Defence`s Feeds

Emmanuel Macron's visit to Saudi Arabia is now expected to take place in the first quarter of 2024. It had

In a lawsuit filed in October in Puerto Rico, billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson has accused his former business

A Swiss lawyer with extensive business connections to several former Soviet states, Stephan Roh has just become head of the

Hamas has been using more effective jamming techniques to hamper Israeli air strikes in Gaza since the start of the conflict. Israel's military intelligence service, Aman, has noted a recent uptick in GPS jamming of its fighter planes and commercial

Americas Booz Allen Hamilton won a $17.6 million modification for AH-64E technical support, which will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of November 3, 2024. Fiscal 2010 Foreign Military Sales (Australia); fiscal 2023 research, development, test, and evaluation, Army; fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement, Army; and 2024 operation and maintenance, Army funds […]

On 13 November, SEDE MEPs will be briefed on a new and innovative CSDP mission whereby EU Delegation will be reinforced with civilian and military experts in order to support countries in the Gulf of Guinea to contain the pressure exerted by armed terrorist groups which are threatening the stability of the region. SEDE Members will discuss with Cosmin Dobran, Director for Peace, Partnerships and Crisis Management in the EEAS, ...
the implementation and role of this new innovative and flexible CSDP initiative. Members will also exchange views in an in camera session with General Robert Brieger, Chairman of the EU Military Committee, the highest military body in the EU, on current priorities of the Committee, including progress on the implementation of the Rapid Deployment Capacity.
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

As former BTA Bank chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov pursues his battle with the French judicial authorities, four months after the Court of Cassation quashed an order cancelling the legal action taken against him, the Brussels-based NGO Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) is

The Italian cyber intelligence outfit Movia will be presenting its spyware Spider at next ISS World, the gathering of intelligence

Like many French investment funds before it, Eurazeo, with €35bn in assets under management (AUM), wants to have its own

Marc Abensour, France's ambassador in Singapore from 2016 to 2022, has been reaching out to contacts in the Pacific since

Israeli drone maker Aeronautics Ltd has continued to do business with an obscure Russian fintech company, even after the war

New York: New senior adviser for StoneTurnAfter a dozen years as head of the compliance department at Moody's rating agency,

The French embassy in Moscow recently decided to change the security contractor that protects its compound in the heart of

BISON COUNTER 2023 (BC23), the EDA-supported multinational live exercise bringing together the Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) community kicked off today in Spain, across two locations: Zaragoza for ground activities and Cartagena for underwater activities. A total of 1,000 military staff from 12 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Finland), as well as observers from Sweden, Latvia, Romania and the United States participate in this year’s event hosted by the Spanish Armed Forces. 300 vehicles, 28 K-9 dogs and five speedboats will also be deployed during the exercise.

The general objective of this series of live exercises is to improve European and Allied C-IED capabilities in their fight against a constantly evolving IED threat in military and counter-terrorism operations, during expeditionary military operations and in countering terrorism within its borders, by enabling the individual EU Member States to act in a more coherent, interoperable, and resilient way.

Full spectrum C-IED concept

The exercise is organised in a way that allow for adequate Force Integration and Battle Staff Training before the start of the main phase of the Command Post and Field Exercise, which enhances the conditions for the sharing of information, lessons learned and best practice among multinational teams, bridging gaps and establishing the close human ties needed to foster meaningful cooperation among Member States - an interconnected federation of EU experts in the field of C-IED.

The aim of executing the BC23 exercise is to specifically train the full spectrum of C-IED concept in a multi-level (from tactical to operational) and a multi-domain scenario where all C-IED efforts have to be synchronised to succeed. The whole exercise is embedded in the intelligence cycle which allows interconnection among all levels. In addition, dedicated teams specialized in the following enabler capabilities are involved:

• Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD),
• Improvised Explosive Device (IED),
• K-9 Dogs Units Training,
• Underwater works,
• Weapons Intelligence Team (WIT),
• Route Clearance (RCP),
• Combined Joint Task Force HQ.

BC23 built upon projects and previous editions

BISON COUNTER is today the largest and most relevant EU exercise of the C-IED community. After 2013 (The Netherlands), 2016 (Sweden) and 2021 (Italy), it is the fourth time this exercise is organized under the auspices of EDA.

As in previous editions, EDA is closely involved in the organization and running of BISON COUNTER 23 which integrates EDA projects such as the Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL), the European Centre for Manual Neutralization Capabilities (ECMAN) and the Military Search Capability Building (MSCB).

Constantly changing IED threat

The IED threat is constantly changing and evolving due to technological progress, changing conflict parties and their intentions. In order to meet this changing threat and adequately prepare the troops for the scenarios of tomorrow, the Member States and the EDA must not let up in these efforts.

Although the capability shortfall in the context of C-IED (CDP 2018) has been reduced by continuous EDA projects, there is still a great need for these projects to support Member States in keeping the operational capability in order and not to give up this advantage again or, in the best case, to expand it further.

It is the ambition of EDA's contributing Member States to pursue the series of Bison Counter exercises at least two additional editions of Bison Counter in 2025 and 2027 are foreseen. Another ambition of the project is to seek inter-agency cooperation among all relevant C-IED stakeholders in the EU, including national and multinational Centres of Excellence, law enforcement and Industry.

French maritime shipping giant CMA CGM, Denmark's Maersk, China's Cosco Shipping Ports and the Swiss-Italian MSC are set to lose an average of $30m each annually in the wake of new rules regarding terminal handling charges (THC) in Dubai's ports.

Amid its ground offensive, Tsahal is mobilising its intelligence resources to map the "Gaza underground", with Israel's geospatial intelligence unit

Intelligence Online understands that Vietnam's Vingroup, which owns the electric car brand VinFast, is planning to launch a management training

According to customs slips seen by Intelligence Online, American development agency USAID recently delivered several items of security equipment from

A chapter of the annual report of the French parliamentary intelligence delegation, or DPR, published this month (IO, 02/11/23), covers