Foreword

Well, there is no doubt that as I write this we are in a different world to the outlook in January. As is always the case when hell breaks loose, the armed forces step in to help. With ships readied to act as floating hospitals, troops managing mobile coronavirus testing units and accompanying paramedics to name a few examples. As always this is taken in their stride and without complaint, and a big thank you to the somewhat unsung heroes of this pandemic from us.

With having so many deployments worldwide kit use is currently at a high. The industry is keeping up with demand and in fact the modernisation of programmes continues. As you will see through our update section in the middle with new programmes and updates on several.

As always we have several interesting articles looking at developments in the industry, with Darpa looking at what is happening in the increasingly cluttered skies of the modern battlefield. With the British Army announcing a new air division this is becoming an even more critical area.

We have articles from US Army Netcom, looking at future recruitment issues, an area affecting all military globally and the need to look to civilian technical experts. Army Futures Command looks at new technical architecture and the US Army looking at the most recent testing phase of new IVAS technology.

We also have articles from the Australian Army, looking at their future vision (thank you to our friends at IQPC for letting us publish this) and finally one from the Netherlands about interoperability exercises.

We always have an abundance of new technology throughout the journal, as always please comment, good or bad, it’s how we improve the information we provide to our area of the industry.

Stay safe.

Robert Alcock
Editor, Soldier Modernisation
robert.alcock@intercomms.net