RUSI Land Warfare Conference 2024

Chair: Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Deputy Director-General, RUSI. 

Speaker: Admiral Sir Tony Radakin KCB ADC, Chief of the Defence Staff 

The role and contribution of Land Forces within the NATO alliance requires careful examination and consideration of the challenges that they will face - from a historic lack of capital investment giving way to the question of how to absorb renewed investment quickly and restoring readiness, to the perpetual tension between sovereign capabilities and national interests against the coherence of NATO’s forces.

Chair: Professor Andrew Stewart, CHACR

Speakers:
Lieutenant General Mike Elviss CB MBE, Commander Field Army
Major General Hartmut Renk, Deputy Commanding General for Integration USAREUR-AF, Bundeswehr
Major General Mark Pullan CBE, Deputy Chief of Staff Plans, Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum

A major lesson from Ukraine is that mass still matters, and Western concepts of operation that over-emphasise First Battle thinking may initially produce good results only to falter if the ability to sustain the force over subsequent campaigns in the face of significant attrition is neglected. Likewise, if additional forces can be made available but not at the speed of relevance, or if nations and alliances are not as resilient as the militaries that protect them, then the risk of failure is likely.

Chair: Air Commodore (Ret.) Paul O’Neill CBE, Senior Research Fellow, RUSI 

Speakers:
Lieutenant General Charlie Collins DSO OBE, Commander Home Command
Tom Newman, Chief Executive Land, Babcock
Major General André Denk, Deputy Chief Executive European Defence Agency, Bundeswehr

Defence industrial recapitalisation has returned as a political and strategic imperative. NATO’s armed forces are likely to require mass and a high volume of arms, munitions and vehicles. New technologies must be adopted and integrated into the traditional military system and linked by modern command and control networks. Fundamentally, industry, military and society must have the correct structures, administrative and legal frameworks, and overall relationships, if the capability to fight and therefore deter is to be maintained in the long term.

Chair: Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor, The Economist

Speakers:
Lieutenant General David Eastman MBE, Deputy Chief of the General Staff
Richard Holroyd, CEO, Capita
Fred Hargreaves OBE, Director Strategy, L3Harris
Chris Sylvan, Business Development Director, Anduril UK

Great power competition with Russia and China has led European and East Asian security issues to become more prominent. However, much of this competition is taking place in other countries across the Middle East and Africa. For Western governments, working with partners whose interests may variously overlap with and diverge from their own is an essential part of global engagement.

Chair: Dr Ziya Meral, RUSI Senior Associate

Speakers:
Brigadier Justin Stenhouse CBE DSO, Former Commander 11 Security Force Assistance Brigade, now Head of Capability Plans - Finance and Military Capability, MOD
Dr Michael Shurkin, Director of Global Programmes, 14 North Strategy
Lieutenant General (Ret.) Sean MacFarland

Chair: Sir David Lidington KCB CBE, RUSI Chair

Speaker: General Sir Roly Walker KCB DSO ADC Gen, Chief of the General Staff