Throughout this summer, dozens of residents of Armenia’s Jermuk community and several other surrounding regions, including the villages of Gndevaz and Kechut, have been blocking all roads leading to the Amulsar mountain, a site targeted for gold mining to be operated by Lydian Armenia. The protesters began camping at the entrances to the mountain in…
Almost fifty People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels were mobilized in the South China Sea not far from Hainan Island, satellite imagery acquired in late March by Planet Labs confirms. Hainan Island is host to China’s strategic base for military operations in the region. Centered amongst the warships was China’s only in-service aircraft carrier, Liaoning…
This article was originally published on Offiziere.ch New satellite imagery acquired on 04FEB2018 by DigitalGlobe shows that China has deployed the Guizhou Aviation Industry Group (GAIG) Xianglong (Soar Dragon) high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to Yishuntun airbase in Jilin province. The platform, identified by its unique box wing design and ‘V’ shaped vertical…
This article originally appeared on Offiziere.ch Indian Air Force (IAF) rotations of SU-30MKI Flanker continued in 2017/2018 at the Bagdogra Airbase, likely for an unannounced air exercise. Previous commercial imagery acquired in January 2016 also showed a squadron level deployment of the IAF’s advanced fighter. Up to eleven Flanker were observed and nine were still visible by…
Due to ongoing tensions with China, the Indian Air Force has deployed a flight of at least four Su-30MKI Flanker multi-role fighter to Hasimara, the nearest Indian airbase to the recent Doklam standoff. Commercial imagery first captured the aircraft in October but it’s possible they may have arrived earlier. Imagery in August 2017 shows that workers covered the alert…
On the evening of November 21, the special forces of Georgia’s State Security Service began an “anti-terrorist” operation in Tbilisi’s Isani District that would turn into a nearly day-long armed standoff with a group hauled up in an apartment in a residential building on the district’s Gabriel Salosi Street. During the operation, which started at…
This article appeared on Offiziere.ch (27 November 2017) Sentinel 2 imagery captured on 11 November 2017 shows continued progress on a new runway under construction at Shigatse. Initial clearing and leveling activity began in August 2017 for the now 3,000 meter long runway, (visible to the west in the imagery above). The level of new infrastructure…
This post was originally by Bellingcat for Planet Stories. In August, Bellingcat published an article about Lydian International’s plans to start a large-scale gold mining operation at the Amulsar mountain in Armenia. For the first piece, we chose to focus mainly on satellite imagery and show how Lydian’s construction of its heap leaching facility (HLF) has progressed just…
This article also appeared in Razm.info On June 26, 2011, for the first time, Azerbaijan demonstrated its S-300PMU2 Favorit SAM systems in a military parade held in the capital Baku. During the military parade, three 5P85TE2 TELs (Transporter Erector Launcher), two 5T58 missile transporters, and one 30N6E2 Illumination guidance radar were demonstrated. According to the…
The peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan was severely weakened due to the April 2016 four-day war, with further complications due to Azerbaijan asserting its military prowess through a build-up in its exclave of Nakhichevan. This military build-up in Nakhichevan has led to Armenia becoming a more hesitant partner in the OSCE mediation efforts. Additionally,…
