Military Equipment Research Articles

Agro-Based nanoparticles composite: A novel approach for enhanced ballistic applications

The field of material science has witnessed a paradigm shift with the emergence of agro-based nanoparticles composites demonstrating remarkable potential for advanced applications. Agricultural by-products, such as cellulose, lignin, and chitin, are selected as the base materials due to their abundance, renewability, low adverse environmental impact and acceptable mechanical properties. The developed composites exhibits superior specific mechanical properties compared to traditional materials. This review explores the synthesis, characterization, and application of agro-based nanoparticles in composites development for ballistic purposes. The eco-friendly nature and synthesis of agro-based composite aligns with the current sustainability goals, offering a green alternative to conventional materials being used in ballistic applications. The utilization of agricultural by-products not only mitigates environmental concerns but also promotes the circular economy by repurposing waste materials into high-value products. This review presents a novel approach in the field of ballistic materials by harnessing the potential of agro-based nanoparticles composites. The superior specific mechanical properties make this composite material a promising candidate for ballistic applications, thereby, opening avenues for sustainable advancements in defense and security technologies. Keywords: Agro-based, Nanoparticles, Composites, Green Technology, Ballistic Application.

Changing relationships between armaments production and exports and state defense expenditures

The present study is relevant, because in different countries of the world in recent years there have been ambiguous dynamics among armaments and military equipment production and exports and changes in state defense expenditures. Modern geopolitical conflicts distort the existing picture of interrelations between the above parameters, and the article assesses their changes. In particular, as the study result, the underlying hypotheses on the relationships between supply and demand in the global market of armaments and military equipment have been formulated. The key countries analysis showed that the dynamics of indicators in them is determined by different reasons, but the author came to the conclusion that the main factors of changes in the trends of armaments production and exports and defense expenditures are the following: the expansion of illegal circulation of armaments and military equipment in some countries, increased vulnerability of some countries and their direct involvement in military-political conflicts, as well as differentiation of countries’ approaches to national security, which causes different attention to defense capabilities and the defense industry development. At the same time, there are almost always sharp changes and volatility of the indicators under consideration during the periods when a country is in the stage of industrialization or transition to a new technological mode.

Nigeria-Türkiye Relations: A Multifaceted Partnership in the 21st Century

This analysis examines the partnership between Nigeria and Türkiye, two nations with substantial diplomatic relations since 1960, though their historical ties go back much further. Their relationship appearscrucial in the transformation of both nations.This analysisconsiders the main aspects of their cooperation and the implications of this partnership for the future. Considering the economic cooperation, their joint strategic partnerships have promoted bilateral trade. Türkiye’s increasing economic presence in Nigeria seems linked to its strategic aim to become a key development partner in Africa. Another critical dimension is the defense cooperation, with Türkiye as an important security partner. Military and technological assistance along with training in response to the security challenges Nigeria faces highlights Türkiye’s strategic significance. The humanitarian and socio-cultural aspects facilitate their relationship development further. Turkish education initiatives and humanitarian endeavors strengthen ties and support Türkiye’s foreign policy aimed at ensuring stability and growth in Africa. With some trade imbalances and possible overreliance on Turkish military technologies, the countries have to develop an effective strategy to address the challenges and ensure a viable presence in the current multipolar world.

Diplomatic Ukraine in the international arena: miscalculations and gains in wartime conditions

Abstract. The peculiarities of the formation of a comprehensive program of international military and economic support of international partners, which will effectively strengthen Ukraine's defense capabilities and ensure the possibility of effective resistance to Russian aggression, are substantiated. Special attention is paid to strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities by supplying modern military equipment, organizing joint military exercises and improving the qualifications of Ukrainian servicemen. A comprehensive post-war recovery plan has been developed, which will include international financial, technical and expert assistance to rebuild the damaged infrastructure and restore the country's economic potential, ensuring stability, economic growth and raising the standard of living of Ukrainians. In addition, the plan envisages the reform of state institutions, the introduction of modern technologies, the improvement of the health care system, as well as the development of small and medium-sized businesses. These measures are aimed at creating a solid foundation for long-term recovery, economic growth, and ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.A number of scientific methods were used during the research: methods of analysis and synthesis, systematic, comparative, historical, method of expert evaluations, as well as a logical method for formulating conclusions.

Defence Spending and Income Inequality. An Asymmetric Empirical Evidence from a Decomposition Analysis of Defence Spending in the Case of Greece

ABSTRACT This study is the first to empirically examine the asymmetric and compositional effects of defence spending on three different measures of income disparity. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) approach, the study analyses the short- and long-term impacts of disaggregated defence spending on income inequality in Greece. The findings have significant theoretical and policy implications. First, in the medium term, increased military spending in Greece widens income disparity by boosting the income share of the wealthiest. Second, in the long term, positive changes in military expenditures reduce income inequality, primarily benefiting lower-income groups. Third, long-term negative changes in defence spending harm middle- and low-income groups. Finally, the compositional analysis highlights that increases in military spending, mostly on personnel and, to a lesser extent, on equipment, improve long-term income equality, while decreases in spending on personnel significantly worsen income disparity. Given these findings and the evolving nature of warfare, Greece should gradually adopt a new defence strategy. This strategy should emphasise extensive personnel reserves, prioritise domestic military equipment over costly foreign alternatives, and rationalise defence expenditures by reallocating budget expenditures towards health, education, and social welfare programs. These measures would enhance living standards and reduce income inequality in Greece.

Nickel-plated cyanate Ester/melamine shape memory composites for stable electromagnetic shielding switch, infrared stealth, and flame retardancy

Military equipment must receive signals but is prone to malfunction due to electromagnetic interference. Moreover, operational temperature variations can be detected by infrared sensors, leading to potential exposure. Therefore, developing materials that integrate electromagnetic shielding switches with infrared stealth capabilities is crucial for enhancing target security. This study investigates a novel composite material that combines shape memory polymer (SMP) and conductive layers for integrated functionality. Utilizing melamine sponge as the substrate, a cyanate ester (CE)-nitrile rubber (NR) SMP coating is applied via dip-coating, allowing the sponge to self-fixate after deformation. The SMP demonstrates stable shape recovery. Subsequently, a conductive nickel layer is added through keratin modification and chemical plating, providing electromagnetic shielding effectiveness exceeding 30 dB and reducing infrared emissivity to 0.6. The composite material is capable of achieving controllable electromagnetic shielding switches of 35 dB and 15 dB. It maintains excellent electromagnetic shielding and infrared stealth capabilities even under acid rain conditions and extreme temperature variations. This innovative approach holds significant promise for applications requiring simultaneous electromagnetic and infrared protection.

Study on microwave absorbing properties of reduced graphene oxide@Co/Fe81.5Si3B9P3C1Cu1Ti1.5 amorphous nanocrystalline composite

Electromagnetic pollution problems and military stealth technology need to be solved, the development of new wave absorbing materials has been imminent. In this study, reduced graphene oxide@Co (rGO@Co) powder is obtained by alcoholthermal method, afterwards the different contents of rGO@Co powders are also compounded with Fe81.5Si3B9P3C1Cu1Ti1.5 nanocrystalline powder by high-energy ball milling, obtaining rGO@Co/Fe81.5Si3B9P3C1Cu1Ti1.5 nanocrystalline composite powder, and powder morphology, the nuclear layer structure, soft magnetic properties and corresponding absorbing properties of the materials are studied. The research results are that rGO coats Co and Fe-based nanocrystalline of double magnetic cores in the composite powder, which realizes the synergy of the two magnetic cores to enhance the magnetic loss, is also compatible with the dielectric loss of rGO, and also improves the impedance matching. The minimum reflection loss (RLmin) is −44.18 dB, and the maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) is 5.03 GHz in the amorphous nanocrystalline alloy matrix. When the addition of rGO@Co powder is 1 wt%, the RLmin of composite powder is −52.41 dB (3 mm), which is increased by 18.6 %. The EAB is 6.07 GHz (2 mm), which is increased by 20.7 %.

Promoting peace in the healthcare sector. What obstacles to overcome?

Modern military strategies, armaments and technologies imply that every war today has a deleterious impact on all determinants of health, with direct and indirect effects that cause physical, mental and social suffering of the exposed population, that extends far beyond the duration of the conflict. The promotion of peace and the prevention of war is therefore clearly one of the professional tasks of health professionals, at least as much as the prevention of other public health risks. Nevertheless, peace promotion and anti-war activities are struggling to take off and spread in the health sector. The article examines two possible factors that stand as obstacles between the realisation of the evil of war, shared by all, and the actual commitment to disarmament and peace, practised by a few. The first of these obstacles is the divergence of views on the methods to choose to prevent conflict. Nonviolence and disarmament or military deterrence? The hypothesis discussed is that the deterrence theory still enjoys a certain credibility even in the medical scientific world although it is far from being an evidence-based strategy. The second obstacle examined is the fear of professionals and their associations of being accused of 'playing politics'. Since war is always a public health catastrophe, when health professionals oppose war, they are only doing their job. However, it is undoubtedly true that preventing war also involves political choices, but this is the case in every other area of public health, which without the use of political and regulatory instruments could not fulfil its task. Lastly, a concrete example of an intervention to promote peace is presented, promoted by several Italian scientific societies in the health field who have succeeded in drawing up a joint declaration in favour of peace and against war, open for subscription also by other scientific societies, journals, associations and foundations in the health sector.

One-step fabrication of a novel fiber-based absorber for flexible, tunable and boosted microwave absorption

The increasingly intricate electromagnetic environment necessitates higher anti-electromagnetic interference capabilities for electronic devices, thereby demanding a flexible absorbing material that can adapt to multiple forms, is lightweight, and exhibits excellent electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption properties. In this study, we have developed a novel flexible absorbing material (FAM) based on glass-coated amorphous magnetic fibers (SFs) and Dallenbach-like absorbing structures through wet forming technology. By combining high-performance absorbing fiber with textile structures, the FAM demonstrates EMW absorption performance along with lightweight flexibility and shape adaptability. This paper explores the influence of process parameters in wet forming technology on FAM formation; as well as examines the construction of broadband absorbers through structural optimization. A single-layer FAM with a thickness of 1.7 mm (SFs length 8 mm, content 3 g/m2) achieves an impressive reflection loss (RL) value of −60.1 dB at 11.6 GHz. Furthermore, optimized multi-layer FAM attains effective absorption bandwidth (EAB: RL ≤ −5 dB) across a wide range from 3–14 GHz. This work presents a new approach for developing ’lightweight, thin, wide, and strong’ absorbing materials based on fiber and textile structures which holds significant implications for civilian electromagnetic interference protection as well as military electromagnetic stealth technology.

Herausforderungen einer neuen Sicherheitslage für Deutschland – eine finanzwissenschaftliche Perspektive

Abstract This article addresses the challenges of the new security situation that Germany faces against the background of current geopolitical conflicts and the potential weakening of US security guarantees for Europe. The article counteracts the widespread idea that more money and more soldiers are necessary and automatically lead to an increase in military power. Instead, the article argue that the financial resources spent on the military sector need to be used more efficiently. The article discusses reform options that concern different fields, e.g. the organisation of military defence in Europe, the procurement of military equipment and the recruiting of soldiers.

Legalitas Drone (Pesawat Tanpa Awak) Sebagai Alat Melakukan Mata-Mata Dalam Perang

Introduction: The use of drone technology as a weapon of war raises several problems, both in terms of action and consequences. In terms of action, when drones are used as weapons, participants in armed conflict are no longer just humans fighting each other, but between (non-living) robots against living (humans). Apart from the legality of war and the use of drones as weapons of war, drone attacks can be carried out secretly, at any time and without the knowledge of the enemy.Purposes of the Research: This writing aims to examine and find out the use of drones (unmanned aircraft) as a tool for espionage in International Humanitarian Law and more specific rules regarding the use of drones (unmanned aircraft) as a tool for spying in war.Methods of the Research: The type of research used in this paper is normative legal research. As for answering the problems in this study, the authors use three approaches to the problem, namely the statutory approach (statute approach), conceptual approach (conceptual approach) and case approach (case approach). The procedure for collecting legal materials carried out by the author is by searching for and collecting laws and regulations related to the legal issues at hand. Legislation in this case includes both legislation and regulation. Analysis of legal material uses qualitative methods, namely studies related to legal norms contained in international law legislation and legal norms that exist in society.Results of the Research: The results of this study indicate that the use of drones (unmanned aircraft) as a tool to carry out espionage in International Humanitarian Law, is contained in Article 36 of Additional Protocol I to the 1977 Geneva Convention. Article 36 intends to maintain the development of weapons used both by countries and international organizations to continue to respect, maintain and not cross the boundaries of existing international humanitarian law principles. The current arrangement is too old and cannot be definitively binding. The use of drones as weapons has been carried out in the absence of an adequate legal regulation on this matter, Article 36 of Additional Protocol I of 1977 only contains general matters regarding the development of weapons technology and methods of warfare, but does not specifically and specifically regulate the use of drones. The absence of legal rules that specifically and specifically regulate the use of drones, which relate to their use as weapons, this will open up enormous opportunities for misuse and violations of international humanitarian law.

Spin-coating ANF based multilayer symmetric composite films for enhanced electromagnetic interference shielding and thermal management

The demand for flexible composite films with electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding capabilities is rapidly increasing. Balancing high EMI performance with flexibility and portability has become a critical research focus in practical applications. In this study, an optimized strategy for aramid nanofibers (ANF) films was developed using spin-coating and sol–gel techniques. The resulting film features a smooth surface and excellent mechanical properties. ANF, initially an insulator, was transformed into a conductor through the in-situ polymerization of ion-doped polypyrrole (PPy). Leveraging a multilayer structural strategy, we prepared a symmetric composite film, ANF@PPy-(TA-MXene)-AgNWs-(TA-MXene)-ANF@PPy (PMA), using vacuum-assisted filtration and lamination hot pressing. This film, composed of ANF@PPy (PA) as the matrix, tannic acid (TA) modified MXene, and silver nanowires (AgNWs) as fillers, exhibited multiple shielding mechanisms as electromagnetic wave (EMW) passed through its various layers. This multilayer configuration provides significant flexibility in EMW shielding. Moreover, TA-modified MXene expands the lamellar spacing, enhancing the scattering efficiency of EMWs within the film, and serves as a medium connecting the upper and lower layers. This results in the efficient integration of the multilayer structure, synergistically improving both EMI shielding performance and mechanical properties. When the ratio of PA/MXene/AgNWs was 1:3:1, the film demonstrated optimal properties, including an EMI shielding effectiveness of 70.2 dB, thermal conductivity of 4.62 W/(m•K), and tensile strength of 50.2 MPa. Due to the exceptional EMI shielding and thermal properties of the PMA composite film, it holds great potential for applications in artificial intelligence, wearable heaters, and military equipment.

Позиции Республики Корея и Японии по институционализации военно-политического сотрудничества в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе

The article analyzes the current stance of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan on the institutionalization of defense cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, provides the assessment of the prospects for the US-ROK-Japan triangle institutionalization, as well as the assessment of the prospects for the possible accession of Japan and South Korea to the AUKUS agreement. Drawing from the strategic documents of Tokyo and Seoul in the field of security, as well as joint statements and other official information materials of the United States and its partners in the Asia-Pacific region, the author comes to the conclusion that the announced "Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework" of the United States – South Korea – Japan will be poorly formalized, and the main area of cooperation within this framework will be the exchange of intelligence data and monitoring of the military activity of the DPRK. The Memorandum of Cooperation concluded in July 2024 has primarily an ideological significance and is intended to create a precedent for formalizing military cooperation in a trilateral format. The potential entry of the ROK and Japan into AUKUS also has its problems. Through the license-free AUKUS arms trade ecosystem, Japan potentially can be able to develop its own defense industry and gain a foothold as an arms exporter. On the contrary, for South Korea, which is already an established exporter of military equipment and weapons, this would be a potential risk and the possibility of losing its acquired positions in Australia and other markets. Nevertheless, the prospect for both parties joining AUKUS is real, and cooperation within this multilateral format can also be of a weakly formalized nature, reduced to work on a number of joint projects, mainly in high-tech areas with the ultimate goal of developing common technological and legal standards.

Rare Earth Elements: A Global Scenario and Understanding of Their Impacts, Challenges, and Recycling Processes in Bangladesh through Global Literature

Over the last decade, rare earth elements (REEs) have gained international attention due to their multiple usages. Because of their unique properties, the elements play a vital role in electronics, defense, aerospace, transportation, agriculture, and communications technology. They are also critical to the high technology and low carbon economy. These applications drive demand for rare earth products and promote the steady development of the rare earth industry. In this paper, we have reviewed the current scenario, applications, challenges, and impacts of REEs from a global perspective. It is seen that China leads in the production of REEs worldwide. Globally, REE production is associated with a range of environmental issues, including mining-related pollution, the generation of radioactive waste, water scarcity, soil contamination, and deforestation, all of which impact both humans and animals. Drawing from global literature, we discussed a comparative scenario of REEs in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the rising population has led to increased REE demand, and we utilized secondary sources to deduce REE impacts. We overviewed aspects such as 100% electricity coverage, import opportunities from the other countries, and government initiatives, all contributing to the growing REE demand and e-waste generation in Bangladesh. Currently, there is no recycling process available. Subsequently, we highlighted the situation in Bangladesh regarding REE management, presented suggestions for recycling based on recent global literature, and provided recommendations for the future.

Analysis of the Effectiveness of Using a High-Accuracy Numerical Algorithm in the Simulation of Two-Phase Flow Problems

The continuous technical development of weapons and ammunition, as well as the growing requirements placed on new equipment, require the use of modern tools for their designing and testing. The analysis of the operation of powder propellant systems, which is the focus of interior ballistics, requires particularly specialised tools due to the complexity of the phenomena occurring during a shot. The development of numerical methods and the increase in the computing power of modern computers have enabled the modelling and simulation of highly complex physical problems and the development of numerical schemes with a theoretically arbitrary high order of accuracy. In this study, an attempt was made to develop a one-dimensional model of two-phase flows with a high order of solution accuracy in time, based on the finite volume method. The use of a two-phase flow model in the context of interior ballistics allows, among other things, the analysis of wave phenomena occurring during firing, which is crucial for safety reasons, especially in tank guns. The developed algorithm for solving two-phase systems was checked using recognised test problems for this type of model. The results of the work will be used to develop a numerical model to solve the main problem of interior ballistics.

Отношение к оружию и военной культуре у адыгского населения Республики Адыгея

The article examines how modern Circassians living in the Republic of Adygea relate to the issues of carrying weapons, serving in the army, as well as elements of traditional military culture. The results acquired from two ethnosociological studies suggest that modern Circassians have nearly the same attitude toward weapons as the people of the Russian Federation as a whole, i.e. they mostly oppose the licensing of particular types of military weapons. It is also clear that, for re-spondents, traditional military culture has lost its relevance. The respondents believe that a man is a warrior, this is rather a spiritual state, while in traditional culture it was believed that this is a certain complex in which weapons play the crucial role. A whole range of reasons influenced such changes, including the standardization of the youth education system, a targeted disarmament pol-icy, and the establishment of relative calm in the region at the end of the 19th century.

New find of Roman military equipment of the period of the Roman–Bosporan war of 45–49 AD from the Eastern Crimea

The Artezian fortified settlement in the Azov Sea coast of Eastern Crimea perished in a strong fire at the beginning of the Roman–Bosporan war in 46/47 AD. In the homogeneous fire layer, along with numerous items of jewellery, silver, bronze and glass vessels, a heavily burned out round bronze plaque, 7.7–7.8 cm in diameter with a hole in the centre was found. The plaque is decorated along the edge with a figural frieze, depicting two pairs of animals opposing each other: ‘dog–bull’, ‘dog–wild boar’. Besides two animals are running after each other: a lion and a roe deer. The decoration of the plaque from Artezian finds parallels among plaques from the military camps along the limes of Lower and Upper Rhine and Danube. Objects similar in shape depicting animals in circular friezes are also known in Dacia and in the South-Western Crimea. The parallels to the images of the plaque and options of interpreting the function of the piece are discussed. The combination of pairs of opposing animals and animals running after each other finds parallels only on the belt plaques from Asciburgium and Magdalensberg. Thus, there are reasons to consider the disc from Artezian as an element of Roman military equipment of the first half of the 1st century AD.

Optimizing the Effectiveness of Moving Target Defense in a Probabilistic Attack Graph: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

Moving target defense (MTD) technology baffles potential attacks by dynamically changing the software in use and/or its configuration while maintaining the application’s running states. But it incurs a deployment cost and various performance overheads, degrading performance. An attack graph is capable of evaluating the balance between the effectiveness and cost of an MTD deployment. In this study, we consider a network scenario in which each node in the attack graph can deploy MTD technology. We aim to achieve MTD deployment effectiveness optimization (MTD-DO) in terms of minimizing the network security loss under a limited budget. The existing related works either considered only a single node for deploying an MTD or they ignored the deployment cost. We first establish a non-linear MTD-DO formulation. Then, two deep reinforcement learning-based algorithms are developed, namely, deep Q-learning (DQN) and proximal policy optimization (PPO). Moreover, two metrics are defined in order to effectively evaluate MTD-DO algorithms with varying network scales and budgets. The experimental results indicate that both PPO- and DQN-based algorithms perform better than Q-learning-based and random algorithms. The DQN-based algorithm converges more quickly and performs, in terms of reward, marginally better than the PPO-based algorithm.

From Strategic to Tech-oriented Minilateralism: GCAP as a Platform to Accelerate Military Technology Development

ABSTRACT The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), launched by Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK) in December 2022, is among the latest examples of strategic minilateral arrangements – that is, defensive balancing coalitions formed to respond to the systemic challenges of an increasingly competitive international system. A comparative analysis of the three members’ objectives suggests, however, that GCAP differs from other forms of strategic minilateralism. Indeed, members’ participation in the programme does not necessarily rest on overlapping strategic objectives, but rather on internal considerations linked to domestic industrial and export opportunities. Accordingly, we argue that GCAP should be better categorised as a ‘tech-oriented’ rather than a ‘strategic’ minilateral.

Сombat operations model of a single self-propelled artillery system for the computer game ARMA 3

Military computer games are an important segment of the world media culture and media business. In addition to the entertainment aspect, military simulators play an important role in the training of future military specialists. However, quite often the scenario component of military gaming lags behind the rapid development of real military equipment. World experience of military conflicts of the 21st century shows that the most intensively developing segment of ground forces weapons is its artillery component. In this paper, a model of combat use of a new generation artillery system is developed. The model is intended for modification of the military game ARMA 3. The new generation artillery system is a large-caliber gun with a high level of automation. It has a high rate of fire, maneuverability, and shooting accuracy. Due to these qualities, the new generation artillery system is comparable in combat power to a unit of traditional guns and can carry out combat operations in single mode. A technique has been developed for dynamically assessing the current combat capability of an artillery system, taking into account the resource costs during fire activity, including indirect hits by the enemy. It is shown that in addition to traditional tactical counter-battery tasks, an artillery system can be used to destroy a suddenly emerging high-risk target. A high-risk target is a non-artillery system capable of causing very large damage in a short period of time. Based on the method of dynamically assessing the current combat capability, a tree of artillery system states is constructed. It includes the most probable states of the artillery system and the corresponding design parameters. A ratio is obtained that allows, for a known state of the artillery system, to estimate the number of shots needed to hit the target with the required guaranteed probability. Calculated examples show that a new-generation artillery system is capable of destroying a high-risk target, sometimes even at the cost of its own loss. The developed model is implemented and is being tested as a mod for the war game ARMA 3.