Ballistic and artillery

Modern combat aircraft face a steadily evolving threat environment. Radar-guided missiles launched from both air and ground platforms are becoming faster, smarter, and better...

Moving extremely heavy military payloads has always involved trade-offs. Conventional missile launch vehicles rely on large diesel engines, rigid axles, and complex mechanical linkages....

Modern attack helicopters face a growing operational dilemma. While they remain valuable for close air support and maritime strike, their standard weapons force crews...

Modern warfare is increasingly shaped by technologies that operate beyond traditional bullets and bombs. As conflicts move into dense urban areas and contested electromagnetic...

Low-cost drones and coordinated swarms are rapidly eroding the effectiveness of traditional air-defense methods. Missiles are expensive, guns have limited coverage, and both can...

Rising demand for missiles has exposed a persistent challenge across defense supply chains: propulsion components are difficult to scale quickly without introducing delays or...

Modern air defenses are being pushed to their limits by faster, higher-flying, and more complex threats. Cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, and even...

Growing missile arsenals are placing unprecedented pressure on air and missile defense systems. Ballistic threats are no longer limited to a small number of...

For much of the post–Cold War period, the United Kingdom invested relatively little in homeland air and missile defense. Long-range ballistic threats were seen...

Solid rocket motors remain essential for missiles, target vehicles, and space-launch systems, but their development cycles are often long, expensive, and constrained by legacy...

Europe’s security planners are increasingly focused on the blurring line between conventional and nuclear missile forces along NATO’s eastern flank. Mobile missile systems that...

Modern militaries face a growing challenge in striking high-value targets that are both well-defended and highly mobile. Traditional cruise and ballistic missiles offer range...

Modern air- and missile-defense systems face a growing imbalance: interceptors are becoming increasingly expensive, while offensive weapons—especially drones and guided munitions—are rapidly decreasing in...

Modern naval forces are increasingly challenged by the limits of traditional missile defense. Ship-based interceptors and radar systems were largely designed to counter predictable...

Modern air-defense networks are becoming harder to penetrate, with mobile launchers, dispersed command nodes, and dense sensor arrays creating narrow and fast-moving windows of...

For much of the post–World War II era, Japan kept defense-spending tightly constrained, relying on alliances and a strictly defensive posture to ensure security....

Air-defense systems have become highly effective at intercepting rockets and missiles, but they come with a persistent problem: cost and capacity. Low-cost threats such...

For decades, Israel’s artillery relied on tracked systems introduced in the 1980s. While dependable, those platforms were manpower-heavy, slower to reposition, and increasingly mismatched...

Modern militaries face a growing challenge: traditional unmanned aircraft such as MALE-class drones offer advanced ISR and strike capabilities, but their high cost and...

As aerial threats become more diverse and harder to detect, many countries are reassessing how well their air defenses can cope with modern risks....

Minefields remain one of the most time-consuming and dangerous obstacles for ground forces. Traditional breaching tools—mechanical rollers, plows, and manual clearing—can take hours, require...

Ballistic missile defense relies on early detection and precise tracking, but gathering accurate data in the vast expanse of the Pacific remains a significant...