Defence`s Feeds

The hearing is on the situation of women in armed conflicts, in the context of the 1325 UN Security Council resolution on Women, Peace and Security, organised on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the landmark resolution.
Location : ASP 3E2, Brussels
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The Scorpion after completing its first transatlantic flight, July 2014. Source: Textron Airland.

On 7 October, EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq met with Pedro Morenés, Spanish Minister of Defence, to exchange views on cooperation opportunities and assess ways to enhance Spain’s involvement in EDA projects. Mr Domecq also visited the EU Satellite Centre for discussions with Director Pascal Legai.

Jorge Domecq and Pedro Morenés had a fruitful exchange of views, especially on different aspects of military aviation and space initiatives currently covered by the Agency. Other topics discussed were the European Tactical Airlift Centre in Zaragoza (this centre will be established in the framework of the Agency’s air transport programme by 2016), EDA's key programme on Government Satellite Communications (GovSatCom) which is led by Spain and other areas of EDA's work such as on Research and Technology. Discussions also covered broader aspects with focus on EDA's role to ensure civil/military synergies aiming to achieve efficiencies, in line with June 2015 Heads of State and Government tasks. Mr Domecq also met with the the Spanish Secretary of State of Defence, the Spanish Deputy Chief of Air Force, as well as the National Armaments Director.

The visit to Madrid also gave occasion to enhance cooperation between the EDA and the European Union Satellite Centre (EU SatCen). Jorge Domecq and Pascal Legai agreed that common challenges in operations should be explored through EDA's expertise on capability development, for example as regards earth observation, on the grounds of the complementary roles of the two agencies. Other topics of discussion were cooperation in space surveillance and tracking, maritime and border surveillance as well as cyber.

 

More information:

• Cyber defence project page
• Military airworthiness project page
• SESAR project page

Thirty two participants representing eleven countries and twenty-four industrial and governmental organisations met for the second edition of the European Reference Open Architecture Standard for a Modern Integrated Electronic Mission System in Military Land Vehicles (LAVOSAR II) workshop, held at the European Defence Agency (EDA) on 9 July 2015. 

Very positive comments after the first LAVOSAR workshop organised in 2014 resulted in the continuation of an initiative to promote and develop an open architecture standard for military land vehicles. It is important to underline the fact that previously involved industry unanimously supported the idea and joined in for the second session.

Whilst LAVOSAR I focused mainly on mission systems of land vehicles of participating member states, LAVOSAR II went one step further to specify in more detail areas not covered before, e.g. selected aspects of maintenance and logistics. Several work packages which are currently under investigation in the ongoing LAVOSAR II study were incorporated in the workshop agenda. These included elements such as Architectural Domain Analysis and Requirements, Workflow and Procedure Update, Through Live Capability, Open Reference Architecture Standards Update, Alignment with NATO General Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) and Architecture Contribution to the EDA Repository.

An important aspect of the LAVOSAR project is how it dovetails with NATO General Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) standardization efforts. As highlighted by Member States at the CapTech Ground Systems meetings, the LAVOSAR work should  complement other international organisations’ efforts regarding the construction of an efficient open architecture Marek Kalbarczyk, EDA moderator of the CapTech stressed the importance of the initiative: “Implementation of open architecture to mission systems for land vehicles would bring not only whole life cost savings of between 10 - 25% to Member States, but would also simplify logistics and increase operational functionalities.”

Lively and fruitful discussions held throughout the workshop added substantial value to the ongoing LAVOSAR II study and will be integrated in the study results to advance work in the open architecture domain.

More information: 

• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop Study Presentation
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 1
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 2 
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 3  
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 4
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 5
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 6
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop Minutes  
• News "LAVOSAR Study Delivers Results" (16 June 2014)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in May 2015. Source: CTV News

A mSafe Bridport, provide

Slovak Zuzana 155-mm Self-Propelled Howitzer

This week’s post is focused on security and crisis decision-making, on the murky distinction between a bit of domestic disorder which, albeit a nuisance, poses no threat to society, and disorder as a simple use of force in an event which approaches conflict. Specifically, it is concerned to unpick the issues of tactics meant to turn protest to disorder, and that disorder to strategic mayhem. The practice, under the heading of ‘Black Bloc Tactics,’ has yet to be used to any greater objective than momentary chaos which it is hoped will give heft to the political point of the protest. However, as the events of the Arab Spring amply demonstrate, protest is not necessarily far from conflict of the worst sort. So, read the post, consider the questions, and join the discussion on Twitter at #CCLKOW.

This weekend I travelled to Manchester to observe the policing of the protest and the Conservative Party Conference. Rather than run about on the streets following the public order officers, [1] this time I was a guest of the force and was allowed to observe the policing from the central command by way of CCTV and helicopter footage. It was utterly fascinating.

The anti-austerity protest planned for Sunday involved a march and rally of significant numbers. And as I am very interested in urban mayhem, watching the events I calculated the many opportunities, moments and locations in which a dedicated operative could act to bring chaos out of the calm. In fact, this has been a tactic of varying use and utility adopted by different groups within a protest in the last couple of decades. Often associated with Anarchists, Black Bloc tactics are not necessarily limited to that group. Briefly, these tactics encompass small cells of anonymised actors who have traditionally used token violence to punctuate the political statement of the protest.

To date, they have not been used in any real capacity beyond the general aim of the protest. And to be perfectly clear, this thought piece does not direct its consideration to protest as protest, even when it might include violence and disorder. Free expression and democratic principles do not always play out in the neatest possible fashion, but that is by far to be preferred over other forms of governance. I have argued elsewhere and I do not step back from that position here that the state and police forces must live by the rule that ‘you can’t shoot rioters.’ [2] In fact, as we have witnessed in the uprisings collectively known as the Arab Spring, strong arm responses to even violent protest can turn political action to conflict too easily.

So, what are we concerned with here if not protest run amok of its own volition? I have argued in another article that the strategic actor – either terrorist or state affiliated – could use mayhem in lieu of battle. It’s worth jogging over to give that piece a read as it describes the concept in detail, but in brief, it envisions the intentional use of such tactics as would turn the mob in the urban setting into a cheap but effective army to be wielded against the society. That is, such an approach, which to date has only been used to create token or short term violence, could be adapted as a type of warfare.

This is where it all becomes difficult. A competent actor will be able to camouflage the strategic intent of the disorder, at least in the short term. Done very well, a society could slowly be bled white with exhaustion coping with disorder. Or, in frustration, the security forces could escalate the situation to the point of conflict. Thus, with very few resources, a state could be defeated.

Whereas my very first post in this series put to you the problem of the local, rural partisan, in this case you are forced to confront a modern urban warrior, whether at home or abroad on COIN or other stabilisation operations. And so the questions are:

1. How will you identify that protest is not protest but an act of war?

2. How will you act without doing undue additional harm or damage?

3. Is this a strategy you might consider?

4. At what point does this amount to an act of war?

 

Give your answers some thought and join the conversation on Twitter at #CCLKOW.

 

Notes

1. The police are rarely troubled by my close presence to their activities as I look nothing short of harmless. Seriously, I won’t ever be mistaken for anarchist or terrorist, and as yet ‘rogue professional woman’ is not yet a style adopted by any combatants.

2. Despite a heavy ethos against the use of force generally, and in public order policing specifically, there has been an uproar in the British press today regarding the deployment of a sniper on a rooftop which overlooked the protest route. It also overlooked the conference venue site. Given the heightened threat level with respect to terrorism and the high-profile nature of the event, such precautions are to be expected. However, with the highly constrained model for the use of lethal force, the idea that the police would even consider using snipers against protesters when it is their job to facilitate protest is beyond silly. And given the control on the police use of firearms, the thought is even more far-fetched. Read the IPCC investigation report on the shooting of Mark Duggan in 2011 if you want to understand how it works, at pages 96 ff – the officers were questioned repeatedly regarding what happened. The material directly related to the officer who fired the fatal shot is at pages 118-164.

Former Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism, Rt Hon Baroness Neville-Jones DCMG, will be chairing the Cyber Defence and Network Security conference in January. Ahead of the event, in an exclusive interview with Defence IQ she discusses government-level cyber security v

Not since the Cold War has the world seen such a widespread interest and effort to build (or rebuild) submarine fleets. With littoral operations attracting more military activity and discussions over anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) becoming more urgent, there appears to be a common bel

Founder and President of the International Organization for Security and Intelligence (IOSI), Johan Obdola has over 25 years of experience in security and law enforcement at both a national and international level. His experience includes time spent as an intelligence officer,

Although EU Regulation 428/2009 setting up a Community regime for the control of exports, transfer, brokering and transit of dual-use items system is in line with the main export control regimes and is seen as a model for others to follow, there are a number of ways in which the regulation could be enhanced and refined. Part One outlines the current state of play, purpose and implementation of the current regulation. In Part Two, against the backdrop of the European Commission's reform proposal, the effectiveness of the EU's dual-use export controls regime is explored further with regard to its potential contribution to international, national and human security, as well as their impact on EU economic and trade interests. The study concludes that the system’s effectiveness could be improved in a number of ways, but that this requires an effort to mobilise political will at different levels and across different institutions within the EU and its Member States, and to enhance human resources, cooperation and capacity-building. The European Parliament should also give consideration on a regular basis to issues relating to the scope and implementation of the regulation, in order to ensure that the objectives continue to be achieved.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

“I have never seen anything like this in my 40 years of border management,” says

Russian Sukhoi Su-30 Multi-Role Fighter

American MGM-140 ATACMS Short-Range Ballistic Missile

On 2 October 2015, the last out of fourteen chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) protection projects within the Joint Investment Programme CBRN (JIP CBRN) was signed by Henk Geveke, Director TNO Defence and Security, on behalf of the consortium, and Rini Goos, Deputy Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA).

The signatures give way to the project “RACED”, which aims at enhancement of decontamination (DECON) procedures of material or equipment exposed to chemical or biological warfare agents. It will focus on a scientific and technological consideration of the complex question of “how clean is clean enough?”

The “RACED" project will assess DECON procedures and, finally, will result in a prototype of a tool that shall assist operational commanders in minimizing the after-decontamination exposure risk, and assist them in making decisions on the assessment of the sufficient level of DECON, remaining hazards in terms of exposure to human beings and necessity of taking additional steps. 

“RACED” will be conducted by a consortium led by TNO from the Netherlands with partners coming from four more Member States and Norway: FFI (Norway), ITQB (Portugal) LBDB (Portugal), ACMIT (Austria), ADL (Austria), RMA (Belgium) and SUJCHBO (Czech Republic). The project is one of fourteen projects under the EDA Joint Investment Programme CBRN protection (JIP-CBRN), set up as Category A programme and funded by twelve Member States plus Norway with almost 12 million euro budget. It serves as an EDA contribution for the European Framework Cooperation, a joint effort of the European Commission and the EDA on maximising synergies between civilian and defence-related research activities.

The JIP-CBRN Programme Arrangement was signed in March 2012 on the ministerial level and two calls for proposals were conducted in 2012 and 2013, covering various Research &Technology projects within the CBRN area, such as: stand-off detection for chemical agents, point detection of biological agents, unknown samples handling, modelling & simulation of CBRN architectures, decontamination, protection equipment and sensor networking. With seven projects initiated within the first call frame, one has already been accomplished. This year, the “Biotype” project successfully ended with a demonstrator device with an integrated biosensor for point detection of airborne bio-threats based on anti-body lab on a chip technology.

More information:

• CBRN Joint Investment Programme 

 

More information:

• Interview: The hybrid warfare challenge (22 July 2015)
• Project page: hybrid warfare 
  

Colonel Richard J. Edwards is the Strategy, Plans and Policy Director on the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency's (JIDA's) coordinating staff, also known as the J5. Through the  Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, JIDA's

Poland and Lockheed Martin have signed a contract worth $500m for 40 units of the company’s AGM-158 Joint