As it has always been, today’s armies are also updated with the most modern technologies. One of the major breakthroughs in the military field has been the implementation of drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) (Marcus, 2022). These drones consist of aircraft of different sizes that can operate without a pilot on board.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked outrage and economic reprisals from most of the international community and is bound to continue to drive the defence policy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)’s members for the foreseeable future.
Fifth-generation wireless technology, or 5G, is becoming increasingly popular among different sectors and industries. This new technology could also be a useful instrument for the European defence sector. It will provide next-generation connectivity and more unified network management to armed forces around the globe.
As tensions continue to build surrounding the possible invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military, one issue has stood out as a potential point of tension: the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. A significant part of the European Union (EU) still depends on imported natural gas as a source of energy. A sizeable part of that comes from the Russian Federation, the primary import of natural gas to the EU, amounting to 40% of imports (Euractiv, 2022). In that context, any tension with Russia has the potential of having serious consequences for the energy supply of the Union. Russia has been known to use this leverage in negotiations in the past, such as when it turned off all supplies to Ukraine in January 2006 over a dispute regarding payments (Parfitt, the Guardian, 2006). At the time, this has pushed the EU member states to realise the danger of depending on Russia for energy, and incited them to pursue other sources, as well as increase storage capacity in case the EU’s supply was ever cut.
The term ‘non-strategic nuclear weapon’ (NSNW) includes nuclear warheads for all delivery systems such as gravity bombs for aircraft other than nuclear-capable heavy bombers, nuclear warheads for naval cruise missiles and torpedoes, and nuclear warheads for anti-ballistic missile (ABM) and air defence systems. The NSNWs term would also capture any nuclear warheads for surface-to-surface missiles with less-than-50 kilometres ranges, and nuclear artillery shells.
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