According to NATO, more than 70 percent of the world's population currently lives within 100 km of the ocean or major waterways. River warfare capability is a critical requirement for armies and navies seeking to maintain control of confined and Shallow waters (CSW).

The candidate for the post of US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, supported the idea of providing Ukraine with American weapons. He said this on January 19 at the Senate confirmation hearing for his candidacy.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is convinced that NATO is a relic of the past, and the concept of "West" has lost its meaning. Schroeder believes that Europe should become independent. The implication is that Berlin should play the main role, but for this it will need a strong ally, and Russia is the ideal partner in this regard.

[b]According to Lieutenant General Yuri Stavitsky, Russian sappers find a lot of abandoned ammunition and unexploded shells when checking the areas of Karabakh.]

The M-85 cluster submunitions prohibited by international law were discovered by Russian sappers during the clearance of Stepanakert. This was announced on Wednesday in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta by the head of the engineering troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Yuri Stavitsky.

So far, there is no data on the types of aircraft and what means of destruction were used.

Despite the relative calm on the fronts, the parties continue to prepare for a possible escalation of the situation, exercises are being conducted, aerial reconnaissance, including with the help of drones.

The Iranian ground forces have begun to carry out large-scale exercises along the coast of Mekran in the south-east of the Islamic Republic, which received the code name Eqtedar 99 ("Force-99"), reports the portal EADaily.

Russia calls on Israel to provide facts that indicate a threat to this country from the territory of Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference following the results of Russian diplomacy in 2020.

The new US naval strategy is aimed at confrontation with the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China

The constant juggling of the United States with the terms "freedom of navigation" and" freedom of navigation " resulted in the demarche of the three military structures of the Pentagon: the Marine Corps, the Navy and the Coast Guard. The heads of these departments decided to join forces to ensure "freedom of navigation" in the Arctic region, in order to have "access to the bays" and fairways, which are the zone of exclusive economic interests of Russia. And this can be interpreted as the activation of US claims to foreign territorial waters.

Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds announced the signing of the act of acceptance and transfer of the AOR A195 supply transport built by the Spanish company Navantia S. A. (Supply).

The well-known American publication The National Interest evaluated the Russian submarine "Dmitry Donskoy". It was noted here that the submarine has certain advantages over competitors.

The block-modular method implemented at Sevmash will reduce the slipway period for the construction of nuclear submarines by 18 months.

The crew of the corvette "Agile", which is being built at the Severnaya Verf enterprise in St. Petersburg, has been formed in the connection of ships protecting the water area of the Troops and forces in the north-east of Russia.

As reported by the TASS news agency on January 18, 2021, JSC "Nevsky Design Bureau" (NPKB, part of JSC "United Shipbuilding Corporation") has developed two new projects of universal ships, in particular the universal sea ship (UMK) "Varan" and a new universal landing ship (UDC). This is stated in the materials of the NPKB, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the enterprise and available to TASS.

The Americans decided to develop the military direction of nuclear energy. So far, the current President, Donald Trump, has signed a decree on the development of low-power nuclear reactors for the armed forces and space exploration. For the first time in half a century, the United States will use nuclear energy not only in the Navy. About why Washington needs new compact reactors-in the material of RIA Novosti.

At the end of 2020, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research at the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded 17 grants for quantum information research, two of which focused on the use of quantum computing to overcome problems in navigation without the use of GPS, according to the publication Inside GNSS. Quantum computing and quantum sensors use quantum bits (qubits) to speed up computing processes while performing multiple operations simultaneously, which is beyond the capabilities of modern computers. 

On January 15, 2021, it was reported that on December 23, 2020, the General Directorate of Armaments (Direction Générale de l'Armement - DGA) of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces issued a contract to a consortium of French companies Nexter Systems and Texelis for the supply of the first 364 serial Serval multi-purpose armored vehicles with a 4x4 wheel formula, also designated VBMR Leger (Véhicule blindé multi-rôles) to the French army.

BAE Systems Corporation on January 14, 2021 announced that it received a contract worth more than $ 500 million from the Dutch Defense procurement organization Dutch Defense Materiel Organization (DMO) for the repair and modernization of 122 CV9035NL Mk III infantry fighting vehicles of the Dutch Army (with an option for another 19 vehicles). The work will be carried out by the Swedish branch of BAE Systems (BAE Systems Hägglunds), which is the developer and manufacturer of these machines.

The self-propelled guns "Lotus" and "Coalition-SV" have different calibers, but the same tasks

At the very end of last year, preliminary tests of the self-propelled artillery gun 2S42 "Lotus", intended for use in the Airborne Forces, began. Their program includes self-propelled aircraft landing, moving over rough terrain of a complex profile, overcoming obstacles, shooting, including on the move and afloat. After that, state acceptance tests will begin. And the adoption of the "Lotus" should be expected as early as next year.

In this configuration, it will also be delivered to the Navy

NPO Elektromashina (part of Uralvagonzavod of Rostec State Corporation) has successfully completed tests of the remote-controlled Hunter combat module for Typhoon-K armored vehicles with a new version of the 6P49 machine gun. This was reported to TASS in the press service of the UVZ.

Russian-made military equipment demonstrated its power at the exercises of the Algerian army.

During the training operations, both the latest models and those that have been used for a long time in the land forces of this state were used. For example, the BTR-60 PB armored personnel carriers developed in the 60s, which confidently hit targets with their 14.5-mm KPVT machine guns.