French Air and Space Force Chief of Staff Gen. Stéphane Mille, German Air Force Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz and Spanish Air and Space Force Chief of Staff Gen. Javier Salto Martínez-Avial signed a “collaborative air combat” document Wednesday morning in a small ceremony during the biennial Paris Air Show here.

French Air Force Gen. Jean-Luc Moritz, the service’s FCAS director, described the document as “a common operational vision” highlighting the main requirements and challenges to design a “next-generation warfare system fit for this future collaborative combat.”

France and Germany first launched the FCAS program in 2017, and Spain joined as an equal partner in 2020. The endeavor aims to deliver a wide gamut of cutting-edge aerospace technologies to the three air forces by roughly 2040.

While the new air warfare doctrine itself is not yet publicly available, Moritz explained its key tenets.

The warplane thrust of the FCAS program – considered the cornerstone of the future system-of-systems – will henceforth be designated as a “command fighter” aircraft, meaning “a standalone combat capability providing the ability to control unmanned components and to command other combat aircraft, being able to perform C2 [command-and-control] functions,” he said.

The new name denotes how both the “command” and “fighter” elements are equally important, Moritz said. On the command side, the aircraft will employ artificial intelligence (AI) and data link technologies to allow pilots to also perform battlefield management functions while in the air. Meanwhile, the aircraft will also need to act as a traditional fighter to survive future threat environments.

“A balanced command fighter is what we need,” Moritz said.

When it comes to drones accompanying the envisioned aircraft, the collaborative air warfare doctrine will use “swarming and teaming” tactics alongside artificial intelligence to create unpredictability for the adversary, according to Moritz.

Meanwhile, the program’s combat cloud pillar will be “the main challenge” of the project, he added. “Mesh, redundant, and heterogeneous networks between any contributors of the Collaborative Air Warfare must avoid any single point of failure,” said Moritz. Key requirements includes the ability to withstand communications jamming, a high level of discretion and dynamic cybersecurity practices.

Notably, Belgian Air Chief Maj. Gen. Thierry Dupont was also present at the signing ceremony, although he did not sign the document himself. Belgium has formally joined the FCAS program in an “observer status” for the time being. 

The soldiers — most of whom are from 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment, stationed at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station in Niagara Falls, New York — will join the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, according to a press release from the New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs.

Also deploying with the group are soldiers from the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team headquarters and other National Guard units from across New York.

The training group teaches tactics and staff work to five Ukrainian army battalions at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, near Yavoriv, Ukraine. They are joining troops from Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom on the training mission.

“While this mission to provide training and support for Ukraine’s armed forces supports our Army’s engagement in Europe, our real success will be built on the efforts of our Army Guard soldiers and leaders who again answer the call,” said Col. Dennis Deeley, commander of the training element.

The training will focus on defense and security missions, according the press release. Other units are also working to modernize the Ukrainian Army’s doctrine. The ultimate goal is to mirror the training U.S. Army units receive at places like the National Training Center at Fort, Irwin, California, prior to combat deployments, according to the press release.

The soldiers flew to Fort Bliss, Texas, Monday. They will then continue to Germany for a month of pre-deployment training at the 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area, according to the press release.

The New York National Guard soldiers will replace those from the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Brigade Combat Team who have been in Ukraine since January.

The Dragon-17 exercise involves some 17,000 land, air force and navy troops and some 3,500 units of equipment and runs through Sept. 29. For the first time the biannual drill is being joined by Poland’s new Territorial Defense Forces, which train civilian volunteers to support regular troops. Cybersecurity is also being tested.

On Thursday, Deputy Defense Minister Michal Dworczyk is expected to visit the exercise, which is Poland’s biggest this year. He has said the drills test defensive operation between Polish troops and those deployed in Poland by NATO and by the U.S. in response to the region’s concerns over Russia’s military activity.

The scenario for the exercise sees the troops reacting to “attempt at taking control of a disputed territory though hybrid actions,” Dworczyk has said, noting it was inspired by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Dworczyk also noted that security experts in Poland and in the region are concerned that Russia may leave some military units in Belarus following the Zapad (West) 2017 maneuvers, which wrapped up Wednesday.

NATO members, including the Baltic states and Poland, have suggested the number of troops was higher than the declared 12,700 and have questioned Moscow’s intentions in holding such major war games.

The video, posted Tuesday by local Yekaterinburg, Russia, news site 66.ru, was allegedly taken at a parking lot near a firing range in Russia’s Leningrad region. It shows three non-military vehicles and a man in civilian clothing walking toward the edge of the frame.

In the distance, two Ka-52 attack helicopters can be seen flying at low altitude when suddenly one of the aircraft fires two S-8 rockets at a target just out of frame — crossing directly in front of the lone individual seen in the video. The aftermath of the attack is not shown.

Zapad-2017: Helicopters almost hit observers in Leningrad region https://t.co/hNV8j67hNS pic.twitter.com/KFJ943uqVj via @mil_in_ua

— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) September 19, 2017

The website that published the video says it does not know exactly when the incident took place but that it likely happened on Sept. 17 or the next day. It is also unclear who the casualties were, though 66.ru speculates: “They were probably journalists.”

Russia and its ally Belarus, with which the Zapad war games are co-managed, have invited a number of international observers — including journalists — to watch the exercises, which are some of the largest since the end of the Cold War.

The Russian Defense Ministry was quick to deny that the videos were genuine — at least at first.

In the initial reaction to the video, the Defense Ministry claimed that the video was not recorded during Zapad 2017, rather “in a different period of time, when Army aviation crews conducted an exercise to destroy ground targets in a tactical exercise.”

According to the Defense Ministry statement, as quoted by Russian news outlet RBC, the video shows the erroneous targeting of a vehicle outside a designated target area. They did not specify when exactly, according to their version of events, the incident took place.

Ultimately, they lashed out at 66.ru, calling the reports “deliberate provocation or someone’s own stupidity.” An unidentified Defense Ministry source quoted by RBC seemed to contradict this sentiment, but it placed the incident on Sept. 16.

Heating up

The controversy surrounding the alleged Ka-52 mishap comes as the Zapad war game reaches feverous heights. On Sept. 18, President Vladimir Putin traveled to St. Petersburg to witness livefire exercises at a nearby training range and kicked off phase two of the exercises.

Broadly speaking, phase two differs from the first in scope. Phase one, which began on Sept. 14, focused on problems with logistics and preparations for deployment into Belarus to suppress a fictional pro-Western insurgency and hold the line against an attack from the West.

Phase two can be thought of as preparations for a total war scenario against a well-equipped conventional foe in the west — it would not be unreasonable to consider NATO as Moscow’s imagined foe in this scenario.

Motor rifle divisions and airborne units were deployed into Belarus under adverse weather conditions — winter appears to be rearing its head early this year — while Su-24M fighter bombers dropped 250-kilogram bombs on enemy infrastructure and deployments.

On Tuesday, things heated up. According to Defense Ministry press releases, a tank group defended Russian and Belarusian positions against an enemy attempt to break their lines and spearhead deep into the so-called Union State of Russia and Belarus.

This part of the exercise featured shock troops, T-80 tanks, 152 mm howitzers, unmanned armored vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles and rocket artillery. Above the fray, the Russian Air Force continued to practice defending airspace from western incursions and attacks.

“MiG-31BM interceptors were deployed to repulse a simulated enemy attack, during which pilots of the Western Military District and on-duty air defenses intercepted more than 30 aircraft approaching their air defense zone,” one statement read.

The aerial portion of Tuesday’s air defense exercise, at least as related by Defense Ministry statements, focused on MiG-31 intercepts of cruise missiles launched from behind enemy lines — underscoring that this entire exercise is meant to showcase readiness against NATO.

Putin observed the Zapad (West) 2017 drills — tank attacks, airborne assaults and air raids that got underway Thursday — at the Luzhsky range in western Russia, just more than 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) east of Estonia’s border.

As part of the maneuvers, the Russian military on Monday also test-fired its state-of-the-art cruise missile at a mock target in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, showcasing the weapon’s extended range and precision strike capability.

Some nervous NATO members, including the Baltic states and Poland, have criticized an alleged lack of transparency about the war games and questioned Moscow’s intentions.

The exercises, held in several firing ranges in Belarus and western Russia, run through Wednesday. Russia and Belarus say 5,500 Russian and 7,200 Belarusian troops are participating, but some NATO countries have estimated that up to 100,000 troops could be involved.

With Russia’s relations with the West at a post-Cold War low point over the fighting in Ukraine, worries about the war games ranged from allegations that Russia could permanently deploy its forces to Belarus to fears of a surprise onslaught on the Baltics.

Russia and Belarus have said the exercises simulate a response to foreign-backed “extremists” and insisted the maneuvers don’t threaten anyone.

Their troops are fighting three invented “aggressor countries” — Veishnoriya, Lubeniya and Vesbariya. However, the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — and Poland see the monikers for the made-up enemies as thinly disguised references to their nations.

NATO has rotated military units in the Baltics and Poland, and the alliance has staged regular drills in the region, activities Moscow has criticized as a reflection of the alliance’s hostile intentions.

Russia and Belarus kept the stated number of troops involved in the drills just fewer than 13,000, a limit allowing them to dodge more intrusive inspections by NATO in line with international agreements. The practice maneuvers nonetheless have put Russia’s massive military mobilization capability on display.

They also have involved various branches of the Russian military, including the Air Force’s long-range bombers and missile forces. In a reflection of the drills’ broad scope, they featured Monday’s launch of the Iskander-M cruise missile, a new weapon that has drawn concern from the United States.

The missile, launched from the Kapustin Yar firing range in southwestern Russia, hit a mock target at a range in Kazakhstan, some 480 kilometers away, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.

The U.S. has accused Russia of developing cruise missiles banned by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with a goal to threaten U.S. facilities in Europe and the NATO alliance. Moscow has rejected the accusations and insisted it has adhered to the pact.

The INF Treaty bans an entire class of weapons — all land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. The Iskander-M’s stated range puts it just below the pact’s threshold.

The Zapad 2017 maneuvers are intended to underline the close military cooperation between Russia and Belarus, but also revealed signs of strains between the allies. While Putin watched the previous drills in 2013 with his Belarusian counterpart, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said he would watch them separately on Wednesday.

Lukashenko has relied on subsidized Russian oil and gas supplies and billions of dollars in loans to keep his nation’s Soviet-style economy afloat. At the same time, he often has bristled at what he described as the Kremlin’s attempts to subdue Belarus and force it to surrender control over prized economic assets.

Lukashenko also has flirted with the West to try to reduce his dependence on Russia. His decision to dodge a joint appearance with Putin at the military exercises was seen by observers as an attempt to put some distance between Belarus and its giant eastern neighbor.

“Lukashenko is trying to mend ties with the West to get new loans, and the Kremlin’s military games don’t help that,” Alexander Klaskovsky, a Minsk-based political analyst, said.

Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Yuras Karmanau in Minsk contributed to this report.

Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz on Friday called the increase a necessary response to “threats from the East” where Russia is “using force to pursue its political goals.”

Russia and Belarus are currently holding major war games near Poland’s border.

The bill still needs approval by the Senate and the president.

Poland is among only five NATO member countries that meet the alliance’s requirement of spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense. Warsaw sees the need to increase that amount as it modernizes its armed forces and raises the number of troops.

For the next week, all eyes will be cast just over NATO’s Eastern flank; Zapad will tell us much about the status of Russian military modernization and reform.

But key insights will likely have to wait until the second phase of the exercise, set to begin Sept. 17. For the next three days, Russia and its ally Belarus will focus on logistical tasks ― such as mobilizing for combat. Once mobilized, the combined force of some 10,000 declared troops (of which only 3,000 are Russian) will begin to wrestle with a brewing insurgency in Belarus.

There is, of course, no real insurgency in Belarus, though Zapad is in itself meant to ensure that fact remains true. The combined force will be tasked with pacifying a pro-Western separatist movement with the fictional name of Veishnoria. It is a trial run against one of Russia’s greatest fears: a repeat of the 2014 Ukrainian maidan movement in Belarus, its last Western buffer.

But the exercise is bigger than that. Four years after the last time Russia and Belarus ran the 2013 Zapad exercise, much has changed ― both within the Russian military and between Moscow and the West. Relations between Russia and the West have hit lows unseen since the Cold War. And after Russia’s 2014 intervention in Ukraine, many in the West warily look upon Moscow.

Zapad will be a big test for the Russian military. This is the first major exercise in which the Baltic Fleet command structure will participate ― ever since the entire staff was fired last year ― as well as new and reconstituted units from Russia’s Western military district. Overall, Moscow is testing its ability to rapidly mobilize and deploy a combined force to its Western frontier.

Preparations and smaller-scale exercises leading into Zapad have been taking place throughout the year. The heightened activity has rattled nerves in the West, with some officials and observers claiming Russia has been disingenuous about total troop numbers involved. Others have suggested Zapad will serve to cover permanent deployments to NATO’s borders.

Some predictions have been even more dire: Zapad marks the first stage in a coming Russian move against NATO’s Eastern flank, or against Ukraine. This was stated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Sept. 7. To be sure, Russia used exercises in 2008 and 2014 to cover moves against Georgia and Ukraine, giving credence to such arguments.

But Russia and Belarus insist that Zapad 2017 is nothing more than an exercise. When the second phase of Zapad 2017 kicks off this Sunday, the combined force will practice defending positions against an unnamed military force. Wit this, Russia will be sending a message to NATO: We have the capabilities to hold our ground if you try anything.

Ultimately, Zapad is a message.

In the lead-up to Zapad, that message seemed to be spectacularly received. The hype surrounding Zapad is likely exactly what the Kremlin wanted: a wave of hysteria hyping Russian military capabilities where they may or may not exist. In the words of Finnish Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö, Zapad is primarily a propaganda exercise.

“Western countries have taken the bait completely, they’ve plugged the exercises so much,” he told the Finnish Yle news agency on Monday.

The variety of exercises before, and some that are continuing elsewhere in Russia during Zapad, have led some Western officials to estimate that Russia is conducting an exercise with some 100,000 troops involved. But this number depends on selective accounting. As part of Zapad, Russian civilian and law enforcement organs are practicing wartime duties.

These observations have been the focus of intense speculation in the West. But now that Zapad is here, it is time to watch and learn.

To finance the planned procurement and a number of other “high-priority projects” in the field of defense, the ministry has requested an increase in funding from the Bosnian government. A ministry spokesperson told local broadcaster Radio Sarajevo that the first two new transport helicopters with related equipment are to be purchased next year.

The helo acquisition is estimated to be worth some 65 million marks (U.S. $40 million).

While Bosnia and Herzegovina aspires to join NATO, Deputy Defence Minister Boris Jerinic, who is responsible for resource management, said the purchase of Russian helicopters for the country’s armed forces has not been ruled out.

Sarajevo could opt for a new generation of the Mil Mi helos, according to Jerinic.

Meanwhile, plans to modernize the country’s military capacities have been criticized by Milorad Dodik, the president of the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, which is one of the country’s two federal entities, alongside the Muslim- and Croat-dominated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dodik told Serbian daily Blic that the country’s government should officially identify demilitarization and military neutrality as its strategic objectives.

Britain says it wants close cooperation with the bloc on defense and foreign affairs, including joint foreign policy positions and cooperation on sanctions.

The government plans to publish details of its proposals Tuesday, in the latest in a series of position papers on aspects of Brexit.

Opponents of Brexit argue that leaving the EU will undermine cooperation with the bloc against crime, terrorism and military threats.

Attempting to allay those concerns, the government says it wants a security partnership “that is deeper than any other third country and that reflects our shared interest.”

Brexit Secretary David Davis said “it’s in our mutual interest” to work together against terrorism and other threats.

Hurriyet newspaper quoted Erdogan on Tuesday as telling a group of reporters that signatures have been put on accords and that Turkey has made a down payment on the surface-to-air defense systems.

“The process will continue through a transfer of credit from Russia to us,” Erdogan said

Turkey is a NATO member and its negotiations for the purchase of the Russian system have raised concerns with allies who say the country should invest in technology that is compatible with theirs.

Erdogan says it’s up to Turkey to make its own decisions on defense purchases.