📢 OUT NOW: THE VERY LONG GAME 📚 ...3...2...1: We are truly excited to inform you that "The Very Long Game: 25 Studies on the Global State of #DefenseAI" has been released today. 🧵 with links to all chapters below Get your #OpenAccess copy here: link.springer.com/book/10.10…

We're proud to have co-organised #TMAF2026 alongside outstanding partners, bringing together military professionals, academics, innovators, and future leaders to discuss the future of defence and military education. A huge thank you to all speakers, authors, participants, and supporters who made this year's forum a success. What do you see as the biggest challenge—or opportunity—for defence and military education in the next decade? We're already looking ahead to #TMAF27. 🚀 #Defence #MilitaryEducation #SecurityStudies #Innovation #Leadership #FutureOfDefence #TDHJ @thermilak @Pastey_n @DrBrittainHale @Bernd_Schulyok @HeikoBorchert @ALauner1 @lukas_bittner @ETH_en @Bundesheerbauer youtu.be/_DshNzXvINQ?si=FDbg…

Ongoing debates about technology's impact on warfighting easily overlook one key aspect: #skills #proliferation. Violent non-state actors are among the first movers or, as Carl Peterson writes in his latest piece for @MilitantWire (link below): "In this hothouse of drone innovation, both technological and tactical, criminal and rebel groups have seen the opportunity to increase their capability by either sending existing mebmers to serve in the Ukranian or Russian militaries, recuriting returned fighters into their organizations, or otherwise to purchase the services of returned fighters on a mercenary basis. Currently, criminal organizations are pursuing all three pahts of bringing skiled drone operators into their organizations...." And now think about current discussions on civil preparedness and critical infrastructure protection.... militantwire.com/p/the-drone…

Totally agree. If you always want to copy/imitate, the competitive advantage is to your disadvantage unless the industry has growing marginal costs — which is not true for software. For europe, this is an opportunity but also a challenge because to devise the next thing you need R&T and financial and cultural risk-acceptance.

1/14 Arab Gulf Defense AI: A Long 🧵 With all eyes focused on #AI in the war between the US, Israel, and Iran it is worth taking a look at the role AI plays in #Arab #Gulf force development. What follows is a summary of the arguments put forward in my study "Bonds That Separate. Defense AI in the Arab Gulf States" published in October 2025 by @Defense_AIO. See defenseai.eu/daio_study2530_…

What Is the Role of AI in the Air Tasking Cycle (ATC)? As with every recent conflict, it is easy to overstate the role #AI plays in the current US-Israeli military operation against #Iran. That's why it is important to separate rhetoric from reality - in particular when reporting about and commenting on the conflict and the role of AI. The table below provides a first, quickly assembled open-source overview to indicate where AI does and does not yet play a role. Yes, AI plays a role, for example, in developing target lists and supporting dynamic targeting. But this is it - also because it remains key to keep two aspects in mind: First, the primary motive for the use of AI in the ATC is to compress workflows and speed up staff work. Important elements of the ATC, in particular related to meaningful human control, have not (yet) been changed (although tensions regarding the lowering of thresholds are obvious). Second, it still takes months to prepare and pre-position assets in theater. If these assets do not arrive in time your operation will be delayed - irrespective of the use of AI. Should you want to use the overview for your reporting, please reach out by DM. Thank you. cc @Mauro_Gilli @mchorowitz @Lauren_A_Kahn @kennethpayne01

How do armed forces learn the right lessons? In "The West's military malaise" @WarintheFuture correctly criticizes "a concerning lack of learning" by political and military leaders. He continues to argue that systematically translating lessons from one military theater to another requires analysts to use four "filters:" Geography and distance, terrain, vegetation and climate, the political and cultural environment, and the capability of potential adversaries. I would add that when it comes to analyzing adversarial capabilities what is most needed are new methods to avoid design bias in how blue thinks about red. And highly sophisticated simulation with AI-augmented non-conventional red forces is one of the best defense AI use cases. Link to Mick's analysis for @EngelsbergIdeas engelsbergideas.com/notebook… Link to "His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see" for @defense_aio ilustrating the power of AI-enhanced non-conventional red force behavior: defenseai.eu/daio_study2426_… cc @Olivier1Schmitt @Mauro_Gilli @mchorowitz

In "Bonds That Separate. Defense AI in the #Arab #Gulf States" published in October 2025 I asked: "What if data centers become high value targets?" (pp. 69-70). Yesterday, #AWS seems to have temporarily shut down its data center in the UAE as one of the company's availability zones "was impacted by objects that struck the data center, creating sparks and fire" (link below) Once again, this incident underlines the ambivalent character of large-scale interconnected infrastructure clusters: What makes them attractive for operators and investors also makes them attractive for rogue actors - because returns and damage scale. But while European nations are busy building digital hyperscalers, how well #prepared are EU and NATO members to address attacks against the continent's #digital #infrastructure?

Pleased to share my latest DAIO Country Study on #defence #AI in Romania 🇷🇴, examining how a frontline ally with limited indigenous capacity can engage with one of the most transformative technologies shaping modern warfare. @Defense_AIO @Carnegie_Europe👇 defenseai.eu/wp-content/uplo…