RUSI Defence Systems

RUSI Defence Systems is produced three times a year and examines strategic, conceptual and acquisition issues faced by the global defence community. It is read in over a hundred countries and regularly features contributions from prominent and distinguished defence chiefs, scientists and industrialists from across the globe.

Issue: Feb 2010, Vol. 12, No. 3

Editorial Bill Kincaid

Defence Procurement in Crisis: A Call for Leadership Manufacturing plays a vital role in any national economy but requires leadership, vision, professional knowledge and integrity.
Professor Andrew Graves

Defence and the Growing Financial Challenge The Ministry of Defence is in increasing financial difficulty as the financial needs of the MoD's Equipment Procurement Plan exceeds the potential financial resources. What are the likely solutions in the forthcoming Defence Review?
RUSI Acquisition Focus

Doing Defence Acquisition Better: Making the Political Case Public pessimism over Britain's global counter-insurgency role not only must be tackled successfully, but can be, and a framework for acquisition reform needs to be constructed for implementation after the election
Antonia Cox

The Conservative Prospect: Not an Easy Ride An in-coming Government would do well to learn the lessons of the previous SDR. UK security would not be well served by the Treasury dictating the terms
Clark Vasey

Review of Acquisition: The Gray Report The Gray Report ignores the Treasury view that analysis of past experience is the optimum way to realistically assess risk
David Faddy

Debate: Is Digitisation Dead? A deabte on the merits of Dr Jim Storr's 'The Failure of Digital CIS' from the October 2009 RDS.
David Lynam and Professor Richard Harper

Review: The Robots and Robotics Debate Two recent books on robots and robotics raise the issue of whether we are as wired for war as robots
Elizabeth Quintana and Oliver Grouille

The RDS Military Interview: Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton Sir Stephen Dalton was appointed Chief of the Air Staff, UK in July 2009. A fast-jet pilot, he was UK Director of the Eurofighter Programme and later Director General Typhoon. Until his current post, he was Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Personnel. He talked to Bill Kincaid on 5 January 2010.
Sir Stephen Dalton

Leveraging Technology to Empower Our Soldiers The direction of the US Army research programme and how this will affect the dismounted soldier in the future
Dr Thomas H. Killion and Captain Stephen J. Bury

Rifle-Mounted Gunfire Location A gunshot location sensor which is small enough to rifle-mounted has been created. Potentially it could be wirelessly networked for real-time plotting or dissemination of live-fire contacts
Alan Wignall

The Changing Capability of Manpack Electronic Warfare Systems The trade-offs of electronic warfare manpack systems between functionality and tactical considerations can be minimised through new technologies
Chris Tarran and Gavin O'Connell

Intelligent Textiles: Reducing the Burden The development of electrically conductive textiles and the significant advantages that they promise can provide a solution to some of the 'burden' problems for dismounted soldiers and marines.
Dr Stan Swallow and Asha Peta Thompson

High Explosive: Shock Effect in Dismounted Combat If properly employed, concentrated High Explosive is the main instrument for achieving shock effect on the battlefield. Shock effect is critical in achieving sudden, decisive tactical success
Dr Jim Storr

True but Irrelevant: Small Arms Performance in Afghanistan Suggestions that the current small arms round is under-performing in Afghanistan and that a different calibre is required are wrong
William F. Owen

Protective Technologies Technology is expensive and we must be careful that we do not assist terrorists in one of their key strategic aims, which is to “strangle the enemy financially”
Matt Minshall

India's Defence Industry India’s emergence as a significant participant in global commercial markets contrasts with the sluggish development of the country’s defence industrial sectors.
Guy Anderson

Delivering Capability to the US Army in the 21st Century Timescales of capability delivery need to be shortened in a rapidly changing defence environment
Lieutenant General Stephen M. Speakes and DeAnna Haggett

'Fast Acquisition': Streamlining Capability Delivery The Urgent Operations Requirements (UOR) process has delivered excellent equipment, saving lives, but is neither truly sustainable nor does it provide integrated ‘through life’ capability
Stu Olden

Too Big to Fail: The A400M Bail Out When the A400M eventually becomes available, it will be more expensive, delayed and less capable than contractually agreed. The willingness of European Governments, and especially the UK’s, to bail out the programme is troubling.
Bjoern Siebert

Joint Fires - The Challenges To Come There is much more work to be done in order for UK forces to integrate air and land assets better
Brigadier Simon Deakin

Building Global Maritime Security through Global Cooperation What are the challenges of achieving global maritime security and how important is a federation of national and regional systems in overcoming them?
Vice Admiral Bruce Clingan and Dr Susanne Wirwille

Maritime Domain Awareness: To Know and To Act Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is al about building a better picture - and then using the picture better
Edward Lundquist

Sustainment Moves to the Next Level: Rethinking Our Life-Cycle Focus The US Army has renewed its focus on the whole life cycle from research and development through in-service support to disposal, asset visibility, ramping up and scaling down as necessary, and investing wisely in logistic facilities
General Ann E. Dunwoody

Lean Thinking In An Uncertain Environment Lean thinking even in an uncertain environment can lead to a doubling of efficiency and a significant reduction in resources
Dr Peter Tatham and Major David Worrell

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RUSI Defence Systems