The Torch
Illuminating Security and Defence Issues
Emerging Technologies
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE’S GROWING ROLE IN MODERN WARFARE
13 October 2025
Nations are racing to integrate AI into military operations, with Ukraine and Russia at the forefront of developing autonomous systems for battlefield advantage....
Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI)
Reflections on Artificial intelligence and Canadian Defence
13 October 2025
The question is no longer whether armed forces will adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI), but how deeply it will be integrated into their operations. ...
Is AI Ready for Golden Dome’s Three-Minute War?
13 October 2025
President Trump’s Golden Dome initiative has certainly created buzz within the Space industry. There are a lot of questions still unanswered, namely what the architecture of the system will be. Despite this, some inferences can be made as to what this space-based system will eventually consist of.
Reflections on Artificial intelligence and Canadian Defence
5 September 2025
The question is no longer whether armed forces will adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI), but how deeply it will be integrated into their operations. The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Department of National Defence (DND) have acknowledged this reality by releasing an ambitious AI Strategy in 2024.
How Artificial General Intelligence Could Affect the Rise and Fall of Nations
5 September 2025
This report is intended to stimulate thinking among policymakers about possible impacts of the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) on geopolitics and the world order by highlighting potential future scenarios for AGI's governance and its effects on global power dynamics. In this report, the authors focus on a variety of impacts — some of which are perhaps unlikely but significant — arising from AGI's development and deployment that could fundamentally alter the existing geopolitical order.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE’S GROWING ROLE IN MODERN WARFARE
5 September 2025
Nations are racing to integrate AI into military operations, with Ukraine and Russia at the forefront of developing autonomous systems for battlefield advantage.
Not just drones, but massed swarms of them. Defences can’t cope
27 July 2025 -
A new and sophisticated phase of aerial warfare has emerged from the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East over the past month, defined by the systematic use of massed drone saturation attacks. This evolving doctrine, refined by Russia and Iran, uses quantity and simultaneity to overwhelm even the most advanced air-defence systems. The core of the tactic lies not in the technological superiority of any single weapon but in the brutal economic and operational logic of drone-based attrition. By doing so, it forces reassessment of how modern militaries can protect their airspace, infrastructure and military assets.
Drones are now bullets: How a new Pentagon policy may accelerate robot warfare
27 July 2025 -
The new policy also allows more units to buy drones, which should boost the demand signal to industry.
AI in Warfare: What You Need to Know in 2025
27 July 2025 -
Let's get smarter about AI in warfare
Pentagon pushes US dronemakers to innovate as quickly as Ukraine does
10 June 2025 -
A new Pentagon program is pushing drone makers to continuously improve their systems based on troops’ feedback, hoping to spur innovation that moves as quickly as the war in Ukraine.
Decrypting tomorrow’s threats: critical infrastructure needs post-quantum protection today
10 June 2025 -
Some argue we still have time, since quantum computing capable of breaking today’s encryption is a decade or more away. But breakthrough capabilities, especially in domains tied to strategic advantage, rarely follow predictable timelines. Just as nuclear research leapt from theory to practical application with little warning, quantum computing could deliver similar surprises. That uncertainty makes waiting a dangerous gamble.
AI Imperative—China’s AI Surge: The New Sputnik Moment
10 June 2025 -
The United States is locked in a technological arms race with China over the future of artificial intelligence, a revolutionary technology with significant implications for national security, economic competitiveness, and political influence on the world stage. To prevent authoritarian dominion over the global development and utilization of advanced intelligent systems, the United States faces an imperative to lead the world in AI.
The Strategist / Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A counter to drone swarms: high-power microwave weapons
20 May 2025
Military forces must prioritise a counter to drone swarming tactics with which inexpensive, mass-produced drones can overwhelm defences. What is needed is a layered defensive system that includes systems that can neutralise many threats within seconds. One such solution is now becoming available: the contemporary high-energy, high-power microwave (HPM) weapon.
China’s counter-UAV efforts reveal more than technological advancement
20 May 2025
They also show the PLA’s dedication to learning from conflict and tech trends and its determination to dominate the electromagnetic battlespace.
How drones, data, and AI transformed our military—and why the US must follow suit
20 May 2025
A former Ukrainian commander-in-chief describes Ukraine’s DELTA battlefield-management system and other adaptations.
Unmanned Systems Are Not Revolutionary (But Could Be)
8 May 2025
Rather than revolutionizing warfare, unmanned systems have emerged as evolutions within the larger information revolution; advancements to be sure, but failing to render conventional militaries obsolete or dramatically reshaping force structures.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)
The beauty of an 80 percent solution: lessons from the RQ-7B program
26 March 2025
As so often, the Australian Defence Force wanted the exquisite solution. It wanted uncrewed battlefield reconnaissance aircraft of a design that wasn’t operational anywhere and would achieve performance that other countries didn’t have.And the acquisition led nowhere—except to prompt a successful replacement effort that gave the ADF a powerful lesson in the merits of toning down requirements to get something that is good enough and can go into service fast enough.
Drone Wars: Developments in Drone Swarm Technology
26 March 2025
“Drone swarms”, as defined by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), consist of coordinated systems of at least three and potentially thousands of drones that can perform missions autonomously with minimal human oversight. These swarms leverage swarm intelligence, mirroring biological patterns seen in groups of ants, bees, or birds, where decentralized rules create complex collective behavior.
The International Race To Lead In Quantum Technology
26 March 2025
Over the last decade, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has increasingly developed, got public attention and critical scrutiny, another important technology has been developing without public attention. Now, Quantum Computing aims to use operations based on quantum mechanics to crack computational problems that were thought to be impossible to solve.