Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann have handed over the first two German Puma infantry fighting vehicles for verification tests.

UK company Marshall Land Systems and Thales Australia announced in November they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on vehicle opportunities in Australia, in particular Project Land 121 - Overlander where Thales is offering its locally designed and manufactured Hawkei.

Marshall Land Systems and Thales Australia have announced a Memorandum of Understanding on local vehicle opportunities, particularly Land 121.

BAE Systems has demonstrated its new Ultra Lightweight Warrior (ULW) body armour system at the 2010 Land Warfare Conference in Brisbane.

The US Government Accountability Office says while Joint Light Tactical Vehicle costs are yet to be determined, the total bill could be US$18.5 billion.

Despite Defence concerns about the 'releasability' of Land 400 information, a number of possible contenders will be at the Land Warfare Conference.

Force Protection has reportedly suggested that the Pentagon is not testing its vehicles' ability to withstand blasts according to the most stringent possible method.

Land 121 Project Overlander has had a bumpy ride over the last few years, with more bumps on the horizon.

In spite of a growing list of casualties, Australian troops in Afghanistan are performing with distinction and creating a reputation for both fighting ability and winning hearts and minds.

In a sombre speech opening to the Parliamentary debate on this country’s involvement in Afghanistan last month, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia would remain involved in the Afghanistan war for much of this decade.

Defence’s plans to acquire some 1,300 Protected Mobility Vehicles – Light (PMV-L) and then to replace around 1,300 M113s, ASLAVs and Bushmasters in project Land 400 provide a unique opportunity for a specialist sector of Australia’s defence industry.

Work on transforming the ADF’s F88 Austeyr assault rifle into a more lethal, accurate weapon with an ability to embed electronic architecture is proceeding on schedule, with six prototypes now developed and testing planned in temperatures ranging from extremely hot to freezing.

Some 113 variants of the Australian Army’s most heavily tasked armoured fleet – the ubiquitous ASLAV – are to receive additional protective armour and other enhancements, endowing them with the highest possible combat protection and capability in the future.

Project Overlander Land 121 has seen some ups and downs during its lifetime.

The Army’s Battlefield Command Support System – a major plank in the networking of the Land Force – now forms part of the Joint Command Support Environment, an integrated operational environment that links all ADF elements.

Among military circles globally there has been growing interest over Sri Lanka’s successful counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign that led to the military defeat of the formidable Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, making it one of the most significant COIN success stories since the defeat of the Communist insurgency in Malaya in the 1950s, and perhaps the most remarkable COIN victory in the post-World War II era.