Archive: News & Articles

If you declare war on something, industry will make goods to sell to the warriors. This has been the case since antiquity. The so-called ‘War on Drugs’ is no exception. A variety of techniques and technologies have come into use in the worldwide struggle against smuggling, manufacturing, and sale of dangerous drugs. The substances of […]

Tanks provide a vital form of fire support in Ukraine, which means that both sides rely extensively on high explosive (HE) and guided ammunition natures. If you watch enough videos and read enough reports, you will get a sense of the vast scale of Ukraine. It is more easily appreciated by driving; even the relatively […]

As sensor fusion and AI begin to enter the networked warfighting space, armed forces have been experimenting with and implementing some of the new possibilities these technologies can provide.  In 2020 a data centre at Joint Base Lewis McChord in the US began to receive data from a number of low earth orbit satellites and […]

As submarines become quieter and operations shift towards the littorals, high-end sonar systems are needed in order to better detect and identify targets in the water column, especially in a cluttered environment. This article examines the latest technologies being used to improve sonar performance and the new products on the market that meet emerging naval […]

Technological developments in the field of naval mine countermeasures (MCM) are revolutionising a traditionally dangerous, difficult and time-consuming process. Advances in areas such as networking, autonomy and wider aspects of artificial intelligence are speeding the detection, identification, classification and disposal of mines. Significantly, they also offer the prospect of ‘taking the ship out of the […]

On 9 August 2022, the Biden administration signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law. The act was intended to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the US, decreasing its reliance on foreign suppliers. Since then, the global competition for semiconductor production and the supply of rare earth metals has only heated up. During President Xi Jin […]

Small arms represent one of the most fundamental elements of military equipment. As such, one might expect that these weapons and their accompanying ammunition have benefitted from years of significant technological advances, though such an expectation would only partially ring true. Significant technological progress has indeed taken place, but many widely used types of small […]

The British Royal Navy is in the middle of a significant programme of fleet renewal. Two major projects are currently underway that will ultimately see the commissioning of eight Type 26 anti-submarine warfare and five Type 31 general purpose frigates. Together, they will replace over two thirds of the navy’s major surface combatants. Responsible for […]

The battlefield threat posed by small and medium unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as by precision artillery continues to evolve. Both are driving a demand for counter-UAV (C-UAV) and counter-rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) systems, and there is a good degree of overlap between the two. Intense research and development efforts are necessary to […]

The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) is NATO’s lead organisation for multinational acquisition, support, and sustainment. We strive to obtain the best capabilities across all military domains at the best value – for NATO and Allied Nations – generating economies of scale while leveraging emerging and advanced technology. The Agency also provides equipment and […]

Saudi Arabia is systematically investing in the development of its own defence industry and R&D capabilities. A remarkable 50% of defence spending is expected to be allocated domestically by 2030. This is an ambitious plan, and it remains to be seen whether the authorities in Riyadh will achieve their goal. For decades, Saudi Arabia lacked […]

Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities are an essential, overlaying enabler for naval operations. As the strategic importance of operational tasks such as mine warfare and anti-submarine warfare returns, so does the requirement to expand and enhance ISR capability and its support for such tasks, particularly through enhancing multi-domain command, control, and communications. Intelligence, surveillance, […]

Amid an uncertain security environment, competition in Low Earth Orbit and the stratosphere is heating up. SpaceX launched their 42nd Starlink delivery mission of the year on 25 September 2023, at 4:48 a.m. EDT, when a Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket placed 21 V2 Mini Starlink […]

In a round of related exercises off the coast of Portugal, NATO has been exploring the future potential of maritime unmanned assets. Hosted by the Portuguese Navy out of its Maritime Experimentation Operations Centre on the Tróia peninsula and its naval facilities in Sesimbra, NATO has recently conducted two overlapping exercises focused on integrating maritime […]

As the threat from manoeuvrable hypersonic missiles adds to the already vast array of ballistic and other missile threats, increasingly extensive and sophisticated space-based satellite constellations providing missile warning and tracking functionality are being deployed to bolster US missile defences for the protection of the US and its Allies. This article examines the threats demanding […]

The latest developments in Lithium-ion battery (LIB) systems in the underwater domain have resulted in significant advantages for submarine operations compared to standard lead-acid batteries and have increased the number of new submarine procurement programmes. The aim is to provide modern submarines with maximum tactical mobility, while at the same time reducing the indiscretion rate […]

The US Navy has begun the search for replacements for its shipboard manned and unmanned vertical lift aircraft. The Future Vertical Lift (Maritime Strike) or FVL (MS) program seeks to develop and acquire a ‘family of systems’ (FoS) including both manned and unmanned aircraft to replace rotary lift aircraft currently deployed aboard US Navy (USN) […]

Displays are critical to modern military electronic systems, visualising sensor data, communications, and system status. As the most critical link between the human and machine, displays must be carefully integrated into the overall system architecture to enable reliable and effective presentation of information to operators. A key consideration is the need to balance the interface […]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is already leading to changes in NATO’s defence concept and a reassessment of the principles of modern warfare. Ukraine’s unique experience of confronting a much larger enemy force in terms of manpower and hardware is being taken into account in this reassessment. NATO’s military strategy is changing and moving towards […]

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and heightened tensions along NATO’s eastern flank, coupled with multi-domain operations in the Indo-Pacific Region, have placed considerable pressure on NATO members’ ageing fleets of manned Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft. This has triggered an accelerated procurement drive not only by NATO members, but also from different customers with […]

The US Army remains confident that it will become the first Western military service to operationally field a hypersonic weapon, potentially as early as autumn of 2023. Through a joint service memorandum, the US Navy and the US Army are collaborating on the development of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). This category of weapon is […]