DefenceTalkSweden’s armed forces chief warned Tuesday it could use force to bring to the surface a suspected Russian mini-submarine its navy has been hunting for days as two new sightings of the vessel were revealed. The new “observations” of the supposed “foreign” submarine were made on Monday, rear admiral Anders Grenstad said, after the country’s […]https://www.defencetalk.com/more-sightings-of-foreign-sub-as-sweden-says-it-could-use-force-60796/

DefenceTalkCommander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia (CNREURAFSWA) established Naval Support Facility (NSF) Deveselu Friday, Oct. 10, during an establishment and assumption of command ceremony on base. NSF Deveselu, formerly a disused Romanian airfield, is the first Navy base to be established since Naval Station (NS) Everett in Washington, whose official groundbreaking ceremony was held […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-navy-establishes-new-missile-defense-base-in-romania-60751/

DefenceTalkRussian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defence minister to pull thousands of troops from the border with Ukraine, the Kremlin said ahead of key talks on a fragile truce in the ex-Soviet country. “The head of state has tasked the defence minister with beginning to bring troops back to their permanent bases,” the Kremlin […]https://www.defencetalk.com/putin-orders-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-kremlin-60749/

DefenceTalkPoland on Monday urged NATO’s new secretary general to push ahead with a missile shield system amid the West’s worst standoff with Russia since the Cold War. “We firmly support the creation of this (missile shield) system as a pan-NATO one because only this makes deep sense both politically and in terms of defence,” Poland’s […]https://www.defencetalk.com/poland-urges-nato-to-push-ahead-with-missle-shield-60682/

DefenceTalkCommandos sneak up on a fortress in southern Poland. Camouflaged behind sandbags, they fire their Kalashnikov rifles to free the hostages. But the fortress is really a school and the machine guns are fake. The bullets are blanks and the hostages are there of their own accord. The participants are all volunteers taking part in […]https://www.defencetalk.com/polish-weekend-warriors-up-in-arms-over-russian-threat-60663/

DefenceTalkPolish anti-communist icon Lech Walesa said Poland should procure nuclear weapons as a safeguard against Russia, which it blames for stoking the crisis in neighboring Ukraine. “Poland needs to stand up to Russia,” the Nobel Peace laureate, who spearheaded Poland’s democracy movement and became its first post-communist president, said in an interview published Wednesday. EU […]https://www.defencetalk.com/poland-needs-nuclear-arms-to-ward-off-russia-walesa-60642/

DefenceTalkThe Ukrainian government accused Russia on Thursday of massing around 4,000 troops on the border of Russian-annexed Crimea and Ukraine, as multiple Crimean residents also reported seeing troop movements. “According to our information, almost all military units of the Russian Federation stationed in the north of occupied Crimea… were pushed to the administrative border with […]https://www.defencetalk.com/ukraine-says-russia-masses-troops-on-ukraine-border-60612/

DefenceTalkRussia is to reinforce its troop deployments in annexed Crimea and southern Russia because of the worsening crisis in Ukraine and the buildup of foreign forces nearby, the country’s defence minister said on Tuesday. Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of defence ministry top brass it was a “priority” to deploy a “full and self-reliant group […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-to-deploy-reinforcements-to-crimea-area-minister-60599/

DefenceTalkNATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe said today that Pentagon leaders are reviewing decisions to scale down U.S. military forces in Europe in light of the changing security environment on the continent triggered by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Moscow’s ongoing support for rebels in the east. “I have talked to leadership here about […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-reconsidering-troops-reductions-in-europe-60597/

DefenceTalkThe Mistral-class helicopter carrier, the Vladivostok, carrying some 200 Russian sailors on Saturday left the French port of Saint-Nazaire to pass a series of tests. The Vladivostok had left docks at 3:30 a.m. local time (1:30 GMT), but was forced to wait until the tide thus eventually sailing out to sea at 7:20 a.m. (5:20 […]https://www.defencetalk.com/first-mistral-class-ship-built-for-russia-sets-off-for-sea-trials-reports-60579/