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Will Russia lose its army in Ukraine?

Since the 2008 military intervention in Georgia, Russian conventional military power had been a powerful tool at the service of the Kremlin, both to intimidate its neighbors and to bring Russia back to the forefront of the international geopolitical scene. The successes recorded in Crimea and then in Syria created an aura of power that allowed Moscow to impose itself on several occasions in Europe but also in Africa. This same conventional power, backed by the immense deterrent force of the Russian nuclear arsenal, largely explains the sometimes timorous attitude of Westerners in support of Ukraine during the first weeks of the conflict, when very few believed that…

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Will France align its defense effort with Germany?

March 3, 2022March 3, 2022

Among the profound geopolitical upheavals caused by the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the announcement made on Sunday 27 February by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the Bundestag about the massive increase in the German defense effort, is undoubtedly the one that will have the most consequences in Europe in the medium and long term. Breaking with 30 years of chronic underinvestment by the Bundeswehr, which led the German Chief of Staff to publicly warn Berlin about the deteriorated operational capabilities of its armies from the first day of the conflict in Ukraine, Berlin announced a plan aimed at to modernize the German armies in the short term with…

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The European Union deploys a cyber rapid reaction team to protect Ukraine

February 23 2022February 23 2022

About ten days ago, several ministerial sites and the 3 most important Ukrainian banks were targeted by a massive cyber attack of the denial of access type, or DDOS. For nearly 24 hours, the communication capacities and services of these structures were thus paralyzed by this attack, the origin of which was attributed to groups of Russian hackers. In the current context of extreme tensions, the capacity for the Ukrainian authorities to maintain functional communication channels with the population and to maintain active banking services for the population, is as decisive as the operational military responses of its…

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Defense against hypersonic missiles is structured in the West

February 10 2022April 23th

Since the entry into service of the Kh47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic airborne missile in 2018, and even more so with the upcoming arrival of the 3M22 Tzirkon hypersonic anti-ship missile, both of Russian origin, the fear of seeing these munitions permanently neutralize naval power West has been widely relayed in the media. It is true that due to their speed, their low trajectory, and for some, their ability to maneuver in the descending phase, these weapons undermine the Western anti-missile shield, based on THAAD and SM-3 kinetic impactor missiles. In addition, the anti-aircraft missiles currently in service, such as the SM-2, the Aster 30 or the Sea Ceptor, have…

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Naval Group's Gowind 2500 corvette still favorite in Greek competition

February 7 2022February 7 2022

After the Italian Fincantieri with a lighter version of the Doha-class light frigates, and Lockheed-Martin with the age-old MMSC, it is now up to the British Babcock to try to enter the Greek competition to locally build 5 corvettes to the Hellenic Navy. Like the American Lockheed-Martin, Babcock is offering the same ship in Athens as the one offered in the "Frigate" competition which saw the success of the FDI Belharra, in this case a less well-armed and equipped version. of its 140 ton ArrowHead 5.700 frigate which has been retained by the Royal Navy for the Type 31 class,…

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Competition rages on between Naval Group, Fincantieri and Damen for Greek corvettes

January 5 2022January 5 2022

The competition for the construction and delivery of 5 corvettes for the Hellenic Navy could well be the repetition of the one that raged over the frigates, and which saw, finally, Athens arbitrate in favor of the Defense and Intervention Frigate or FDI Belharra of Naval Group last September, after two years of intense negotiations and sensational reversals. As before, despite the advanced discussions on this subject between the French manufacturer and the Greek authorities, the European and American competitors of Naval Group are determined not to facilitate the negotiations, with a lot of counter-proposals and…

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Can the French aeronautical industry bounce back from the success of the F-35 in Europe?

December 14, 2021January 26 2022

At the end of last week, and as anticipated, the Finnish authorities announced that they had selected the American F-35A fighter to succeed the F-18s within its air force, at the end of the HX competition which saw once again the American fighter to the other Western models, F/A 18 E/F Super Hornet, Gripen, Rafale and Typhoon. As in Switzerland, the conclusions presented by the Finnish authorities are final, the F-35 appearing superior to other competitors in all areas, including in the area of budgetary sustainability. And as in Switzerland, many voices are now being raised to restore…

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The new ambitions of European Structured Permanent Cooperation

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021

The Permanent Structured European Cooperation, or PESCO, is undeniably one of the major advances obtained in the field of Defense within the European Union. Launched in December 2017, it allows European industrialists and political actors to cooperate to develop new programs, whether purely technological or industrial, with the aim of avoiding the multiplication of similar programs within the European Union, and therefore expenditure deemed irrelevant because it is redundant between members. The first list of projects was presented on March 6, 2018, and focused above all on support programs, in the field of training, simulation,…

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Greece signs Letter of Intent for 2 frigates and 6 used mine hunters with the Netherlands

29th October29th October

During the broad consultation carried out for Athens to acquire new frigates as part of the modernization of the Hellenic Navy, two offers seemed to stand out from the lot, the FDI Belharra from Naval Group, finally chosen by Athens, and the Sigma 15515 from the Dutch Lady. In addition to the qualities of the Dutch frigate, Amsterdam proposed the transfer of its two Karel Doorman class frigates as a temporary solution. However, these ships had, in the eyes of the Hellenic Navy, a much higher interest than the two Type 70 frigates that Paris proposed to offer to Athens if the latter were to choose the FDI. Eventually he…

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Does NATO's B-61 nuclear bomb still have military or political interest?

7th OctoberNovember 27, 2021

From the start of the Cold War, the United States undertook to deploy on the soil of its European allies nuclear weapons of various types, such as gravitational bombs, surface-to-surface or surface-to-air missiles, and even air missiles. -air than the AIR-2 Genie, in order to dissuade the very powerful Red Army from trying to take advantage of its numerical advantage in Europe. Without knowing exactly when the principle of nuclear sharing began, it appears that it was already implemented in 1968, during the first discussions between the Soviets and the Americans on questions of limiting nuclear weapons, since Moscow was informed of this...

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