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,…
This post was originally by Bellingcat for Planet Stories. Examining imagery of the recent incident in Azerbaijan By Masis Ingilizian and Karen Vrtanesyan On Sunday, August 27, 2017, multiple explosions rocked the Azerbaijani munitions depot, called Gilyazi. Azerbaijani officials downplayed the incident, saying that the ammunition collected in the depot had been meant to be disposed, and some media…
A couple weeks back, we jumped over the border and looked at India’s Hasimara. This week we go back and touch on China’s Shigatse, a civil-military airfield less than 100 miles west of Lhasa. Commercial imagery acquired during July and August has shown up to eight PLAAF J-10 multi-role fighters parked on the apron. They…
This article appeared on Planet Stories Lydian International, a mining company now registered in Jersey in the United Kingdom, intends to conduct a large-scale mining project for gold in the Armenian mountain of Amulsar, approximately twelve kilometers away from the southern Armenian spa town of Jermuk. Lydian began exploratory works for the Amulsar Gold Project in…
Last week we looked at the Gonggar civil-military airfield, one of China’s closest to the Doka La standoff. Today, we look at India’s Hasimara, an airbase in West Bengal less than 50 miles southeast of the crisis. Commercial imagery acquired in July has shown up to eight Indian Air Force MIG-27ML/UPG on the parking apron…
As the standoff between China and India continues at Doka La, we’ve been monitoring regional airbases on both sides of the border. Commercial imagery acquired in July of Gonggar continues to show the ongoing deployment of the PLAAF’s Shenyang J-11 fighters, a modified and locally produced version of the Russian Su-27SK. It’s possible the fighters may be an…
