Foreword

Welcome to the new issue of Soldier Modernisation, also available at soldiermod.com. So where are we with 2 major global conflicts at the moment and a lot of western countries stockpiles depleted? There is a major emphasis on restocking which can be seen throughout our programmes section in the middle of the journal. We have updated every Eastern European country with new information which has revealed some major purchases in the pipeline. On a personal note it was great to get an update on what's happening in Ireland in terms of new spend and separation of the Special Forces wing.

There is also a major push on new technology, we have an update from Rheinmetall on the move towards a digital brigade. Thales updates us on dismounted mobile communications, we also look at this with DTC who explain exactly what are modular comms.

A very good article from US Army on human machine integration, which leads into DARPA's look at U.S. Cyber Command. We also have Army Futures Command looking at continuous transformation.

On technology we have Invisio looking at its new in-ear headsets with leading hearing protection. Omnetics look at navigating the future of electronics and ODU Connectors discuss new standards for data transmission.

We have articles from The British Army on force readiness, we look inside Australian Special Forces recruitment and with New Zealand we look at their Skytrain exercise.

With the need for more data we have an interesting article from Echodyne looking at the data needs for the modern war fighter. With Ultra, the smarter way to integrate military technology; which is an on-going problem for us all.

Timilon showcase their innovative protection systems for biological and chemical spillage, worth looking at, especially the skin wipes, which can be carried by all troops.

Our sister project, Military Vehicle Systems, is available at militaryvehiclesystems.com, this looks at the integration of the military vehicle as part of a front line troop with the onboard systems that are necessary.

Thank you for reading this journal, if you have any comments, good or bad, please feel free to email me.

Best,

Robbie
Editor, Soldier Modernisation
robert.alcock@intercomms.net