HMForces

Figures showing that the UK Armed Forces are currently at 99.7 per cent of their full-time trained strength requirement have been released today by the MOD. This is up from 97.4 per cent a year ago and shows a continuing upward trend.

Air forces world-wide will gather at the 11th Annual International Fighter conference to discuss the future of fighter programmes, fighter capabilities and air superiority. Military and industry experts will be gathering in London this October for the 11th Annual International Fighter conference to discuss the transition to 5th generation aircraft, the development of F-35 aircraft and the latest fighter capability programmes ...

A BAND from the Royal Air Force is set to launch an assault on Simon Cowell's chart dominance when they release their debut album. The record will feature some of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches set to classical music and some classic war-time tracks. The Central Band of the RAF have signed a record deal with Decca and hope to ...

When Gen. David Petraeus accepted his nation’s request that he step down in responsibility and take personal leadership of the fight in Afghanistan, many analysts hoped for an Iraq redux. America’s most dynamic and creative commander in many years would take the hard lessons he learned in Iraq, do his school work in Afghanistan and come up with another impressive showing. ...

THE LIKELY involvement by a Catholic priest in the killing of nine innocent civilians in Claudy, Co Derry, as part of the Provisional IRA's bombing campaign, represented an appalling moral, social and security prospect in 1972. The response by senior RUC officers, with the cooperation of the British government and members of the Catholic hierarchy, was to "render harmless a dangerous ...

 Georgia accused Russia on Wednesday of deploying high-precision S-300 air defence missiles in breakaway South Ossetia in an effort to fence off the strategic South Caucasus. Russia said this month it had deployed the mobile missile system in Georgia's rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia and other air defence systems in South Ossetia, epicentre of a five-day war between Russia and Georgia ...

A woman who urinated on a Blackpool war memorial has been arrested - three days after she fled court.

An MI6 worker whose body was found in a holdall at his London flat may have been murdered two weeks ago, police believe.

An Afghan police recruit has shot dead two Spanish police officers and their interpreter in Badghis province, north-western Afghanistan, officials say.

Teacher who survived the wartime Freckleton Air Disaster Doris Gardiner was one of the last survivors of a long-forgotten Second World War tragedy that, in its scale, sadly rivals both Aberfan and Lockerbie. But for her mother's illness on that fateful day, she would almost certainly have been yet another of the many names so poignantly recorded on the village ...

THE Royal Marine Commandos are some of the toughest soldiers on the planet. It's not surprising. They have to complete one of the longest basic infantry training coursesin the world. It's necessary because 3 Commando Brigade is the Navy's amphibious infantry. They have to be ready to fly across the globe at a moment's notice to fight in any terrain. The ...

AS THE writer who knows the Krays best, his book, Profession of Violence, made him the foremost expert on their reign of terror. Now, drawing on previously unseen material, John Pearson has written the final word on Britain's most infamous gangsters. here, in the last of three extracts, he reveals how National service transformed them into gangland thugs ... ONE ...

THE Ministry of Defence could be forced to pay compensation to hundreds of soldiers suffering posttraumatic stress disorder following a landmark six-figure pay-out to a former bomb disposal expert. The soldier claimed he might not have suffered a breakdown in 2004 if military psychiatrists had diagnosed and treated his illness earlier. The MoD fought the legal battle after insisting the ...

A majority of Iraqis believe it was the wrong time for a major withdrawal of US combat troops, a poll said on Tuesday, with more than half also warning that it would have negative consequences. When asked if it was the right time for American Soldiers to leave -- the US military earlier confirmed troop numbers in Iraq had fallen under ...

The original N64 version of Goldeneye 007 might be the best first-person shooter game of all time. Activision has completed a new version for the Wii that’s coming out November 2nd and the multiplayer mode looks awesome. Read more: http://undertheradar.military.com For the most recent military news, visit the News Channel on HMForces.co.uk.

BAGHDAD - The nude women on the DVD cover in a Baghdad street stall say it all: Change, whether you like it or not, is afoot in Iraq. Hundreds of porn DVDs are stacked elbow-deep on a wooden table in Jassim Hanoun's ramshackle stall on a downtown sidewalk. His other tables have Hollywood blockbusters, like "King Kong." But not surprisingly, it's ...

Next to counter-terror operations, perhaps no mission is more crucial to Afghanistan than is building its national police force. NATO brought in U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell to lead the crucial mission of training the police and the army and this week he’s doing his first round of interviews since taking command. One of his “biggest challenges” can be described ...

P-P-PLEASE don't p-p-panic the penguins! The Edinburgh Military Tattoo has been asked by the city's zoo to change the flight paths of fighter jets that overfly the popular spectacle because the noise is upsetting its birds. Tattoo organisers have arranged several flypasts by RAF jets - which produce an ear-splitting 140 decibels of noise - to coincide with the presence ...

Investigators looking into the crash of Spanair Flight 5022 at Madrid International Airport on August 20, 2008, killing 154, found that the airline’s central computer system used to monitor technical problems in its fleet was infected with malware, according to this news report. The central computer system should have warned the airline that Flight 5022, an MD-82 aircraft, was having repeat ...

The measures proposed by Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg include ending conscription, reducing the armed forces to 163,000 and streamlining the command structure. Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Monday unveiled plans to restructure Germany's armed forces in what is regarded as one of the most radical military shake-ups since the end of the Cold War. The measures include ending ...