With this article, we begin publishing a series of reports from Dubai, where the author, Federica Bertoni, lives and works as a strategic cyber intelligence analyst. Bertoni’s reports will offer valuable insights directly from one of the front lines of this conflict, with a particular focus on the cyber aspects of this war. [Machiavelli Foundation]
Recent missile and drone attacks have highlighted the operational effectiveness of the United Arab Emirates’ defensive shield and the technological resilience of Dubai as a global hub.
Crisis perception and ground observation
In the night between 28 February and 1 March, shortly after 1 a.m., a missile alert shattered the silence of the early morning in Dubai. Smartphones simultaneously issued a notification accompanied by a synthetic voice announcing the activation of security procedures. Moments later, several distant explosions could be heard.
In the initial stages, interpreting these events was neither immediate nor straightforward. Only hours later did it become clear that these explosions did not represent impacts on the ground but rather the result of interceptions carried out by air-defence systems neutralising hostile projectiles before they could reach sensitive targets. The distinction is crucial for understanding the dynamics of the events. When a missile or drone is intercepted at altitude, the explosion generates fragments that may fall back to the ground. Consequently, localised damage observed in some urban areas is often attributable to debris produced by interceptions rather than to direct strikes.
The perception on the ground differed significantly from the narrative circulating in certain external analyses. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, several international observers described the situation as potentially destabilising for Dubai’s urban system. Direct observation suggested instead a more nuanced interpretation, highlighting the capacity of the city’s urban and infrastructural systems to maintain operational continuity even in the presence of threats.
The Emirati defensive architecture
Over the past two decades, the United Arab Emirates has developed one of the most sophisticated air- and missile-defence architectures in the Middle East and among the most advanced globally. The system is built upon a multilayered Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) architecture designed to detect, track, and neutralise aerospace threats across varying altitudes and ranges.
Among the core components of this structure are the Patriot PAC-3 batteries and the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system, designed to intercept ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of their trajectory. The integration of these systems enables the construction of a layered defensive network capable of engaging multiple threats within complex operational environments.
The effectiveness of this architecture lies not only in the individual defensive platforms but also in the integration of radar sensors, command-and-control systems, and military communication networks. The resulting defensive structure operates as a distributed system capable of responding to hybrid attack scenarios combining ballistic vectors, unmanned aerial systems, and asymmetric threats.
Urban resilience and operational continuity
If the military dimension constitutes the first layer of security, the resilience of a global city such as Dubai also depends on the continuity of its civilian and digital infrastructures.
Dubai represents one of the principal critical nodes of the global economy, a systemic hub where financial infrastructures, logistics platforms, and digital networks converge to sustain transcontinental flows of capital, data, and mobility.
Maintaining operational continuity during a crisis therefore becomes a key indicator of the robustness of the urban system. In the first days of the crisis, the city demonstrated considerable systemic resilience, maintaining public services, digital infrastructures, and economic activity with only minimal disruption.
This resilience reflects an urban planning model designed to support high levels of global connectivity and to absorb operational shocks without compromising the functioning of economic and technological networks.
Digital infrastructure and technological security
Within this framework, the cyber dimension assumes a central role. In the days following the attacks, the local technology sector focused particular attention on the outage affecting Amazon servers in the region. This incident brought to the forefront a fundamental issue in contemporary technological geopolitics: the dependence of global hubs on cloud infrastructures operated by international providers.
Such platforms have become critical components of contemporary economic and administrative architectures, supporting financial services, logistics platforms, and digital governance infrastructures.
The operational continuity observed in Dubai suggests the existence of significant levels of infrastructural redundancy and cyber-resilience designed to mitigate disruptive events and ensure the stability of essential digital services.
Data-driven defence architectures and cyber-military integration
Modern air- and missile-defence architectures can no longer be interpreted as simple aggregates of interceptors, radars, and batteries deployed across territory. Their effectiveness increasingly depends on their ability to operate as high-data-intensity integrated ecosystems, in which sensors, communication networks, command-and-control systems, and interception platforms converge within a single informational architecture.
In practical terms, defensive superiority is no longer measured solely by the quality of the weapons platform but by the speed at which a system can detect, classify, correlate, and prioritise threats across the entire defensive kill chain. In scenarios characterised by saturation attacks, heterogeneous vectors, and multi-domain threats, the decisive factor becomes the ability to integrate data streams from multiple sensors (ground-based radar, airborne surveillance systems, electro-optical networks, ISR platforms, and early-warning systems) into a shared operational picture updated in near real time.
At this juncture, the cyber and military domains cease to exist as distinct spheres. The networks supporting command and control, targeting data transmission, sensor fusion, and engagement coordination themselves constitute critical security infrastructures. Their robustness, redundancy, segmentation, and resilience against disruption or compromise become essential conditions for defensive effectiveness. In other words, an advanced air-defence system is also, and fundamentally, a secure information-management system.
Within this framework, artificial intelligence and advanced automation systems are gaining increasing relevance. These technologies are not merely designed to automate technical functions but to enhance the system’s capacity to identify threat patterns, reduce decision cycles, prioritise engagements, and improve situational awareness within high-complexity operational environments. AI-enabled defence architectures do not replace human decision-making but redefine the relationship between human supervision, algorithmic processing, and operational response, particularly where reaction times exceed the limits of manual processing.
For a global hub such as Dubai, this evolution carries direct strategic implications. The city’s security does not depend solely on its ability to intercept hostile vectors but on the resilience of the informational ecosystem linking air defence, infrastructural continuity, digital services, and crisis governance. It is precisely at the intersection of data fusion, cyber-resilience, command-and-control integrity, and algorithmic capability that a decisive portion of contemporary technological security now resides.
Technology, defence and power in the emerging security architecture
Recent events highlight a structural transformation in international security. The protection of global hubs can no longer be interpreted exclusively through traditional military paradigms. Increasingly, it depends on the integration of aerospace defence architectures, critical digital infrastructures, and advanced data-analysis capabilities.
In the case of the United Arab Emirates, this convergence is particularly evident. Investments in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructures do not merely serve economic innovation but form part of a broader strategy of technological deterrence and technological security.
Twenty-first-century global hubs are progressively assuming the role of strategic infrastructures of globalisation. Their stability directly affects the functioning of economic and informational networks underpinning the international system. In this environment, air defence, cybersecurity, digital infrastructures, and artificial intelligence increasingly converge into a single integrated architecture of technological security.
The crisis that began on 28 February therefore suggests a broader conclusion: the security of future global hubs will depend less on individual defensive capabilities and more on the ability to construct hybrid security infrastructures in which military defence, cyber resilience, and algorithmic capabilities operate as components of a unified strategic system.
It is precisely within these integrated architectures that a growing share of twenty-first-century geopolitical competition will unfold.
Sources
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). 2023. Missile Defense in the Middle East: Regional Security Implications. Washington, DC.
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). 2024. The Military Balance 2024. London.
European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). 2023. Cyber Resilience and Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Digital Era. Athens.
RAND Corporation. 2019. Resilience in Complex Systems: Infrastructure Protection and Security in Global Cities. Santa Monica.
Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). 2023. “Technological Deterrence and the Evolution of Modern Security Architectures.”
Brookings Institution. 2022. Global Cities and Strategic Infrastructure: The Geopolitics of Urban Connectivity.
Defense News. 2022. “THAAD in First Operational Use Destroys Midrange Ballistic Missile in Houthi Attack.”
