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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
In Ukraine, Drones are Now the King of Battle
It was like a scene from one of the futuristic techno-thrillers that fill the shelves of airport bookstores. On Sunday, swarms of nimble quadcopter drones carrying explosives took flight from concealed launchpads built into the roofs of cargo containers being transported by commercial trucks deep inside Russia. Their target was at least four airbases, from which the Russian Aerospace Forces deploys long-range strategic bombers — the aircraft responsible for launching the cruise missiles that strike Ukrainian cities weekly. The evidence thus far points to a masterstroke of operational planning and intelligence. Imagery from passersby show the drones taking off to the surprise of onlookers, with later photos showing multiple columns of smoke in the background. Videos released by Ukrainian military intelligence of the attacks show the first-person-view (FPV) kamikaze drones as they plunge into multiple Tu-95 'Bear' strategic bombers, with others aflame. 'An absolutely brilliant result,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on official social media channels. 'A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution.' According to Zelensky, at least 41 aircraft were destroyed or damaged, a significant loss for the Russian military, which is believed to have just under 100 operational strategic bombers. The cost of a strategic bomber varies widely — Russia has three types in operation, and currently produces only the supersonic Tu-160 'Blackjack' at a rate of one or two per year. The damage is therefore likely in the billions of dollars. Recently leaked documents indicate a refurbishment program required to turn six of the aged Bear turboprops into modernized Tu-95MS 'missile carriers' carried a price tag of $316 million. None of the technology required for such an operation would have been particularly cutting edge. FPV drones are widely used by both sides, and creating a concealed launch platform inside a cargo container would not have been a great challenge. It is the concept of the operation — its fusion of inexpensive tech, military hardware, and strategic daring — which are noteworthy. Much of the war in Ukraine is a morass of mud and positional trench warfare that would have been familiar to a World War I soldier, but it is also a crucible for revolutionary changes to the technology and tactics of war. While the killing field between the lines would have been familiar to a veteran of, say, the Somme in 1916, the hunters that prowl for miles past the line of contact, deep into rear areas, would have been alien to him. Life and death on Ukraine's battlefields is dominated by drones. Athos never heard the one that got him. It was September 2023, and the U.S. veteran — who went by the callsign 'Athos' in reference to the 'old, cranky Musketeer' — was on the frontlines south of Zaporizhzhia. He was ostensibly in an elite reconnaissance unit, a mix of Ukrainians and foreign volunteers. But in reality, after Ukraine's failed southern counteroffensive earlier that summer, the unit was being employed as an ad hoc quick reaction force. On this night, it had been tasked with clearing trenches in a classic infantry assault. A veteran of multiple U.S. military branches, Athos served several tours in Afghanistan, including with the 3rd Special Forces Group, before joining the Ukrainian military about one year into the conflict. Rolling Stone independently confirmed details of Athos' military service, but agreed to withhold his identity. On that September night, Athos and his team disembarked from pickup trucks about five kilometers from the line of contact, making their way forward through the darkness on foot. 'We had heard drones over the past several days,' Athos tells Rolling Stone, 'but our biggest fear was that they would spot us and call in an artillery strike.' The fighting was intense despite the darkness, and at about 4 a.m., as Athos inched forward along a trenchline, he was discovered by a Russian drone. 'It must have had thermal sensors,' he said. It dropped a grenade nearby. One of his Ukrainian teammates took the brunt of the blast, but three pieces of hot shrapnel peppered Athos' leg, shattering his tibia. His initial reaction was surprise and disappointment, he said. Athos asked another soldier, a Brit, if they had been hit by a mortar. 'No, it was a drone. Didn't you hear it?' Athos remembers the man saying. He hadn't. The Brit put a tourniquet on Athos' leg, and began to evacuate him. 'He dragged me a short distance before he also got hit in the shoulder, by fragments from an artillery round.' Four of the six team members had now been wounded. They hunkered down and awaited daybreak. 'I crawled a couple hundred meters, until they sent a couple of guys with a stretcher to take me back to a humvee,' Athos recalls. 'I was evacuated to a stabilization point, and they operated on me immediately.' All four of the wounded men survived. While drones were already common when Athos was wounded, in the months since, they have flooded the battlefield. Both sides have become adept at using ever-more advanced and effective flying robots to hunt and kill. 'The future is soldiers hiding in holes underground while the drones fight it out above them,' says one Ukrainian soldier recently deployed to a frontline position near the northern city of Sumy, who declined to be named for security reasons. He, too, describes the harrowing journey by which soldiers reach battlefront positions, disembarking from vehicles miles from the front and making their way forward under cover of darkness, while the air above them buzzes with the sound of multiple drones belonging to friend and foe alike, ceaselessly hunting targets. Military innovation pushes a pendulum back-and-forth between static defense and offensive maneuver. In the 1930s, General Heinz Guderian pioneered Nazi Germany's concentration-of-force combined arms blitzkrieg tactics that turned those early 20th Century trenches into a relic. By the dawn of the 21st century, satellite reconnaissance, all-weather attack aircraft, and guided 'smart' bombs made large concentrations of troops and vehicles easy pickings for airpower, as demonstrated during Desert Storm in 1991. But in the absence of air dominance, blitzkrieg — thrusts of massed armor and infantry, supported by artillery and close air support — still seemed possible. Neither side achieved command of the air when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian armored advances during the early months of the war, and subsequent Ukrainian counterattacks in the autumn, made it seem this new modern war could be dynamic. By late 2023, observers were disabused of that notion by long-range precision fires from systems such as HIMARS, which routinely decimated Russian forces gathering men and material for assault, and in the minefields and artillery barrages that stopped the Ukrainian counteroffensive near Zaporizhzhia, in which Athos had played his role. Now, blitzkrieg can be neutered by a consumer plaything. By last year, drones made with consumer-grade electronics controlled via radio and carrying improvised warheads were in abundant use by both sides. Persistent swarms roved across the moonscape left behind by artillery bombardments, which rivaled those from World War I. This in turn touched off an arms race in drone countermeasures. In addition to GPS navigation, radio-controlled drones require specific bandwidths for their control and video feeds. These frequencies are an obvious target for jamming, interference, and disruption — an area in which Russia, and to a lesser extent Ukraine, already possessed sophisticated electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. EW vehicles or stationary sites with powerful radio emissions quickly attract attention — and are prime targets for long-range strikes. Smaller EW devices designed to disrupt control of a drone and protect individual vehicles or personnel — of a type familiar to some U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, designed to block transmissions intended to remotely trigger roadside bombs — have become common. Still, electronic warfare is a game of 'Whac-a-Mole': If a frequency is widely used by drones, it is widely jammed and another frequency is adopted — which, in turn, is jammed. Ultimately, the effectiveness of electronic countermeasures is a question of how much bandwidth devices can cover, how much power they have, how quickly they can be adapted and deployed — and even how long their batteries last. In addition, soldiers also use physical measures to stop tactical drones: meaning everything from shotguns, to nets strung over key roadways and fighting positions. When Ukraine seized territory inside Russia in a surprise attack on Kursk oblast, or province, last August, it did so by coordinating mobile countermeasures — often trucks carrying multiple EW transmitters — and widespread area jamming. The drone threat was reduced enough that it seemed Ukrainian forces might be able to hold their gains indefinitely. Then the fiber-optic drone showed up. Unjammable and unstoppable via electronic countermeasures, these drones are controlled via data sent along fiber-optic cables that unwind from spools slung beneath, as they fly as far as 15 kilometers — 9.3 miles or more — in search of prey. 'It's a significant threat. They can only be stopped by physical countermeasures, or kinetic measures,' says Samuel Bendett, an expert on Russian military technology, drones, and robotic and autonomous military systems at the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded Washington D.C.-based non-profit research organization focused on national security. 'These drones had a very detrimental effect on Ukrainian logistic lines in the Kursk region, and were probably one of the major reasons why Ukrainian forces were pushed out of Kursk, as the Russians were able to interdict and interfere with supply, communication, and logistics,' Bendett tells Rolling Stone. Thousands of personnel are now dedicated solely to drone warfare. In the first months of the war, units on both sides set up makeshift drone units using whatever resources they could get. Now, both Russia and Ukraine have formally established drone units, and the Kremlin even appears set to create a service branch dedicated exclusively to tactical operations using unmanned vehicles. Tactical drones are everywhere on the battlefield, at all hours of the day. And they are produced and assembled in hundreds of small improvised factories sprinkled across both countries. 'Sometimes, you can't fucking move without drawing half a dozen drones to your position,' says another Ukrainian soldier, who recently saw combat near Pokrovsk, a road-and-rail hub that has been one of the main focuses for Russian assaults for more than a year. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Kozenko, speaking at a defense conference in Singapore on Saturday May 31, said that his country was on track to produce 10 million tactical drones per year, and that drone warfare was inflicting 80 percent of all battlefield losses. There is an alphabet soup of acronyms that experts apply to drones of various types, but the major categories have to do with how they travel: unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) by land, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) by sea, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by air. The most visible innovation has been with the last two categories. Lacking a meaningful navy of its own, Ukraine has used advanced maritime drones, or USVs, to decimate Russia's Black Sea fleet over the past year and a half. These USVs have their origin in an American project created for a conflict with China in the Taiwan Strait, which the CIA provided to Ukrainian military intelligence in the wake of Russia's invasion in February 2022. Kamikaze variants of these drones, such as the Magura, have been used to sink Russian warships since at least March 2024, and a type of USV equipped with anti-air missiles has even been used to shoot down Russian fighter aircraft and helicopters — firsts in the annals of warfare. But it is in the air that drone warfare has had the biggest impact. Tactical UAVs can be divided into multiple categories, ranging from advanced reconnaissance or strike drones like the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper; to loitering munitions, essentially flying bombs, like the Russian Lancet; to heavy quadcopters or hexacopters that drop munitions or serve as reconnaissance or even signal relay platforms; to the FPV drones, originally developed for racing and personal entertainment, that have become the primary threat on the battlefield. FPVs can cost less than $500 to make. Such drones have upended frontline operations. But a different type has also become an essential part of the strategic contest: the 'one-way attack,' or long-range strike UAV. The most important drones of this type that first saw widespread use in Ukraine were developed by Iran, which in 2023 agreed to supply Russia with the blueprints for its Shahed-136 one-way attack drone, and to train personnel in its manufacture and employment. These drones, called the Geran-2 by Russia, can best be thought of as slow-moving cruise missiles. Their basic concept can be traced back to Hitler's V-1 buzz-bombs, a so-called 'revenge weapon' used to inflict strategically pointless but deadly area bombing on London toward the end of World War II. Those who have heard the Geran-2 in action — as has Rolling Stone's reporter — liken its engine to that of a moped, which is the nickname given it in Ukraine. One is made aware that the drone has entered its terminal trajectory and is about to impact when its engine cuts out, sending it into a steep dive — just as eyewitness accounts describe the V-1 in 1944 London, in a bizarre but fitting echo of history. Although several variants exist, in general the Geran-2 carries a warhead that weighs about 100 pounds, and navigates to its target via a pre-set route, using an inertial guidance system supplemented by GPS or its Russian equivalent, GLONASS. Russia intends to produce as many as 500 Geran-2s per day, Zelensky said in a press briefing on May 27. It has significantly expanded manufacturing in a factory near Yelabuga, Tatarstan — more than 800 miles from the front in Ukraine — which is largely staffed by Russian high schoolers and young women from Africa and Latin America imported to build drones. The factory was built in a special economic zone near the Kama River, which connects to the Volga and thereby the Caspian Sea, allowing materials to be sent directly by sea from Iran. 'Production is already much greater than what was originally planned when [the factory in] Yelabuga opened in 2023,' Bendett says. 'The Russians were originally planning to produce only several hundred per month. Now they can produce many hundreds per week.' Sanctions have bit into many aspects of the Russian economy, and were intended to limit Moscow's ability to purchase essential military and 'dual-use' electronics abroad. But they haven't stopped drone production. 'On some components, on some specific items, there's probably a bottleneck. But on others Russia has been able to establish supply chains that bypass the sanctions,' Bendett says. Ukraine, too, has gotten into the one-way attack drone business. Since January, Ukraine has been using such drones to target Russian energy and military infrastructure, with some success — but nothing like the operation on Sunday. Kyiv says it plans to domestically produce as many as 30,000 long-range strike vehicles this year. There is little data to assess the overall toll that drones are taking on the battlefield. Social media is awash with hours of snuff film of drones attacking soldiers and vehicles, and anecdotal evidence suggests that drones are now responsible for a substantial portion, perhaps even the majority, of battlefield casualties, which aligns with the Ukrainian deputy defense minister's claim of '80 percent' of all damage. To attempt to nail down accurate numbers in the midst of an ongoing conflict awash in propaganda, disinformation, and just plain lack of reliable data, is to plunge into a realm of uncertainty and confusion. When Rolling Stone visited the Severodonetsk front in June 2022, it was considered shocking that Ukrainian authorities claimed more than 100 soldiers were killed on each side per day. Now, British military intelligence routinely claims Russia loses more than 1,200 soldiers — killed and wounded — per day on average, saying 2025 was on track to be 'the costliest year of the war in terms of Russian personnel.' According to them, 960,000 Russians have become casualties in the war. Russia does not release official data on its losses. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late head of the private military company Wagner Group who led a rebellion against Moscow in part over high casualties suffered by his men, claimed in June 2023 that 20,000 of his fighters had been killed and that at least 120,000 Russian soldiers had been slain, but the Kremlin was downplaying their losses. Zelensky said in February that 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 380,000 wounded, although he added that a substantial percentage of the wounded had returned to duty — that averages out to more than 350 casualties per day of conflict, although undoubtedly the number would have fluctuated over time. Other sources claim even higher losses, as many as 70,000 Ukrainians killed. Historically, casualty figures don't always correlate to victory. Suffice to say, the war in Ukraine is becoming deadlier, more complex, and increasingly intractable. There are no off-ramps in sight and no cease-fire on the horizon. The United States — the only great power capable of meaningful engagement with both combatants — may walk away from diplomacy to end the fighting altogether. President Donald Trump on May 28 said that he expects to see progress within 'two weeks' — but he said the same thing on April 27, and on May 19. In the meantime, the fighting continues. Over the weekend of May 23, another new milestone was reached: the largest aerial attack on Ukrainian cities since the start of the conflict, with more than 900 drones launched by Russia over three nights, along with ballistic and cruise missiles. Athos, who says he is '95 percent recovered' from his wounds, has been discharged from the Ukrainian military. He remains in Kyiv with his wife. They listened as drones and missiles rained down on the city. When asked if he planned to return to uniform, he says: 'No. I've had enough of getting shot at.' More from Rolling Stone Republicans Are Flat-Out Lying About Their Medicaid Cuts Trump's Pharmaceutical Tariffs Are Not the Right Solution for a Big Problem 50 Cent Pledges to Prevent a Trump Pardon for Sean Combs: 'I'm Gonna Reach Out' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Saba Yemen
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Russian Defense: Su-34 Fighter jet Target Ukrainian Stronghold
Moscow - (Saba): The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday that a Su-34 fighter-bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces targeted a Ukrainian drone observation point in the area of operations of the Russian forces' "South" group. Sputnik quoted the ministry as saying in a statement: "The crew of the Aerospace Forces' Su-34 multirole supersonic fighter-bomber carried out a strike targeting a Ukrainian drone observation point in the area of responsibility of the "South" group." The statement indicated that the strike was carried out on the reconnaissance target, using aerial bombs equipped with a comprehensive planning and correction unit. The Russian Defense Ministry explained that "after receiving confirmation from the reconnaissance unit that the identified target had been destroyed, the fighter crew returned safely to the takeoff airport." Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Epoch Times
15-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Facing Russia and China, Australia Invests Millions to Strengthen Ties With Indonesia
Australia is to spend $15 million over four years to 'enhance maritime cooperation' with Indonesia, including an annual official-level dialogue on maritime issues. What that means is both nations will be working more closely together to maintain stability in the Indo-Pacific in the face of increased aggression from the CCP and reported interest from Russia to base military aircraft in Indonesia's easternmost province. Although Indonesian officials denied an approach to base the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) aircraft at Manuhua Air Force Base, the report did originate from respected military journal Janes, which stood by its story, saying it had seen the documents sent to the office of Minister of Defence Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin. Sjamsoeddin had met with the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu in February 2025. When Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese landed in Indonesia on his first overseas visit since being appointed for his second term only days earlier, cementing the relationship established under the Australia–Indonesia Defence Cooperation Agreement, signed last year, would have been at the top of his agenda. Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu (R), who served as Russia's Defence Minister between 2012 and 2024, passes his gift to Indonesia's Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin after their bilateral meeting at the Defence Ministry in Jakarta, Indonesia on Feb. 25, 2025. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images He appears to have made progress, with the Indonesian military set to begin training in the Northern Territory later this year. Related Stories 4/21/2025 11/15/2024 Indonesia is already the fourth-largest nation in the world by population. And it's projected to be the fifth-largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade. Maintaining favour with a country 10 times the size of Australia in terms of population does come at a cost. Australia is to spend $100 million on strengthening Indonesia's health system, $3.5 million on anti-malaria drugs for the Indonesian military, and $50 million on the Fund for Green Infrastructure to 'incentivise investment in green infrastructure and clean energy projects in Indonesia.' In addition, Albanese agreed to support the bid by Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund, called Danantara, to join the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds and invited it to conduct a roadshow in Australia. Ten scholarships would also be offered for Indonesian students to study for a Master's of Education in Australia, and the number of participating scholars and institutions under Australia's Indonesian Language Learning Ambassadors program will be doubled. Australia will also continue to support Indonesia's application to join the OECD and the CPTPP (the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership). 'Australia and Indonesia are indispensable partners,' Albanese said after his bilateral meeting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. 'We're working together as neighbours and as partners committed to a secure, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (C) speaks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (R) after his arrival at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 15, 2025. Bay Ismoyo/AFP via Getty Images 'Our two great nations continue to invest in each other through our strong trade relationship, creating economic opportunity and deepening the bonds between us.' The Defence Cooperation Agreement represented 'the most significant step in the Australia and Indonesia security partnership for three decades,' he said, adding, 'I do not see this agreement as the last step. I want us to aim higher, go further and work even more closely together.' Asked at a doorstop in Jakarta earlier in the day about the Russian request to base long-range bombers in West Papua, Albanese appeared to confirm that Australia believed the story, saying, 'Indonesia's answer is no. They have made that very clear.' However, he wouldn't be drawn on whether Prabowo had told him exactly what Russia had asked for, saying it was not for him to comment on 'what occurs between nations that are not Australia.' The prime minister said Australia would continue building its defence and security arrangements with countries like Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and other countries in the region. 'Now, Russia, of course, will try to increase its influence,' he said. 'We make very clear our position when it comes to Russia around the world, be it the brutal invasion of Ukraine, its interference in cybersecurity issues, its tolerance of criminal organisations that ... are an anathema to our values.' In their joint communique, both leaders reiterated that Australia and Indonesia support 'an ASEAN-centred, open, inclusive, transparent, resilient, and rules-based regional architecture that upholds international law.' They called on the military and security forces in Burma (also called Myanmar) to immediately stop targeting civilians and to cease all violence so that humanitarian assistance can reach people affected by the recent earthquake. And they reaffirmed both countries' support for a two-state solution to the Hamas-Israel conflict, calling for the immediate resumption of a ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages, and for an end to the war in Ukraine that would uphold 'territorial integrity.'
Saba Yemen
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Russian Su-34 Fighter Targets Deployment Point For Ukrainian Forces
Moscow - (Saba): The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that a Su-34 fighter jet belonging to the Russian Aerospace Forces targeted Ukrainian personnel and a stronghold in the operational zone of the 'East' group. In a statement carried by the Russian news agency Sputnik on Thursday, the ministry said: "Prior to departure, the crew of the Su-34 aircraft received the coordinates of the temporary deployment point of the Ukrainian Armed Forces within the area of responsibility of the group. The mission was supported by Su-35S fighter jets, which provided air cover using guided air-to-air missiles. Upon completion of the combat mission, both crews successfully returned to their main airbase." In a related context, the Ministry of Defense added that air defense systems destroyed 71 Ukrainian drones, including 49 over the Kursk region, 7 over the Oryol region, and 7 over the Ryazan region. It also noted that air defense systems downed 4 drones over the Bryansk region, 3 over the Vladimir region, and one drone over the Tula region. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Australia Casts Doubt On Russia Basing Bombers At Indonesian Air Base
Australian officials are pushing back on a report that Russia is seeking to base long-range bombers at an Indonesian airbase. On Monday, Janes wrote that 'Jakarta has received an official request from Moscow, seeking permission for Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) aircraft to be based at a facility in Indonesia's easternmost province.' That location, Manuhua Air Force Base, is situated about 850 miles north of the Australian port of Darwin. 'Separate sources from the Indonesian government have confirmed with Janes that the request was received by the office of Minister of Defence Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin following his meeting with Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu in February 2025,' the publication added. Janes said the information it received did not contain details about what kind of airframes Russia is seeking to station at the base. 'However, Janes understands that over the past few years, the VKS has made several ad hoc requests to land its Tupolev Tu-95 bombers and Il-76 airlifters at the very same airbase,' the publication reported. Russia wanting to place long-range bombers closer to Australia as Moscow, Beijing and Washington all seek to expand their influence in the South Pacific isn't hard to imagine. The U.S. maintains a military presence in Australia and is working to improve the RAAF's base at Tindal to accommodate B-52 bombers. In addition, for more than a decade, the U.S. Marine Corps sends about 2,500 Marines to the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin Marine Air-Ground Task Force for training. Meanwhile, Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. signed an agreement known as AUKUS to provide Canberra with nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines. All this comes against the backdrop of increasing tensions in the Pacific, including China sailing a flotilla of its warships in international waters around Australia earlier this year, which involved live fire exercises. Beyond Australia, such a basing agreement would give Russia a seat of power projection in a very contentious and important region overall. It is an area of the world the U.S. and other powers with global reach are also investing in projecting power into more heavily and consistently. And, of course, it's an area where China's extra-territorial interests loom very large. Russia is a key ally of China, especially militarily, with their bomber units flying joint patrols throughout the Pacific in increasing regularity. Regardless of what Russia may want or not, there seems to be little logic in Indonesia agreeing to put Russian strategic assets on its soil. Doing so would greatly upset relations with countries in its own region as well as allies farther abroad, including the United States, which also, like Russia, supplies weapons to Indonesia. And what would Russia be willing to pay for such access during a time when its military is embroiled in a brutal conflict that is sucking tremendous resources? More importantly, what would Indonesia see as so important that it needs it for compensation, regardless of the geopolitical upheaval such a decision could cause? It's also worth noting that in 2020, Indonesia rejected a U.S. proposal to allow its P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes to land and refuel there, Reuters reported at the time. Relevanthttps:// — Michael Bond (@HelloMrBond) April 15, 2025 Regardless, the Janes story set off alarm bells in Canberra. The Australian government believes both Russia and China 'are also increasingly focused on the growing U.S. military presence in Darwin and the Northern Territory,' ABC posited. Diplomatic alarm bells are ringing after reports emerged Russia wants to base long range aircraft in Indonesia. It's become the focus of this afternoon's federal election campaign with questions being raised about when the Prime Minister found out about Putin's intentions.… — 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) April 15, 2025 'We obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly,' Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday. 'We have a position, which is: we stand with Ukraine, we regard [the Russian president] Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, that is attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.' Australian officials cast doubt about whether Russia will base those bombers at Manuhua. 'Indonesia's defense minister has assured Australia it will not allow Russian planes to be based in Papua province after a United States media outlet reported that Moscow was pushing to get access to a military base in Papua,' the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) reported on Tuesday. 'I have spoken to my counterpart, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, the minister for defense, and he has said to me in the clearest possible terms, reports of the prospect of Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia are simply not true,' Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Secretary Richard Marles said in a statement to news organizations. Breaking: reports of Russian planes to be stationed in Indonesia "simply not true", defence minister Richard Marles says, after talking to Indonesian counterpartStatement from his office: — Josh Butler (@JoshButler) April 15, 2025 However, while Sjamsoeddin told Marles he had not received any Russian request to access the base, that 'doesn't rule out the possibility it was raised at a more junior level,' ABC noted. 'Earlier, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters that Australian officials were seeking more information from Jakarta about the report.' Russia meanwhile also seemed to downplay the notion. 'The Kremlin, when asked about the report that Russia has asked Indonesia for permission to base aircraft in its territory, said there was a lot of fake news around,' ABC reported. Although Indonesia has 'long maintained strategic neutrality, it has deepened security and defense ties with Russia since President Prabowo Subianto was elected last year,' Politico pointed out. As one example of that growing relationship, Russia and Indonesia held naval drills in the Java Sea in November, ABC reported. At the time, Russia's ambassador to Indonesia, Sergei Tolchenov, said the exercises were 'a significant event 'and that 'the navies of our countries are ready to enhance mutual trust and understanding to cooperate in different areas.' Russia's Pacific Fleet visits Indonesian port city of Surabaya ahead of first-ever bilateral drills between two nations — RT (@RT_com) November 4, 2024 Despite those ties, offering Russia bomber-basing rights is likely a step too far, one analyst suggested 'Even if Russia is proposing to use an Indonesian airbase, I doubt that the government will allow it. There will be a very significant blowback,' Yohanes Sulaiman, a defense analyst and lecturer at the Jenderal Achmad Yani University, told The Guardian. 'The Indonesian military is very averse to having other countries build military bases in Indonesia.' However, there is precedence for a Russian presence at the base. The Australian Broadcasting Company reported in 2017 that 'RAAF Base Darwin was placed on a 'short period' of heightened alert, while over 100 Russian personnel and several aircraft were stationed' there. During a five-day stopover, two nuclear-capable Tu-95 bombers 'flew their first-ever patrol mission over the South Pacific, prompting concerns they may have been collecting valuable intelligence,' ABC noted at the time. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed at the time that its strategic bombers 'carried out [an] air alert mission over neutral waters of the South Pacific Ocean in a flight lasting more than eight hours,' the outlet stated. In all, this report feels reminiscent of similar claims regarding Russia forward basing bombers in South America, namely in Venezuela. Those reports have come and gone multiple times, but beyond largely symbolic visits, such an agreement never came to pass. Contact the author: howard@
