1. Strategic Threat IndexClassification: Unclassified / Open SourceResearch Environment
STIStrategic Threat Index
Research — Open Source

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED — HISTORICAL RESEARCH VIEW — IMAGERY AVAILABILITY DEPENDS ON PROVIDER PROCESSING — NO REAL-TIME TRACKING — NO OPERATIONAL TARGETING.

Intelligence / Methodology & Sources

Open Source Data Catalogue

All data in this platform is sourced exclusively from public datasets. No classified or restricted intelligence is used.

6Source Groups
19Public Sources
5Integrations
OSINTData Mode
OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE PHILOSOPHY

All data in this platform is sourced from publicly available, open-source datasets — the same sources used by academic researchers, journalists, and policy analysts worldwide. The platform demonstrates that rigorous defence intelligence analysis can be conducted entirely from open data without recourse to classified or restricted material.

Defence Expenditure & Arms Trade
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

Annual military spending data for 170+ countries. SIPRI released its 2025 military expenditure update on 27 April 2026; current public data now covers 1949-2025. Used for historical spending figures only.

Open
SIPRI Arms Transfers Database

Records of international transfers of major conventional weapons systems. Searchable by supplier, recipient, weapon type, and year.

Open
IISS Military Balance / Military Balance+

Annual open-source assessment of military forces, equipment inventories, and defence economics for 170+ countries. Treat local platform records as summaries that require periodic analyst review against the latest edition.

Open
Conflict & Event Data
ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data)

Structured conflict event data with disaggregated locations, actors, event types, and fatalities. Kept as an external reference source; the dashboard now uses local monitored-site records rather than a live news feed.

Open
UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program)

Since 1946. Organised violence including state-based conflict, non-state conflict, one-sided violence. Peer-reviewed academic standard dataset.

Open
ISW (Institute for the Study of War)

Daily operational assessments of Russia-Ukraine and Middle East conflicts. GIS-mapped frontline tracking. Open access.

Open
Military Capabilities & Order of Battle
IISS Military Balance

Annual open-source reference on military capabilities and defence economics. Used as a baseline OOB reference; platform entries should be treated as analytic summaries, not direct extracts.

Open
US DoD Annual Reports to Congress

Official US government assessments of Chinese (PLA), Russian, Iranian, North Korean military development. Highly detailed open-source assessment.

Open
US Congressional Research Service (CRS)

Non-partisan analysis of defence programs, arms transfers, country military assessments. Comprehensive and freely accessible.

Open
Nuclear & Strategic Weapons
SIPRI Nuclear Forces Data

Annual estimates of global nuclear arsenals by country. The peer-reviewed academic standard. All nuclear figures in this platform sourced here.

Open
FAS Nuclear Notebook

Federation of American Scientists. Detailed per-country nuclear force assessments published in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Peer-reviewed.

Open
Arms Control Association

Nuclear treaties, arms control agreements, verification mechanisms. Fact sheets, country profiles, and historical treaty analysis.

Open
Open Source Intelligence & Analysis
Bellingcat

Pioneer of open-source investigative journalism. OSINT methodology guides, geolocation techniques, and case studies including Bucha, MH17, and Iran-Israel incidents.

Open
CSIS — Missile Threat / China Power

Missile Defence Project database, China Power index, Indo-Pacific tracker. Structured data with visualisations. Free public access.

Open
RUSI (Royal United Services Institute)

UK-based defence think tank. Deep-dive analytical reports on Russia, China, NATO. Ukraine conflict analysis particularly strong.

Open
Middlebury Institute MIIS

James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. WMD-focused analysis, proliferation tracking, and satellite imagery interpretation.

Open
Satellite Imagery & Geospatial
Copernicus / Sentinel Hub

ESA's free Sentinel-2 satellite archive. True-colour imagery, multispectral analysis. This platform uses the Sentinel Hub Process API. Free tier available.

Open
ESRI World Imagery Wayback

Historical satellite imagery archive from 2014 to present. Used for before/after change comparison in this platform. Free public access.

Open
NASA Earthdata

MODIS, Landsat, SRTM elevation data. Long historical record for land-cover change analysis. All free.

Open
Platform Integration Points
Scenario WatchboardLocal / Stable

Dashboard scenario drivers are generated from monitored-site development records, significance levels, and operational impact notes. No external live news call is required.

Source: src/data/trackedSites.ts
Panel: Wargame Watchboard
Export-safe local records
SIPRI Data ImportExtensible

SIPRI publishes annual Excel datasets. Import script can populate spending figures dynamically after a source file is added. Current public milex release covers 2025 data from the April 2026 update.

npx tsx scripts/import-sipri.ts --file SIPRI-milex-data-2025.xlsx
Sentinel Hub ImageryConfigured

Already integrated via /api/imagery/[locationId]. Add credentials to .env to activate.

SENTINEL_HUB_CLIENT_ID=xxx
SENTINEL_HUB_CLIENT_SECRET=xxx
ESRI Wayback HistoricalLive

ESRI Wayback Archive integrated in before/after comparison slider. No API key required. Free public service.

https://waybackapi.esri.com/getReleases?f=json
ESRI World Imagery — Static SnapshotsLive

ESRI MapServer Export API used to serve real satellite imagery in the Military Base Developments page. Each featured research card fetches a geo-bounded JPEG of the actual facility via the public ESRI export endpoint. No API key required. Attribution required: © Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics.

https://server.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer/export
  ?bbox={minLon},{minLat},{maxLon},{maxLat}&bboxSR=4326&size=640,320&format=jpg&f=image