Final Decision to Acquire Boeing E-7 Wedgetail AEWC Capability Edges Ever Closer.

DefenceSynergia (DS) is grateful to Howard Wheeldon for permission to publish his latest defence commentary which considers the Ministry of Defence (MOD) options in respect of an Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) replacement. From a DS perspective the MOD UK (Air) failure to properly invest in upgrading its E-3D fleet has led to terminal decline in the ‘D’ variant, not least in its steadily declining interoperability because of the MOD withdrawing from the ‘Project Eagle’ – Block 40/45 open systems architecture – upgrade programme on the grounds of cost. Naturally no one will be held to account even though it may well cost more to replace the capability than it would have done to maintain the ‘D’ incrementally over its operating lifetime. Here is what Howard says: (more…)

UKNDA Defence Procurement Funding Article by Col Peter Walton

DefenceSynergia is most grateful to Colonel Peter Walton RAOC (Retd) for permission to reproduce his article on the United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA) website – Defence Procurement Funding. Peter Walton has a unique professional insight into the historical background behind why today’s Armed Forces’ often find themselves having to sacrifice numbers (capability) to the ‘bean counter’s’ God, cost! Here is what Peter says: (more…)

Crash! How Future War Would Start

DS is pleased to reproduce Julian Lindley-French’s latest article:

“When do you decide you want to bomb an adversary’s electrical company? It’s the same answer for when you would launch a cyber-attack on their electricity sector – it is just a question of how you do it”.

Buky Carmeli, former Director, Israeli National Cyber Security Authority, August 2018

 

Crash!

 

Alphen, Netherlands. 29 August. Buky Carmeli, former Director of the Israeli National Cyber Security Authority, has called for “…a strategic paradigm shift in thinking about cyber operations” in order to place them squarely at the centre of deterrence and defence. He also warned about the growing danger from a “cyber doomsday weapon”.  His message mirrors what Generals Allen and Breedlove, Admiral Zambellas and I called for in our recent paper Future War NATO in which we suggested threat must be seen as a continuum across a new spectrum of violent escalation from hybrid war to hyper war (including space war) via cyber war. (more…)

Europe’s Defence Gap and the Expanding Bandwidth of War

DefenceSynergia is, as always, grateful to Professor Dr Julian Lindley French for permission to publish his blog, the latest one we reproduce below – Europe’s Defence Gap and the Expanding Bandwidth of War. 
 
The opening quote, which goes to the heart of the piece, is most pertinent for Defence Analysts to ponder: “I’ve seen comparative numbers of US defense budget versus China, US defense budget versus Russia. What is not often commented on is the cost of labor. We’re the best-paid military in the world by a long shot. The cost of Russian soldiers or Chinese soldiers is a tiny fraction”. General Mark Milley, US Army Chief of Staff, May 2018.”

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Arctic report

DS agrees with the HCDC Sub-Committee that the high North/Arctic is an area that UK and NATO must direct serious money, resources and attention to.  Report can be read in full: HERE