Briefings : A400M, Ambush, FRES

The A400M's maiden flight did not proceed quite as smoothly as was originally reported. A software glitch meant that one of the engines had to be shut down.

There was a fire aboard the Astute class submarine Ambush which in final construction and will be launched soon. The fire was said to be small and did not damage the superstructure.

The US are advised to change their strategy in Afghanistan away from fighting to reconstruction by a Russian General who served there when it was the Soviet Union's turn to find out they couldn't tame that land.

Former Defence secretary John Hutton has called the FRES programme to produce the Army's next generation of armoured vehicles a "shambles".