Briefings : Volcano, Choenan, Portland

HMS Ark Royal, Albion and Ocean have been deployed to help bring British people trapped abroard home. They are heading to Spain and other ports in the English Channel.

The Finnish air force have released pictures of potential damage caused to the engines of one of it's F-18s by flying through an ash cloud from the erupting Icelandic volcano that has largely closed European airspace.

South Korea is investigating the possibility of the corvette Choenan being sunk by a North Korean Shark class mini-submarine. Two of the Sharks at a DPRK naval base are unaccounted for at the time of the sinking.

Type 23 frigate HMS Portland set sail for the South Atlantic last week to replace the destroyer HMS York. As it's remit includes the Falklands then Portland has a potentially interesting deployment.

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.

Briefings : Falklands, Trainers, Afghanistan

Drilling for oil has begun off the Falklands meanwhile Argentina is looking to upgrade it's Super Etendard attack aircraft, though not until after 2015. VT has won a contract extension to keep maintaining the RAF's fleet of Tucano T1 trainers until 2014.

The NATO fight in Afghanistan has suffered another "hearts and minds" set-back after an air strike on a convoy killed over 20 civilians. The Afghan government are not happy about it though in a situation like Afghanistan where the combatants on one side do not wear uniforms these sort of accidents are unfortunately going to happen.

Poland has grounded it's 2 C-130Es after one suffered structural damage earlier in the month after performing a 4g maneuver over Afghanistan. The Hercules are surplus US owned aircraft on loan to the Poles.

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.

Briefings : Falklands, UAV, Helicopters

The MOD says it is maintaining it's forces in the Falklands area amid reports that the Royal Navy is sending more ships but i thought ships like the Type 42 HMS York were already there. Anyone else feeling nostalgic for the 1980s?

The US Marines are looking into using unmanned air vehicles for resupplying troops in Afghanistan in order to take traffic off the IED and insurgent-infested roads. The French are looking into working with the UK on a MALE (medium-altitude long-endurance) UAV.

After the VH-71 disaster the US are starting a new competition to procure  a helicopter for the POTUS.

Briefings : Typhoon AESA, Falklands, Moshtarak

An RAF Typhoon could be flying with an AESA radar in a couple of years after a deal between the MOD and Selex Galileo to develop a new radar for the Typhoon in a technology demonstration programme. With the Typhoon's competitors either already having or will have AESA radars the Typhoon probably needs it as an option to keep competitive for future customers even if the RAF do not get it themselves. Though they probably will, eventually.

Argentina has "stepped up" it's current Falklands spat by ordering all vessels which leave British waters for Argentine ports and vice versa need a permit.

Operation Moshtarak day 5, the Taliban are using human shields to slow the US progress against them such as putting women and children on the top of houses and firing behind them. The British and Afghan Army forces have meanwhile discovered a number of Taliban caches including fake Afghan Army and Police uniforms. The MOD have a piece by an RAF Chinook pilot on his role in flying in special forces into key locations at the start of the offensive.

Briefings : Sonar upgrade, Iraq, Falklands

Three Trafalgar and three Astute submarines are to have their Sonar 2076 ..er.. sonars upgraded to Stage 5. The upgrade further improved performance, reduces long-term costs and improved fleet commonality through the use of open architecture. Though its not all good news for UK submarines as BAE Systems Submarine Solutions at Barrow are to cut 230 jobs because of delays in ordering the rest of the Astute programme it claims.

Iraq wants the return of $898 million from France which the Saddam Hussein regime paid for Mirage fighter jets which were never delivered because of sanctions raised when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. I suspect Iraq may be waiting awhile. The Airborne Laser fitted to a 747 has successfully shot down a liquid fuel missile.

Argentina is blocking a transport ship from leaving for the Falkland Islands with a cargo of metal tubes which it claims will be used for "illegal" drilling activity off the islands it still claims. Election due soon in Argentina or something?

Typhoons sent to Falklands

4 Eurofighter Typhoons have arrived at the RAF Mount Pleasant base on the Falkland Islands to take up air defence duties over the islands replacing the Tornado F3s. Argentina is raising a bit of a fuss of course but probably mostly for internal consumption.

Final warship veteran of Falklands War retires

HMS Exeter's long career will end today as the Type 42 destroyer is retired. The destroyer was the last surviving ship from the Falklands War still in RN service. During that war it shot down 4 Argentine aircraft and also served in the 1st Gulf War in it's 29 year career. During her service the ship clocked up 892,811 nautical miles.



It would be nice if the ship was preserved wouldn't it? It'll probably end up in India or Turkey being cut up though.

Argentina claim rights to seabed around Falklands

Argentina has submitted 40 volumes of documentation to the UN stating it's claims to 660,000 square miles of South Atlantic seabed surrounding the Falkland Islands and other British territories. Argentina also challenged the "the illegitimate British occupation of the southern archipelagos". At stake are potential rich oil and gas fields. The British government has until the 13th of May to make it's own rival claim.

Exercise Cape Bayonet 09

Just to remind the world and especially Argentina that the British are still going to defend the Falklands the latest joint-operation exercise Exercise Cape Bayonet has been held on the islands. The exercise involves all 3 services and T42 destroyer HMS Manchester represented the RN and provided fire support for Army troops using it's main gun. It also directed RAF Tornados to "targets" in support of ground forces.

The PM meanwhile will be meeting his Argentine counterpart as part of his South American tour but said that sovereignty of the islands would not be up for discussion. Thing is, if Gordon Brown said night was dark i'd want to check for myself first so who knows what will happen?