Editor Engelbrecht Archive

The state of the "defence-related" industry is terrible and it's getting worse. The question of whether there will still be a defence...

The SA National Defence force is currently in the midst of yet another re-organisation and yet the talk is about deployments at...

Africa is the last great untapped defence market. By the end of this decade Africa plans to have a multi-brigade United Nations-style...

The military engineer is arguably the most under-rated individual on the battlefield. Yet military engineers have been leaders in innovation in the...

The SA National Defence Force is fast approaching the tenth anniversary of its founding on April 27, 1994. Although ten-year reviews are...

The central thesis is that the SA National Defence Force will have to solve its staff problems before it can begin to...

Seldom in the conduct of human affairs have two groups been more predisposed to misunderstand each other than the military and journalists....

Much intellectual capital has been expended on divining the perfect organigram and equipment fit of units, battalion/regiment and below. Most proponents go into...

The Army is so under-funded that it no longer fields a combat-ready parachute capability. This has emerged from a recent briefing to...

South Africa's third democratic, nonracial election since 1994 has come and gone, leaving in its wake little but speculation on who will...

The camouflage uniform has not been an unqualified success. While they certainly let the wearer "feel" more soldierly and therefore contribute to...

Looking for previously owned arms? Armscor may have a bargain for you! The South African Department of Defence's (DOD) acquisitions (and disposals)...

   Has our Constitution, billed as among the most progressive in the world, become a license to leisure for some in the...

The minutes of the Portfolio Committee on Defence (PCOD) and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) -- available to the public...

Although up to one in three members of the SA National Defence Force belong to the South African Infantry Corps (SAIC), not...

Traditionally -- and statistically -- the artillery has been the major killer on the battlefield. Simply put, the task of the infantry...

Opinions are a wonderful escape from reality. Germans spent most of the final years of World War Two believing they were winning...

The case for the Air-Ground Task Force (AGTF) was made in the November 2001 edition this Journal. This article will build on...

A long-anticipated strategy to boost South Africa's aerospace sector the way that the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP) bolstered the country's car-making...

The Nationalen Volksarmee (National People's Army, NVA) of the defunct German Democratic Republic (East Germany, GDR), combined the essential elements of Prussian...

RDL Technologies is a step closer to unleashing its "Rogue" close-in weapons system (CIWS) on the world market, after a series of...

November 2005 The Army is fashioning a vision for the next 15 years and its chief has asked the public to contribute. Lt...

Kenya is copying and customising South African defence reforms, policy and planning to suit its own circumstances in a bid to stamp...

Defence oversight is still weak in Mozambique, a study on military budgets in Africa has found.FEATURE-AU-DEFENCE-MOZ by Leon Engelbrecht    ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia...

Africa has to stop treating military budgets as unique, a conference on the matter heard at the weekend.    Armed forces in Africa...

Donor pressure for budget reform in Africa was often met with official dishonesty, case studies in eight countries have found. AU-DEFENCE-DONORS    ADDIS ABABA,...

The SA Navy was the unwitting catalyst that triggered South Africa's defence oversight revolution when it went to Parliament in 1995 to...

 Ethiopia's defence spending was irrational, a first-of-its-kind study on defence budgets in Africa has found.FEATURE-AU-DEFENCE-ETHIOPIA by Leon Engelbrecht    ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia May...

On the way from the airport, our taxi had no headlights, one functioning windscreen wiper to rearrange the water from a torrential...

Women are making rapid progress in the SA Navy, Vice-Admiral Refiloe Mudimu said on Monday. ...

The Navy plans to better contribute to peacekeeping in Africa by setting up a naval rapid deployment force (NRDF), Vice Admiral Refiloe...

"In a further development, military commentators in South Africa have discussed the creation of an Indigenous Military Peacebuilding Initiative (IMPI)..." "Sub-Saharan Africa Regional...

If recent events in the Ivory Coast did not sufficiently highlight the urgent need to implement a programme akin to the Indigenous...

The arrival of the third and fourth Saab JAS39 Gripen D aircraft in SA follows a series of reports in the mass...

Arms acquisition is, was and will always be unpopular with the public.Telling want from need in the quest for  responsible armaments acquisition by...

The nature of the media-military relationship is one of mutual ambivalence, suspicion and antagonism, for a variety of reasons.The military through media...

No African country was objectively spending enough on defence, a conference on military budgetary processes in Africa heard on Thursday.AU-DEFENCE-BUDGET ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia;...

Three regular brigades, backed by Special Forces, Airborne troops and Reservists. That is the answer to the question vexing SA Army chief...

In case of emergency, hold talk shop. That's the executive summary of the recently adopted Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mutual Defence...

By the end of this decade Africa should have a six brigade UN-style force ready to police the continent's trouble spot. In...

The time has come for Africa to seize control of its security agenda and drive hard for peace on the mother continent.Committee...

The SA National War College (SANWC), the SA National Defence Force's (SANDF) school for operational level commanders and staff officers, has just...

It's cover reads "June 2002", but by June 2004 the Department of Defence's (DoD) Human Resources 2010 strategy document had still not...

There is a growing consenus that NEPAD needs a bodyguard regiment, or to lend a word from the Zulu language, an "impi"...

The African Union (AU) will take shape as a structure over the next year and as a reality over the coming decades....

Defence commentators are asking whether there is still a national consensus on defence, a factor identified by South Africa's military as a...

The United States Marine Corps has produced some of the finest military manuals available today – and they are available on the...

These are key manuals Man 1 Man 2 Man 3