Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA)

When the Covid-19 crisis led to a lockdown of all activities, the lack of digital literacy from governmental bodies and defence personal exposed both a new threat and an opportunity. Bearing this situation in mind, NATO members (NM) have agreed at the 31st annual summit, held in June 2020 in Brussels, to initiate the Defence Innovation Accelerator of the North Atlantic (DIANA) that aims to reach full operability capacities by 2023. DIANA is NATO’s version of the U.S Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It will reinforce transatlantic cooperation regarding critical technologies to assure the security and defence digital literacy of NM.

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Read more about the article A New Military Training Set Up in Mozambique
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A New Military Training Set Up in Mozambique

In the last years, the already fragile situation in Mozambique has become even more dangerous. In particular, the northern province of Cabo Delgado has been hit by excruciating violence, putting the civilian population at risk. The 2017 outbreak of a notable rebellion has only made matters worse. At the moment, the security and humanitarian situation has reached the point of no return. More than 700,000 people have been internally displaced, and it is presumed that, currently, at least 1.3 million people, in Cabo Delgado and its neighbouring provinces of Niassa and Nampula require, immediate humanitarian assistance and protection (OCHA, 2021). Without any external intervention, these numbers are expected to drastically increase.

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The Long and Costly Odyssey of the British Army’s Ajax Family of Armoured Fighting Vehicles

The initial groundwork behind the development of the Ajax family of vehicles was laid out under the British Ministry of Defence’s Future Rapid Effect System program. Its objective was to modernise the British Army’s arsenal of armoured fighting vehicles by procuring a range of specialised vehicles. Two main variants were proposed: a utility vehicle (UV) designed to assist in protected mobility, command and control, light armoured support, repair and recovery or medical support missions, and a specialist vehicle (SV) for scouting, armoured personnel carrying, repair, and recovery tasks. The UV part of the programme was taken on in 1999 by the Germano-British Boxer armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) produced by ARTEC GmbH. However, this progress was halted in 2003 by the British Ministry of Defence as this model, though quite effective on the ground, did not fit into A400M and C-130 Hercules aircrafts for transport.

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Read more about the article The Development of the EU Cyber Security Strategy and its Importance
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The Development of the EU Cyber Security Strategy and its Importance

Over the last few years, many EU documents on cybersecurity have been published (Falessi, 2012, 2-6). The European Security Strategy included cyber threats as a new risk to European security (Klimburg, ed. 2011, 5-11). The EU is active in two cybersecurity areas. The first area consists of the necessary measures applied to combat cyberattacks, including cybercrimes. The second area consists of applying the necessary measures to support critical infrastructure protection and network security. The Common Foreign and Security Policy of cyber issues is underdeveloped, mainly due to the difficulties in approaching the subject. According to a European Parliament Study, cyber issues are perceived to be a matter often left to member states (MS).

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Read more about the article Proxy Warfare in a Post-Covid World
Figure 3: U.S. soldiers fire a M777 A2 Howitzer in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, Iraq – US Army photo by Pfc. Christopher Brecht, 29 November 2016. [Source: https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/IMAGERY/igphoto/2001678967/]

Proxy Warfare in a Post-Covid World

Written by Alberto Rizzi At first glance, defence would rarely be seen as a domain affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, the disruption brought by the virus into our societies…

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