Military Resettlement, Business, Training & Recruitment
The pair of soldiers were among a group of five due to face accusations of killing a captured Afghan national Murder charges against two Royal Marines accused of killing a captured Afghan national have been dropped, it emerged tonight.
Hundreds of millions of pounds may be diverted to peacekeeping defence operations in bid to placate backbenchers Hundreds of millions of pounds from Britain’s aid budget are expected to be diverted to peacekeeping defence operations as the government moves to build up support on the Tory benches for overseas development. Amid deep unease among Conservative MPs at the size of the £10bn aid budget, which has increased while defence spending has been cut, David Cameron said on Wednesday that he was “very open” to the idea of pooling more resources. Speaking in Amritsar on the final leg of his Indian trip, the prime minister said difficult decisions would have to be taken by the chancellor, George Osborne, when he outlines the government’s spending review for the first year after the 2015 general election
Families challenging ruling that soldiers conducting operations outside their base are not covered by convention British soldiers have the right, enshrined in European human rights law, to expect the government to take all reasonable steps to prevent them getting killed, the supreme court heard on Monday, in a case with profound implications for military commanders and their conduct of future operations. Families of soldiers killed in Iraq by roadside bombs while travelling in vulnerable Land Rovers and by “friendly fire” when in a Challenger tank accuse the Ministry of Defence of breaching the European human rights convention by not providing adequate equipment.
Joint operation will be the first time soldiers from the two countries have worked together since Ireland won independence British and Irish troops will be involved in a joint operation for the first time since Ireland won independence after bloody uprisings and civil war. Six Irish soldiers and 21 British will be deployed in Mali to set up an infantry training team led by troops from the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, the Ministry of Defence announced on Monday.
Suppressed passages from official history of D notice committee reveal concern over special forces talking to media and ex-MI5 chief’s memoirs Britain’s top military brass and senior Whitehall officials were agitated about special forces talking to the media, concerned about a former MI5 chief writing her memoirs – but the spies were relatively relaxed about the BBC spy show Spooks, hitherto secret documents reveal. The newly released files give details of passages that were removed from the original manuscript of Secrecy and the Media, the official history of the defence, press and broadcasting advisory committee (DPBAC), where Whitehall officials oversee a system of voluntary self-censorship with the media.
As a historian, I initially wondered whether your report was a Guardian April fool ( Poignant kickabout that captured futility of conflict to be replayed for WW1 centenary , 9 February). Only a specially selected bunch of conservative academics and generals would think of celebrating the military genius that organised the Somme, Passchendaele and Dardanelles campaigns
Ministry of Defence releases figures for crashes, breakdowns and missing vehicles, including loss of half of Hermes 450 fleet Almost 450 drones operated by the British military have crashed, broken down or been lost in action during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last five years, figures reveal. The Ministry of Defence has disclosed for the first time the five Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems used in the conflicts and the number that have perished due to pilot error, technical faults or the undesirability of retrieving them from hostile areas. The figures highlight the military’s increasing reliance on technologies that are regarded as a way of minimising risks to frontline troops.
The prototype of the drones now used in Afghanistan was actually conceived in 1916, even if it was a monoplane made of wood and tin The drones now snooping over Afghanistan have a longer history than you might think. In 1916, a military scientist conceived of an “aerial torpedo” designed to be loaded with explosives and steered into the deadly Zeppelins on their bombing raids over southern England. In a lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society on Monday evening Michael Draper, author of Sitting Ducks & Peeping Toms , will lift the wraps off the secret century of unmanned air vehicles, starting with the prototype referred to by the innocuous initials “AT”
Exclusive: Christmas truce matches to be recreated on Belgian battlefield in 2014, with £50m set aside for school trips and exhibitions Britain’s plans for commemorating the centenary of the first world war include recreating the football match played against German troops to mark the Christmas truce which remains one of the most poignant moments of the conflict. The proposal is one of a number of initiatives being supported by ministers in anticipation of public interest in a war during which 956,000 members of the British army were killed, including 250,000 from countries which were then part of the Empire