British stealth drone to undergo first test flight

An unmanned combat aircraft has been built for the British military is to undergo its first ever test flight later this year.

It can fly faster than the speed of sound, cannot be detected by radar and has no pilot. This is the new robotic plane that will become the next generation of front line bombers for the British military.

The drone, which is named Taranis after the Celtic god of thunder, has been designed to fly intercontinental missions to attack targets and can automatically dodge incoming missiles.

The aircraft, which has cost £125 million to build, is intended to be the first of a new generation of aeroplanes that will reduce the need to risk human lives on long, dangerous missions.

It is to be flown for the first time in a series of tests over the Australian outback in the spring in an attempt to demonstrate the technology to military chiefs.

Currently the Royal Air Force uses Tornado GR4 bombers as its front line strike aircraft, although the Typhoon Eurofighter is expected to replace it in the coming years.

Remote controlled drones such as Reaper are also used by the Ministry of Defence and US military to attack targets.

But the Taranis is expected to provide a prototype of a new kind of bomber that will replace piloted planes and the current drones.

With a shape more similar to the US B-2 Stealth bomber, it intended to fly automatically using an on-board computer system to perform manoeuvres, avoid threats and identify targets. Only when it needs to attack a target will it seek authorisation from a human controller.

Nigel Whitehead, group managing director of programmes at BAE Systems, which has been developing Taranis, said the new drone could change the way aircraft are used by the MoD in the future, which currently uses manned planes for combat missions.

He said: “I think that the Taranis programme will be used to inform the UK MoD thinking, regarding the make up for the future force mix. I anticipate that the UK will chose to have a mix of manned and unmanned front-line aircraft.

“This decision will have a major impact on the future of the UK military.”

The Taranis uses stealth technology, including a highly secretive coating that helps it slip through radar undetected. It will be able to carry a series of weapons on board including missiles and laser guided bombs.

New pistols for UK Armed Forces

The Armed Forces are to be supplied with more than 25,000 new Glock sidearms to replace the ageing Browning pistols currently in service.

The Glock 17 Gen4 pistol is not only much lighter than the Browning L9A1, it is also more accurate and its magazines can carry more bullets. It has an increased magazine capacity of 17 rounds, compared to 13 rounds for the Browning.

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Personnel across all 3 Services will begin to receive the new 9-millimetre (mm) calibre Glock 17s in the coming weeks and troops deployed to Afghanistan will be among the first to use the new weapon. The contract with Viking Arms Ltd of Harrogate, Yorkshire, also includes more than 25,000 holsters.

A Glock 17 pistol (left) and the Browning the new pistols will replace [Picture: Andrew Linnett, Crown Copyright/MOD 2013]

Warrant Officer Class 1 Mark Anderson, Royal Marines, who trialled the new weapon before the contract was awarded, said:

Pistols are vital in close combat and are a key part of a soldier’s armoury. Reliable, light and easy to carry, the Glock inspires confidence and performs exceptionally well.

British Royal Marines To Get Revamped Vikings

The British Royal Marines are to get a mortar-carrying variant of the BAE Systems BvS10 Viking all-terrain vehicle as part of a 37.8 million pound ($61 million) regeneration package deal signed with the Ministry of Defence.

Nine of the 99 twin-cab Vikings being reset by the Swedish arm of BAE at Ornskoldsvik will be configured with a new rear unit carrying the standard British issue 81 mm mortar.

BAE will supply a flatbed rear unit with sides that drop down, although the weapon can also be fired with the armored sides in place.

An additional 19 rear cabs will be converted to carry a new crew-served general purpose machine gun in a similar configuration to the weapon already carried on the forward cab.

More than 120 Vikings of various standards are thought to be in the Royal Marine inventory, but budgetary resources and the condition of some of the vehicles have seen the number of machines earmarked for regeneration limited to 99.

The Changing Face Of The British Army

One in ten members of Armed Forces was born abroad

The number of soldiers in the British Army from Commonwealth countries has tripled in recent years. 

Troops born overseas now account for a record 12 per cent of the total 101,290 strength, new figures show.

Recruits from some African nations could form battalions all by themselves.

However there are fears that the increasing reliance on foreign-born soldiers, as Britons become harder to retain, could leave the Forces vulnerable if their home countries try to stop them serving in contentious wars such as Iraq or Afghanistan.

The former head of the Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, said: “It would be in my mind a nonsense not to have some sort of ceiling.

“One has got to come to a judgment as to what is appropriate, what is right, what the British Army can properly absorb without losing its own British identity and ethos.”

Col Richard Kemp, ex-commander of British forces in Afghanistan, added: “I've been proud to serve with Commonwealth troops. They are among our finest soldiers.
“But the responsibility for defending this country lies with the citizens of this country.

British soldier killed in Afghanistan

A British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Sunday in Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province, the Ministry of Defence in London said.
“It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce the death of a soldier from The Light Dragoons,” the MoD said in a statement.
The soldier was killed when the vehicle in which he was travelling struck an improvised explosive device in the Nahr-e Saraj district of the southern province of Helmand, the statement added.
No further details were given about the soldier’s identity.
The soldier’s death brought to 427 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001. Of these, at least 387 have died as a result of hostile action.

British Prince Harry with AH-64 Apache attack helicopter in Afghanistan

 

British Prince Harry with the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter this Friday Sept 7 2012 at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan to perform his duty as a co-pilot gunner in fight against the Taliban.

Army anger as troops strip naked in support of Prince Harry

Scores of soldiers and their wives are risking Army anger by stripping off and saluting to show support for Prince Harry. 

 

Scores of soldiers and their wives are risking Army anger by stripping off and saluting to show support for Prince Harry, and posting the pictures on Facebook.

As our troops get naked to copy Army comrade Prince Harry's nude Vegas party pose, their wives and girlfriends are getting in on the act too.

They are borrowing their boys' uniforms and performing 'naked salutes' either totally nude or in varying states of undress.

They are among over 13,000 who have joined a military Facebook group called 'Support Prince Harry With A Naked Salute'.

Several declared themselves terrified about baring themselves in public - but determined to send their message of support for Harry.
The Prince is expected to be reprimanded when he returns to the Army Air Cops in a few weeks time. 
But although none of the troops are likely to be disciplined for the stunt, top brass are not amused.
A source told the Daily Mail: "Everyone sees the funny side but there are people at senior levels in the Army who do not consider this to be appropriate.

British army cavalrymen swap Challenger 2 tanks for Warthog armoured vehicles in Afghanistan.

A squadron of British army cavalrymen have swapped their Challenger 2 tanks for Warthog armoured vehicles as they support the Afghan security forces in Helmand province. Soldiers and officers from D Squadron of the King's Royal Hussars, known as the Northern Cavalry Regiment, who are normally based at Tidworth in Wiltshire, have deployed to Afghanistan in Warthogs as a surveillance group, using speed and manoeuvrability to secure areas for large operations. 

And troops from D Squadron have since gone on to support Operation MAAHI BUZURG (meaning 'big fish' in Dari) in the area of Gereshk, which has seen hundreds of soldiers from the Afghan National Army team up with members of the Afghan Uniform Police, Local Police and Civil Order Police, with support from British, American and Danish troops.

Army will need two years to recover from Olympics, says chief planner

Drafting in the Army to boost security operations at London 2012 will set the military back two years, according to the chief planner for the Games. 

Troops called in to bolster the private security firm G4S were deployed at short notice, disrupting their normal duties to help guard Olympic venues.

Now that the Games are over, the forces' chief planner, Wing Commander Peter Daulby, said it will take two years for the Army to return to normal.

He said the role of the 18,000 members of the armed forces demonstrated how necessary the military was in civil emergencies.

Cavalrymen swap tanks for Warthogs in Helmand

A squadron of cavalrymen have swapped their Challenger 2 tanks for Warthog armoured vehicles as they support the Afghan security forces in Helmand province.

Soldiers and officers from D Squadron of the King's Royal Hussars, known as the Northern Cavalry Regiment, who are normally based at Tidworth in Wiltshire, have deployed to Afghanistan in Warthogs as a surveillance group, using speed and manoeuvrability to secure areas for large operations.

Simulators to help guard Against CBRN Threats

The latest simulators to train Service personnel to deal with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats have been delivered on time and within budget.

UK manufacturer Argon Electronics has supplied the new systems, including instrumentation and simulation software, to the Defence Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Centre at Winterbourne Gunner on Salisbury Plain.

The Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation's CBRN protection leader, Phil Strudley, said:

     "Acquisition of this latest equipment is an important step for the CBRN training centre, providing our trainers with a range of sophisticated tools that allow us to simulate a wide range of threat scenarios."

British Soldiers Protecting The Olympics Must Sleep In A Sweltering, Cramped And Poorly-Lit Underground Car Park

Poor: These are the spartan sleeping conditions facing many of the British heroes helping provide security at the Olympics

 Grim: More than 2,000 soldiers guarding London venues are forced to share a sweltering, cramped and poorly-lit concrete bunker at a disused shopping centre at Tobacco Dock

• More than 2,000 soldiers guarding London venues are sharing a sweltering, cramped and poorly-lit concrete bunker at a disused shopping centre
• One soldier’s furious mother said the billets were ‘worse than Afghanistan’
•  

In a grimy underground car park, row upon row of camp beds are crammed together.
These are the spartan sleeping conditions facing many of the British heroes helping provide security at the Olympics.
More than 2,000 soldiers guarding London venues are forced to share a sweltering, cramped and poorly-lit concrete bunker at a disused shopping centre.
The stench from a row of overflowing portable lavatories wafts through Tobacco Dock, near Tower Bridge, which has green military cots spread along nearly every corridor as every available piece of space is used.
Local businesses and shops have stepped in to top up the soldiers’ Army rations – offering half-price pizzas and fast food.

A beach resort in the United Kingdom found that more than 1000 pieces of World War II bomb

 According to British “Daily Telegraph” reported on July 22, heavy rain and coastal erosion, a British Humber (Humberside), Merced County, Mapleton (Mappleton) near the East Redding Beach (East Riding) cliff collapsed, exposing more than 1000 pieces of World War II bombs and rockets.
East Reading beach, during World War II was a bomb test site, here are often found scattered explosives. But last weekend, bad weather triggered landslides, at least over 1000 bombs above the ground. Many holiday visitors flock to the beach looking for “souvenirs”, the Coast Guard warned that many bombs are duds or practice bombs, but they are very unstable, which contained explosives, enough to trigger a “tragedy”.

Cameron, Karzai Sign Deal to Build Officers' Academy

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a deal on Thursday to build a British-style officers' academy in Afghanistan.

Cameron said in a press conference on Thursday that the deal was part of Britain's continuing commitment to development aid beyond 2014, when UK combat troops will leave as international operations end.

"We brought up the idea of opening a military academy to train Afghan officers which will be governed by the UK officials. I am happy to sign an agreement with President Karzai and hope that this could be a long term assistance to Afghanistan," Cameron said.

"I had an effective conversation with President Karzai about bringing stability to Afghanistan because a stable, secure and democratic Afghanistan is for the benefit all of us. We will try hard to prevent the country from turning to a terrorism haven and we will work together to achieve this goal," he added.

Karzai welcomed the agreement and said that such an Academy will be very important for training of the Afghan military officers.

"British Prime Minister promised this two years ago and he fulfilled it today by signing the agreement. The establishment of the Academy has a positive role for the capacity building of the Afghan forces," Karzai said at the press briefing.

Cameron and Karzai will also meet with Pakistan's new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf who travelled to Kabul Thursday.

Snipers with Royal Air Force Regiment

Snipers with the Royal Air Force Regiment, look through the scopes of their sniper rifles as the military prepares for duty to provide security aboard helicopters high above the London Olympic games.

British Army Retires Viking Tracked Vehicles

 

Frontline Military Vehicles Withdrawn
 
Military vehicles have been withdrawn from the frontline after they failed safety checks.
 
Armoured Viking all-terrain vehicles were used in Afghanistan but have already been replaced by Warthogs.
 
The MOD wanted to give the Vikings to Royal Marines for frontline use but those plans were scrapped when damaged from carrying too much weight was discovered.

The Wages Of Sin

 For the last six years a growing number of lawyers have been contacting American troops coming back from duty overseas and urging them to claim they have Combat fatigue (or PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder) and apply for disability benefits. It's reached the point where 45 percent of the 1.6 million troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are now applying for disability payments. About a third of those applying have received disability payments (a monthly check, for varying amounts). As recently as the 1991 Gulf war, 21 percent of the veterans of that campaign (which only included a hundred days of large scale combat) applied for disability. Before that it was even less.

This scam has also shown up in other countries, like Britain and Australia. This sort of thing should be no surprise, as the involvement of crooked lawyers in disability scams has been big business in the United States for decades. It's a growing problem that has come to involve such huge sums (over $100 billion a year) of fraudulent claims that there are growing calls to do something about it. The lawyers hustling for veterans to apply for disability became more common in the 1990s. The lawyers get a percentage of whatever their client receives in disability payments, making many lawyers very rich.

PTSD usually first manifests itself while troops are still in the combat zone, if not in combat itself. In the last decade this has meant stationing lots of mental health personnel as close to the fighting as possible. There are also better tools for diagnosing PTSD and more effective drugs and other treatments for it. Getting troops to acknowledge that PTSD is just another combat injury has proved difficult. But there is progress, albeit slow, in getting the troops to report problems they are having. But the crooked lawyers will coach troops to exhibit the right symptoms and then guide them through the application process, in return for a portion of the disability payments received.

PTSD was first noted after the American Civil War. That war was one of the first to expose large numbers of troops to extended periods of combat stress. The symptoms, as reported in the press a century and a half ago, were not much different from what you hear today. At the time affected veterans were diagnosed as suffering from "Irritable Heart" or "Nostalgia." Symptoms noted included fatigue, shortness of breath, palpitations, headache, excessive sweating, dizziness, disturbed sleep, fainting, and flashbacks to traumatic combat situations. Many of these symptoms were noted while troops were still in uniform. Late in the 20th century the condition came to be known as PTSD.

The problem with the lawyers assisting troops in scamming the government for benefits payments is nothing new. It has been going on for years in the civilian disability insurance and social security disability systems. Lawyers involved in class action suits for large numbers of victims have been caught doing coaching, and records falsification, on a large scale.

Veterans groups are trying to stem this sort of fraud, as it diverts money needed by veterans with real injuries into the pockets of scammers.

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The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems report from Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC)

http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F9335CB2-73FC-4761-A428-DB7DF4BEC02C/0/20110505JDN_211_UAS_v2U.pdf

Photos of UK drones