Read more about the article The Bundestag’s Denial of Armed Drones
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The Bundestag’s Denial of Armed Drones

The Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) has been using unarmed reconnaissance drones for decades and has recently called for approval for armed combat drones. However, this request has been blocked by the Center-left Social Democrats (SPD) – part of Germany's coalition government – in the German Parliament (The Bundestag). The Bundeswehr was expecting rapid approval from the Bundestag to arm the five Heron TP drones recently acquired from the Israeli manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). However, these drones will operate unarmed, as the vote for “armed drones” has been postponed indefinitely. SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans has argued that "the line between defending the lives and limbs of our soldiers and killing with a joystick is very thin" and that such a debate should deserve more time and serious discussion. Two questions arise from this situation: firstly, have other states banned armed drones? And secondly, would the decision to arm drones lead to an increase in conflicts or civilian deaths?

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7 January 2021
Read more about the article The Importance of The Armed Forces During the Covid-19 Pandemic
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The Importance of The Armed Forces During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic impact in 2020 put the world's healthcare systems, governments, and societies under enormous pressure. The pandemic crisis caught several countries unprepared on the world stage, highlighting several issues in the existing emergency response systems. With the first wave of the pandemic, frontline European countries hit by the emergency had to react to different critical points and issues, such as lack of health care personnel, intensive care equipment and other emergency supplies. At the beginning of the pandemic, the images of military flights in assistance to States facing the emergency first, especially Italy, became famous.

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5 January 2021
Read more about the article Artificial Intelligence: The European Parliament’s New Guidelines
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Artificial Intelligence: The European Parliament’s New Guidelines

The development of new Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the military domain is speeding up the weaponry revolution, providing the armed forces with brand-new technological equipment. In recent years, governments all around the globe invested billions in research projects to enhance their armed forces’ combat capabilities through the development of AI, including Autonomous Weapons System (AWS). Since armies began deploying robotic armaments, there has been a heated debate over their benefits and detriments. In this regard, on December 15, 2020, the Finabel Permanent Secretariat hosted a webinar dedicated to “Autonomous Systems: The Future of Warfare?”, to analyse the opportunities, challenges and the overall trend of AWS. Relevant experts attended the conference, including General Riho Terras ( Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Milrem Robotics, Member of the European Parliament and former Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces), Professor Lode Lauwaert (Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven) and Nicholas Nelson (Senior Technology Advisor at Georgia Tech Research Institute).

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22 December 2020
Read more about the article Robot Reconnaissance In The Army: Rheinmetall’s New Armed Reconnaissance Robot?
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Robot Reconnaissance In The Army: Rheinmetall’s New Armed Reconnaissance Robot?

Reconnaissance can be described as ‘the act of real-time observation of a certain place, person, group or ongoing activity to gather information’. In defence matters, robots are mainly used for reconnaissance operations to avoid putting soldiers in dangerous situations. As robot development is evolving at increasingly high speed, the market for this specific segment of the defence industry has been heating up. Development has reached a new high at the end of 2020, marked by the new update of Rheinmetall’s new Armed reconnaissance vehicle for high-security scouting missions.

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17 December 2020
Read more about the article The Development of Ukrainian Unmanned Vehicles is Gaining Momentum
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The Development of Ukrainian Unmanned Vehicles is Gaining Momentum

Over recent years, unmanned vehicles have become an integral part of the military sector’s agenda in many countries. Wide ranges of land and ground unmanned devices are swelling the ranks of new generation technologies and the Ukrainian military industry’s inventions are no exception. A previously published InfoFlash focused on drones as a part of the Ukrainian Modernisation Project, but the development of unmanned devices goes even further proving that Ukraine has become one of the most progressive countries in the development of unmanned ground vehicles.

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15 December 2020