RUSI Land Warfare Conference 2024 Session Recordings

Session 1: Keynote address – What does the future of warfare on land look like?
Are prevailing theories about the future of war misunderstanding or overselling the role of technological change, and what can be learned from operational and experimental data?

Chair: Matthew Savill MBE, Director of Military Sciences, RUSI
Speakers:
Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare, RUSI 
Dr Paul Hollinshead MBA OBE, Chief Executive, DSTL

Session 2: What is the future of combined arms warfare?
While a revolution of military affairs might be afoot through cheap precision fires and the lethality they offer, the evidence from Ukraine has highlighted how change can lead to indecisive and attritional dynamics, anathema to the long-standing manoeuvre aspirations of Western forces. We consider how Western Forces should reinvigorate combined arms capabilities after years of neglect.

Chair: Professor Anthony King, University of Exeter  
Speakers:
Major General Olly Brown, General Office Commanding 3 (UK) Division
Matt McKee, BlueHalo
Brigadier General Stephanie Ahern, US Army Futures Command

Session 3: Multi domain integration: Unlocking the challenges
Mastering multi-domain integration has been pitched as the key to future operational success when facing peer adversaries. The US Army has recently overhauled its operational doctrine to fully incorporate multi-domain operations. Its allies, including the UK, are following suit. However, despite a great deal of investment, the family of concepts - including Multi-Domain Operations (MDO), Joint All Domain Operations (JADO) and Joint All Domain Command & Control (JADC2) - have yet to be fully translated into reality. Defining and operationalising them will be a key challenge for the next few years.

Chair: General (Ret.) The Lord Richard Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL
Speakers:
Air Commodore Blyth Crawford CBE, Commandant Air & Space Warfare Centre
Andrew Mitchell, Deputy Director, Maritime Capability Sponsor
Major General Dan Reeve MC, General Office Commanding 1st (UK) Division

Session 4: Accelerating technological integration at the edge
Embracing all the relevant aspects of technological transformation is a core part of the British Army’s roadmap. Yet it is also a common topic of popular discussion within defence circles and civil society. Setting realistic expectations is as important as understanding the true potential of new technologies and how they can support each other.

Chair: Professor Justin Bronk, Senior Research Fellow, Airpower & Technology
Speakers:
Major General Alex Turner DSO, Director Army Futures
Alex Cresswell, Chief Executive Officer, Thales
Dr Gundbert Scherf, CEO and Co-Founder, Helsing
Dr Yoge Patel, CEO and Founder, Blue Bear Group

Session 6: Keynote Address
Chair: Dr Jonathan Eyal, Associate Director, Strategic Research Partnerships, RUSI 
Speaker: The Rt Hon John Healey MP, Secretary of State for Defence

Session 7: Day 2 Opening Keynote Address
Chair: Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Deputy Director-General, RUSI. 
Speaker: Admiral Sir Tony Radakin KCB ADC, Chief of the Defence Staff 

Session 8: Land force outputs – Delivering for NATO and the nation
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

Session 9: How do we ensure Land force resilience?
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

Session 10: How can industry equip and support the force at the speed of relevance?
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

Session 11 : Can Partner Force Capacity Building deliver strategic value?
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

Session 12: Closing Keynote Address
Chair: Sir David Lidington KCB CBE, RUSI Chair
Speaker: General Sir Roly Walker KCB DSO ADC Gen, Chief of the General Staff