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Japan's defence ministry has made its biggest ever budget request as Tokyo bolsters its military amid worries over China's expanding naval reach.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pledging to boost Canada's defence budget but he is heading into a key NATO meeting short of achieving a key spending benchmark demanded by Canada's allies.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones, remotely piloted vehicles; intriguing yet controversial.

Littoral Combat Ship, Independence headed to Pearl Harbor to take part in the world's largest naval exercise, Rim of the Pacific.

QinetiQ has been awarded a contract by the UK's Dstl to carry out additional research into generating quality situational awareness to enable the coordination of the defence of a vessel against the surface threat posed by small boats.

The first Airbus A400M new generation airlifter ordered by the Royal Air Force has made its maiden flight, marking a key milestone towards its delivery.

The full version of Defence Week Premium no.315 of 28 August 2014 can be downloaded here as a PDF. A separate PDF of the latest Defence tenders can also be downloaded here.

The US Navy has executed the first of the P-8A contracts, with Australia handing over an initial $159 million towards production of the first four aircraft, effectively sealing the deal for the eventual acquisition of eight P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.

Under a new strategic cooperation agreement, Lockheed Martin and Electro Optic Systems Pty Ltd are developing a new space object tracking site in Western Australia.

It is anticipated that high level research and development for future naval platforms such as the future submarines, future frigates and patrol boats will be among the beneficiaries of a new training centre for high level Navy engineers.

An issue of interest in regard to the Future Frigate program is that consideration may be given to providing them with air defence as well as enhanced ASMD capabilities, as was the original intention of the ANZAC Ship WIP.

At the SimTect show, CAE announced that it had recently demonstrated the networking and interoperability of C-130J training systems located at RAAF Base Richmond.

The third Mobile User Objective System satellite is on track for a January launch despite a delay due to a hardware deficiency discovered during thermal vacuum testing.

Defence has begun an assessment of damage sustained by the Armidale-class patrol craft HMAS Bundaberg, following a fire that broke out while the vessel was undergoing routine maintenance in Brisbane, Australia.

The RNZN's Otago-class offshore patrol vessels, HMNZS Otago and HMNZS Wellington, have completed successful acceptance trials of the Typhoon naval gun system.