DefenceTech Wiki

Reference entries on defence technology, written plainly and kept current: the terms, programmes, standards and institutions the coverage keeps returning to. Each entry explains the thing itself (what it is, where it comes from and how it connects to the others), carries the date it was last reviewed, and says where the record was unreachable rather than guessing. Written and maintained by our editorial desk alongside the daily reporting.

All entries

• AESA radar

  Active electronically scanned array radar, which steers its beam electronically using many small transmit and receive modules instead of a rotating antenna.

• Authority to operate (ATO)

  An authority to operate is a formal decision by a senior official to accept the security risk of running an information system, and a bottleneck that continuous authorisation aims to ease.

• Collaborative combat aircraft

  Large, jet-powered uncrewed aircraft designed to operate alongside crewed fighters, with the US Air Force programme as the reference case.

• Combat cloud

  A term for the shared data and communications layer that links sensors, platforms and decision-makers in air operations, used with different meanings by different air forces.

• Command and control (C2)

  Command and control is the exercise of authority over forces and the systems and processes that carry decisions, orders and information between commanders and units.

• Counter-uncrewed aircraft systems

  The policy, organisation and systems architecture used to detect, identify and respond to hostile uncrewed aircraft, described at concept level.

• Defence export controls

  Defence export controls are the national and multilateral rules that decide which military and dual-use items, software and technology may be transferred abroad, and to whom.

• Electronic warfare

  Electronic warfare is military action that uses electromagnetic energy for awareness and for offensive and defensive effects, as defined in NATO terminology.

• European Defence Fund

  The European Defence Fund is the EU budget instrument that co-funds collaborative defence research and capability development between companies in Member States.

• Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)

  ISR is the integrated process of tasking sensors, collecting and processing data and passing results to decision-makers, as defined in UK and NATO doctrine.

• Modular open systems approach (MOSA)

  MOSA is a US defence business and technical strategy that builds systems from modular parts with defined, standards-based interfaces so components can be replaced and competed.

• Multi-domain operations

  Multi-domain operations is a concept for coordinating military activity across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace, together with non-military action, as a single effort.

• NATO DIANA

  DIANA, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, is a NATO body that runs competitive challenge programmes and funds dual-use start-ups in Allied countries.

• NATO Innovation Fund

  The NATO Innovation Fund is a EUR 1 billion venture capital fund backed by 24 NATO Allies that invests in deep-tech and dual-use companies for defence, security and resilience.

• Sensor fusion

  How data from several sensors and sources is combined into one situation picture, where the discipline comes from, and why it matters for defence systems.

• Software-defined defence

  Software-defined defence describes military capability that is defined, updated and extended mainly through software on shared hardware rather than fixed at delivery.

• Software-defined radio in military communications

  Software-defined radios implement waveforms in software so one terminal can support several; Europe's ESSOR programme is a public example.

• STANAG

  A STANAG is a NATO Standardization Agreement, a document in which member nations commit to implement a common standard so that their forces and equipment can work together.

• Tactical data links (Link 16 and its relatives)

  Tactical data links are standardised ways for military platforms to exchange tactical data, including NATO's Link 11 and Link 16 standards.

• Uncrewed systems

  Aircraft, ground vehicles and maritime vessels operated without a crew on board, and why larger, long-lived platforms are the focus of defence procurement.