Archive: News & Articles

Mine countermeasures (MCM) operators at the ‘REPMUS’ maritime uncrewed systems exercise, held in Portugal in September 2025, tested an improved data fusion construct that collated and integrated massed data from multiple sensing sources into a single, comprehensive common operating picture (COP) presented to the exercise’s naval mine warfare (NMW) battlestaff. Data was ingested, standardised and […]

Two legacy tactical communications systems, which have been mainstays of NATO and Allied nations for decades, are gradually making way for the SATURN waveform. The Second-Generation Anti-Jam Ultra High Frequency Radio for NATO is perhaps unsurprisingly better known as SATURN, given the clumsiness of the appellation. Unlike the eponymous planet, which is around 4 billion […]

Nanotechnology is a double-edged sword in the CBRN sphere, offering possibilities for both new vulnerabilities and promising countermeasures. The real-world practical implications range from threat delivery systems capable of circumventing protective gear, to more capable detection and protection technologies. Nanotechnology is the manufascture and manipulation of materials at the scale of one to one hundred […]

What began as a commercial technology is in the process of transforming the modern battlefield. As drone technology proliferates, and production scales toward the millions of units annually, the urgent question facing militaries is not whether they can afford sophisticated counter-drone systems, but whether they can afford not to deploy them. While the funeral in […]

The US Army’s Radio Frequency Data Pilot initiative is developing capabilities to handle data and develop effects in support of electromagnetic manoeuvre warfare. It is probably fair to argue that the radio spectrum in the Ukraine theatre of operations is the most congested and contested the world has ever seen. Russia and Ukraine depend on […]

The role of the military helicopter is evolving. New technologies and changing mission demands are triggering a move towards lighter, more adaptable multirole platforms. Traditional boundaries between attack, scout, and support/utility roles are increasingly being blurred. The global military helicopter market has rarely been in such a state of flux. Whereas for decades it seemed […]

Multifunction antennas performing multiple tasks from radar sensing to communications, electronic warfare missions and radio navigation could help revolutionise combat aircraft design. Pity the poor fighter aircraft. It must carry at least two radios. A fire control radar is necessary, along with a transponder to identify the aircraft to air traffic control (ATC); additionally, an […]

Europe is chalking up another military connectivity success story thanks to ongoing work of the European Protected Waveform satellite communications initiative. “I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them, but they were only satellites. Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you’d care.” sang singer-songwriter […]

On 10 September 2025, Systematic and Helsing announced that they were partnering to offer a type of sensor-to-shooter capability based around the two companies’ software platforms. This is intended to be used with networked intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and effectors such as Helsing’s HX-2 loitering munitions. As […]

European military networking has taken an important step forward with the realisation of the ESSOR suite of waveforms, some, or all, of which look likely to be adopted throughout NATO in the coming years. Land forces fighting together in a coalition have, in recent times, often struggled to talk to their counterparts. For example, a […]

As modern warfare increasingly features overlapping missile, drone, and cruise missile threats, air defence planners face critical decisions about whether to optimise systems against specific threats or pursue costly multifunctional capabilities. Recent conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East reveal how these choices can determine mission success or failure. The design of air defence networks […]

The legacy of warfare can manifest itself in many ways. Economic loss, geopolitical changes to countries and borders, and many varieties of human suffering are associated with both winning and losing wars. Physical destruction of infrastructure, damage to the natural world, and long-term interdiction of land in the form of unexploded munitions and minefields are […]

From the French Navy’s embedded data hubs to predictive maintenance software on US vessels, artificial intelligence (AI) is already changing maritime warfare. Yet widespread deployment remains limited by concerns over trusting the algorithms, ethical frameworks, and the complex challenge of making allied systems work together. “CommandGPT, considering submarine threat indices, minefield charts, weather forecasts and […]

Pilots and crew aboard fixed and rotary-wing military aircraft face numerous potential operational and peacetime-related emergency scenarios for which several items of personal protection and safety equipment will help improve their chances of survival. This article looks at some of the and survival kit intended to keep military pilots and crew alive in the event […]

Procurement of major warships is experiencing a notable resurgence against a backdrop of increased global tensions. Some fleets are embarking on their first purchases of new-build surface combatants in recent years, whilst many others are expanding acquisition programmes to encompass several warship classes. This upturn in activity is often being accompanied by an assessment of […]

The ability to remain quiet has been a cardinal virtue for both submariners and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operators for most of history. This has stemmed from the fact that active detection poses a considerable risk of counter detection and, thus, destruction by an opponent. Consequently, for most of the Cold War, competitors raced both to […]

Since 2020, there has been a flurry of activity in the global market for military-specification articulated all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), with contracts for close to 1,000 new vehicles signed and several more programmes approaching the threshold of contract award. This article explores the factors encouraging this demand, how the vehicles are evolving to meet customer requirements, […]

Rydberg atom based-sensing could make an important contribution to the enhancement and improvement of radio and radar signal detection. The city of Halmstad on Sweden’s southwest coast has the distinction of hosting the country’s first ever International Worker’s Day demonstration which took place in 1897. Twelve years earlier, the city’s first trade union was formed […]

Since the 1980s, many nations have relied on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for position-finding, missile guidance, and for the precision timing that is essential for many military and civil high-technology systems. So inevitably, this has resulted in the development of corresponding countermeasures. In 2003, Iraq deployed GPS jammers (probably of Russian origin) in the […]

The advent of metasurface technology could herald major benefits for platform protection in the air domain, particularly as a means of reducing visibility to radar. You might not have heard of metamaterials, or indeed metasurfaces, but do not worry, you are not alone. The science of metamaterials of relatively new. In a nutshell, metamaterials exploit […]

With low-cost drones and missiles threatening even well-defended naval assets, this analysis examines a systems approach to integrating electronic warfare that could rebalance the cost equation. Recent experience of naval combat in theatres such as the Red Sea and Black Sea has illustrated several challenges which navies will face with respect to air and missile […]