WARMINSTER, ENGLAND - JULY 23: Soldiers from 4 Brigade look on as an RAF Hercules transport plane makes an airdrop during a military exercise on Salisbury Plains on July 23, 2020 near Warminster, England. The training exercise involved long-range patrols, simulated attacks and meetings in recreated villages, as well as testing the medical capabilities of the rapid-response field hospitals. Towards the end of 2020, 250 soldiers from the British Armed Forces Task Group will be joining the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, West Africa. Following the training that has been provided by the British armed forces in West Africa over recent months, the troops will move into the area in a bid to stem the growth of the Islamist-led insurgency in the region. A French-led force has been operating in Mali since early 2013 under "Operation Serval", with the UN joining them later in that year, through the "Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali" (MINUSMA). (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
In May, the New Statesman gathered a panel of military experts, defence industry senior leaders, and tech industry insiders to discuss the role of digitisation in strategies for national defence. The online round-table event, sponsored by Cisco, represented a unique opportunity to explore the implications of the new fields of cyber and space, now rising in prominence alongside the traditional domains of defence: land, sea and air.
The evolving character of warfare, set out in the government’s Integrated Operating Concept 2025 (IOpC), is defined by these emerging fields. The government’s recent Integrated Review signalled that defence strategy would pivot towards cyber, a field in which data, information and innovation are key drivers of modernisation.
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