by Igor Rozin The world’s most popular rifle, with 100 million units in circulation, is not without its drawbacks. The AK platform is popular worldwide for its reliability and ease of production. Today, there are roughly 100 million Kalashnikov rifles in 55 countries around the globe. And that’s only those …

The Wagner group continues to run training centers in Russia, despite the deaths of the organization’s founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin in an August plane crash. One school, Octagon, trains operators to use kamikaze drones. A correspondent from RFE/RL signed up for the course. Here is his report. His name …

This Chinook took a spin at the annual Royal International Air Tattoo, the world’s largest international airshow. The helicopter did its thing at the show July 19-21, at RAF Fairford, England. This one does tricks… clipped from a U.S. Air Force video by Tech. Sgt. Jessica Avallone.

Snipers train to be the top of their class. Here, U.S. Marines with 3D Force Reconnaissance Company, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve go through range training with the M110 semi-automatic sniper system. They loaded up at Panzer Kaserne in Stuttgart, Germany. Watch while they use various shooting techniques, and …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz KeatingWhen Vladimir Putin embraced assassin Vadim Krasikov at the airport in Moscow on August 1, the Russian president looked jubilant. He had reason to celebrate. Putin’s operator, the convicted killer, was home. So, too, were the other nine Russians who were released as part of a complex …

by Boris Egorov At the end of 1980, on the outskirts of Moscow, a number of Soviet policemen picked an argument with a KGB major. They had no idea what dire consequences the encounter would have for them and the entire Soviet police force.  On the morning of December 27, …

by James Woods Editor’s note: Reader James Woods sent this story about his father in law, who had an interesting time one night after dark during WWII. My father in law was assigned to the HQ company of an engineer unit as a driver during WWII. The unit was going …

  by Babatim  I couldn’t take being out of the game anymore, so off I went to touch the elephant. I had just cracked open the first beer of the afternoon when I heard the rockets coming in. Wise now to the ways of war I stayed in my lawn …

by Gatimu Juma Video on secure messaging channels depicts men sitting on the ground while blindfolded, wounded, and writhing in pain. Following intense combat that left dozens of fighters dead or badly maimed, rebel commanders in Mali have ransomed off some of their captives from the Wagner Group and Malian …

After the Soviets discovered huge reserves of natural gas in Uzbekistan, this part of the USSR became the main gas producing region in the country. But things went wrong, and one of its key gas fields turned into a man-made disaster of unimaginable magnitude. Hellish fire The unprecedented emergency at …