The Last Patrol
The United Kingdom has maintained a continuous at-sea deterrent (CASD) since 1969, code-named Operation Relentless, meaning at least one nuclear-armed submarine is always on patrol, hidden in the world's oceans.
Latest
AI-Driven Space Traffic Control: Protecting the Orbital Environment
On a clear night, a speck of paint from a decommissioned satellite can still be hurtling towards the next generation of Earth-orbiting technology at more than 10 kilometres per second. With over 11,000 active satellites currently circling Earth and more than 1.2 million pieces of space debris larger
What Cybersecurity Gets Wrong About the New Space Race
The sky has changed, but our security playbooks have not. Satellites now underpin navigation, finance, logistics, media, and military operations. They are no longer rare, government-only assets. They are cloud-connected, software-defined, and commercially operated at scale. Yet much of cybersecurity still treats space as exotic and separate, a future problem
2030: War in the Shadows: How China Could Take Taiwan Without Firing First
The first sign was not a missile launch, but a picture. At 06:42 Taipei time, a high‑resolution satellite image surfaced on a public imagery feed: a line of grey hulls pushing east from the Chinese coast, wakes cutting clean V‑shapes through the strait. Amateur analysts on X
Echoes of Armageddon: Why We’ve Stopped Fearing Nuclear War and Why That Should Worry Us
Once, nuclear war haunted films, protests, and public imagination. Today, the fear has faded—but the threat hasn’t. This piece explores how we lost our nuclear anxiety, why that might be dangerous, and what we stand to forget if we stop paying attention.
Swarm: The Rise of Mega-Constellations and the Battle for Low Earth Orbit - Chapter 1
Orbits of Power: From Sputnik to Starlink © Jay Allen 2025 “It wasn’t the beep that scared them. It was the orbit.” On 4 October 1957, a polished metal sphere the size of a beach ball lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It weighed just 83 kilograms and
Swarm: The Rise of Mega-Constellations and the Battle for Low Earth Orbit - Prologue
The Sky is Full © Jay Allen 2025 Above Ukraine, the Future Arrived Early In the opening days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the war appeared to follow a familiar script. Tanks breached borders. Missiles rained on cities. Airstrikes lit the skies over Kyiv. Yet high
Europe's Orbital Awakening: How the EU Space Act Rewrites the Rules of Allied Deterrence
On June 20th, 2025, the European Commission quietly released a draft regulation that is one of the most geopolitically consequential documents of the year. Titled the EU Space Act, it mandates new cybersecurity, resilience, and environmental standards for all space systems operating within the Union. On the surface, it appears
Rearming the Ladder: Britain’s F-35A Move and the Return of Tactical Deterrence
The UK’s announcement that it will procure F-35A Lightning II jets and formally commit to NATO’s nuclear sharing mission marks a subtle but significant shift in its approach to deterrence, escalation, and alliance solidarity. After years of strategic ambiguity and a doctrine that placed Trident as the singular
Ladders and Leverage: Rethinking the UK's Nuclear Deterrent in an Era of Strategic Ambiguity
@jayallen.pro [Bluesky] | LinkedIn As the United Kingdom enters a new era of strategic competition, marked by the resurgence of great power rivalry, the weaponisation of space and cyberspace, and the erosion of arms control norms, questions about how the UK manages escalation and deterrence are becoming more urgent. The
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the AI
I’d just finished watching Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb when the idea for this blog struck me. Kubrick’s absurd, satirical take on Cold War nuclear brinkmanship felt eerily relevant, not because we’re on the edge of nuclear war, but
The Identity Crisis: How AI is Reshaping the Security Landscape of Identity and Access Management
Organisations face an unprecedented challenge in the rapidly evolving digital landscape: balancing artificial intelligence’s (AI) transformative potential with the fundamental need to secure identity and access management (IAM) systems. As we integrate AI more deeply into our security infrastructure, we must confront the remarkable opportunities and the sobering risks
AI
Enterprise AI Risk Management: From Theory to Practice
In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, enterprises face a critical challenge: how to harness the transformative power of artificial intelligence while effectively managing its inherent risks. Recent events have shown us that this balance isn’t just theoretical; it’s a practical necessity that can make or break organisations.
AI
Is There a "Moore's Law" for AI? What Exponential Growth in AI Could Mean for Our Future
Remember Moore’s Law? It’s the famous observation that the number of transistors on computer chips doubles about every two years, leading to exponential growth in computing power. Now, as we witness the breakneck pace of AI development, many wonder: Is a similar pattern happening with artificial intelligence? The
Musings
The Rise of OSINT: Exploring Its Place in the Intelligence World
In recent years, open-source intelligence (OSINT) has emerged as a critical tool for gathering and analysing information from publicly available sources. As the digital landscape continues to expand, the potential for OSINT to provide valuable insights has grown exponentially. In this blog post, we’ll explore OSINT, its place in
Musings
The Future Defence of Europe: Nuclear Deterrence and the Domains of Cyber and Space
As Europe faces an increasingly complex security environment, questions around the continent’s future defence posture have taken on renewed urgency. The spectre of Russian aggression, underscored by the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House, will force European leaders
Space
The Satellite Internet Era: Bridging the Digital Divide, Risks, and Securing Our Connected Future at Dawn
A Constellation of Connectivity and The New Space Race Imagine gazing at the night sky, not just in awe of the twinkling stars, but at an intricate web of thousands of tiny satellites silently zipping overhead, beaming internet connectivity to every corner of our planet. This cosmic vision is swiftly
Musings
The Spectre of Cyber Espionage: A 21st Century Cold War?
As I delve deeper into my Master’s in Global Security Studies, I find myself drawn to the current events unfolding in the news. The upcoming elections in the U.S. and U.K. have sparked my curiosity about the hidden world of global intelligence, espionage, and secret communication. This
Musings
Embracing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: A Leap Forward for Cybersecurity Leaders
In the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently unveiled a significant update to its widely adopted Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). The NIST CSF 2.0 introduces substantial changes and enhancements, marking a pivotal moment for CISOs and cybersecurity leaders to reassess their strategies and
AI
What is a Copilot? Understanding AI Assistance in Software
The “AI copilot” concept has recently grown increasingly popular in software and technology (aviation copilots are a very different thing). Multiple vendors now offer solutions that include an AI copilot to provide assistance to users. But what exactly is a copilot in software, and how does it work? This blog
Flying
The Skies Aren't So Friendly: Managing Cybersecurity Risks in Aviation
The aviation industry has always been at the forefront of technological innovation. From the early pioneers who took to the skies in rickety wooden craft to the development of massive 400-ton aircraft that can fly halfway around the world nonstop, aviation has constantly evolved to leverage the latest and greatest
Musings
Has the Zero Trust Message Got Lost?
Zero Trust has become one of the hottest buzzwords in cybersecurity over the past few years. The core concept – that organisations should not automatically trust anything inside or outside their perimeters – seems intuitively sensible in an age of cloud computing, mobile devices, and distributed workforces. However, perhaps a controversial view
AI
AI and the War for Truth: How Deepfakes and Cybersecurity Threaten Global Security
We live in an age where technology allows the creation of increasingly realistic fake videos and audio, known as deepfakes. At the same time, cyberattacks and hacking grow ever more sophisticated. Together, these trends threaten to undermine public trust and global security in profoundly concerning ways. In particular, the upcoming
AI
The Final Frontier: How AI is Propelling Space Exploration into the Future
Space is the final frontier. Since the dawn of humankind, we have gazed up at the stars and galaxies above, our curiosity and imagination wondering what exists in the vast cosmos. We have made tremendous progress in space exploration over the past few decades, from landing humans on the moon