Jane’s has reported that the UK is having to cut spending on conventional arms, in order to pay for the new Successor class ballistic missile submarines. I believe that the money spent on the nuclear deterrent would be better spent on the rest of the armed forces. One reason given for continuing Trident is that...

The Australian Regular Army was formed in 1947, and was to include armoured formations. Experience in World War II had shown that armoured units needed armoured, self-propelled artillery. It was soon found impossible to purchase modern self-propelled artillery from abroad, so a domestic solution was sought. The Yeramba was based on the Canadian Sexton Mark...

On the 5th July 1940, a message was sent to all LDV area commanders. This message informed the commanders that men were needed for a new type of unit. The men would need to have courage, initiative, and resource. This new unit would be organised under a headquarters named “H.Q., Auxiliary Units”. The name had...

For my birthday this year, my wife gave me a family ticket to this year’s Tracks to the Trenches event. We went to the event on Sunday, and it was an interesting day. There were several narrow gauge lines, with engines and rolling stock. There were also a few vehicles, including a Rolls Royce armoured...

Like Q, X is something of a challenge. Luckily, however, the Brazilians built the X1 light tank. During World War II, Brazil received around 220 M3 light tanks from the US. By the 1970s, these vehicles were still being used, but maintenance had become a serious issue, and it was decided to modernise them. Two...

The Wiesel Armoured Weapons Carrier is a small, light vehicle, produced in several different variants. It was developed by Porsche during the 1970s to fulfill a West German Bundeswehr requirement for an air-transportable vehicle that could fight enemy tanks and infantry. The Bundeswehr cancelled funding in 1978, but Porsche continued development privately. The vehicle was...

The FV1620 Humber Hornet was an early British ATGM carrier, which mounted two Malkara missiles on a vehicle based on a Humber Pig armoured lorry chassis. The missiles were carried on a retractable boom at the rear, which was elevated for firing. Primarily intended to provide airborne forces with an anti-tank capability, it could be...

The Valentine tank (officially the Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine) was a British World War II infantry tank. It entered service in 1940, and proved to be a very reliable design. It saw combat in North Africa, the Pacific and in Russia (over three thousand were supplied to the Soviet Union under a lend-lease arrangement)....

Smelly: The SMLE The SMLE (sometimes pronounced “smelly”), or “Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield”, to give its full designation, entered British army service in 1904. This replaced the MLE (Magazine Lee-Enfield, sometimes pronounced “Emily”), which had been produced in long (with a 30.2″ barrel) and carbine (21.2″ barrel) versions. The new rifle was designated “short” because...

Photo: SAC Scott Ferguson/MOD [OGL], via Wikimedia Commons On Wednesday, the UK parliament voted to conduct air strikes against ISIL in Syria, which I believe was a mistake. There seems to be an assumption by those in favour of bombing that those of us opposed to it are opposed to any form of military action....