DefenceTalkWhen Soldiers rip open meals, ready-to-eat, also known as MRE, in a combat zone, most people probably are thinking more about flavor and filling their stomachs than about the nutrition. However, that does not mean nutrition is not important. The new online combat rations database, or ComRaD, formally launched earlier this month by the Department […]https://www.defencetalk.com/combat-rations-database-soldiers-learn-meals-ready-to-eat-nutrition-63538/

DefenceTalkSwedish defence company Saab Dynamics is close to finalizing a new arms sales deal with Saudi Arabia, financial newspaper Dagens Industri reports. Intense negotiations over the delivery of the anti-tank missile Bill 2 have been going on for nearly one year, according to Dagens Industri. The ongoing diplomatic row between Sweden and Saudi Arabia will […]https://www.defencetalk.com/new-weapons-on-the-way-to-saudi-arabia-63544/

DefenceTalkRussia launched major military exercises Thursday, with thousands of troops taking part in war games across the country, including in the annexed Crimean peninsula and southern regions near Ukraine. More than 8,000 ground troops began drills set to last until early April in regions including southern Russia, Crimea, Armenia and the breakaway Georgian regions of […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russian-troops-launch-mass-drills-close-to-ukraine-63493/

DefenceTalkUnrelenting budget constraints have degraded Army readiness and modernization to historically low levels, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told a Senate panel here today. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee alongside Army Secretary John M. McHugh, Odierno discussed the impact of sequestration on the Army’s readiness and modernization, and the risks […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-army-chief-readiness-degraded-to-historically-low-levels-63482/

DefenceTalkThree Army technologies were in play at the recently conducted Army Expeditionary Warfighter Experiment, or AEWE, on Fort Benning, Georgia. “AEWE is [Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC] live, prototype experimentation campaign,” said Harry J. Lubin, chief of the experimentation branch, Maneuver Center of Excellence. This year, 66 industry and military technologies participated in AEWE. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-army-warfighter-experiment-highlights-new-technologies-63430/

DefenceTalkIn preparation of Network Integration Evaluation, or NIE, 15.2, Fort Bliss, Texas, transforms into the epicenter for one-of-a-kind vehicles equipped with the most technologically advanced Army network systems. Engineers, technicians and Soldiers are beginning to immerse the Integration Motor Pool, or IMP, to integrate systems onto the vehicles that will be used during NIE. During […]https://www.defencetalk.com/unique-army-tactical-vehicles-integrated-network-integration-evaluation-63427/

DefenceTalkRussia has acquired high-tech camouflage netting from Switzerland for a record 85 million euros, having placed the order before Bern imposed sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, reports said Sunday. The netting is designed to escape detection by radar and infra-red captors. The contract was signed in August 2014, before Bern decided to mirror […]https://www.defencetalk.com/swiss-firm-sells-camouflage-nets-to-sanctions-hit-russia-63415/

DefenceTalkWith a diminishing number of Swedes with a completed army service and a drop in volunteer recruits, the military is a facing a severe shortage of soldiers, a report commissioned by Sweden’s Defence Committee shows. “We have a reserve of conscripts, but it will soon have been emptied,” Allan Widman, the chairman of parliament’s Defence […]https://www.defencetalk.com/sweden-faces-soldier-shortage-63408/

DefenceTalkOne of the hoped for outcomes of the Army Operating Concept, or AOC, is “creating an atmosphere where we can create multiple dilemmas for the enemy in an environment where we feel very comfortable operating,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno. “I believe today, our enemy creates multiple dilemmas for us,” Odierno said. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/solarium-2015-forcing-multiple-dilemmas-on-enemy-63387/

DefenceTalkThe U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, or USARIEM, once again partnered with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment to study nutrition and physiological responses to cold-weather training. For the second time in three years, researchers from USARIEM traveled to Norway to study Norwegian soldiers participating in cold-weather training. About 75 Norwegian soldiers, from the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/army-researchers-norway-nutrition-cold-stress-study-arctic-extremes-63384/