International Defence Review 

*Unmanned dragons: China's UAV aims and achievements
The speedy growth of China's aerospace sector is underpinned by huge investments in funding, resources and almost limitless ambition. The best example of this ...
23-Jan-2012
*Power surge: the li-ion alternative to the lead-acid submarine legacy
A visitor to the UK Royal Navy (RN) Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire, can view and explore HM Submarine Holland I . Launched by...
23-Jan-2012
*NATO tanks aim at wider target set with smoothbore ammunition
As their combat commitments to Afghanistan draw down, NATO countries are reshaping their forces to meet anticipated combat capability requirements in future 'hybrid' or ...
19-Jan-2012
*Leading astray: soft kill evolves to counter new anti-ship threats
Soft-kill decoy systems, providing mechanisms to disrupt targeting sensors and deceive missile seekers, have been evolved over a period of more than four decades ...
14-Dec-2011
*Battle management from above
Contemporary airborne battle management has been most intimately involved with air-to-ground operations, deconflicting coalition airstrikes, managing complex and congested airspace and trying to reduce ...
14-Dec-2011
*Stretching exercises: AVLBs bridge the gap to more flexibility
Operations in the open countryside of Afghanistan and across the watercourses and wadis of Iraq earlier in the decade once again illustrated the enduring ...
14-Dec-2011
*New battlefield metrics help the military monitor their manor
Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have impelled the military towards a quasi-policing role, one in which it is not enough for soldiers merely to ...
13-Dec-2011
*Civil service: the rise of the contractors
One of the key elements that historians will no doubt extract from the war in Iraq is the surge in private military company (PMC) ...
09-Nov-2011
*Non-identical twins: FREMM frigates take to the seas
In April this year, the frigate Aquitaine , lead ship of a new class of multimission combatant that will eventually form the backbone of...
08-Nov-2011
*Track to the future: Italy's vehicle manufacturers' dual approach
The Italian armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) industry is concentrated around Iveco Defence Vehicles in Bolzano and Oto Melara in La Spezia, both in Northern ...
04-Nov-2011
*Flying the Flags: USAF's training exercises adapt to new threats
For more than 30 years the US Air Force's (USAF's) 'Red Flag' exercises have trained aircrews to survive their first 10 combat missions. Developed ...
11-Oct-2011
*Driving on success: Germany prepares AFVs for road ahead
Germany has streamlined its armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) industry around two key companies over the past decade. Unlike some other countries this has been ...
07-Oct-2011
*Large parts for small actors: small boat operations at the human level
Small craft have been a bogey man for naval operators for many years, with the threat from fast swarming craft regularly cited as a ...
07-Oct-2011
*Core encryption: NATO seeks dynamic functionality to secure coalition networks
The continued emphasis on coalition operations, the most politically acceptable and economically sustainable resort for the application of military force in the majority of ...
06-Oct-2011
*The riddle of the SAMs
The elimination of enemy air defences remains one of the most critical missions for any advanced air force. All modern notions of 'air dominance' ...
15-Sep-2011
*Aptitude test: the dawn of the battlefield app brings smart solutions
With the arrival of the smartphone over the last few years, commercial technology stole a march on military systems, but armed forces are now ...
13-Sep-2011
*Shaping the battlespace: 21st century CEVs enter the fray
Until recently, combat engineer vehicles (CEVs) - or armoured engineer vehicles (AEVs) as they are also referred to - were mostly based on obsolete ...
13-Sep-2011
*Pre-emptive defence: guarding against the modern torpedo
Despite the global proliferation of submarine and torpedo technology - the last 30 years have seen the exclusive club of submarine-capable states swell to ...
12-Sep-2011
*Testing targets: bridging the ASLM gap
The conclusion of the Cold War brought with it an end to the great emphasis once placed on large-scale 'blue water' anti-ship operations. Future-looking ...
15-Aug-2011
*Off the wall: new solutions help strengthen base defences
The shift to expeditionary operations in contested territory simultaneously robs deployed forces of the infrastructure and protection they may be used to in home ...
10-Aug-2011
*Labour pains: born-again air forces test their new wings
On 21 April 2011 the Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) celebrated its 80th anniversary. During the decades it evolved from a small colonial air force ...
05-Aug-2011
*War of the robots: transforming the future of ground combat
Despite being in widespread use since the mid-1970s in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and mine clearance roles, the growth in the mission set of ...
13-Jul-2011
*Aggressive mimicry: multiplying threats drive improved targets
The US Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR's) Aerial Target and Decoy Systems programme office (PMA-208), under the Program Executive Office for Unmanned Aviation and ...
13-Jul-2011
*Pressure under fire: propellant development
Conformity with emerging insensitive munitions (IM) safety legislation requirements and performance under high-temperature (A1) conditions are two of the main ídrivers in the development ...
13-Jul-2011
*Combined aviation assets offer extra sensory perception
Attack and armed scout helicopters have proven to be particularly capable and effective platforms for the asymmetric warfare in which they have been engaged ...
08-Jul-2011
*Pushing the envelope: shipborne defences get set for new threats
The first shipborne point defence missile systems (PDMSs) began to enter service in the mid-1960s to provide surface combatants with the guided weaponry necessary ...
14-Jun-2011
*Resisting the challenge of the automatic pilot
As it was with Mark Twain, reports of the death of the fighter pilot are greatly exaggerated. Yet there is still an assumption among ...
13-Jun-2011
*Future facets for FMV - miniaturisation, colonisation and civilianisation
The march of full-motion video (FMV) systems as an indispensable aid to coalition battlefield support, at all tactical levels from platoon upwards, has progressed...
13-Jun-2011
*Main battle tanks reinforce their role as a vital tool in the box
Tanks fall in and out of favour in cyclical fashion, military soothsayers seemingly having written them out of their 'vision for the future' roughly ...
09-Jun-2011
*High resolution: AUV sonars zoom in on the underwater picture
The past decade has seen unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) move from the realm of science, technology and research to ...
13-May-2011
*SCORPION, the future French hybrid warfare system solution
SCORPION started out as an acronym for Synergie du COntact Renforcé par la Polyvalence et l'InfovalorisatiON or "System of COntact for veRsatile caPabilities and ...
10-May-2011
*Fear the Reaper: operators look beyond the current iconic UAV
The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the past 10 years has been impressive, as has the growth in the range of systems ...
09-May-2011
*Making waves: new signals crowd the electronic spectrum
The role of electronic warfare (EW) as a major enabling function has long been recognised by the UK Royal Navy (RN). Radar electronic support ...
09-May-2011
*Charting the course through virtual enemy territory
The cyber threat has been taken increasingly seriously around the world over the last few years, but standing up a formal military response is ...
12-Apr-2011
*On a roll: Turkey's armoured vehicles beat the export path
The Turkish Land Forces Command (TLFC) survived for many years on a diet of mostly surplus US Army armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), but that ...
12-Apr-2011