Read more about the article Weapons’ Progress: From New Technologies to Augmented Soldiers
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Weapons’ Progress: From New Technologies to Augmented Soldiers

Modernisation of military equipment is vital to improve armies’ performances and capabilities; it makes soldiers more efficient, increasing the chances of having a successful mission with fewer casualties. Even though modernisation requires huge investments, it aims at reducing the operations’ future costs and mission-related risks notably associated with service members’ safety and protection.

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Read more about the article The Use Of Military Drones: The Impact On Land Forces And Legal Implications
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The Use Of Military Drones: The Impact On Land Forces And Legal Implications

Military drones have come to revolutionise warfare. They are roving on land, streaking through the skies, and diving under the seas. Since their creation, more than fifty years ago, drones have constantly evolved to the present, becoming one of the main artificial intelligence (AI) weapons, integrated into military forces throughout the world. Whilst drones exist in all domains; aerial drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - UAVs) are clearly the media superstars. However, a whole ecosystem of ground-based drones or Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) is evolving at an equally fervid pace. This study will focus on UGVs (within the concept of “drone” hereafter), their implementation in land forces in tandem with UAVs and will discuss the legal issues they present within the European Union (EU) legal framework.

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Read more about the article Rafael to Build an Interconnected AI Platform to Map Indoor Battlefields
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Rafael to Build an Interconnected AI Platform to Map Indoor Battlefields

Recent trends in warfare show that combat environments are increasingly moving to densely inhabited urban areas, as military forces are called upon to counter non-state actors (Del Monte, 2019). This has initiated a fierce academic debate on the neutrality of urban environments (Spencer, 2020). Three main actions are deemed necessary to prepare for the challenges presented by modern urban warfare, notably: highly trained military personnel (able to achieve situational awareness in contested scenarios), a clear and efficient chain of command, and the incorporation of cutting-edge technologies to facilitate the identification of threats (Betz, Stanford-Tuck, 2019).

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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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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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