Why small guns have been critical to layered CUAS architectures
Multiple countries have been deploying small arms as the last line of drone defence due to their multiple operational and tactical advantages.
NATO states should modify the alliance's Article 5 collective defence provision to trigger a response in the event of so-called ‘hybrid warfare’ attacks, a conservative British lawmaker said in a special report on 27 May.
NATO allies have accused Russia of using hybrid warfare techniques, including subversion, propaganda and cyber warfare, to undermine the West without triggering a full NATO military response.
In his special report on countering Russia's hybrid threats, Britain's Lord Jopling told lawmakers meeting at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Warsaw that the alliance should consider a new collective defence ‘Article 5B’.
The British lawmaker said in his report: ‘The article would make clear that hybrid attacks would trigger a collective response from the Alliance. The Rapporteur is convinced that the Allied leaders should, possibly at the upcoming summit in July 2018, initiate the drafting of the Alliance's new Strategic Concept to reflect new global security realities, including the rise of hybrid threats.’
NATO lawmakers are expected to vote on whether to accept his recommendation at the closing session of the assembly on 28 May.
In March 2018, Gen Curtis Scaparrotti, the US commander of NATO forces in Europe, said that NATO countries were working to determine when a cyber attack would trigger the alliance's Article 5 collective defence provision.
NATO leaders have agreed that a cyber attack against a member state could trigger Article 5, and reaching a specific understanding on the issue would allow ‘greater agility, greater flexibility in determining how to respond,’ he told a US Senate committee.
The alliance ‘recognises the difficulty in indirect or asymmetric activity that Russia is practising, activities below the level of conflict,’ Scaparrotti said.
NATO will hold its next summit on 11 and 12 July in Brussels, with the fight against terrorism and the growing threat from Russia in the areas of hybrid and cyber warfare expected to be high on the agenda.
Multiple countries have been deploying small arms as the last line of drone defence due to their multiple operational and tactical advantages.
The Singapore-based technology company unveiled its new rifle family at this week’s airshow. Chen Chuanren spoke with the ST Engineering’s head of small arms to find out more about how the weapons have been refined.
Any potential ‘Arctic Sentry’ mission would be months in the planning, but with tensions high in the region given the US’s push for Greenland, NATO countries will need to continue to emphasise their commitment to the region, analysts have said.
Defence Minister Gen Vladimir Padrino López has declared that the Venezuelan armed forces “will continue to employ all its available capabilities for military defence”.
The UK’s defence spending commitments remain uncertain as the government’s Defence Investment Plan, which had been due by the end of 2025, is yet to be published.
Disruption of infrastructure in Europe, whether by cyberattack, physical damage to pipelines or uncrewed aerial vehicles flying over major airports, as has happened more recently, is on the rise. What is the most effective way of countering the aerial aspect of this not-so-open warfare?