We are publishing a series on the run up to the war in Ukraine, and that timeline starts in the summer of 2021. We have published three so far. The first begins in June 2021, and a Russian exercise in the Pacific. The second then highlights the new Russian national…
By Pierre Tran Paris - An announced deal for the upgrade of 60 Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack helicopters, flown by the French and Spanish forces, was worth €4 billion ($4.4 billion) for the first batch of work, a senior source said. France will pay €2.8 billion for the upgrade of…
By Robbin Laird Recently, I talked with Dr. Harald Malmgren, the noted political-economist and strategist, about the Ukrainian crisis in the wider global context. We started by discussing a surprisingly little focused upon development since the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014, namely, the emphasis of the Putin regime on…
By Dr. Andrew Denison The invasion has made it all too clear that Germany is too big, too rich, and too geo-strategically important to forgo influence, to opt out of the competition with Russia and China. European security urgently needs German leadership in providing military capabilities, developing geostrategy, and mobilizing…
By Pierre Tran Paris - OCCAR, a European procurement agency, signed Feb. 24, 2022 a contract worth €7.1 billion ($8 billion) with Airbus Defence and Space as prime contractor for a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone, marking a step in the European pursuit of military, industrial, and political independence. “The Eurodrone program…
By Robbin Laird Recently, I had a chance to discuss the Ukraine crisis and its broader global context with Dr. Paul Bracken. Bracken started the discussion by focusing on the structural change aspect of the crisis. “The mainstream media focuses on the personalistic aspects of this conflict. "It’s interesting how…
By Pierre Tran Paris - “The fate of not only our state is being decided, but also what Europe will be like,” the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Feb. 24. Zelenskiy was addressing the nation on the day of the Russian early morning missile attacks on the East European…
WE ARE REPOSTING THIS PIECE WHICH WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE FALL OF 2019 By Robbin Laird There were a wide range of presentations in Berlin at this year’s International Fighter Conference. Among those presenting were Air Force officers or industry representatives from countries facing a direct “existential threat” from…