War in Ukraine: Ensuring Data Flow on the Battlefield - Bridgeworks

The war between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted a number of potential weaknesses from energy security and in supply chains of chip set supplies and commodities such as food, to the exploitation of IT, through cyber-attacks and cyber-espionage. The latter can be a strength too, as new technologies have been tested in the conflict by, for example, Ukraine, to oust Russian forces from their territories. These include autonomous and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the use of artificial intelligence for data gathering to enable "precise strikes and effective surveillance and reconnaissance, which can – at least in part – be attributed to the knowledge which the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine is receiving from the western allies"; and the use of satellites such as Elon Musk's Starlink by Ukraine to attack Russian positions. Key to the success in the conflict is Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT). "The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has exposed the importance of resilient PNT for a nation's safety and security. It has opened up doors to discussions on the fragility of GPS signals that can cost millions of human lives, when data is available to an enemy entity", writes Nibedita Mohanta for Geospatial World in her article, 'Why PNT is vital for national security?'.