RUSI Defence Systems

Issue: Jun 2009, Vol. 12, No. 1

Editorial Notes June 2009 The Editor of RUSI Defence Systems introduces the latest issue.
Bill Kincaid

Captain Hendrickson USN Interview RDS Summer 09

The RDS Military Interview: Captain Randall Hendrickson USN Captain Hendrickson, Head of Missile Defence Branch in the Surface Warfare Division, discusses his time as commander of USS Lake Erie and Ballistic Missile Defence with Bill Kincaid
Bill Kincaid

Defence Inflation: Myth or Reality? Four leading experts examine the question of defence inflation and debate the extent of higher defence inflation in relation to non-defence sectors. The effects of productivity improvements and the credit crunch on defence spending and inflation are considered.
Malcolm Chalmers, John Dowdy, David Kirkpatrick,Robbin Laird

Defence Inflation Comment: The Defence Technology Plan Graham Jordan examines the MoD's Defence Technology Plan, produced in February 2009, and finds many real disappointments in it.
Graham Jordan

Defence Inflation Comment: The World Tonight Comment from Bill Kincaid's programme on funding and defence acquisition for BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight.

Defence Inflation Comment: Air/Land Integration Graeme Davis reviews AirLand Battle21:Transformational Concepts for Integrating Twenty-First Century Air and Ground Forces by Ellwood P Hinman IV, Thomas E. Jahn and James G Jinnette.
Graeme Davis

RUSI Acquisition Focus: Setting and Changing Requirements RUSI Acquisition Focus examines the difficulties of setting and subsequently changing operational requirements in a dynamic defence environment, and recommends ways of overcoming the obstacles.
RUSI Acqusition Focus

The Australian Defence White Paper The rise of defence capability of several Asian states and the challenges this poses for Australian defence planners. Andrew Davies discusses the key points of Australia’s Defence White Paper, which was published in early May this year.
Dr Andrew Davies

Infantry Equipment: Alice in Warminster William Owen suggests that the terms infantry capability and performance are widely misunderstood and illustrates this by analysing illogical decisions on infantry section weapons.
William Owen

Infantry Equipment: The Real Role of Small Arms Jim Storr considers the importance of suppression in the infantry battle, and the weapon effects, training and tactics that increase its effectiveness.
Dr Jim Storr

Infantry Equipment: FRES - Alive but not Quite Kicking Olivier Grouille examines the state of the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) after the recent announcement by the UK Secretary of State for Defence postponing and re-prioritising the programme.
Olivier Grouille

Viewpoint: Is England Asleep? The State of UK Defence Industrial Policy Ian Godden draws parallels between John F. Kennedy’s early work of 1940, Why England Slept, and the defence myopia of the present UK Government, questioning in particular the level of defence spending in this country.
Ian Godden

The Defence Industry: Industry Alliancing Roger Gillespie looks at one of the latest examples of industry alliancing and at the challenges and benefits it offers in delivering the latest long-range patrol vehicle and light tactical support vehicle requirements.
Roger Gillespie

The Defence Industry: Defence Companies and the Credit Crunch This article explores the problems that companies face during the credit crunch and ways in which they can successfully mitigate or overcome people issues.
Diana Hogbin-Mills and Stephanie Ayres

The Defence Industry: The Russian Defence Industrial Base Guy Anderson looks at the present state of the Russian defence industrial base and predicts its likely health beyond 2020.
Guy Anderson

Command and Information: Operational Knowledge Management Tom Crapper, Officer Commanding 52 Infantry Brigade HQ & Signal Squadron, describes the Knowledge Management (KM) and Information Management (IM) strategy employed within the Brigade HQ during its deployment to Afghanistan in the role of Task Force Helmand.
Major Tom Crapper

Command and Information: The Cyber Domain and the Warfighter Michael Basla, Vice Director, Command and Control Directorate, Joint Staff, United States, examines how the Information Age is changing the way warfighters do business, the tools they use, the opportunities they have, and the threats and risks they face.
Major General Michael J Basla

Command and Information: Psychological Stealth Bombers David Bergman, OIC Training & Selection, Swedish Psyops Unit, explores the relationship between the physical battlefield and the Cognitive Domain, particularly in the use of stealth to mask reality and persuade the enemy to take a path that is to our advantage.
Lieutenant David Bergman

Command and Information: NATO Network Enabled Capability Ulrich Wolf, Director, NATO Communication and Information Services Agency (NCSA), describes the implementation of NATO’s Network Enabled Capability from the NATO level and discusses the key factors – technology, people, training, information assurance and information management.
Lieutentnat General Ulrich Wolf

Unmanned Vehicles: Operational Challenges Claire Button, Battery Commander, 18 (Quebec 1759) Battery Royal Artillery, discusses the varied challenges that she and her Battery have faced while operating unmanned aerial vehicles in Afghanistan.
Major Claire Button

Unmanned Vehicles: Fighter Pilots or Geeks? Peter Almond discusses the way in which unmanned aircraft are operated by ‘pilots’ thousands of miles away from the operational theatre and the issues this raises.
Peter Almond

Unmanned Vehicles: Unmanned Systems for LCS Missions Edward Lundquist describes how unmanned air, surface and sub-surface vehicles are being incorporated within different reconfigurable missions for the Littoral Combat Ship.
Edward Lundquist

Unmanned Vehicles: The Case for New Programmes Against the background of President Obama’s April statement on defence funding and acquisition, Robbin Laird looks at the case for funding new equipment such as the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS).
Dr Robbin Laird

Unmanned Vehicles: Drivers are Optional John Beck looks at the challenges, technologies and solutions in developing unmanned ground vehicles.
John Beck

Acquisition Issues: Operational Lesson-Sharing for Defence Aquisition Professor Karen Carr asks why MoD is not good at learning lessons from operations, looks at the current problems, and then discusses what can be done to improve matters.
Professor Karen Carr

Acquisition Issues: Integrated Acqusition This article argues that an integrated acquisition system could save up to 40% through productivity savings, and illustrates this point by considering three different industrial case histories.
Keith Robinson, David Van Oss and Dean Gilmore

Acquisition Issues: Lessons from the MoD Major Project Reports David Kirkpatrick examines the reports of the MoD’s major projects and pulls out the issues and deficiencies behind the headline figures.
Professor David Kirkpatrick