Capt.(Dr.) S G Naravane’s Post

Protecting the Force from Uncrewed Aerial Systems Dr Jack Watling and Professor Justin Bronk 15 October 2024 This paper outlines the core tasks and capabilities required by NATO members to provide coherent, layered protection from uncrewed aerial systems. The paper concludes that:  Software solutions are as important as hardware to enable accurate detection, classification and identification of UAS, and the allocation of appropriate effects to efficiently defeat UAS. Software can also reduce the bandwidth requirements for the networking of sensors. In most cases, the necessary data to field robust machine-based filtering is already available in Ukraine, so there should be little difficulty in obtaining libraries of signature data. There are multiple active and passive sensor techniques, and a wide range of soft- and hard-kill techniques exist for engaging and either providing a mission kill or physically destroying UAS, but none are a universally applicable solution, and they must be employed together across the force to provide effective and efficient coverage. All platoons must have the ability to detect the presence of UAS and have electronic countermeasures to protect themselves from them. Across the force, remote weapon stations and other existing platforms should be updated to be able to engage UAS with direct fire.  At the company level, it is necessary to have dedicated passive sensor arrays capable of detecting, classifying and identifying UAS.  Battalions should have a dedicated counter-reconnaissance capability with hard-kill C-UAS systems, fielding both self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery and UAS interceptors. An electronic warfare section is also necessary, to update and orchestrate the electronic protection suites at subordinate echelons that provide a soft-kill layer that attacks UAS command links and navigational systems. The brigade should have independent C-UAS platoons that can be pushed to support the efforts of company groups, or to close key axes to hostile UAS. The brigade should field directed energy systems to efficiently defeat medium-level ISTAR UAS overflying its area of responsibility. The brigade should have the responsibility for electromagnetic spectrum command and control (C2) and deconfliction. The division should fuse lower-echelon C-UAS capabilities with the common air defence picture and orchestrate a distributed defence in depth of the airspace to avoid local saturation of C-UAS systems at critical sites. The point defence role for critical sites such as airbases should see C-UAS capabilities integrated into the wider integrated air and missile defence system at the national, theatre and Alliance levels.

RUSI European Economic Security Taskforce Meeting 1: The Conceptual and the Concrete Eliza Lockhart 18 October 2024 Amid heightened geopolitical tensions, the concept of ‘economic security’ has rapidly come to dominate domestic and international policy agendas. Recent global shocks have exposed the fragility of international financial systems and revealed significant security vulnerabilities in economic dependencies. While a general understanding of economic security is gradually emerging, the definitions, objectives and strategies associated with the concept continue to vary greatly. This ambiguity severely hinders the ability of like-minded countries to work together towards coordinated and constructive economic security outcomes. Such efforts are further hampered by the fact that the finance and security communities are often siloed.  To bridge this divide and bring clarity to the current policy debate, the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI has launched a European Economic Security Taskforce.  The first meeting of the Taskforce took place on 9 September 2024, and this report provides an overview of the main findings.

https://lnkd.in/dQ6SKiNZ How Beijing is closing surveillance gaps in the South China Sea The discovery of a new radar system on China’s Triton Island military base shows that Beijing is rapidly developing its intelligence capacities in contested waters, write John Pollock and Damien Symon. John Pollock Damien Symon The World Today Published 17 October 2024 New satellite images reveal how the Chinese military is dramatically expanding its capabilities on Triton Island, which looks set to become a one of Beijing’s key signal intelligence bases in the South China Sea. Once completed, the radar system would significantly increase China’s signals intercept and electronic warfare capabilities across the disputed Paracel Islands archipelago and add to a wider surveillance network spanning much of the South China Sea. The enhanced facility on Triton is likely to offer a challenge to China’s competitors in the region and internationally. China seized control of the Paracels from Vietnam in a 1974 naval battle, and competition for access to it waters has intensified since the recent discovery of oil and gas reserves. Chinese and Vietnamese maritime militia clashed off the coast of Triton in 2014. In addition, American, British and Australian naval forces have for the past decade patrolled the waters to collectively challenge China’s contested ‘nine-dash-line’ claim to large stretches of the South China Sea.  On a strategic level, the expansion of Beijing’s counter-stealth radar network across the Paracels may help to erode the technological superiority that US and allied military forces have enjoyed in the region over the past three decades. 

https://lnkd.in/dhSWECsN Israel plots strikes on Iran ‘to topple regime’ Binyamin Netanyahu believes airstrikes could weaken the Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary force, which have put down mass protests against Iran’s leaders Samer Al-Atrush, Middle East Correspondent Thursday October 17 2024, 10.20pm BST, The Times HAZEM BADER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Israel has been consulting the US on its retaliation for the salvo of nearly 200 Iranian missiles launched against it this month, narrowing down targets to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its volunteer paramilitary force. There is a third more indirect goal: encouraging regime change. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, hinted as much in a video statement, billed as an address to the Iranian people, several days before Iran’s missile attack. The speech in Eng­lish was perhaps aimed at western countries and the Iranian opposition, which is based abroad, critics said. “Don’t let a small group of fanatic theocrats crush your hopes and your dreams … The people of Iran should know: Israel stands with you,” Netanyahu declared. 

Gulf naval developments: on course to face new challenges? Albert Vidal Ribe 15th October 2024 Amidst rising maritime insecurity in the Red Sea and the Gulf, the leading GCC navies are pursuing their own unique investment strategies to meet their growing security demands in the region. However, the Ansarullah (Houthi) campaign against shipping and the risk of a broader Israel–Iran conflict may force these navies to reassess their approach to fleet modernisation. Rising maritime insecurity in and around the Red Sea, and also the Gulf, poses further challenges for the leading regional navies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Even as recent increases in naval investments in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates begin to bear fruit, there are questions over whether these states are focusing on the right capabilities and are ready to take on increased burdens in protecting the maritime domain and seaborne trade around the region.

Nuclear power and proliferation in the Gulf region with Amnah Ibraheem 17th October 2024 In the third episode of season 3, podcast host Fabian Hinz is joined by Amnah Ibraheem to discuss the critical developments in missile technology, nuclear energy policies and defence strategies across the Middle East. How does the growing importance of missile systems shape the strategic calculations of regional powers like Iran and Israel, and how do such advancements influence the broader political landscape? Episode three provides impactful insights into critical developments in missile technology, nuclear energy policies and defence strategies across the Middle East.

https://lnkd.in/dizQp9gn The rockets are nifty, but it is satellites that make SpaceX valuable Elon Musk’s space venture may soon be more valuable than Tesla Oct 17th 2024 There was no mistaking the feat of engineering. The bottom half of the biggest object ever flown—by itself as tall as a 747 is long—came hurtling out of the sky so fast that it glowed from the friction. With the ground rushing to meet it, a cluster of its engines briefly relit, slowing the rocket and guiding it carefully back towards the same steel tower from which it had launched just seven minutes previously. A pair of arms swang closed to catch it, leaving it suspended and smoking in the early-morning sunshine.

https://lnkd.in/d4RYiswj Inside the secret oil trade that funds Iran’s wars An investigation by The Economist uncovers a multi-billion-dollar, America-defying network Oct 17th 2024 In a war with Israel, Iran would need money. Not just to buy weapons and keep its economy afloat, but to re-arm militias such as Hamas and Hizbullah. Many assume that, after years of sanctions, it would struggle. They are wrong. Every year Iran funnels tens of billions of dollars from illicit oil sales to bank accounts all over the world. This huge, secret treasure was used to fund Hamas’s attack on Israel a year ago, swarms of Russian drones in Ukraine and Iran’s own nuclear programme. It has already seeded many crises—and could soon fuel the mother of them all.

https://lnkd.in/dNcHw9gN How Yahya Sinwar’s death will change the Middle East Gaza’s mastermind of mayhem is dead. A ceasefire may be alive again   Oct 17th 2024|JERUSALEM IN THE END Yahya Sinwar died brutally in the rubble of Gaza, like tens of thousands of victims of the war he unleashed a year earlier. In a firefight with an Israeli patrol in southern Gaza, the leader of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, was killed on October 17th. The massacre a year earlier that he masterminded altered the trajectory of the Middle East, although not in the way he dreamed of.

https://lnkd.in/dtirsMiE Oxford’s farcical election shows ‘diversity’ is now all that counts Not only are the candidates varied in their background; they’re also varied in basic competency and understanding of the role Serenhedd James 17 October 2024