Archive: News & Articles

The shotgun might not have the ‘glamour’ of some other small arms, for instance it cannot successfully engage a target at 600 m. However in urban combat scenarios, the weapon truly comes into its own. At present many militaries are working towards the development and fielding of new generations of small arms that combine high […]

As militaries around the world test and deploy new autonomous vehicles, commercial enterprises are developing innovative solutions which could change the battlefield in both big and small ways. In late 2022, BAE Systems Australia supplied two fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) for a ‘battlefield simulation’ demonstration for the Australian Army. This is just one more milestone […]

Armed forces must reexamine their combat search and rescue (CSAR) capabilities in light of operational realities associated with the return to great power competition and peer-warfare. The acronym CSAR can stand for Combat Search and Rescue or Combat Search and Recovery. While CSAR is dedicated to finding and retrieving any military personnel who are cut […]

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 […]

Numerous classes of conventionally-armed air-to-ground munitions (AGMs) are in service. Many are currently being upgraded. New, even higher-performance tactical AGMs are being developed. Bomb Guidance Kits Despite the plethora of missiles in modern inventories, aerial bombs remain a major tool of warfare. Unguided gravity bombs have largely been replaced by precision bombs, whereby legacy gravity […]

Sniping was once a much less complicated undertaking than it is today. The reason lies in the expansion of the performance of sniper rifles and supporting optics to previously unachievable levels. In turn, this has seen the sniper’s mission evolve significantly and, in parallel, a growth in understanding of the operational advantages that a high-quality […]

We are well into the second year of the biggest war in Europe since the end of the Second World War. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought the issues of land mine warfare into the harsh light of day. In addition, unexploded ordnance (UXO), also referred to as ‘explosive remnants of war’ (ERW), has […]

A mix of old and new satellites make up the current GPS constellation, with GPS III satellite launches and orbital insertions taking place according to plan, though the journey to deliver the system’s other segments has been less smooth. This article looks at some of the latest efforts, associated activities undertaken and scrutiny to deliver […]

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 […]

Marking the return of high-intensity conflict, the war in Ukraine has exposed the long-overdue need to invest in land fires capabilities. In Europe, short-term needs can be identified in the assistance instruments designed for Ukraine, such as the ‘European Peace Facility’ financing the provision of 155 mm artillery rounds and, if requested, missiles. Short to […]

About 19 months have passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What was supposed to be a rapid campaign taking just a few days, has morphed into a grinding attritional battle, with both sides continuing to suffer significant personnel and materiel losses. In the midst of this dreadful conflict, it has become clear that artillery […]

Ongoing programmes to equip US Army Stryker vehicles with new weapon systems are intended to boost both lethality and survivability. The US Army’s Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT) were conceived in 1999 as an interim level armoured unit to fill the void between heavy (mechanised) and light infantry formations. The Stryker family of vehicles (FOV), […]

Military demands for connectivity show no signs of abating and are only likely to increase in the coming years. Could V-band radio help absorb some the growing communications burden on the future battlefield? The V-band occupies part of the radio segment of the electromagnetic spectrum spanning from 40-75 GHz, corresponding to wavelengths of between 7.5 […]

The US Army is currently modernising its combat vehicle fleet in order to meet more challenging adversaries. This effort combines upgrading in-service systems and introducing completely new combat vehicles. The US Army is currently pursuing 35 high-priority acquisition programmes covering six capabilities categories. These include various vehicle classes as well as improved-range tube artillery. Overall, […]

Four contractors are competing for the right to build a new fleet of heavy trucks for the US Army. By leveraging state-of-the-art and next-generation commercial technology, the Pentagon hopes to acquire a modernised transport fleet tailored to the needs of multi-domain operations (MDO). Presently, the US Army operates four different classes of heavy tactical vehicle […]

NATO is the most successful military alliance in modern history, but it is being put to the test. Three recent conflicts—the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020), the Israel–Hamas conflict (2021), and the ongoing Russia–Ukraine War (2022–) — provide valuable lessons concerning the methods of the next war. The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War has been called the first […]

This article looks briefly at some of the threats to world peace from nuclear weapons in today’s geopolitically explosive world. These threats have brought us to the edge of a very dangerous abyss. It also touches upon nuclear deterrence as the option favoured by Western powers and the Alliance, bolstered by strength and nuclear options […]

With the coastal subsurface domain remaining an area that Western special forces can exploit, a number of companies are providing platforms to facilitate such operations. Peter Felstead looks at recent developments in this sphere. While the close-in surveillance of hostile shores can increasingly be achieved by unmanned platforms, when it comes to covertly putting personnel […]

To offset the emerging, but now enduring, threat to seabed critical underwater infrastructure (CUI), navies are looking to build CUI security through co-operating on information sharing and operational responses. Innovative technology and information analysis are playing a key role in enhancing such cooperation and response. The explosions suffered by the two Nordstream gas pipelines on […]

The Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is bringing enhanced presence and capability for NATO maritime operations, particularly in anti-submarine warfare and particularly in critical regions like the North Atlantic. On 1 July 2023, the Norwegian Armed Forces announced on social media that the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s (RNoAF’s) Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion maritime patrol […]

Four years ago, at the time of DSEI 2019, Babcock International announced that its ‘Arrowhead 140’ design proposal had been selected as the preferred bid for the United Kingdom’s Type 31 frigate programme. Since then, production of the new class has commenced at a new building hall at Babcock’s Rosyth facility, from where the first […]