Military Art & Science

Electronic warfare offers advantages over irregular opponents

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South Africa has promising electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, but must improve in the lower end of the scale, according to EW practitioners,...

Lack of funding forces Cape Town Military Tattoo organisers to seek partnerships

Management of what has become a Cape Town highlight – the city's annual military tattoo – has to rethink the future in...

Sunday is Remembrance Day

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Sunday is Remembrance Day with the annual national civic remembrance service and wreath laying ceremony at the Johannesburg Cenotaph the major event. A...

War memorials in Durban

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Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day (November 11) are the two major annual reminders of those who paid the ultimate price in defence...

Feature: Lockheed Martin’s latest SAAF C-130J offer tied to Defence Review

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Lockheed Martin continues to offer its C-130J Super Hercules to meet the South African Air Force's tanker, transport and maritime patrol requirements,...

Feature: IEDS – An indiscriminate killer

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On Sunday, December 28, 2014, a sugar cane seller in Potiskum, Nigeria, died when she stepped on a bomb in a school...

Friday is military fair day at the Voortrekker Monument

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That there are a growing number of South Africans with more than a passing interest in matters military comes with the announcement...

US Deputy Defence Secretary details the future of war

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On stage last week at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work summoned up scenes from a...

COLET Journal of Education Technology

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The SANDF Journal of Education Technology is the newest addition to South African military literature that hopes to set the academic ball...

Open Day at Aerospace Leadership Academy

Both guest speakers at the Aerospace Leadership Academy (AERLA) open day stressed discipline and hard work as the core ingredients of a...

Skirl of the pipes and cannon fire at the Cape Town tattoo

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Starting tomorrow the Castle will again host the annual Cape Town Military Tattoo, a spectacular event showcasing military bands and intricate drill...

Freedom Park and Voortrekker Monument combine to remember soldiers

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Another step on the reconciliation road takes place on Sunday with a joint memorial service at Freedom Park and the Voortrekker Monument...

Defence Review 2014 – The Defence Industry

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An important element of the Defence Review is its consideration of the defence industry which is needed to define the capability actually...

Defence Review 2014 – The Focus

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The Defence Review serves a triple purpose: it closes the gap between the 1998 Review and the strategic situation of today; it...

All hail the OPV

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Will Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) be the workhorse of all Navies in the future? This is the question that you could asked yourself...

Special forces a force multiplier for SADC military interventions – expert

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The special forces are a potentially useful asset that can be used by the SADC Standby Force as a force multiplier, according...

A South African perspective on Austria’s civil/military co-operation efforts

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In the post-World War II/post-Cold War era, intra-state conflicts and climate and natural disaster related crises are on the rise. Sovereign armed...

Feature: SANDF – Optimum Force Design

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The ‘Battle of Bangui' in the Central African Republic in March and its aftermath should cause government to think about what sort...

Do the US and South Africa have a role in resolving DRC conflict?

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On March 18 Bosco Ntaganda, International Criminal Court (ICC) inductee and leader of one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebel...

SAAF personnel welcome new book

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Long-time military aviation enthusiast Dean Wingrin's first foray into book publishing has been welcomed by retired and serving members of the South...

Mali, DRC and CAR: Some Lessons

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The recent events in Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic have produced some interesting lessons that Africa's...

South Africa’s Deployment to the CAR

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President Zuma's decision to deploy South African troops to the Central African Republic (CAR) is an interesting one that may – and...

African military writing competition expanding military knowledge

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The African Armed Forces Journal has launched the 14th Military Writing Competition in order to provide a platform for insight into all...

Small Arms Survey: Estimating Law Enforcement Firearms

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Law enforcement small arms present a contradiction of visibility and scarcity. Of the roughly 875 million firearms in the world, in virtually...

Feature: South Africa’s Strategic Options

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South Africa faces a number of defence and security challenge and consequently needs to develop forces that provide a useful degree of...

Adopting an effective Arms Trade Treaty: A humanitarian imperative

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In many parts of the world, weapons are easy to obtain and armed violence pervasive as a result of the poorly regulated...

Stratfor: Insurgency and the Protracted War

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In recent weeks, insurgent forces in several countries have been forced to withdraw from territories they once held. Somalia's al Shabaab, which...

Feature: Platoon manoeuvres (corrected)

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War is a social science, as is organising for it. However, it is often said the defining characteristic of the social sciences...

Stratfor: The end of counterinsurgency and the scalable force

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The U.S. military for years has debated the utility of counterinsurgency operations. Drawing from a sentiment that harkens back to the Vietnam...

Opinion: SANDF Combat Readiness – Some grave concerns

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I am driven to capture these thoughts from a sense of deep moral duty and concern for fellow soldiers. Anyone who has...

Feature: The 21st Century infantry section: what road to take?

The importance of the infantry section on the modern battlefield can hardly be exaggerated. Its place has certainly been recognised in rhetoric...

Factbox: Who are the world’s nuclear powers?

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South Korea hosts some 50 world leaders at a two-day nuclear security summit starting to discuss ways to safeguard nuclear materials and...

Neuroscience the new face of warfare: experts

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Directed energy weapons that use wave beams to cause pain, and electrical brain stimulation that boosts a soldier's combat ability - it...

In hot pursuit: Resource wars in Africa

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For centuries conflict and resources have been intrinsically interlinked.(2) In the present era, the fight for resources continues to be a feature...

Manned unmanned systems integration: mission accomplished

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The US Army's Programme Executive Office for Aviation's offices Project Manager's Unmanned Aircraft Systems, PM Armed Scout Helicopter and PM Apache have...

Conference to mull military culture

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The Faculty of Military Science at the University of Stellenbosch and the Institute for Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence Academy are...

Feature: Firepower & dispersal: some ideas

The story of firepower is also the tale of battlefield dispersal. Up until the deployment of the magazine rifle and quick fire artillery gun...

Feature: Some thoughts on doctrine

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 The US Department of Defence's Dictionary of Military and Associated Termsi defines doctrine as "fundamental principles by which the military forces or...

Feature: Some thoughts on arms acquisition

There is something of a "Catch 22i" in arms acquisition. During times of peace it is argued that there are higher priorities than military...

Feature: Finance and false economy in defence

In a book published in 1983, Norman Augustine, a luminary of the US aerospace industry, drafted a series of light-hearted "laws", 52 in alli. Law...

Stratfor: Libya and the problem with The Hague

The war in Libya has been under way for months, without any indication of when it might end. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's...

Feature: Brigades and brigadiers

The organisation of the landward services in the first decade of the 21st Century largely reflects a structure adopted in the second decade of...

Opinion: Falling European military spending — a threat to security?

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The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) recently released data on military spending for 2010 shows world military expenditure continuing to grow,...

Inside the Egyptian revolution

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In early 2005, Cairo-based computer engineer Saad Bahaar was trawling the internet when he came across a trio of Egyptian expatriates who...

Stratfor: Immaculate Intervention: The Wars of Humanitarianism

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There are wars in pursuit of interest. In these wars, nations pursue economic or strategic ends to protect the nation or expand...

Stratfor: Never Fight a Land War in Asia

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking at West Point, said last week that "Any future defense secretary who advises the president...

Israeli official sees cyber alternative to “ugly” war

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Cyberwarfare of the kind waged against Iran last year offers advanced nations an alternative to "ugly" military force with its moral costs,...

Feature: Some thoughts on the nature of war

War is organised violence. It is part art, part science and part luck. The purpose of war is to bend the enemy to your...

US to slash defence spend

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The United States plans to cut $78 billion in defense spending over five years, including a reduction of up to 47,000 troops,...

Libya’s Gaddafi proposes 1 mln-strong African army

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African nations should join forces to create a one-million-strong army to protect the continent and confront outsiders like NATO and China, said...