Archive: News & Articles

We live in an era where much of the conversation surrounding air force happenings is based around future sixth-generation fighters and collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) and what these technologies will mean for the air forces of the future. All of this tends to overshadow critical capabilities and missions in the here and now. Amongst these […]

MALE and HALE drones are unique assets providing long-term observation and strike capabilities. These attributes make them force multipliers. The designations medium-altitude, long endurance (MALE) and high-altitude, long endurance (HALE) are largely self-explanatory, and summarise these unmanned aerial vehicles’ (UAVs) primary characteristics. Their flight altitude provides a significantly greater detection range and geographic coverage than […]

Ever since the first operational deployment of chaff (then codenamed: ‘Window’) by the RAF over Hamburg in July 1943, aircraft and the technical mechanisms designed to kill them have been locked in a lethal cycle of measure/countermeasure. This cycle has included the introduction of new threats, and the production of a variety of means of […]

Demand for air-to-ground precision munitions continues to grow. Increasingly accurate and sophisticated systems are entering the market or being developed. Conflicts of the past three decades have seen an exponential increase in reliance on air-to-ground precision guided munitions (in NATO parlance: A2G-PGMs). During Operation Desert Storm (1991), only 9% of air-dropped ordnance (calculated by tonnage) […]

With just 11 SIGINT aircraft currently operational among European NATO members, and growing demand for the capabilities they provide, Europe faces a critical shortage in one of its most vital intelligence disciplines. New German, French, and Italian programmes aim to partially fill this gap over the next few years, but a more comprehensive solution would […]

While 5th and 6th-Gen fighters grab headlines, the backbone of global air power broadly remains firmly rooted in 4th-Gen platforms – and for good reason. Cost, payload capacity, and operational flexibility keep these enduring fighters relevant. Peer-on-peer warfare is back. The spectre of superpower confrontation and war via proxies has been almost fully exhumed from […]

Recent Indo-Pakistani air battles showcase the lethal evolution of beyond visual range air-to-air missiles (BVRAAMs). As more countries field BVRAAMs capable of increasingly long-range engagements, traditional air combat doctrine faces an immense challenge. When the Indian Air Force (IAF) launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ on 7 May 2025 against targets in Pakistan; the resulting events included an […]

The German-led European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) is aimed at enhancing the continent’s protection from the aerial threats. Nonetheless, questions remain regarding how this initiative will connect with other Europe-wide air defence initiatives. The skies over western Europe have been free from hostile attack ever since the end of the Second World War. While the […]

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the nature of the fighting has evolved at an unprecedented pace, thanks to rapid adoption of new equipment, tactics, techniques, and procedures. Central to this shift has been the meteoric rise of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as both sides have adopted this class of […]

Since the dawn of chemical warfare in the First World War, various countries in the world made large quantities of chemical warfare agents (the toxic chemicals themselves) and chemical munitions (the weapon systems to dispense them). Only a portion of these weapons were used on the battlefield and no country has a declared arsenal of […]

Both the Army of the Czech Republic (Armáda České republiky; AČR) and the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic (Ozbrojené sily Slovenskej republiky; OS SR) are currently undergoing the most extensive modernisation since their creation in 1993. The following overview presents the most important recent procurement projects. Czech Republic Air Force The most expensive armament […]

Electronic countermeasures (ECM) to defend warships against guided weapon attacks are not a new development. Rudimentary jamming devices were fitted to Royal Navy and US Navy ships as far back as 1943 to disrupt the communications link used in German Hs 293 and Fritz-X radio-controlled bombs. Subsequently, off-board expendable decoys, typified by radio frequency (RF) […]

In May 2023, Microsoft detected a Chinese malware attack (Volt Typhoon) on US critical infrastructure on the Guam base – a crucial node in US operations in the Pacific. The attack relied on simple techniques and, if undetected, could have resulted in hackers successfully modifying tools and commands. In early 2024, the US successfully carried […]

Thaon di Revel is an Offshore Patrol Vessel of the Italian Navy. Within the Marina Militare, she is classified as a multipurpose Offshore Patrol Vessel or Pattugliatore Polivalente d’Altura, PPA.   CDR Chericoni, you must be proud to be in command of ITS Thaon di Revel. Equipped with the latest generation of modular and scalable […]

In November 2024, Norway announced that four countries – France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States – had been short-listed as potential government-to-government partners in delivering Norway’s future frigate. Norway is progressing with a procurement plan to replace the Royal Norwegian Navy’s (RNoN’s) in-service Fridtjof Nansen class frigates; the process is aiming to […]

From simple steel constructs of the twentieth century, the combat helmet has seen a comprehensive evolution in design, materials, and manufacturing on its journey to reach the advanced systems protecting soldiers today. This article looks at certain helmet basics and manufacturing advances, some recent examples portraying how they have become more than just helmets, and […]

NATO faces a complex challenge: how to rapidly enhance its air and missile defence capabilities while ensuring integration across disparate systems developed by various countries. This analysis explores how divergent approaches to integration can be reconciled to create effective multi-layered protection against sophisticated aerial threats. In the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, the subject […]

As multiple countries race to develop and deploy hypersonic missiles, questions remain about their cost-effectiveness and actual battlefield impact. This analysis explores the technical realities behind hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles, examining whether they can truly deliver on their promised capabilities. Militaries around the world are clamouring to develop hypersonic missiles for conventional […]

Two decades ago, the US Army and US Navy began developing the non-line-of-sight launch system (NLOS-LS, aka ‘Rocket in a Box’) as a modular firing system housing 15 vertically launched 280 mm rockets in a container. The Army planned to mount the system on flatbed vehicles, while the Navy hoped to add much-needed firepower to […]

Despite continuing politico-strategic turbulence in trans-Atlantic relations surrounding the on-going Russo-Ukraine war, NATO remains the standalone multinational military structure for deterring high-end military threats to Western European security. Yet with the war being ‘fought’ strategically by Russia through using hybrid activities in various regions, domains, and contexts across the Euro-Atlantic theatre, multinational structures other than […]

The war in Ukraine has evolved rapidly into a brutal battlefield that has outstripped the ability of the established defence industries in both Russia and Ukraine to meet all equipment needs. This has led to a thriving ecosystem of frontline innovations. This article looks at five that are particularly interesting and assesses their impact. Counter-drone […]