Editor's Letter

Meteor on the Market

The MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile is a game changer with strategic importance. With this in mind, Rob Hewson, Editor of IHS Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, looks at the export potential for such a weapon

Developing Onshore Armour and Protection Capability

Neil Middleton of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory offers an insight into the vital role that the organisation plays in testing armour against ballistic threats

NATO Research Centre Adopts Broader Maritime Focus

A NATO research organisation is transforming itself with cutting-edge research to better meet the needs of the 28-nation Alliance. Edward Lundquist reveals all

The Weaponisation of Future Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

David Hayes is a Mechanical Engineer in the defence industry, and has previously worked on secondment at the Royal United Services Institute as a research analyst. In this article he provides an overview of current and future development trends in weapons technology that could be integrated onto unmanned aerial vehicles, and looks at the implications this has had and will have on military operations

A Predictable Surprise: Addressing the Threat to Maritime Assets

With responsibilities for UK maritime security falling between the Navy, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and Police marine units, how well is the UK placed to address seismic changes in its own waters? Guy Whitaker, CEO of UK-based Missionkraft, offers his view and the Missionkraft solution

Sharing a Common Picture on Piracy

A concentrated multinational presence, coupled with the exploitation of an increasingly diverse range of data, is successfully informing counter-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. Daran Scarlett of Esri UK examines the advances being made and what the future holds

Transforming Warship Support: Class Output Management

Babcock Warship Support Director Chris Tomkins looks at the Surface Ship Support Alliance’s class output management approach, and how it is applied to amphibious vessels

Maritime-Security Cooperation: An Olympics Legacy at Sea?

Dr Lee Willett, Senior Research Fellow of Maritime Studies at RUSI, takes a look at the Olympic security operations that required strong cooperation from the maritime security community

American Black Hawk from Poland: Five Years of Polish-American Cooperation in Mielec

Polish aviation journalist Maciej Stanecki gives an update on the progress that PZL Mielec has been making since its acquisition by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation

Plugging the UK’s Maritime Patrol Capability Gap

With the UK now facing years in which a comprehensive maritime surveillance and fixed-wing antisubmarine warfare capability is lacking, Lockheed Martin has stepped in to offer its C-130 MPA solution. Simon Michell talks to the company to find out exactly what capabilities are on offer, when they could be delivered and how much they would cost

NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Surges Forward

The Global Hawk-based unmanned system is to provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to the NATO Alliance. Simon Michell reports

The Olympic Rotary Club

Ian Frain offers an insight into the helicopter community’s joint efforts to ensure that the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were free from the threat of air-borne terrorist attacks

The RAF and the Olympics

The London 2012 Olympic Games were a tremendously positive experience for the UK in many ways, reinvigorating a sense of Britishness, of pride in being British and in British values, but also in the country’s institutions like the Armed Forces. RUSI’s Senior Research Fellow of Air Power and Technology, Elizabeth Quintana, looks at the RAF’s contribution to the security of the Games

Achieving Order from Chaos through Interoperable Communications Systems

Cheap, fast and effective systems for introducing temporary interoperability between different communications networks are proving valuable across a number of sectors, including the military and security forces. Mark Cartwright, Technical Sales Manager at GRC, highlights how the Incident Commanders’ Radio Interface (ICRI) can help to bring order out of chaos

Olympic Thinking: Changes in Command Training in the British Police Service are Improving Safety at Public Events

Chief Inspector Kenneth Pennington of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) explains why contingency planning is vital ahead of an event like the London Olympics

Rendering Safe Improvised CBR Devices

Though less common than their ‘conventional’ IED counterparts, chemical and radiological explosive devices are still a threat to both urban environments and the battlefield. Andy Oppenheimer, AIExpE, an expert on these weapons, outlines their dangers and describes how best to neutralise them

‘From Riga with Love’: Making the NATO-Industry Relationship Work

RUSI’s Dr Henrik Heidenkamp examines the impact of NATO’s 2012 Industry Day in Riga on the NATO-Industry relationship and discusses potential steps to make it work

Euronaval: Reinforcing the Strategic Importance of the Sea

Dr Lee Willett, Senior Research Fellow, Maritime Studies at RUSI offers a review of the maritime debates that circulated through the recent Euronaval exhibition in Paris

BAE Systems and EADS: Thwarted at the Alter

John Louth explores the reasons for the EADS-BAE corporate courtship and its eventual failure, and attempts to understand where the inability to merge leaves the businesses themselves and the concept of a European defence entity

A Pause for Thought on Defence Reform

Bob Barton, former Managing Director of Niteworks, returns to the vexing theme of change in the MoD, and asks whether its inability to understand the root causes of inefficiency prevents the successful implementation of new processes and concepts

Procurement Lessons from the War in Libya

Andrea Gilli, a Visiting Fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (Paris), investigates some of the procurement lessons from the 2011 NATO-led operation against Libyan Government forces, and suggests some possible courses of action

Olympus under Threat: Armoured Warfare and the Future of the Main Battle Tank (2012-40)

Dr Jeffrey Bradford ponders the future of the main battle tank, and suggests that the tank is in real danger of losing its supremacy on the battlefield if it does not incorporate an unmanned aerial vehicle doctrine into its tactics, techniques and procedures

United Kingdom Defence Acquisition in the Age of Austerity

Peter D Antill and Jeremy C D Smith from Cranfield University’s Centre for Defence Acquisition, based at the UK Defence Academy, review the challenges facing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as it steers a course through transformation and austerity

The Other Side of the COIN

Former UK Police Officer, Stuart Harrison, contests that the application of conventional military force to address a counter-insurgency is not the right way to achieve a lasting success