Interesting articles

it seems peacekeepers would be more likely defending their bases not moving to capture areas as the article describes, really dont know what the russia invasion/war has to do with peacekeeping

Not all UN deployments are peacekeeping. Some are peace enforcement, which includes engagements of organised hostiles, such as the UN mandated operations in the former Yugoslavia in the mid 1990s.

And so it would absolute foolishness, neglectful even, for the tacticians of the armies of the World not to be looking closely at how the land war in Ukraine and Russia is evolving, now that the use of field artillery and armour is changing, as supplementary technology including drones and super-accurate counter-battery capability are part of the mix.

well for one, have you noticed the massive increase in Russian activities/violence across Africa? Or the overflight of one of our UNFIL bases by Russian helicopters? Or the expansion of non state actors that have vastly increased drone attacks across the globe since the high profile use of “relatively cheap” equipment in the war….

All of which will influence Peacekeeping/enforcing missions from now on, units/vehicles/bases are going to need counter UAV capabilities at the very least.

would like to know which UN missions involved moving artillery to gain ground.

The situation I mentioned earlier was from 7th September 2014 Irish Independent. Link won’t paste alas. The IDF provided artillery cover Irish and Filipino when pinned down by Islamist fighters. The Israeli’s had offered to provide fire support because they had demanded the Irish did not deploy javelins or arty. Artillery is most definitely needed from time to time in a defensive role even in peacekeeping. Without it many Irish troops would have died.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-credited-with-saving-irish-troops-from-jihadists-on-golan/

There were also unconfirmed reports that the IDF fired directly at militant positions during the operation.

this the same event or was there two?

Syrian government forces fired artillery rounds from a distance at one point to prevent the Filipino peacekeepers from being overwhelmed by the rebels

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/31/filipino-un-peacekeepers-escape-syrian-militants

You can really see the worth of javelins in those situation though, the ,the flexibility,portability and smaller logistics train, obviously far far dearer per shot fired , so less likely to fire a couple of warning shots , and obviously way less available shots..

The whole global geopolitical system is fracturing, the 30 year post CW1, America is the only unassailable superpower is ending and we're all going to have to deal with the fallout from that….and that's before we even get to what climate change is going to do. They don't call it the age of perma-crisis for nothing.

But to get parochial about us, the gov has said repeatedly that we'll continue with PK/PE missions and the most likely area of those is Africa..well it's not 2008 in Chad any more. The day the worst you'd run across is lads on bikes with rusty AKs and a smoke belching T-55 is gone, the whole continent is now awash is russian and more importantly Chinese kit, from FPV to full up fixed wing armed UAS, arty, armour, missiles….M23 fighting in Congo has used guided mortar rounds supplied by the Rwandans..

I dunno. Once Wagner appeared in the Sahel, it wasn't too long before UN sponsored presences there by France, Germany and ourselves among others, were abandoned.

Now while Russian mercenaries may well die back as a powerful entity, I don't think there is any doubt that similar once-removed military contractors with connections to China, Iran, Syria, Nigeria, South Africa and other strategically important States, will become ubiquitous. And that means deployments by any western forces, under a UN mandate or not, will be in the shape of a full fighting force, with air cover, logistical support and state of the art field weapons.

In fact, the dysfunction of the UN Security Council has become so great, that the likelihood of a UN resolution to authorise any intervention forces in conflict zones, is remote. And so that becomes a moot issue for Ireland.

This is interesting, if true.

In an emergency or crisis situation, procurement and land planning processes can be suspended by the Minister for Defence, and assent of Cabinet etc.

Now, who is to say what constitutes a crisis or an emergency, is another matter entirely.

hey nobody matches the DOD for studies and fluff pieces, the industry wishes it was that quick… But seriously, going from an order to hardware operational by 2028 is actually pushing it for anything that has to be built given how far we are likely to be down the list.

You're right of course, but its quite evident we're going to be very far down a very long order book, given the World we currently live in.

If we can get some solutions from partner nations that do the job, even on an interim basis, its worth pursuing.

Perhaps we need to move to a higher LOA…EG: rename the A/C to the Irish Air and SPACE Force? As in "watch this space…we might buy a few more propellor air craft in ten years time"?

As we know Leonardo made a submission that would kit us out with everything we need but i wonder would one of are fellow EU partners make us a simlar offer as apart from Italy,Germany and France could also supply us with everything we need. It would be a large payment but there could be good terms and condtions for the sale.

More than likely we will buy from all over the EU to keep everyone happy.

An example of a potential government to government deal.

https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/aerospace-news/2024/austrian-defence-minister-confirms-talks-for-12-leonardo-m-346-light-combat-aircraft-from-italy