Procurement must be Timely as well as Transparent
✅ We have to move at the speed of relevance, the speed of military and geopolitical need.
❌Legacy models will be too slow and too expensive.
Key message from Stephen Fuhr PC MP CD 🇨🇦 to a packed hall at the impressive CDAI #OttawaConference
Learning on the Front Line.
Hitting high-values targets at depth.
Helsing in #Ukraine
defence-blog.com/russian-forc...
Great to be at #CafeKyiv today & proud that Helsing supported this important event. It’s been inspiring to hear so many insightful points, catch up with friends united in the fight for our free future, & to see such strong political & public support for the defining cause of our times.
What a difference a year makes.
The moment you arrive, you know this year’s Munich Security Conference will be different. #MSC2026
As @nicolange.bsky.social said so powerfully at the @atlantikbruecke.bsky.social dinner
- Europe needs to grow its backbone.
Helsing provides the tools to do just that.
@munsecconf.bsky.social
Bottom line
Europe needs *both* a Berlin-centred shield & a distributed national deterrent asap.
Failure to build credible deterrence risks being forced to fight on Russia’s terms - or being coerced & risking our democracies & our freedom.
@glandsbergis.bsky.social
table.media/en/security/...
🛡 Speed matters on the Eastern Flank
Lithuania can’t wait years for heavy platforms. Rapidly fielded mass strike drones & 'deep & cheap' precision weapons would immediately complicate RU planning [if integrated into operational concept & with political will to use them!]
🧵
🇺🇦 Ukraine shows what’s possible
Ukraine has used precision strikes to disrupt Russian forces deep behind the front & hit critical Russian assets. At greater scale, and strategically conducted, such capabilities would be a powerful deterrent.
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🇱🇹 Track two: distributed national deterrence
European states (especially on the flank) need quickly usable, national-level strike capabilities that don’t depend on lengthy NATO deliberation, which can buy time & allow allies to join the fight.
🧵
So we need a new twin-track approach to deterrence
🇩🇪 Track one: centralised European deterrence
Germany has the economic and industrial weight to anchor European defence, but rearmament timelines are too slow. Rapid procurement & fielding of massed capability is essential.
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🕰 Slower, weaker responses
The swift backlash after Salisbury in 2018 contrasts sharply with today’s drawn-out investigations and committees—something the Kremlin clearly notices.
🧵
So, @glandsbergis.bsky.social argues that there’s still too much comforting (but dangerous) legacy thinking.
📜Europe’s outdated assumption-
For decades, challenging Europe also meant challenging the US. That assumption no longer fully holds, particularly on NATO’s eastern flank.
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🇷🇺Russia is testing our limits
Moscow senses the shift, & the weakening of our deterrence, probing NATO airspace, infrastructure, and borders through persistent hybrid attacks without facing serious consequences.
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Key elements of @glandsbergis.bsky.social’s argument
🇺🇸 US shift & a weakening deterrent in the emerging new world order.
Washington no longer treats European defence as a core interest [to put it mildly]. Commitments feel conditional, & deterrence—fundamentally psychological—is eroding.🧵
ICYMI! Great piece from @glandsbergis.bsky.social from before xmas on why Europe needs a new, two-track approach to deterrence - & fast!
Europe’s security situation is changing fast— pretending otherwise is becoming dangerous & GL’s piece is even more pertinent now
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table.media/en/security/...
Great interview @shashj.bsky.social - & a super way to get a clearer understanding of Helsing’s vision, how we’re supplying Ukraine with advanced strike drones & building the capabilities that Europe needs for effective deterrence.
Europe has the tools to take our future in our hands.
Absolutely!
New Tech ≠ Military Transformation - or advantage.
A powerful reminder from fmr UK CDS Nick Carter in his new @WarOnTheRocks article
Learning from #Ukraine & military history, real change needs integration, vision & realistic experimentation at scale
warontherocks.com/2026/01/a-ne...
@phillipspobrien.bsky.social @carlomasala1.bsky.social
@warinthefuture.bsky.social @zackcooper.bsky.social
Very pleased to make this list.
Thanks for including me @bctallis.bsky.social
My top 20 reads of 2025
(incl a few evergreen re-reads)
These books materially shaped how I think and work — and several translated directly into real professional impact.
I’ve got a strong list for 2026, but I’m keen to sharpen it:
- what should I be reading next?
Military need & geopolitical reality not bureaucratic timelines or fiscal shortsightedness must drive Europe’s rearmament.
We need to align pol, Econ & mil timelines to transform our forces, fast.
Delayed deterrence is failed deterrence
- & failed deterrence costs so much more.
👇
Honoured to be at @rusi.bsky.social for CDS lecture in London.
A broad ‘whole of society’ vision & strong words on lethality, but as the questions showed, UK need to dispel a perceived ‘say-do gap’.
Building on Atlantic Bastion model to get new capability at speed & scale would do just that.
Next leg of the Winterreise.
After a brief festive pit stop in beautiful #Prague, I’m now back on the road, heading to #London for meetings with experts & a special event.
We have so much to protect - & much to do to protect it, but wherever I’ve been so far we’re stepping up.
Baby, it’s cold outside!
Wonderful, short but intense wintry trip to #Ottawa.
Great to check in with
experts, policy shapers & industry players
& feel the energy for defence transformation & building military capability using AI.
Geopolitical winter is coming but we need to be #preparednotscared
Political will meets cutting edge expertise & industrial dynamism.
⏩🇩🇪🇨🇦🦾
It was an honour to co-lead the session on rising to new security challenges at the excellent German-Canadian AI Symposium in Montreal in the company of political, industry & AI leaders.
Now we all need to deliver.
Munich was looking wonderfully festive, & it was a wrench to leave after such a flying visit - though we crammed a lot of work in with a high-intensity engagement with military leaders.
But, it’s already ‘giddy up Jingle Horse’, and on to Montreal via, a lovely dawn, for the AI symposium.
It was an honour to engage with the Bundeswehr Führungsakademie Transatlantic Seminar at Helsing Munich on a crucial topic:
- We need to master current & future shifts or face being mastered by our enemies.
Europe must act now. We should use Russia’s frozen assets to provide a reparations loan that strengthens Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. This is fair, feasible and urgent. Leaders of 🇫🇮🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹🇸🇪🇵🇱🇮🇪 to 🇪🇺 in the name of 🇺🇦
