Wagner Hybrid & Conventional Warfare: Combat power and combat effectiveness of the private military company in Africa and Ukraine

Gian Luca Capovin is the manager of the two Janes OSINT Force Monitoring (OFM) teams; the sections responsible for current-intelligence products concerning the Russian, pro-Russian, and Chinese armed forces. Before joining Janes, Gian Luca served in the Italian Army for 20 years. From 2017 to 2021, he was a member of the Italian Armed Forces delegation at the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps HQ (UK), where he worked as a Targeting Analyst on the Multi-Domain Team. From 2006 to 2017, Gian Luca served in the Italian Army Amphibious Infantry (Lagunari Rgt) as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller, Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) commander, Naval Gun Fire Liaison Officer, and Fire Support Coordinator, and, previously, from 2001 to 2006, in the Mountain Infantry (Alpini). He deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR, 2002), Lebanon (UNIFIL, 2008-09), and three times to Afghanistan (ISAF, 2009-10, 2011 and 2012-13). During his army service, Gian Luca qualified as Naval Gun Fire Liaison Officer and Fire Support Coordinator at the Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific (US-NAVY, San Diego, USA), Joint Terminal Attack Controller (ITA-Air Force, Guidonia, Italy), and completed all the courses of the Joint Targeting Interoperability Curriculum at the NATO School Oberammergau (Germany), namely the NATO Joint Targeting Staff course, NATO Joint Intermediate Target Development course, NATO Collateral Damage Estimation course, and NATO Battle Damage Assessment course. Gian Luca holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science and International Relations and is currently completing a master’s degree in International Affairs, Espionage, and Surveillance at King’s College London.