By Robbin Laird In a famous line from Molière’s play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, the aspiring social climber in the play discovers that: "For more than forty years I have been speaking prose while knowing nothing of it, and I am the most obliged person in the world to you for…
On 8 April a French Air Force Mirage 2000D intervened in support of a company of the G5 Sahel joint force (FC-G5S) in Burkina Faso, helping repel an armed terrorist group being targeted by a Barkhane force patrol. During a reconnaissance mission in the north of Burkina Faso, a company…
by defenceWeb It appears the Pantsir-S1 air defence systems delivered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Libya have been used to shoot down over a dozen Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This is according to unverified reports from the Libyan National Army (LNA), which said the Pantsir-S1 has destroyed…
On April 17, 2020, the Norwegian government released its Long Term Defence Plan. The plan reaffirmed Norway’s commitment to increased defense spending and joint force modernization. But it also underscored the continued efforts on national resilience which the current Coronavirus-19 crisis has underscored as a key requirement for national defense…
By Robbin Laird With a growing array of single service initiatives designed to compete for “deterrence badges” in the great power competition, there is a clear danger of splintering deterrence rather than reinforcing it. In my recent discussion with Dr. Paul Bracken, the nuclear weapons expert, underscored the key importance…
MH-60R ‘Romeo’ helicopter may not be a stealth platform, but it has become a globally used platform by the US Navy and U.S. allies and has done so in barely noticed fashion. Globally is a key aspect of a platform, even with different systems onboard common platforms, common logistics and…
By Robbin Laird NATO and the European Union are the two European alliances which provide multi-lateral responses to crises within Europe. Clearly, a health care driven crisis such as the coronavirus crisis falls largely in the province of the individual European nations and the shared sovereignty which is delegated to…
By Pierre Tran Paris - Armed forces minister Florence Parly denied April 17 media reports the captain of the Charles de Gaulle had asked for an early return to base to limit the spread of coronavirus on board the aircraft carrier. “It has been said the captain wanted to break…
