On 21 November, the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces purchased Israel’s Skylock Dome Anti-Drone Air Defence System, according to a post on the Army’s official Facebook page. This acquisition aims at bolstering Moroccan defence capabilities against enemy drones since the system can detect, verify, and eliminate potential threats posed by unauthorised drones.
Following years of financial instability, the Italian Armed Forces now lack competitiveness and preparedness on the technological aspect. According to the think tank Centro Studi Internationali (CeSI), this struggle has been mostly due to funds for procurement given to fulfil modernization in navy and air forces but not for the Army.
An agreement was reached between the Israeli and Cypriot governments awarding Israeli high technology company Elbit Systems a 27.5-million-euro contract for a surveillance system. The head of the Israel Defence Ministry’s Directorate for International Defense Cooperation, former Brigadier General Yair Kulas and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus Andreas Louka were the ones who signed the agreement on the fourth of November. The contract has a duration of three years and reports state the system will most likely be used along the border between Cyprus and the Turkish-controlled part north of the island. The surveillance system is expected to aid the Cypriot forces in controlling the flow of asylum seeker and illegal goods coming from the Turkish-controlled part of the country. A region that has been under foreign control since 1974 and cut off from the rest of the country by the United Nations Buffer Zone also known as the Green Line. The northern part of the country remains unrecognized by all other members of the UN except for Turkey.
On 16 November, Swedish Minister of Defence Peter Hultqvist made a statement regarding the further possibility of Swedish land force involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. This comes as a potential continuation of the Canadian Armed Forces-led operation UNIFIER. Formed as a wider Multinational Joint Commission, a larger body composed of the US, UK, Canada, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, and Denmark, it aims to reform Ukraine's military. So far this reform process has involved the training of 10,000 Ukrainian land force troops.
The EU Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) - as part of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) - went one step further, from cooperation to integration in defence, adopting the fourth wave of new security projects. On 16 November, the Council endorsed 14 new PESCO projects to further deepen defence cooperation between member states in five core areas: land, maritime, air, cyber, and space, which will enable joint training facilities and services.
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