Artillery System AS90
Challenger 2
Challenger Recovery Vehicle
Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance
Fuchs
FV 430 (Mk2 + Bulldog)
Saxon
Shielder
Stormer
Titan
Trojan
Warrior
Mastiff
Panther
Ridgback
Snatch Vixen
Vector
Viking

144
383
81
1,200
11
1,487
147
30
115
29
30
793
157
401
20
645
178
116

BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems
Rheinmetall
BAE Systems
BAE Systems
Alliant Techsystems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems
US Dept of Defence
IVECO & BAE
US Dept of Defence
NP Aerospace
BAE Systems
BAE Systems

In recent weeks entrepreneur/TV celebrity Sir Alan Sugar was been, appropriately, fronting a government advert campaign to increase the number of apprenticeships offered by British companies.
Someone at the MoD must have seen the ad because Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) has just announced that they will be taking on an additional 170 apprentices over the next two years. Aimed at school-leavers interested in supporting the UK's Armed Forces, those selected will follow a three-year apprenticeship in engineering,

specialising in electronics, electrical and mechanical engineering and construction. The new apprentices will not only be trained to support current frontline equipment but also to help select the equipment for the Armed Forces of the future.

DE&S has a workforce of 24,500 and the 170 apprenticeships offered is comparable to the national ratio of 7 per 1000.

Alan Sugar said; "Apprentices are ambitious, they're doers, they make things happen. These are the type of qualities I look for in people. Success is all about finding people like this - people who will help make any business grow." ... this also applies to UK Armed Forces Inc.

MoD: MOD to recruit engineering apprentices
Apprenticeships.org

Private Chris Gray from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment was killed , aged 19, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan on April 13th 2007.

At his inquest his mother, Helen, has raised concerns about the protection that body armour offers troops. Although Chris was wearing tabbard-style armour at the time, a sniper's bullet passed through his side where there were no armour plates. Whilst recognising that body armour is heavy for the lads to wear, Helen Gray thought that better armour would have saved her son and that other soldiers' lives could be lost if body armour is not improved.

The MoD expert informed the inquest that plates at the side would make body armour too cumbersome and restrict soldiers' movement. He said research was under way to improve body armour.

The inquest heard Pte Gray was leading his platoon - in point position - when it stumbled across Taliban fighters in the dense foliage of an orchard. Captain Ian Robinson, of the Royal Anglian Regiment said: "Chris died in close combat with the enemy, protecting his friends quite heroically…..He showed we can, in this country, still produce young men of quality."

Private Gray was posthumously awarded the Command of British Force Afghanistan Commendation for bravery.

Another concern raised by Chris's inquest: why has it taken almost two years for the inquest to take place?

BBC: Mother questions soldier's armour
The Mirror: Young hero soldier died helping comrades in Afghanistan
The Sun: Teen hero killed in first battle

Back in December AV reported that the Defence Training Review (DTR) had suffered a major blow when Land Securities Trillium, one of the two companies involved, withdrew from the scheme. A suitable partner for Qinetic has still not been found.
A report in yesterday's Guardian now argues that the whole project itself is in doubt due in large part to the Recession but also to delays and spiralling costs.

DTR, which at £12billion (up £1billion from initial estimates) is the UK's largest ever private finance initiative (PFI) project, is aiming to centralise nearly all of the UK Armed Force's training facilities at a new tri-service Military Academy at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
In a statement to the Guardian, the MoD said the project had been "more difficult and prolonged than expected" and could fall victim to the "abnormal market environment" - a reference to its dependence on banks affected by the credit crunch.
Even were the funds available, this was always going to be ambitious scheme for the MoD to take on, especially in view of its track record on managing large-scale projects (see the recent National Audit Office report on MoD Major Projects 2008).

However, economists are arguing that heavy public spending on infrastructure and construction projects is a proven way for governments to dig a way out of recession (the Hoover Dam and Nazi autobahns come to mind). So, spending the odd £12billion at St Athan may be seen as a good way to help kick start the economy.

The Guardian: Credit crisis puts £12bn MoD training project in jeopardy

The MoD has just placed a £200million order with French-owned Thales-UK for their Starstreak High Velocity Missile (HVM) system. Already a feature in the Army's arsenal (the original variant was first ordered in 1997), this latest contract also includes support for all HVM equipment until the scheduled out-of-service date in 2020.

Starstreak is a short range surface-to-air missile containing three armour piercing darts - each dart being effectively a miniature missile with its own warhead, laser guidance and steering mechanism. As a close air defence system Starstreak is designed to counter threats from very-high-performance, low-flying aircraft and fast 'pop-up' strikes by helicopter attacks.
Starstreak II is scheduled to enter service with British Forces in 2010.

Whitehall Pages: Super fast missile system gets new lease of life
Army technology: Starstreak Close Air Defense Missile

The Army is set to purchase a number of T-Hawk Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) from the US. The "hover-and-stare" robots are small enough and light enough (14lbs) to be carried in a backpack and can be deployed within minutes. They fly like mini-helicopters with a ducted fan that provides virtical take-off and landing capability.
At speeds up to 50mph and carrying both day and night cameras, these drones operate at between 100 to 500 feet and provide the troops on the ground with a real-time bird's-eye view of the surrounding terrain.
The five T-Hawks purchased by the MoD will operate at platoon level and will initially be used for checking suspicious objects and sniffing out ambushes ahead of ground movements.

The Register has been told by the MoD that the T-Hawk purchase is part of the Urgent Operational Requirement package announced last October which, while mostly focused on new armoured and protected vehicles for use in Afghanistan, also included a £96m "route proving and clearing capability, known as Talisman ...applying technology to the challenge of transiting routes and dealing with high-risk areas".

The Register: Brit forces get hoverstare ducted-fan droid
Aviation Week: UK Orders T-Hawk MAVs
Honeywell Aerospace: Micro Air Vehicle

The MoD reports that on a recent visit to the frontline, Quentin Davies, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, heard quite a bit of praise for the quality and quantity of the kit and equipment now available to the guys in Afghanistan.
WMIK Land Rovers, Javelin missiles and night-vision equipment came in

for particular praise from those that use them and the increase in the availability of helicopters - Merlins and Lynxes - was also welcomed.
In return, the Minister praised the soldiers themselves for their successes in Afghanistan, particularly their recent heroic effort in Operation Sond Chara.

Praise for British equipment also came last week from our American allies. Where once-upon-a-time the Americans referred to the British as "The Borrowers" because of their propensity to borrow (with or without their allies' knowledge) articles of kit and equipment, today they reckon our troops have some of the best gear available. A group of US Army Command Sergeant Majors said that a proliferation of new kit, vehicles and weaponry through procurement programmes and urgent operational requirements had cemented the British Army's standing as an elite power.

Although both these reports are sourced from the MoD's website, there have been a lot of articles in the media in recent weeks about improvements in the equipment available to the troops. Let's hope so, anyway ..... and that it's sustained.

MoD: Minister hears praise for equipment from front line troops
MoD: US praises British troops' kit

The Sun reports today that brand new Apache helicopters are having to be cannabalised to provide spare parts for machines in the field.
The Army Air Corps is so short of parts that they have had to strip 10 machines already - at £46million a go, that's quite a lot of cash.The gutted machines will also of course not be available to support the troops on the frontline; the lack of helicopters

has been a major threat to operations on the ground in Afghanistan.
Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox is quoted as saying: “Instead of fighting the Taliban on the frontline, the Army Air Corps is reduced to playing Scrapheap Challenge with kit worth millions.”

The Sun: £460m chopper chop-up

British helicopters on the frontline in Afghanistan will soon be fitted with new early-warning sensors which will detect lower guage threats (RPG and machine gun fire) and enable pilots to take evasive action or return fire.
Developed by BAe Systems the Acoustic Hostile Fire Indicator (Hofin) is a major advance in helicopter defence as it closes the final gap in providing helicopters with all-round

protection against the complete spectrum of hostile ground fire.
Being able to pinpoint enemy gunfire could save hundreds of troops' lives. With 40 per cent of US helicopters falling victim to RPGs and 20 per cent to small arms fire there has been an urgent need for a new defensive system.

The Telegraph: Afghanistan troops to get new helicopter gunfire defence
The Sun: Gunshot super ear for pilots

Commuters were given a close-up look at the power behind the British Army when a convoy of armoured vehicles was transported by rail through Peterborough on Thursday. The convoy was heading north, and a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said its destination was the Royal Armoured

Corps training range, in Castlemartin, in Pembrokeshire. He said once training was completed – in about 12 days' time – the tanks would travel back through Peterborough, before being deployed to Afghanistan in April.

The Army benefited from the lessons learned on the racetrack when it took delivery of the first batch of over 100 re-equipped light tanks.
Used for scouting, these CVR(T) vehicles - Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) - come fitted

with a souped-up engine, state-of-the-art cooling system and other improvements taken from the world of motorsport. The CVR tanks were purchsed from BAE Systems under an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) contract worth £19million and have been delivered to The Light Dragoons for training before being deployed to the frontline.
So if you live anywhere near The Light Dragoons base in Norfolk, don't try to beat them away from the lights.

MoD: First batch of 'souped-up' combat vehicles delivered

Two former students from London’s Royal College of Art, Peter Brewin and Will Crawford, have developed a "concrete cloth” which is helping keep British military casualties in Afghanistan to a minimum. Their company, Concrete Canvas Ltd, has just been awarded a contract to supply 5,000 square metres of the stuff to the troops on the frontline.
The cloth is impregnated with cement dust making it light and flexible enough to be readily transported to where it is needed most. The cloth is placed over sandbag defences and then sprayed with water to harden thereby providing additional reinforcement and protection.
The cloth has other uses in a war zone - rapid roads and landing surfaces, tunnel lining and ground stabilisation. A thicker variant can be used to provide inflatable emergency concrete shelters that resist gunfire, are fireproof and limit erosion by sandstorms.

Wales online: Concrete cloth, made in Treforest, is helping protect British forces

A team of UK scientists have developed a new type of advanced steel vehicle armour called Super Bainite.
The team from the MoD Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) together with scientists from Cambridge University and Qinetic have produced the ultra-hard (and super-cheap) armour using thermodynamic modelling techniques which have apparently drastically sped up

the development of the new armour, allowing its manufacturing process, properties and cost to be optimised in months, instead of years.
Unlike conventional steel armour, which must be produced via high heat, Super Bainite is produced by a new low-temperature mechanism ("isothermal hardening") which creates an ultra-hard steel armour without having to resort to expensive steel alloys. Rather surprisingly the armour has been given extra protective strength by introducing holes to it which serve to lessen the impact of bullets by deflecting and blunting them.

Super Bainite has already been successfully produced in production trials by DSTL in partnership with Corus and Bodycote and the first Super Bainite armour plates are currently undergoing ballistic testing. If Super Bainite proves to be viable it could be used in the manufacturer of all types of armoured vehicle even replacing the Chobham armour in the Army's main battle tank.

Better armour means more lives saved; cheaper armour means more vehicles available.

BBC: Holes give edge to new MoD armour

Caspian Learning, the UK-based creator of serious games such as Oil Rig Safety and Rome in Danger, has signed a contract to produce a 3D training simulation title for the Defence College of Policing and Guarding (DCPG), the training facility for the British Army's Royal Military Police.
Caspian Learning's simulation will be the first of its kind to be used at the College. It will focus on crime scene investigation, the questioning of military suspects and the search and seizure of evidence from people and property.

Caspian Learning: awarded contract by UK Defence College of Policing and Guarding