We invite you to explore a review of the week's events and materials, summarized for you in this article.
Gripen
It has been revealed that the Colombian Air Force plans to acquire 10 Swedish JAS 39 Gripen aircraft, which are to be manufactured at production facilities in Brazil, with reports suggesting that the cost for these aircraft could reach 2 billion dollars.
1In response, the United States reacted quite aggressively to this news, threatening that if the deal proceeds, they will block the supply of their components, particularly the General Electric F414G engine.
DF-3 and DF-21 Missiles
Saudi Arabia possesses an arsenal of medium-range ballistic missiles of the DF-3 and DF-21 types, acquired directly from China under rather mysterious circumstances. However, the exact number of these missiles in Riyadh's possession remains undisclosed; the first (and so far the only known) demonstration of Saudi DF-3s occurred in 2014. It is known that these missiles are equipped with "conventional" warheads.
2Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is undertaking extensive infrastructure projects for its strategic missile forces, including the construction of secret underground bases, which are visible from space and have drawn the attention of Western analysts.
Aerial Missiles
As early as 2016, China adopted the PL-15 air-to-air missile, which has a launch range of up to 300 kilometers, and in October 2022, introduced an even more powerful missile of the same class, the PL-17, with a launch range of 300-500 kilometers, integrated into the armament of the J-16 (a Chinese copy of the Su-30).
3Against this backdrop, the United States is clearly lagging behind China in the segment of aviation missiles, which they are attempting to rectify with the AIM-260A JATM missile project, designed for a range of up to 200 kilometers, which has been in development for over five years. However, there has yet to be significant progress on this project.
Shushpanzer with AK-630
In the area of occupied Sevastopol, another instance of Russian forces combining naval and ground weaponry has been observed, this time in an attempt to find additional air defense systems. This time, an AK-630 anti-aircraft system was mounted on a KamAZ truck.
4This is far from the first example of such hybridization, as the enemy previously mounted anti-aircraft guns from torpedo boats from 1939 and naval anti-aircraft systems 2M-3 on MT-LB vehicles, although that was back in 2023. This also includes instances of naval MLRS A-22 and bomb launchers RBU-6000 being installed.
TKB-521
The lack of machine guns in the Russian Federation has been known for quite some time, as despite the "legendary Kalashnikov," the Russian military has been seen using rather peculiar samples. For instance, back in November of last year, enemy forces were reported to be using North Korean Type 73 machine guns, and now they have been spotted with Soviet TKB-521s from the late 1950s.
5Until now, the TKB-521 could primarily be seen in the exhibition of the Tula Museum of Weapons. However, it has now surfaced among the enemy, who claims that it was captured.