New Weapons for New Wars – DEFENCE SYSTEMS get smart episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 10, 2026 · 40 MIN

New Weapons for New Wars – DEFENCE SYSTEMS get smart

from This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler · host Podmasters

A four-part series from This Is Not A Drill… Warfare is evolving faster than ever in this dangerous world. Gavin Esler explores a new generation of weapons and how they’ll fight – or prevent – the next wars. This time: When missiles and drones become cheaper and more widely-available, air defence becomes top priority. What does it mean when ruinously expensive interceptors like the Patriot go up against swarms of cheap, disposable Shahed drones? Will future wars be decided on who has the deepest pockets and fastest assembly lines? Can you build an Israeli-style Iron Dome over a territory as big as the USA? Which areas get protected? And does it all depend on the speed of the kill chain? Gavin Esler talks to: • Patrycja Bazylczyck, Associate director of the Missile Defence Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) • Michael Horowitz, Senior Fellow for Technology and Innovation at the Council on Foreign Relations • Illya Sekirin, former frontline drone operator for Ukraine and author of Rise of the Machines: Drone Warfare in the Russia-Ukraine War • Peter Apps, global defence columnist for Reuters, British Army reservist and author of The Next World War • Major General (Ret.) Mick Ryan of the Australian Army, author of The War for Ukraine and the Futura Doctrina Substack • Dr Sidharth Kaushal, senior research fellow in the Military Sciences programme at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)  Buy books through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund This Is Not A Drill by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Support us on Patreon to keep This Is Not A Drill producing thought-provoking podcasts like this. • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/drill • Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/drill Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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New Weapons for New Wars – DEFENCE SYSTEMS get smart

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