This is Luninets AB, located approximately 50 km north of the Ukrainian border in #Belarus. It's a reserve airfield that we often see used in air and air defense exercises. (Imagery: @planet)
Similarly, we also have Babryusk AB, another reserve airfield that #Russia has previously used in air defense exercises with Belarus. Like Luninets, we have an active EW site and a cleared runway. (Imagery: @planet)
Then there's Baranovichi where Russian Su-30SM likely stayed on. However, this low light image from December 2021 doesn't show the canards very clearly. (Imagery: @planet) BY Su-30SM parked in QRA right / prob RS Su-30SM on main ramp w/ prob BY MIG-29.
At least 15 x SU-25 have touched down at Luninets.
And yes the S-400 have arrived at Luninets as well.
As #china claimed the Sakteng wildlife sanctuary in eastern #bhutan in June 2020—in likely an effort to sow further confusion—it built a new track to one of four new areas cleared for construction in the Dramana and Shakhatoe areas of western Bhutan. shorturl.at/gipNW
Given the Ladakh crisis that had just begun, it’s likely decision makers were off-balance as China exerted additional pressure with new deployments along the LAC, some of which we still see today. (imagery: @planet)
Furthermore, construction activity has also been monitored in the Langmarpo valley and further south on the Doklam plateau. Several areas have been cleared and we expect additional construction activity in 2022. Here's an area with new foundations (imagery: @capellaspace)
@planetlabs has a series of great collects of China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Interestingly, the rotating service structure on pad 921 underwent modification in June likely to accommodate a larger payload fairing on the LM-2F rocket for the 4 September launch.
Here's a quick look at the service structure before modification.
Here's a nice off nadir shot during modification in June with a section of the structure removed.
"Nuclear alerting would start at the first hints of a crisis in which decision makers foresee possible military escalation".<--Our first datapoint for this occured during Balakot. During Doklam Arihant was still undergoing repairs.
Of course, while Arihant may have been out during various periods of the Balakot crisis, we still don't know if nuclear warheads were mated.
And another question, was Arihant able to accept the K-4 in some form or fashion? A report in 2016 suggested that the K-4 was tested onboard the Arihant. How? We don't know. But subsequent tests went back to the pontoon.
"There is no denying that intelligence analysts were raised to view unclassified data as less valuable than classified information, said Robert Cardillo, director of the NGA. [...]The culture is not easy to change even in this era of rapid technological innovation" [...]
"NGA last year introduced a smartphone app, Tearline, as a test for how the agency could deliver unclassified geospatial intelligence to verified government users via tablets and mobile devices."