally suitable for combat boats, Offshore Patrol Vessels, MCMVs, auxiliaries and various other platforms. No other radar in this class up offers the NS50’s flexibility and range of features, which are similar to those that do equip larger sized ships. Its full digital design implies that upgrades are possible at any moment and at any place and that, software modifications are simple for integrating new features. The NS50 meets today’s cybersecurity requirements.

The NS50 is part of the NS family of radars already operational within the Royal Netherlands Navy, providing enhanced situational awareness and contributing to regional stability in various parts of the world.

https://defence-blog.com/news/u-s-air-f ... order.html

Nothing really new in the link below, but it's a good short summary of the situation starting 2021:

https://thehill.com/opinion/internation ... great-wall

And this is interesting. Perhaps a LIVE scenario?:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chin ... SKBN29R1ER

New book review I thought folks might like:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/01/ ... -strategy/

And on Sunday:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sout ... SKBN29T05J

Latest news on the long running territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana:

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2182275-guyana-warns-of-venezuelan-military-escalation

Turkey launches its first Istanbul-class F 515 frigate built for Turkish Navy

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/20 ... -istanbul/
https://www.navyrecognition.com/index.p ... -navy.html

Interesting article on a troubling trend:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... ry-history

Unfortunately this has been occurring for decades at this point. When I was in my Military History MA program 10 years ago this was a hot topic.

A lot of academics in other history sub-disciplines dislike military historians because their classes tend to be more popular among elective seekers. Just look in the article, a guy wanted to take a ACW course but his only option was humans and pets.

Other academics also tend to realize that some of the most renowned military historians and many of in the field are pacifists whose belief is that to avoid war you must teach it in all its grittiness.

Long time ago now but as an engineering major I took an elective in "American Military History" (I was also Army ROTC and always interested in history). It was taught by D. Clayton James who wrote a nice biography of MacArther and was the technical advisor to the movie MacArthur (Gregory Peck). What a great course. Lots of terrific in class discussion.

Our local community college has a course in WW2 history online and in class that was excellent as there were just papers to write. The professor was a retired Army officer that became a history teacher after service. He has a "center" that sponsors a WW2 lecture series around NJ. WW2 sparks the most interest since folks have parents and grandparents who participated. The rest of military get little coverage academically.

https://www.brookdalecc.edu/center-for- ... r-history/

Poland's armed forces conducted a simulation of an attack on the country from the east.

Polish defences were supposed to hold out for 22 days, but in fact "the war was lost within five days and the Polish army ceased to exist", according to media leaks.

In turn, the Ministry of National Defense replied: "We would like to inform you that the Winter exercise itself, its course and conclusions constitute classified information. Any answer to your question - negative or negative is therefore impossible".


https://twitter.com/notesfrompoland/status/1356676186500431876

Seems HMS Talent @RoyalNavy has sprouted a couple more suspected non-acoustic detectors - images again by @dparody

https://twitter.com/JosephHDempsey/status/1356653428295012361

And ehh are those machine guns also in the Database of the Trafalgar class?? [;)] [8|]

‘Drone swarms’ are coming, and they are the future of wars in the air
https://theprint.in/defence/drone-swarm ... ir/596842/

with regards GJ

China conducts mid-course antiballistic missile test, system 'becomes more mature, reliable'
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202102/1215042.shtml

At the experimental stage but this airborne sonar technology looks very interesting:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambl ... fe332669eb

https://defence-blog.com/news/northrop- ... opter.html

Sounds interesting as well.

https://www.airforcemag.com/lasers-come ... -exercise/

Not a lot of detail, but interesting these wargames are taking place.

I cant believe gosnold missed this:

TJSW-6 communication technology experiment satellite launched on February the 4th.

https://www.space.com/china-long-march- ... -satellite

Yeah, it sounds like some unassuming communications satellite, but that's exactly what China wants you to think!

According to Chinese internet leaks, this here is a Geostationary L-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Satellite with whopping 20m resolution, for now known as "GEOSAR". This new bird basically allows China to continuously track all objects of interests in the South China Sea and large portions of the West Pacific (assuming it will be placed right next to the other known GTO satellite like the optical 50m resolution GF-4) even during night-time and heavy cloud cover - since it's a radar satellite that can look through all that. Also, since it is GTO, it wont move away.

https://lt.cjdby.net/forum.php?mod=view ... a=page%3D1

Needless to elaborate the implications in regards to ASBM targeting.

Mass delivery of fast attack crafts to the IRGC-N

Equipped with two Nasr/C-704 AshM each, these high-speed boats use their speed to compensate the fact that their sensors and armament is only of "within horizon" (~40km) kind.
Whats the max speed that Iran has reached till now? Any information?
My wild guess is around 75~80 knots

These on the photos are in the 50-70 knot range. The newest one probably 90 knots. (according to the discussion of the tweet). Note the different surface radars.

https://twitter.com/Pataramesh/status/1359039631677865984

IRGC Navy received 340 new boats today including Ashura, Zolfaghar, Taregh, Nasser & Gashti class boats.
https://twitter.com/mhmiranusa/status/1358809464921616384?s=19

https://www.the-sun.com/news/2321251/pe ... o-crashes/

Not sure what to make of this ... but it's Saturday night so what the heck.

The Arab Coalition has reported the destruction of 204 Houthi-laid sea mines in the Red Sea since the beginning of its intervention, an increase of 67 mines since February 2020. This does not include sea mine recoveries made by GoY-aligned forces.

Maybe useful for scenario building.
https://twitter.com/Ambrey_Intel/status/1362375211547561988

The Greek MFA
@NikosDendias
just announced in Parliament the will of the Greek government to sign a deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which will include the deployment of #HAF MIM-104 Patriot air-defense systems in KSA. The Patriot will protect valuable infrastructure in KSA.
https://twitter.com/GZagkas/status/1362839571894050819