Archive: News & Articles

The wars currently being waged have brought the importance of the main battle tank as a potent tool in the hands of the troop commander back into focus. At the same time, new threats – especially from the air – have emerged. For more than 10 years, Germany and France have been designing a successor […]

With numerous procurement and upgrade efforts occurring across the European continent, France’s SCORPION (synergie du contact renforcée par la polyvalence et l’infovalorisation) programme remains a standout among Europe’s ground forces modernisation efforts. This article examines the key capabilities being replaced or improved under SCORPION, as well as the road taken to get there. Under the […]

Artificial intelligence techniques are gradually being adopted in tactical battle management systems bringing both risks and rewards. In March 2019, Dr Zachary Davis penned a paper titled Artificial Intelligence on the Battlefield: An Initial Survey of Potential Implications for Deterrence, Stability, and Strategic Surprise. Dr Davis is a senior fellow at the Centre for Global […]

Options for military truck procurers are gradually dwindling. This article provides an overview of the shrinking European marketplace. There are some purpose-designed military trucks serving with armed forces across Europe, but the vast majority of military load-carrying fleets are made up of commercially available or commercially derived models. These are of course militarised to varying […]

Recent years have seen multiple hypersonic weapon designs seen coming out of primarily China, Russia, and the US. While several designs have already entered active service, they remain a significant challenge for most existing ground-based air defence (GBAD) systems to intercept. As such, the hypersonic threat has triggered a rush for bespoke solutions to this […]

There are countless commonly-cited myths floating around regarding what high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads are and how they work, most of which are completely inaccurate. In this article, the author provides a crash course in the field of shaped charges and related protection systems, demystifying HEAT warheads as well as many commonly-cited countermeasures, and explaining […]

The ongoing war in Ukraine is deeply intertwined with the use of different remote-controlled, autonomous, uncrewed and robotic platforms by both sides. The now-ubiquitous use of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), target spotting and tracking, artillery correction, bombing missions, combat and logistics is supplemented by the growing uses of uncrewed […]

With the growing loss rates of armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) seen on modern battlefields, particularly in Ukraine, it is worth examining the materials and technologies which go into protecting these vehicles, to better understand their limits. In 2017 a military unit from the UAE was involved in an ambush in Yemen that started with an […]

8×8 armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) now make up a sizable proportion of many military AFV fleets. However, pressures to integrate more protection and heavier armament are leading to greater compromises in mobility that will have an impact on their operational utility. 8×8 armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) have played a significant if underappreciated role in the conflicts in […]

With Western militaries increasingly re-orienting themselves toward peer conflict, what role will protected mobility vehicles play in this post-global war on terror (GWOT) world? Western militaries involved in the GWOT from 2001 found themselves adapting from the high-intensity warfighting stance that they were built around to low intensity, long lasting campaigns. A series of deployments […]

Outside of Russia and Ukraine, other European countries are investing significant resources into the procurement of main battle tanks (MBTs), including upgrades for legacy vehicles, production of new types, and the development of next-generation systems. Examining how these designs differ from a technical perspective indicates how the technological capabilities of MBTs may evolve in the long-term future. […]

The chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threat refuses to disappear. Continued examples of actual and alleged uses of chemical weapons around the world show that the spectre of chemical warfare is not relegated to history. Nuclear weapons still exist, and the prospect of accidents and incidents involving nuclear power plants and radioactive materials is […]

“All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that is what I called ‘guessing what was at the other side of the hill’”. Thus spoke Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, in the early 19th century. Since […]

The emergence of big data technologies marks the commencement of a new stage in data-centric decision-making, offering unparalleled prospects for diverse stakeholders to extract valuable insights from vast and diverse datasets. Within the military domain, defined by the critical importance of information dominance, skilful deployment of big data analytics has the potential to confer a […]

“Defence is a member state competence. The point is not about having an EU army but rather to work better together among the 27 armies,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top foreign policy diplomat told Politico on 6 March 2024. This begs the question – is this the end of the discussion on the establishment of […]

Russia’s recent offensive in the Kharkiv region is stretching the tactical ability of the Ukrainian military to respond, while other strategic circumstances are also in play. Peter Felstead looks at some of the factors that could influence the outcome of the war in Ukraine. On 10 May 2024, Russia initiated a major new offensive towards […]

The tank transporter, or perhaps more accurately, the heavy equipment transporter (HET) will not be the most numerous ‘truck’ in the inventory of any armed force, it’s number seldom exceeding a third of the to-be-transported heavy armour fleet. However, despite those relatively small numbers, it will most definitely be one of the most important ‘trucks’ […]

Making planes since the early days of manned flight, Spain’s expertise in the aviation and aerospace sectors has grown over the years, making it one of today’s world leaders in these fields, with the country becoming a major supplier of military aircraft, space systems, and equipment. As a case in point, when the Spanish Ministry […]

Legacy tactical communications waveforms are still proving their worth in the face of aggressive electronic warfare while new threats lurk on the horizon. “Anything under 100 hops-per-second gets jammed to shit,” was the observation of one tactical communications expert at a conference recently attended by this correspondent. Under discussion was the vulnerability of land forces […]

Donald Trump was far from the only US president to admonish NATO for low defence spending to little avail, but the belligerent actions of Russian President Putin have galvanised NATO in a way the Russian leader did not foresee. On 25 May 2017 Donald Trump attended his first NATO summit in Brussels as US president, […]

Navies need connectivity to enable communications (including data transfer) between maritime uncrewed systems (including uncrewed underwater vehicles). Such a communications structure itself needs capability and design standards to enable it  to work. Maritime uncrewed systems (MUS) are being developed and procured as assets intended to assist NATO navies in adding capability and capacity in the […]