Author: Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Published: 20th September 2026

Oza-Cesuras, Spain

How Toy Helicopters, Roomba Tanks, and Glorified Spreadsheets Are Saving the Army of Planet Zog By Barnaby Mugg, Professional Hot-Air Vendor and Thought-Leader Extraordinary

Summary

The High Command of Planet Zog’s Armed Forces is embarking on another dazzlingly expensive rebranding exercise. Having watched too many viral clips from Eastern European mud fields, the Ministry of Mild Inconvenience is pivoting hard toward self-flying plastic gadgets, RC lawnmowers, and algorithmic magic tricks.

Under the grandly named “20:40:40 Rule of Thumb,” Zog’s grand strategy for 2026 is brutally simple: 20% actual heavy metal we can’t afford to repair, 40% disposable gliders bought from commercial hobby shops, and 40% single-use explosives designed to blow up on impact (and hopefully not during transit). To fund this triumph of PowerPoint over substance, a eye-watering £298 billion of taxpayer money is being chucked down the drain; sorry, invested in the defence tech ecosystem. Expect anti-drone laser pointers, virtual reality goggles so recruits can pretend they’re in a real military, and remote-controlled baggage trolleys to haul rations when the truck fleet inevitably breaks down.

The Grand Exhibition of Overpriced Tinkertoys

I was personally invited by the Ministry of Mild Inconvenience to attend VROOM 2026—a lavish corporate jamboree held in a damp field in Bedfordshire, where defence contractors in high-vis vests sell back-of-the-envelope ideas to generals desperate to look relevant.

What I witnessed was a terrifyingly dull glimpse into the future of conflict:

• Remote-Controlled Wheelbarrows: Sleek, track-mounted carts carrying crates of tea and lukewarm pasties across gravel paths.
• Overclocked Quadcopters: $500 plastic drones retrofitted with $50,000 military-grade stickers to do “surveillance.”
• “AI” Decision-Support Engines: Essentially Excel spreadsheets with an attitude problem, tasked with telling officers what to do when they panic.
• Cyber VR Headsets: Allowing Zog’s finest to get motion sickness from the safety of an air-conditioned portakabin instead of getting cold in the woods.
• Laser Pointers: Advanced counter-drone technology explicitly designed to blind cheap plastic quadcopters before they crash into expensive command tents.

The underlying message was blindingly clear: why spend money training actual human beings when you can buy £300 billion worth of autonomous tat that breaks the second it rains? Welcome to the brave new world of Zogian warfare, where human judgment is strictly optional, and the innovation cycle is driven entirely by tax write-offs.

Author: Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Published: 20th September 2026

Location: Oza-Cesuras, Spain

Web site: martyn.es

Facebook: Good Strat

LinkedIn Group: The Big Data Contrarians

Amazon Books and Kindle Books: Books

Martyn on Datafloq: https://datafloq.com/author/martyn-jones/

Martyn on ComputerWorld: https://www.computerworld.com/profile/martyn-jones/

Martyn on Medium: https://medium.com/@MartynInEurope/martyn-jones-writer-and-strategist-5e87cf6de2a6

Martyn in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/martyn-richard-jones

Martyn on TDWI-Transforming Data With Intelligence: https://tdwi.org/articles/2015/03/31/the-business-the-data-and-the-cio.aspx

Martyn in the Jewish Chronicle as MartynInEurope: https://www.thejc.com/search?q=martynineurope and https://www.thejc.com/opinion/mario-benedetti-1920-to-2009-buhl6p9v

Martyn Rhisiart Jones—a prominent international consultant, strategist, and data management expert best known for his critical commentary on IT hype, data warehousing, and big data—has authored content, been cited, or been featured across several key online platforms and publications:

Personal & Strategic Platforms

• GoodStrat (The Good Strategy Platform) [goodstrat.com]: His primary platform where he publishes essays, podcasts, and strategy reviews on data architecture, enterprise analytics, data lakehouses, and data warehousing.
• Martyn.es [martyn.es]: His official professional website hosting his personal archive, blog posts, white papers, and thought-leadership pieces on enterprise information management.

Tech, Data & Industry Publications

• TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute): Frequently cited and featured for his contributions, critiques, and opinion pieces surrounding business intelligence, data governance, and data warehousing trends.
• Data Warehouse Architect / BI Publications: Featured in industry-specific portals and forums focused on enterprise architecture, ETL processes, and database management, where his skeptical perspectives on tech hype (such as “Big Data” marketing and unvalidated vendor claims) are regularly referenced.
• LinkedIn Pulse & Medium: Platforms where his long-form articles, critiques of popular tech buzzwords, and discussions on data strategy and information management are widely republished and discussed.

Professional Forums & IT Communities

• DB2, Teradata, and Oracle Community Groups: Mentioned in technical forums and data management user groups regarding his pragmatic views on relational database management systems (RDBMS) versus emerging data paradigms.
• Enterprise IT Strategy & Analytics Blogs: Featured in guest posts, podcast interviews, and commentary pieces discussing the “Data Logistics Hub” concept and business-driven data design.