Russian authorities have arrested three scientists working on hypersonic missiles. Supposedly two of the arrests happened last summer, whereas the last one happened in April. That reports The Moscow Times: “Members of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ (RAS) Siberian Branch warned that the criminal cases risk setting […]
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Russia denies their warships were near Nord Stream explosion sites
Oliver Alexander comments on Russia’s denial that their naval vessels were near the explosion sites of the Nord Stream pipelines on his substack: “We now have an official Russian reaction to the to the investigation of the SS-750 at the site of the Nord Stream blasts from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Instead of […]
Typology of military thinkers
It is striking how different actors view warfare through very different lenses. Amos C. Fox has an interesting typology of military thinkers on The Strategy Bridge: “The Futurist camp, for instance, asserts that drones, artificial intelligence, and cyber are the future of armed conflict. Meanwhile, the Traditionalist camp does not drift far from the musings […]
Netherlands buys the PULS rocket artillery system
The Netherlands is procuring a variety of long-range missiles: Tomahawk land attack-missiles for their frigates and submarines, JASSM-ER missiles for F-35 fighter aircraft, and the PULS rocket artillery system for the army. This is all both interesting and ambitious. Clearly the Dutch have noticed the importance of long-range fires in the war in Ukraine. The […]
Predictions about the future are probably wrong
Good reminder by Will Hitchen on The Strategy Bridge: “History remains the best guide to predicting the future — but such predictions are still more likely than not to be wrong. Those who postulate and prognosticate on the future of warfare, and those consuming their output, would be well served by keeping this in mind. […]
The advantage of AI in warfare
Fascinating rundown of the advantages of AI in warfare by Paul Scharre in War on the Rocks. “When an AI fighter pilot beat an experienced human pilot 15-0 in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s AlphaDogfight competition, it didn’t just fly better than the human. It fought differently. Heron Systems’ AI agent used forward-quarter gunshots, […]
Tatarsky bombing and Kerch Strait Bridge
Mark Galeotti has an interesting thought on his blog about the similarity between the bombings of Vladlev Tatarsky (Maxim Fomin) and the Kerch Strait Bridge. There does seem to be video evidence supporting the claim that she gave him the bomb (the BBC did some good work on this) and the fact that she stayed […]
On epistemic bubbles and echo chambers
Thoughtful essay by C Thi Nguyen for Aeon on the difference between epistemic bubbles and echo chambers, which can be seen as two very different things. Luckily, though, epistemic bubbles are easily shattered. We can pop an epistemic bubble simply by exposing its members to the information and arguments that they’ve missed. But echo chambers […]
The intertwined nature of Russian academia and the state
Interesting look at the Russian academic community and its impact on policy. It’s written by Mariya Omelicheva for PONARS Eurasia and titled Influencers, Echo Chambers, and Epistemic Bubbles: Russia’s Academic Discourse in the Wake of the War in Ukraine. Much of the scholarship in the field of Russian IR takes place in an epistemic bubble […]
When ASW gets too precise: British frigate hits Russian submarine with sonar
In 2020 there was a collision between the British frigate Northumberland and a Russian submarine north of Scotland.