All articles by antonica jones
antonica jones
UK scouts out deal
It was a long time coming, but the UK Ministry of Defence has made an order for almost 600 armoured fighting vehicles. James Lawson looks at the making and the development of the Scout specialist vehicle and the capabilities it offers.
All ashore
Since April, attention in Europe has been transfixed on the developing migration crisis in the Mediterranean, and the issue of who is responsible for policing the continent’s borders is a hotly contested one. Frontex’s Izabella Cooper discusses how member states cooperate on border control, and what the previously little-known agency is doing to help combat the problem at its root causes.
Over, but not out
For more than a decade, the UK Armed Forces have relied on the Bowman system of tactical communications. But as this system approaches obsolescence, the search for a replacement is under way. We find out how the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) LE TacCIS programme is developing and what new capabilities in tactical communication it will afford the dismounted soldier.
War games: training and simulation
Modelling and simulation (M&S) technology has been a key point of focus for NATO since its first master plan in 1998, which was updated in 2012. But what can M&S systems really achieve across the defence sector? Francisco Gomez-Ramos, head of the NATO M&S Coordination Office, explains the organisation’s vision for the years ahead.
A pragmatic partnership: US and Iran
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a statement that resonates with US and Iranian officials as they struggle to contain and eliminate ISIS. The spread of Islamists across the Levant has seen a détente in relations between the traditional foes, but could this tacit cooperation soon become a more formal partnership? Peter James speaks to RUSI’s Shashank Joshi and RAND’s Bruce Bennett about unlikely alliances.
Latvia on high alert
As President Putin flexes Russia’s military muscles, Latvia and its Baltic neighbours are bolstering defensive capabilities and readjusting to what is increasingly the new norm in eastern Europe. Oliver Hotham spoke to President of Latvia and former Defence Minister Raimonds Vejonis at the start of the year about how his country was adapting to the increasingly troubled situation in the Baltics and the new types of warfare being waged.
A watchful eye on security
Faced with complex machine vision and signal processing requirements, the defence sector is welcoming recent leaps in technology. Dr Nagachetan Bangalore, CEO of Visio Ingenii, explains how the company’s innovative solutions can assist security professionals in tactical scenarios, increasing the safety of troops.