Defence`s Feeds

A federal contractor whose CEO was convicted of defrauding the National Security Agency (NSA), as related in a December 7 report

The Chinese Ministry of State Security's (MSS, or Guoanbu) new soft power strategy has the European continent in its line

London - Elicius Intelligence expandsDiscreet London investigation firm Elicius Intelligence has recently made a number of recruitments to bolster its

Several corporate investigation firms are busy restructuring as the new year approaches. As we understand, the US firm Nardello &

The decision of the High Court of Justice in London was keenly awaited by former Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

The US intelligence community is putting the finishing touches to an unclassified version of a report on corruption by leading figures in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Intelligence Online understands. Despite doubts linked to developments in the diplomatic situation, the

According to our information, the French armament directorate, or DGA, will call on Skydrone Robotics to help with its DEDALE

The British government's special envoy to the Western Balkans, Stuart Peach, is keeping a close eye on prospecting there by

Since her arrival at Naval Group on 1 December 2022, Marie-Laure Bourgeois, executive vice president in charge of sales and

The French commercial strategy to get Manila to accept Naval Group's submarine offer now consists of trying to capitalise on

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has one month left to submit his recommendations on the transfer of evidence collected

Intelligence Online has learned that French President Emmanuel Macron has - barring a last-minute change - selected Nicolas Lerner to

Innovatus Capital Partners and Argentem Creek Partners, two US investment companies specialising in high-risk assets, are determined to take forward

To support the EU’s ability to act rapidly and robustly whenever a crisis erupts, the development of a European Command and Control (C2) capability is essential for decision-making, planning, and conduct of missions and operations. Supported by EDA, the European Strategic Command and Control System (ESC2) project concluded a major phase in its aim of to provide a ground-breaking solution that will enable the EU and its Member States to employ the most advanced Command and Control system available worldwide, fully interoperable with the C2 systems of the EU, Member States, NATO, and civilian agencies. 

On December 11th, EDA hosted the Closure Session of the ESC2 project with the participation of Member States, stakeholders and industry. The session heard that once the ESC2 system design has delivered in 2023 as expected, a new project will link up with the ESC2 to further develop the system by creating a software prototype in 2025 ready for prompt implementation in the Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC).

Together, the ESC2 and the future follow-up project European Command and Control System (EC2), will provide an advanced and integrated suite of C2 tools designed to support decision-making, planning, and conduct of CSDP missions and operations from the strategic to the operational level. It will provide a Staff-wide set of solutions, exploiting the emerging technologies in key domains such as Information Technology and Communication Systems. 

With a total budget of 22 million euros, the project is funded by a group of 6 Member States: France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Spain as the leading nation; as well as the European Commission. Launched under the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP), the project gathered 21 companies from 10 different Member States to ensure delivery of a beyond state-of-the-art design for ESC2.

Together through cooperation

Launched in January 2021, amid COVID restrictions which restricted the first steps of the project, the project team managed to make up time and reach the end of 2023 ready to deliver the system design, after 36 months of work. The complexity and demands of the project required a wide range of actors to ensure the ambitious goals of ESC2 could be achieved. 

EDA supports EU Member States acting as the ESC2 Project Manager. In this role, EDA manages Member States financial contribution, monitors the execution of the project plan, provides focused expertise and coordinates all contributing activities. Among the 21 industry partners, companies such as Indra (Spain), Thales (France), Leonardo (Italy), and Rheinmetall (Germany) all participated. 

To ensure end-user requirements and operational expertise were built-in, the MPCC, EUMS and EEAS played a significant role. Additionally, the Spanish Ministry of Defence and the Greek Ministry of Defence supported this project by facilitating the participation of the industrial experts in the exercises MILEX 22, MILEX23 and INTEGRATED RESOLVE 22.

 

The Franco-Italian military communications satellite Athena-Fidus, developed by Thales Alenia Space, has been the target of a "snooping" mission since mid-November by the US signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellite Palladium At Night (Pan, also identified as USA 207), according to Intelligence

Intelligence Online understands that the former president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko is personally financing the purchase of electronic warfare equipment

Shavkat Mirziyoyev's government is doing its utmost to improve military-industrial relations with the United States and is working with third-party

The Russian black market in fighters for Ukraine continues to evolve, with several hundred Yemeni, Lebanese, Syrian and some Nepalese

The creation of a South East Asia naval facility in Singapore is back on the cards for the French defence ministry's

A diplomatic shift is underway in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP): over the past few months, its directives have increasingly