Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

This study analyses how soldier motivation differs between peacetime and combat security contexts. A structured review of 28 peer‑reviewed studies (2003–2025) from European and North American armed forces shows that peacetime motivation is driven mainly by belonging, prosocial values, and career development, while combat motivation relies on unit cohesion, trust in leadership, and mission meaning. Soldier motivation is thus dynamic, multidimensional, and context‑dependent. The findings support personnel policy, leadership development, and retention in defence organisations.

The transformation of the modern battlespace, defined by pervasive surveillance and precision-strike lethality, has fundamentally reshaped tactical logistical requirements. Last-mile logistics represents a critical vulnerability in high-intensity conflicts, where conventional crewed resupply is hindered by prohibitive risks and operational friction. The paradigm of Distributed Logistics in Contested Environments (DLCE) demands the integration of uncrewed and autonomous systems capable of penetrating Anti-Access/Area Denial envelopes under severe electronic warfare conditions. Nevertheless, a doctrinal gap remains in uncrewed aerial system (UAS) classification for logistics, existing North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the United States Department of Defense frameworks, primarily focused on mass and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, overlook logistical imperatives such as payload efficiency and specialized cargo requirements. This article evaluates current classification constraints and introduces the functionally oriented Military Logistics UAS Taxonomy (UAS-L). Through Multi-Criteria Decision-Making and tactical scenario validation, the study identifies optimal operational modalities for uncrewed and hybrid logistical architectures in near-peer conflicts.

This study addresses key issues related to the technical protection and restoration of critical railway infrastructure in the Czech Republic when dealing with military and non-military crisis situations. These issues can be divided into problems of organizational nature and technical problems. The study demonstrates how these key issues can be resolved and what steps are required. Ensuring the operational readiness of railway infrastructure is an integral part of successfully managing crisis situations and securing military transport, as well as transport for the national economy and the population.

The paper examines the role of the University of Defence as the academic engine of a Multi-Domain Concept Centre supporting Multi-Domain Operations in a small-state context. Using document and comparative analysis and stakeholder workshops, it proposes a Concept Development and Experimentation–driven framework integrating doctrine, experimentation, capability planning, and education. Findings show that academic leadership enhances methodological rigor, interoperability, and knowledge transfer. The paper presents an original NATO-aligned model for sustainable multi-domain concept development.

This paper explores the potential applications of cost-benefit analysis in the evaluation of investments in military technology. The study assesses the limitations of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in the defence sector and discusses ways to adapt its methodology so that it better reflects the specific characteristics of defence planning, the uncertainty of the security environment, and the operational realities of the armed forces. Using selected simplified model examples, the paper demonstrates that CBA cannot serve as a mechanical tool for optimal decision-making; however, it can significantly contribute to structuring the decision-making problem, transparently comparing alternatives, and supporting allocation-rational decision-making, including the monetization of intangible outputs in the context of defence.

This study investigates the long-term relationship between military expenditures and public indebtedness in Finland and Sweden over the period 2000–2024, in the context of rising defence spending linked to the Russian–Ukrainian conflict and NATO’s 2% GDP target. The main objective is to examine whether a positive relationship exists between military expenditures and national debt. Estimating an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework with macroeconomic control variables, the results reveal a statistically significant positive long-run effect for Sweden, while Finland exhibits a negative relationship. The findings suggest that the fiscal impact of defence spending is country-specific.

This article analyzes the career planning model for officers in the Lithuanian Armed Forces as one of the key instruments to develop human capabilities and ensure military readiness. The purpose of the study is to assess how the interaction between vertical and horizontal career paths is defined in officer career planning documents and what impact this interaction has on the development of officers’ competencies, leadership continuity, and institutional resilience of the defence system.

The article analyzes the role of firefighting units in armed conflict and their importance for the protection of civilians. Using examples from Ukraine and Israel, it describes the expansion of tasks from classic firefighting and rescue to civil defense activities: evacuations, interventions in simultaneous fires, technical assistance and debris removal, emergency water supply, handling unexploded ordnance and CBRN incidents, and providing psychosocial support. He discusses key challenges (safety, logistics, staff workload) and emphasizes the need for coordination with the Integrated Rescue System and the army. He proposes recommendations for increasing preparedness and resilience.

Sustaining professional military service is a critical challenge for small NATO member states facing prolonged security pressures and demographic constraints. This study examines the determinants of long‑term professional military service sustainability in the Lithuanian Armed Forces, situating personnel retention within a broader defense sustainability and resilience framework. Using a quantitative research design, data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 207 professional military service soldiers serving in the Infantry Battalion. Hierarchical regression analysis was employed to assess the incremental contribution of structural, organizational, attitudinal, and personal factors to soldiers’ intention to remain in long‑term service. The results indicate that working environment quality provides an essential structural foundation for retention, while professional satisfaction significantly enhances commitment to continued service. Most notably, personal values and family influence emerged as the strongest predictor of long‑term retention intentions, substantially increasing the explanatory power of the model. Organizational and career‑related factors showed indirect effects when more proximal determinants were considered. The findings suggest that sustainable professional military service depends not only on favourable service conditions and organizational practices but, above all, on value alignment and family support. These results underscore the importance of integrating social sustainability considerations into defence human resource policies to strengthen long‑term force resilience.

This study evaluates the translation capabilities of selected AI language models in a defence and security context through a multistage multilingual workflow combining translation, language identification, and back-translation. Using 32 English inputs across eight target languages, the study compares offline and online models in terms of translation quality, processing stability, and task performance across varying levels of sentence complexity. The findings indicate that all models perform strongly on basic translation tasks, but notable differences emerge in language identification, back-translation quality, and output stability. The results help clarify the conditions under which AI translation can support security-relevant multilingual workflows.