NEW: Kurt Campbell, the No. 2 State Department official, met with Niger’s Prime Minister today & *accepted his demand that U.S. troops withdraw from the West African country* a move the US has long resisted that will transform Washington’s counterterrorism posture in West Africa

'Consider an ML model to detect tanks from images – data drift will likely occur if the model is trained on images from spring and summer but run on images from winter and autumn' cetas.turing.ac.uk/sites/default/…

cnn.com/2024/04/18/pol…

! Germany has arrested two Russian-German nationals accused of planning attacks undermining military aid to Ukraine
generalbundesanwalt.de/SharedDocs/Pre…

In yet another sign of France's deteriorating relations to with its (former) allies in West Africa, Burkina Faso's given three French diplomats 48 hours to leave the country. The officials were declared persona non grata over 'subversive activities'

Please to be publishing a new study - Requirements for the Command and Control of the UK's Ground-Based Air Defence - written with my colleague Sidharth Kaushal at RUSI rusi.org/explore-our-re…

Very important piece on Russia/Ukraine peace talks in early 2022. What I take from it is that, late into those talks, Russia continued to make new & unacceptable demands that would have turned Ukraine into a weak & undefensible vassal state. foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/talks-…

Interesting read. Yet the authors downplay Russia's war aims and they largely assume that Putin negotiated in good faith.

As Russian forces advance and pulverize everything in their path, life is draining out of Ukraine's frontline communities.

My Financial Times dispatch from the Donbas. ft.com/content/bccdf9…

Raiffeisenbank, which has made billions in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine despite pledging to leave, is shocked – shocked! – to find its Russian bank is hiring thousands of people for its ambitious growth plans there:

ft.com/content/380a34…

Assuring the Tactical Sustainment of Land Forces on the Modern Battlefield, Col Si Horne and I write for RUSI on logistics, maintenance, and medical support. rusi.org/explore-our-re… As the threat to sustainment increases, adaptations are needed to capabilities and tactics.

Last week, flying to Vienna I had a strange but fascinating encounter. There were five very fit young men hand carrying each a huge bag – there were so heavy that two had to lift each bag step by step, holding up at Istanbul the terminal bus. Guess what was in there ?

We often focus on high-end weapons for Ukraine, but Ukraine also needs many basic systems like M113 or armored humvees in large numbers. Providing more M113 is a simple way to reduce Ukrainian KIA/WIA.

(13/24) Sixth, importance of industrial base. Israel prob blew through a year's worth of peacetime production of missiles last night. If you can't do this several days in a row, you don't have defensive deterrence. Our defense industrial policy is broke. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

(10/24) IRI attacked w/ a mix of medium range #missiles & #drones but no short range missiles. ISR defense divides into ballistic (high altitude surface based interceptor) and air-breather (low altitude aircraft and gun intercept) battles. Different sensors: no C&C saturation

Intersting report from my colleague Justin Bronk at RUSI - on force design options for the Dutch Air Force. Given limited resources and timelines across NATO, these kinds of prioritisation discussions are important: rusi.org/explore-our-re…

Ukraine’s top commander warned his outmanned & outgunned army is struggling to halt a multipronged & intensifying Russian offensive, as Kyiv pleads with western partners for more air defences & a critical military aid package remains stalled in Congress. on.ft.com/3vSR20t

This will likely be an important battle. Chasiv Yar is located on defensible high ground. If Russia takes the city, they could potentially increase the rate of advance deeper into Donetsk Oblast as part of an expected summer offensive. Russian forces will still have to cross the

Interesting to see how #Germany & #Italy will co-exist with #Russian troops in #Niger and what will happen to the #US drone base in Agadez

'The sources told CNN that US intelligence assesses that Iran has urged several of its proxy militia groups to simultaneously launch a large-scale attack against Israel, using drones and missiles'.

cnn.com/2024/04/12/pol…