Briefings : LPPV, Phantom, KC-X

The Supacat SPV 400 (below) and the Force Protection Ocelot are the two contenders for an MOD order for 200 light protected patrol vehicles (LPPVs) to replace the Snatch Land Rover in British Army operational use in Afghanistan.

A 4th Skynet satellite will be launched in 2013 further extending British military communications. 

The Phantom lives on, Turkey has received the first of 16 upgraded F-4Es. The old birds have upgraded avionics, communication systems and flight control software. 54 of it's RF-4Es are also being upgraded in a separate project.

Northrop Grumman will not take part in the USAF's future tanker programme competition, the KC-X. They had partnered up with EADS in an earlier competition but will not take part again. EADS have also ruled out going it alone. They say the new USAF competition favours Boeing with it's smaller 767 offering.

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.