A strategic review of Japan’s military
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recently been announcing that Japan will be reviewing its pacifist constitution that restricts its military.
What is a Strategic Defence and Security Review anyway?
With another Strategic Defence and Security Review due in the coming months this article intends to break down the SDSR process to gain an understanding of what an SDSR aims to achieve and how they are likely to be structured. But a good first step is to understand what is meant by ‘strategy’? The term strategy is derived from strategia...
Analysis of 2 Group RAF Part 2: ISTAR/Comms
In this the second part of my look at 2 Group RAF, I will be looking at the Communications Fleet and Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance, (ISTAR). Between them Communications and ISTAR fleets cover a wide variety of vital roles many of which are shrouded in a cloak of secrecy. These range from moving commanders around a theatre of...
Defence and Security after the 2015 General Election
With the general election results through the future of Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs is now much clearer, especially with a single party majority. The key points within the Conservative party’s Defence manifesto have been compared to the other ‘mainstream’ parties in my previous article. Though now the electorate has spoken in this general election it is time to...
Overview of the 2015 General Election Defence Manifestos
In this article we will attempt to provide an unbiased overview of the key elements of each of the main political parties Defence manifestos. It is worth noting however the UK Defence Journal remains entirely impartial and does not condone or encourage the support for any of the political parties mentioned. Our job is to provide facts on current...
Raytheon’s MALD
A silent revolution in decoys and jammers has taken place over that last two decades. The Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) and MALD-Jammer, built by Raytheon, have given the U.S. forces and its allies a first-strike capability without the use of stealth aircraft, allowing more numerous, conventional attack aircraft to pierce and destroy advanced enemy anti-air defenses. The MALD and MALD-J...
Review of women in close combat roles: An analysis
In May of 2014, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond brought the proposed review of the exclusion of women from close combat roles in H.M. Forces forward from its original date in 2018. It is now expected by the close of 2014. The current exclusion is, of course, divisive, with some commentators suggesting it is outrageous to have such a gender-discriminatory...
Independence Would Destroy Scotland’s Defence Industry
Scotland would lose out on billions of pounds of defence spending.