The Netherlands’ recent engagement with the U.S. Collaborative Combat Aircraft initiative reflects more than an interest in a new generation of uncrewed combat platforms. It also highlights a deeper shift in how Western air forces are approaching manned–unmanned teaming, and exposes a growing divergence inside Europe over how the next generation of combat air power […]
Naval mines are often described as simple weapons. In practice, they remain one of the most effective tools for denying access to ports, disrupting trade routes, and slowing naval operations. Designed to control maritime access and constrain movement, mines are particularly effective in confined waters, where even a small number of devices can create a […]
Since 2022, the war in Ukraine has profoundly transformed the military use of drones. Russian forces regularly use Shahed-type attack drones to strike energy infrastructure, military installations, and urban areas. In response to these repeated attacks, Ukraine has sought to develop interception solutions that are less expensive than traditional air defense systems. The STING drone, […]
Since the start of the conflict on February 28, 2026, Iranian missiles have struck several areas in Israel despite numerous interceptions. Reuters reported strikes in the center of the country on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, while its photo report from Sunday, March 2, 2026 had already shown that some salvos had escaped interception and caused […]
Naval debates have long illustrated the idea of the “cheap shot”: a relatively inexpensive means, used intelligently, can force a disproportionately costly response. On land, the concept is discussed less as a formula than as a reality. What can be described as imposed-cost warfare has become a fully developed operational grammar. In Ukraine, the change […]
Since February 28, 2026, United States and Israeli strikes against Iran, and subsequent Iranian retaliatory actions, have created an operational environment in which multi-axis salvos are designed to overwhelm defensive capacity and force prioritization decisions. Iranian retaliation has notably combined one-way attack unmanned aerial systems such as the Shahed 136 with ballistic missiles drawn from […]
For years, Europe lived with a comfortable assumption: satellite navigation was like electricity, always there, largely invisible, and taken for granted. Open an app, an aircraft stays on profile, a ship threads a channel, a telecom network stays in sync, a financial transaction is timestamped everything just works. Since 2024 – 2025, that assumption has […]
Naval mines remain one of the most effective tools of sea denial: cheap to lay, hard to attribute, and capable of shutting down a port, a strait, or a trade route with disproportionate strategic effect. The modern response is no longer “a minehunter goes in.” It is an end-to-end sequence: detect → classify → identify […]
In border surveillance, highway patrol, and search-and-rescue (SAR), gyrocopters (autogyros) are re-emerging as sensor + video-link platforms that can loiter over an area longer than many small multirotors, while often delivering a lower operating-cost profile than helicopters for routine overwatch. Recent signals, routinized use in Turkey and deliveries tied to Benin, illustrate a broader “public […]
The future Luleå class is not merely a naval modernization effort. It represents the most structurally significant surface combatant program for the Swedish Navy in decades. The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration is targeting a contract signature in the first half of 2026, following a market evaluation phase throughout 2025. Sweden plans to acquire four frigates […]
