Defence`s Feeds

Today, the Commission and the High Representative put forward an Action Plan on Military Mobility 2.0 and a Joint Communication on an EU cyber defence policy to address the deteriorating security environment following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and to boost the EU’s capacity to protect its citizens and infrastructure.

In particular, the Action Plan on Military Mobility will help European armed forces to respond better, more rapidly and at sufficient scale to crises erupting at the EU’s external borders and beyond. It will bolster the EU’s ability to support Member States and partners as regards transport of troops and their equipment. It works towards better connected and protected infrastructure, while streamlining regulatory issues. It will reinforce cooperation with NATO and promote connectivity and dialogue with key partners.

Building on the achievements of the first Action Plan launched in 2018, the new Military Mobility covers the period 2022-2026 and includes:

• Identification of possible gaps in the infrastructure, informing future actions to prioritise improvements and integrate fuel supply chain requirements, to support short-notice large-scale movements of military forces;
• Digitalisation of administrative processes related to customs logistics and military mobility systems;
• Measures to protect transport infrastructure from cyber-attacks and other hybrid threats;
• Development of military strategic lift capabilities to enhance the mobility of the armed forces by air and sea;
• Enhancing the energy efficiency and climate resilience of transport systems;
• Reinforcing cooperation with NATO and key strategic partners, such as the US, Canada and Norway, while promoting connectivity and dialogue with regional partners and enlargement countries, such as Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.

To ensure a well-connected, capable and secure military mobility network, the European Commission is supporting the Action Plan with funding instruments such as the Connecting Europe Facility (funding dual-use transport infrastructure projects), and the European Defence Fund (supporting the development of interoperable logistical and digital systems).

Background

The first Action Plan on Military Mobility was launched in 2018 to strengthen the EU Common Security and Defence Policy. It aimed to ensure swift and seamless movement of military personnel, materiel and assets – including at short notice and at large scale – within and beyond the EU. It helped to create a well-connected network, with shorter reaction times and capable, secure and resilient transport infrastructure and capabilities. The new Action Plan on Military Mobility responds to the call in the Strategic Compass to enhance the military mobility of our armed forces within and beyond the Union following Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. This urgent need was also reflected in the Joint Communication on defence investment gaps adopted in June 2022.

Military Mobility is supported through other defence initiatives, notably through the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) Military Mobility project and Logistical Hubs project. The European Defence Agency’s programme on “Optimising Cross-Border Movement Permission procedures in Europe” and the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) also contribute to the effort.

Together with the Security and Defence package, the Commission is also publishing today the first progress report on the Action Plan on synergies between civil, defence, and space industries, available here.

Members of the College said:

Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said: “With these two initiatives the Commission is today stepping up its contribution to Europe’s defence. We have to be more attentive and aware of the defence dimension of our infrastructure and networks, and today we lay out how the EU’s instruments and policies can make the difference in ensuring we are better prepared and able to react better to external threats.”

High Representative and Vice President Josep Borrell said: “One of the main lessons from the delivery of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion is that every second matters. Fast military mobility is crucial to respond to crises emerging at our borders and beyond. Much has been done to date, but the Strategic Compass has set higher ambitions and we are delivering. With this new Action Plan on Military Mobility, we will address existing bottlenecks to allow for swift and efficient movement of our armed forces. We will ensure that our armed forces have access to strategic lift capabilities and that infrastructure is better protected from cyber and other hybrid threats. And we will do this with our partners, including NATO.”

Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said: “The crisis in Ukraine has shown the vital importance of ensuring swift military assistance. The Action Plan on Military Mobility 2.0 will strongly contribute to the ability of our Armed Forces to quickly respond to crises at the EU’s external borders and beyond. With a budget of 9 million Euro under the European Defence Fund, we are co-funding a consortium of companies from nine EU Member States plus Norway for the development of a digital system for a quick and secure information exchange related to Military Mobility. We will continue to work on the digitalization of administrative processes, under the European Defence Fund, to substantially enhance Military Mobility.”

Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean said: “Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has confirmed that we need to continue improving the capacity of transport infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and rail tracks, allowing our armed forces and their equipment to move around the EU with ease. With a budget of 1.69 billion euro for 2021-2027, we are already co-funding dual-use transport infrastructure projects through

our Connecting Europe Facility. Under the new Action Plan we will assess the extent to which today’s physical transport infrastructure meets military requirements, and what the current gaps are. The findings will help us to prioritise infrastructure for development, and allocate funding at EU level appropriately.”

More Information

• Action Plan on Military Mobility 2.0
• Military Mobility | EEAS Website Factsheet on Military Mobility
• Strategic Compass
• Third Joint Report on the implementation of the Action Plan on Military Mobility
• First progress report on the implementation of the Action plan on synergies between civil, defence and space industries

Germany has kick-started the production of 38 Eurofighter combat aircraft under Project ‘Quadriga', with the first centre fuselage section being rolled out on 9...

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Kyiv: NCSCC takes over OSINT training for Ukrainian officialsOn 26 October, the Ukrainian Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (NCSCC), a branch of

Bangladesh's technical intelligence service, the National Telecommunication Monitoring Center (NTMC), is looking for a contractor for its vast Integrated Lawful Interception System (ILIS) project.According to our information, the NTMC wants this platform to provide phone interception solutions on public switched

Kyiv: NCSCC takes over OSINT training for Ukrainian officialsOn 26 October, the Ukrainian Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (NCSCC), a branch of

The integrator Interdata, which until now has mainly been used in cyber and defence electronics conglomerate Pavo Group's data centres,

A report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on 31 October, proposing amendments to the Intelligence Authorization Act

Sources tell Intelligence Online that patriarch, legend and Executive Chair Jules Kroll, who is 81, would like to retire. He

Sandstone investigation firm, which ruled for more than a decade over Luxembourg's business intelligence world, has been left with no

President Alexander Lukashenko issued a decree to strip Belarusian reservist paratrooper lieutenant colonel Valeri Sakhashik and other former military personnel

TotalEnergies is currently recruiting hard, according to our information, for technical personnel for its projects in Iraq, most of which

Admiral Pierre Vandier, chief of staff of the French Navy, has outlined France's commitment to expand deployments in the Indo-Pacific in a bid to bolster regional...

US Army soldiers with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, also dubbed the Spartan Brigade, were recently the first to completely divest of older,...

Up to three wideband satellites will be acquired under the Skynet programme, and the Skynet Service Delivery Wrap (SDW) project will commence in 2023, according to UK...

The US Army and Microsoft are renegotiating their multibillion-dollar Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) contract after soldiers continued to experience...

Underwater robots, such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), have the potential to take over lengthy and labour-intensive missions in dangerous areas from navy ship crews and special forces. As a result, the role of mobile unmanned platforms in military scenarios is becoming more and more important. But their integration into the network of surface ships, submarines, sensor nodes and surface gateway buoys is crucial. 

This requires underwater acoustic networks, as well as the capability to adapt autonomously to communication conditions, for example by switching between frequency bands and data rates, so that network assets stay connected for extensive operation times without recovery and redeployment.

A four-year EDA project known as SALSA, funded by five EDA Member States, developed a smart adaptive protocol stack for the development of flexible and self-configurable underwater acoustic networks. Launched on 30 October 2018, the final meeting took place on 25-27 October 2022. This meeting was used to reflect upon the technical achievements gained within the project, regarding the requirements set in an early stage. 

Also, strategic decisions were taken on what technical results were fit to be published in a standard.

The Netherlands was the lead nation in the project, working with Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The project involved a consortium of industries and research establishments from these five Member States. In this regard, the main objectives defined for this project were linked to the development and standardisation of a protocol stack for self-configurable underwater acoustic networks that autonomously adapt to changing environmental conditions and operational needs.

NEXT STEPS ON STANDARDISATION

Under the SALSA project, work has been carried out at the two levels of the physical and the network layer. 

At the physical layer, where bits are converted into sound and vice versa, the JANUS underwater communications standard (STANAG 4748/ANEP-87) was applied for first contact, after which the more robust and flexible frequency repetition spread spectrum (FRSS) modulation was employed to enable the required heavy-duty communication in the military scenario at hand. In addition, at the network layer, the versatile gossiping in underwater mobile ad-hoc networks (GUWMANET) routing protocol was employed with the accompanying application-layer protocol generic underwater application language (GUWAL). The decisions for adaptations, and their synchronization within the network to maintain interoperability, were controlled by an adaptivity module inside the network layer.

During the implementation of the project, a successful demonstration was performed of self-configurable underwater acoustic networks in military scenarios using up to 20 network nodes.

Based on the results provided, the navies of the five EDA Member States, supported by their national research establishments, have the intention to submit a proposal for a NATO Standardisation Agreement. The consortium is still seeking for the best approach to initiate the NATO standardisation process; whether it should be extension of a current standard or a new standard, and how to keep all partners involved given that the EDA-SALSA project has now been closed.

The SALSA consortium hopes to engage in discussions on new use cases or the needs of potential clients for their adaptive underwater communication protocols. These aspects underline the high level of ambition to continue international collaboration on underwater communications as over the years a full workbench has been developed within this consortium.

Basic Rules Before Gambling

Belgium has been cleared to buy the extended-range Raytheon AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) for its fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting...

Video Games that Realistically Describe the Modern Warfare