The U.S. Army has seemed to finally realize that a lot of soldiers are dying, or are wounded in fighting in Iraq. Their answer, is that beginning in May of this year, they increased the first aid training courses in basic combat training, known as BCT. The five U.S. Army training centers, are located at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Fort Knox, Kentucky, Fort Jackson, South Carolina and Fort Benning, Georgia. The new course is named Combat Life Saver (CLS). Armor, armor, armor, our vehicles need it and the U.S. Army knows it, so they are going to up the armor on the Knight Combat Observation Lasing Team vehicle. This will be done under the Warfighting Rapid Acquisition Program known as (WRAP). The vehicles will be used by forward observers, one of the most dangerous jobs in the forces.

The U.S. Congress wants independent body armor tests. This is a controversy raging over the US Army's Interceptor Body Armor (IABA) system. One congressman stated, "If there is better body armour out there, then let's get it properly tested, bought and sent to our sons and daughters who are serving in harm's way," Land Systems Munitions has been awarded a contract by the UK Ministry of Defence for new 81 mm mortar rounds. They are expected to produce up to 100,000 of a high explosive type of these babies. Bahrain has given the U.S. an order for nine UH-60M Black Hawk multi mission helicopters. They are the first to buy this model. Saudi Arabia is buying military equipment again, maybe. They are in the process of negotiating with BAE systems for 60 Hawk advanced jet trainer aircraft. It needs the trainers since it is getting Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft. A new multi role armored car, called the Boxer Multi-Role Armored Vehicle (MRAV) will soon be ready for Germany and the Netherlands. The French company, Sagem has started supplying thermal imaging devices to the United Arab Emirates for the refurbished Russian BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, in their possession. There are about 700 of these vehicles in service with this country.

Taiwan just approved a new budget that includes a large increase in military spending. As most of us know, almost their entire military budget is aimed at protecting themselves from China proper. Their new budget, in U.S. dollars will be 8.9 billion. This is a 25% increase over last year. The military budget is now about 18% of their entire national budget. Meanwhile China has been busy developing new variations of their DF-15 missile. It is said to have new, improved targeting capabilities. The U.S. Navy has given BAE Systems another 276 million dollars for continued development of 155 mm guns for its Zumwait class destroyer known as the DDG 1000. Things don't always work out when weapons are contracted for. Consider what happened to the Brunei government. They bought 3 offshore patrol vessels from BAE and were never happy with them and refuse to put them into service. The dispute between the government and the company has been an ongoing affair. India is also having problems with Russian arms. It has been trying to negotiate down a price increase by Sukhoi on the Su-30 MKI multi role fighter and the upgrade of the Gorshkov aircraft carrier.

Russia is testing a new cruise missile, that can be launched from the mobile launcher used for the SS-26. Talk has it that this missile might exceed the limits that the U.S. and Russia agreed on for intermediate range Nuclear Forces. I guess that they feel that since we are building a missile shield which was prohibited, that they can build a better missile. The Spanish have won contracts that are quite lucrative from the Australian government. The Australians have selected the Spanish AWD and LHD designs. AWD stands for Air Warfare Destroyers and LHD stands for amphibious ships. The contracts are worth 9 billion dollars U.S. The U.S. Navy was the big loser in the ship category, when their Flight IIA Arleigh Burke class destroyer was not chosen. Eurofighter contracts now total about 2.1 billion Euros.

France and the U. K. might once again join forces, as they did to build the Concord. They are investigation whether they should collaborate on a new active decoy system. They feel that this is necessary to protect their ships against anti ship guided missiles. Previously they joined forces to develop ship launched ADRs. The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin are bracing themselves for some countries dropping out of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program. Three are still on the fence, they are Turkey, Denmark and Norway. The German trials of the AZEV situational awareness system are now finished. The system, which was under development for over 2 years, will give Leopard tank crews a significant improvement in situational awareness over their old systems. This can be accomplished from anywhere within firing range.

The traditional light military vehicle is getting much bigger and heavier. As armor is added to it, it becomes heavier and then its size is increased to support the armor while trying to maintain its speed. The Indian Army has added a surface launched variant of the BrahMos PJ-10 supersonic missile into its arsenal of weapons. This is a medium range weapon. The way missiles are proliferating in this world, terrorists should have no trouble getting a few. We desperately need controls over these things. Russia is ordering more BMP-3 fighting vehicles. They have a 100 mm gun (4 inches) 30 mm cannon and 3, 7.62 mm machine guns. Turkey is opting for new tanks. A Korean company, Rotem, has been selected to partner with Otokar in developing the vehicle. The project calls for the creation of a new main battle tank.

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has completed work and preliminary tests of an unmanned aircraft, that can be launched from a submerged submarine. The government contract wasn't renewed so the company is looking for funding for this project. The name of the aircraft is the Cormorant. So far 8 million dollars has been invested in this project. Speaking about unmanned vehicles, Boeing is set to test its rotary wing unmanned plane. Three of these aircraft have been ordered for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, more commonly known as DARPA and eight more planes for the U.S. Special Operations Command known as SOCOM. Airbus has put a bigger workforce on its A400M military transport project which has been plagued by delays. Delays are now up to 15 months. Wow can this company ever build anything on time? The U.S. government has decided that Israel and this country should should integrate their ballistic missile defense efforts. China now has new mobile ICBMs. A mockup of the missile container atop a vehicle was seen rolling through a city there. The U.S. has made a breakthrough in engine development for cruise missiles. The engine, a version of a scram jet, ran on hydrocarbon fuel and is so fast that in would only take minutes for a cruise missile to travel hundreds of miles to its target.