The X-47B on the test runway at NAS Patuxent River Aircraft carriers are a key element in force projection. If you want to carry out military operations a long way from your own bases there are only two ways to … Continue reading
Author Archives: Fergus
04
May 2013
Blast from the past – these M14 rifles look modern, but they’re older than the soldiers using them. All armies have different ideas about equipment, but the weaponry of an infantry section stayed pretty constant from about the 1930s to after … Continue reading
An RAF Tucano T1. Photo credit to GerardvdSchaaf. The Vietnam War was the first major conflict dominated by jet aircraft. The US military entered the war with a wide range of high-tech aircraft; A-6 Intruders carried out precision bombing missions, … Continue reading
The V-280 Valor is Bell’s vision of future military aviation. Photo credit to Bell Helicopters. The helicopter is one of the key weapons systems in modern war. It has dozens of roles, right across the entire spectrum of warfare. In … Continue reading
11
Apr 2013
The RC-135W Rivet Joint is the USAF’s main SIGINT platform. Now the RAF will be operating them too. The Royal Air Force’s Nimrod aircraft have been a familiar sight for decades, and anyone with even a slight interest in UK … Continue reading
Caiman MRAP of the Minnesota National Guard rolls into Kuwait as the unit redeploys from Iraq NATO’s armies spend several decades – from the 1940s to the early 1990s – getting ready to fight a high-intensity war against the Soviet … Continue reading
Look at the casualty figures from any war before the late 19th century (and many since) and you’ll find something quite startling; disease killed many times more soldiers than actual combat did. When the Spanish besieged Granada in 1489 they … Continue reading
The Changhe WZ-10 is the PLA’s first real attack helo, and the first helicopter with major Chinese design input The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is one of the last major militaries to follow the “quantity has a quality all … Continue reading
02
Mar 2013
The Nimrod MRA4 in flight. Originally named Nimrod 2000, this project died of ambition. Britain is an island nation and history has shown that, to survive, it needs to control the seas around it. For centuries that was the job … Continue reading
01
Mar 2013
F35 Lightning II lands following flight tests. The Lockheed Martin F35 Lightning II is one of the most talked about defence procurement projects of all time. It’s also the most expensive, with total project costs estimated at $1 trillion over … Continue reading
The Heckler & Koch HK416 Established in 1949 by two former engineers from the Mauser rifle factory in Oberndorf, by 1959 the firm had become the official supplier of service rifles to the new German army; their first product, the … Continue reading
M16 and M4 weapons – the military versions of the AR15 The AR15 rifle platform has now been in military service for 50 years, and it’s come a long way since the US Air Force bought a few small batches … Continue reading
20
Feb 2013
Since aerial bombing was first used during the First World War there have been constant efforts to make bombs more accurate. The main reason for this is economy; if you can put a bomb closer to the target you can … Continue reading
Stealth aircraft programmes are not exactly numerous right now. The only operational stealth types at the moment are the USAF’s small fleets of B-2A Spirit bombers and F-22A Raptor fighters, and the only one on the horizon is the struggling … Continue reading
Electronics make up an increasing part of the infantry load We’re all used to effortless, high-speed data transfer now, so it seems strange that until very recently armed forces were still restricted to passing information by insecure voice traffic at … Continue reading