Briefings : Afghanistan, Falklands, JSF

Strict battle guidelines are said to be hampering British troops in Afghanistan. The guidelines are intended to minimise civilian casualities but the Taliban have been taking advantage of them to evade being killed or captured.

A number of commentators have been looking into the current Falklands situation.

The USAF may shift it's planned service-date for the F-35 JSF until 2015, two years later than originally planned. Boeing meanwhile says the P-8 would make the ideal baseline for replacing JSTARS.

Russia says it will deploy SS-26 Stone / Iskander-M missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic sea bordering Poland, if it feels there is a European threat to Moscow. Perhaps from US BMD missiles placed in Eastern Europe? The Dutch governing coalition has fallen apart over the issue of Dutch soldiers remaining in Afghanistan. The PM wanted to extend the mission but now it looks like they will be coming home in the Summer. The Philippines military is claiming they have killed the leader of the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf in a raid on Jolo.