The rotary-wing attack platform differs from fixed-wing air power in both form and function – in many militaries it is not an air asset at all, but fire support with rotors, tasked and controlled by [...]

Combat pilots have always preferred to fly, and that preference has shaped how militaries train. However, in recent decades, simulator training has increasingly supplemented live flight hours. As the synthetic training environment evolves in sophistication [...]

It begins subtly, much like any other day on duty. Sensor networks deployed along NATO’s Eastern Flank start registering small deviations from expected patterns. At the same time, satellite imagery reveals launchers for advanced missile [...]

For decades, Allied ground forces have operated on the assumption that fixed-wing air support would be available, responsive, and decisive. However, the evolution of the modern threat environment challenges this premise. Particularly along the Eastern [...]

High in the Arctic Circle, a formation of Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACPs) flies an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission to collect on enemy air defence systems. Beyond line-of-sight from any other airborne platform or [...]

Once confined to academic laboratories, recent advances in quantum technologies have the potential to affect key enablers of NATO Joint Air and Space Power. Among those key enablers are Air Command and Control (Air C2), [...]

For some, directed energy weapons (DEWs) represent the realisation of a ‘Star Wars’ vision of modern conflict, and a timely solution to proliferating air, missile, and drone threats. The reality is that years of research [...]

Modern air campaigns are inherently dependent on the operational reach of tanker fleets. For decades, the Alliance designed an air operating model around the assumption that High Value Airborne Assets (HVAAs) could operate within safe [...]

On 12 February 2026, Swedish Air Force JAS-39 Gripens departed Iceland for Greenland to join Royal Danish Air Force F-35s and German Typhoons in Operation Arctic Sentry, NATO’s first Enhanced Vigilance Activity (eVA) dedicated to [...]

There is a memorable moment in the DreamWorks animated film ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, where the young protagonist, Hiccup, realises that no number of books or lectures can teach him to fly a dragon. [...]

Pilot training has become a strategic determinant of combat air power. The technology of warfare has advanced rapidly, but training systems have not always evolved at a commensurate pace with modern aircraft systems. In contested [...]

In the past five years, the world has changed with a speed and intensity few would have predicted. When I assumed my duties as Executive Director of the Joint Air Power Competence Centre, we were [...]