![]() ![]() ![]() Digital Battlespace FacilityĪ glimpse inside the new MBDA multi-domain Digital Battlespace Facility at Stevenage. However, the re-emergence of old-style armoured land battles has thrown a new focus on how best to defeat an enemy which is prepared to lose large numbers of its own forces in the belief that it can wear down opposition, especially if sophisticated defensive weapons are not available in sufficient numbers, and are also extremely expensive. The prospect of rolling mass formations of tanks and armoured vehicles, as last used in Iraq, were thought to be tactics consigned to the past, but clearly this was a big miss-calculation. Interceptions of Russian aircraft by NATO fighters are an everyday occurrence around East-West borders while on the ground history is repeating itself. The brutally aggressive Russian attacks in February 2022 sent shock-waves across Europe as defence chiefs pondered what would have to be done, short of risking World War Three by direct involvement, to help Ukraine contain, let alone defeat, this biggest military threat since the end of the Cold War.Īdded to the challenge for NATO created by a major war within the European mainland, was the reality of how to respond to growing Chinese ambitions across the Asia Pacific region, in the knowledge that its leaders would be watching very closely how the West responds in Ukraine.Įstablished Western norms, such as air and sea dominance, and ISTAR superiority, are now being put to the test on a scale and depth last approached during the Cuban Missile crisis in the 1960s. ![]() The Russian invasion of Ukraine provided a long-awaited wake-up defence call throughout NATO countries who have previously become accustomed to allowing a general hollowing out of force levels in the belief that the era of East-West confrontation was over, and that technological superiority in platforms and weapons systems would compensate for declining combat numbers. Following on from lessons learned in Ukraine, making every weapon count has taken on a new sense of urgency, RICHARD GARDNER reports from MBDA’s new Digital Battlespace Facility at its UK headquarters, design and production site in Stevenage. ![]()
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