Briefings : More SDR stuff, Drug Busts, Meeting In Space

• The Strategic Defence Review tittle-tattle continues. The Gurkhas are the latest in the firing line (so to speak) with suggestions they could be cut completely. One reason being they are no longer as cheap because of recent pension rights reforms.
• HMS Gloucester has intercepted a yacht in the mid-Atlantic carrying an estimated £4 million in cocaine. The destroyer was en route to the Falklands when it was called upon to assist authorities off the Cape Verde islands.
• Could the Royal Navy and Marine Nationale end up sharing a pool of 3 carriers? Neither side will confirm the report. If it did happen though it would mean the Queen Elizabeths going CTOL surely, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Nelson spinning in his grave et cetera.
• Taiwan's F-CK-1C/D fleet will receive radar upgrades following the US releasing a block on the export.
• Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) development is set to explode as these vehicles begin to play a major role in naval warfare. 
• Was the meeting of 2 Chinese satellites in orbit a sign of a sophistocated space warfare programme? SJ-12 and SJ-06F are thought to have performed "non-cooperative robotic rendezvous" which could allow for an array of military applications such as inspection or sabotage of foreign satellites.

Briefings : Falklands, Turkey, Europe

Argentina are to try and seek a UN ruling on the Falkland Islands after gaining support from their Latin American neighbours. They have also admitted though that a military attempt to gain the islands is out of the question.

Several high ranking former officers in the Turkish Armed Forces have appeared in court accused of trying to engineer a coup to overthrow the government. They are accused of trying to provoke a crisis by engineering the shooting down of a Turkish air force plane by the Greeks and then overthrowing the government in the confusion.

The US Defence Secretary has criticised Europe for too much demilitarization. Lockheed Martin and Northrop have won contracts to support the British Army's Apache attack helicopters.

The Royal Navy's new UUV for mine hunting has entered service. The imaginatively named Mine Countermeasures Reconnaissance Unmanned Underwater Vehicle can hunt for sea mines down to 200m.

Future unmanned military technologies showcased

MOD staff at Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) in Bristol were given a demonstration of some of the latest unmanned vehicle and weapon sight technologies. They included a small wheeled robot with a real-time video camera that can help troops see what is inside a building without putting themselves in harm's way. A remote controlled surveilance helicopter that could send back real-time imagery to a wrist watch monitor was also demonstrated and sounds rather James Bond doesn't it?

Sapienta Vincit Tenebras

A little known part of the Royal Navy is 792 squadron, responsible for aerial targets (though i have covered UK aerial targets before). This article on Navy News offers a glimpse into the squadron's work. The title of this blog posting? Its the squadron's motto, which means "Wisdom Conquers Darkness". Indeed.



More information on the Mirach 100/5 as used by 792 (and pictured above) is here.

New equipment shown off

New equipment procured for the British efforts in Afghanistan have been shown off on Salisbury Plain including UAVs, vehicles and small arms. The equipment has been procured using the Urgent Operational Requirements (UOR) process, a £3 billion fund for needed equipment that comes from the Treasury separate to the defence budget (which is likely to be pounded later on to get the money back, probably from the Navy). Equipment includes the Desert Hawk 3 UAV, the Mastiff patrol vehicle and new sniper rifles.


"No i don't feel daft at all..."

Autosub6000, Britain's new robot submarine

(Although not strictly military one can easily see the potential of this new toy.)

Undersea volcanoes 6km below the Caribbean will be searched for and explored by Britain's new robot submarine the Autosub6000. The Cayman Trough between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is the world's deepest volcanic ridge and unexplored. Autosub6000 can dive to more than 6000 metres and operate without control from the surface. First of all it will try and find the volcanic vents, once found the sediments, gas and life living there will be catalogued.



Autosub6000 is an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) that can be equipped with a variety of sensors such as cameras, sonars and samplers. It is guided using "an Ixsea PHINS Fiber Optic Gyro (FOG) based Inertial Navigation System".