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  • One single soldier of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment of the British Army, stifles a yawn, his white gloved hand covering his gaping mouth. They are all in correct position, practising for an official portrait at Redford Barracks, Edinburgh, which will include Her Majesty the Queen the next day. After hours of rehearsal arriving efficiently into position, warm summer fatigue set in. The group of men are laid out in strict military lines, their heads and buttons show clearly and have been selected for even height to allow the picture to be as regimented as possible.

  • Three soldier recruits wearing shorts and black army boots, one with blood trickling down from the knees to the shins, stand at ease, lined up for inspection after the rigorous steeple-chase endurance race, an individual test with candidates running against the clock over a 1.8 mile cross country course. The course features a number of 'water obstacles' and having completed the cross country element, candidates must negotiate and 'Assault Course' to complete the test. This forms part of the 14-week long Pegasus (P) Company selection programme. Recruits wanting to join the British Army's Parachute Regiment held regularly at Catterick army barracks, Yorkshire, need to pass this and other tests before earning the right to wear the esteemed maroon beret. A plastic bottle of water stands between recruit number three (3) and six (6).

  • In pouring rain, United States Air Force pilots stand like canmouflaged statues in the undergrowth near Fairchild Air Force Base, Spokane, Washington. They are listening to a USAF survival instructor giving them advice about another challenge they are about to face, a few hundred yards ahead in the woods, so they listen intently in the saturatedconditions. They stand motionless, green figures in a green maze of foliage, wearing waterproof cagoules covering their backpacks which are shiny as the rain trickles down. They look like hunchbacks of the forest. The week-long survival course is held at the military facilities around Fairchild where the Air Force conducts a survival, escape and evasion course which combat pilots need to pass before rejoining their units for real-time warfare. This part of the lecture is held in the forest and forms part of an extensive physical and psychological assessment for young aviators on active service. In the future any one of them may be shot down behind enemy lines and need to use the lessons passed-on here to help facilitate their rescue by US forces. One pilot who passed this course in 1991, himself a Spokane-born boy, was F-16 pilot Scott O'Grady. He put his skills learned here to the test while evading Serb forces before being airlifted to safety and a hero's Presidential welcome.

  • In the mid-day heat, all members of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, stand at ease and we see the back of one of the squadron's official photographers head, looking into the viewfinder of his camera to record an official photograph immediately on PDA Day at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. PDA (or 'Public Display Authority'), is when they are allowed by senior RAF officers to perform as a military aerobatic show in front of the public - following a special test flight when their every move and mistake is assessed and graded. Until that day arrives, their training and practicing is done in the privacy of their own airfield at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, UK or here in the glare of Akrotiri. The pilots are called reds and their ground crew, the Blues after their summer air show uniforms.

  • Elite ceremonial soldiers called Evzones or Proedriki Froura (Presidential Guard), parade on Acropolis Hill, Athens. This special contingent of the light infantry unit are on duty at the Acropolis during the national holiday of 'No Day,' celebrating the day when Mussolini was denied a marching route through Greece in 1941. The Acropolis was once the centre of classical Greek culture which the world has inherited for its laws and philosophical thinking. Mounted above the Athenian city within fortified 60m high walls, its history is a World Heritage Site, important because of its "universal symbols of the classical spirit and civilization and form the greatest architectural and artistic complex." The establishment of democracy, took a leading position amongst the other city-states of the ancient world.

  • Young Nepali boys in army red march though a Pokhara street after being recruited for the Gurkha Regiment in the Btitish army. This recruitment test for the Gurkha Regiment is part of a tough endurance series to find physically perfect specimens for British army infantry training. For example they will need to perform 25 straight-kneed sit-ups at a 45° slant both within 60 seconds to pass. 60,000 boys aged between 17-22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000-12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the journey to the UK. The Gurkhas have been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

  • For their regular river washing ritual, the red identical t-shirts of young Nepali boys walk in single-file down a valley side near the British Gurkha Regiment's army camp at Pokhara after recently being recruited into the regiment after a gruelling series of tests to eliminate the weaker and less able candidates. 60,000 boys aged between 17-22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000-12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the journey to the UK. The Gurkhas have been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

  • In the mid-day heat, Squadron Leader Spike Jepson, leader of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, informally addresses the team's highly-skilled ground crew at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus after the whole team's success of passing PDA (or 'Public Display Authority'). The Red Arrows are then allowed by senior RAF officers to perform as a military aerobatic show in front of the general public - following a special test flight when their every move and mistake is assessed and graded. Until that day arrives, their training and practicing is done in the privacy of their own airfield at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, UK. Squadron Leader Jepson has gathered his engineers and support crew known as the Blues to congratulate and encourage them. Specialists like these outnumber the pilots 8:1 and without them, the Red Arrows couldn't fly.

  • British Army Gurkha soldier instructs his men during an exercise on Salisbury Plain, the army's infantry training ground.

  • Seventeen officer cadets march in line wearing full dress uniform with their rifles on shoulders past guests and VIPs at their passing out parade in the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The recently-graduated soldiers march in a near-perfect line looking over their right shoulders towards their commanding officers and VIP guests which sometimes includes Her Majesty the Queen. We see every face clearly and notice their different heights and sizes. Sharp focus is centred on the smallest man in the parade. The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is the British Army officer initial training centre. Sandhurst is prestigious and has had many famous alumni including Sir Winston Churchill, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Sultan Qaboos of Oman and, more recently, Prince Harry and Prince William. All British Army officers, and many from elsewhere in the world, are trained at Sandhurst. RMA Sandhurst was formed in 1947, from a merger of the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich (which trained officers for the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers from 1741 to 1939) and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

  • New recruits of the British Royal Gurkha Regiment learn to parade for their official photograph at their army camp in Pokhara, Nepal after recently being recruited into the regiment after a gruelling series of tests to eliminate the weaker and less able candidates, before the 160 lucky candidates travel to the UK for basic training. 60,000 boys aged between 17-22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000-12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the journey to the UK. Nepal has been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

  • An RAF Air Chief Marshal helps a Royal Navy Vice Admiral just before he bangs his head under a new Eurofighter's (Typhoon) wing

  • A flirting Scots regiment soldier chats to two young women during 50th anniversary celebrations of wartime VE Day.

  • In late afternoon, three conscript soldiers of the Polish army are dressed in brown uniforms eating ice cream cones in Plac Zamkowy, outside the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland. The Polish army (Wojsko Polskie) is the name applied to the military forces of Poland. The name has been used since the early 19th century, although it can be used to refer to earlier formations as well. Polish Armed Forces consist of the Army (Wojsko L?dowe), Navy (Marynarka Wojenna) and Air Force (Si?y Powietrzne) branches and are under the command of the Ministry of Defense (Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej). The combined Polish armed forces consist of 215,000 active duty personnel and in addition 450,000 reserves. The armed forces are made up of conscripts who serve for a period of 9 months, and professional soldiers.

  • British and Nepali-born army officers assess recruits during an army exercise trial known as the British Fitness Test (BFT) at the British Gurkha Regiment's camp at Pokhara, Nepal. The boys are among those trying for a highly-valued place in the regiment after a gruelling series of tests to eliminate the weaker and less able candidates. 60,000 boys aged between 17-22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000-12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the journey to the UK. Nepal has been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

  • Young Nepali boys watch how to perform sit-ups in Himalayas, hoping to be recruited for the Gurkha Regiment in the British army. This is part of a tough endurance series to find physically perfect specimens for British army infantry training. They will need to perform 25 straight-kneed sit-ups at a 45° slant both within 60 seconds to pass. 60,000 boys aged between 17-22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000-12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the journey to the UK. The Gurkhas have been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

  • With a grimace on her pained face, a female Officer Cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst splashes through a water obstacle during an endurance race. Recruits are running a 5 mile steeplechase around the Academy grounds to assess individual stamina and accumulate team points. Sandhurst is an institution which has bred staff officers since 1800. Today it trains future officers for the demands of leadership and military understanding of military understanding. Students are tested for their command instincts, intellect, strength of character and physical endurance often under great psychological pressure - the demands asked of them in modern warfare. Failure in this test might not necessarily mean dismissal though perseverance or refusal to give up won't harm their prospects.

  • A British Army Parachute Regiment recruit punches an opponent during a bout of Milling, a test of aggression for new recruits. In this event, each candidate is paired with another of similar weight and build, and is given 60 seconds to demonstrate 'controlled physical aggression' in a milling contest - similar to boxing, except neither winning, losing, nor skill are pre-requisites of passing. Candidates are instead scored on their determination, while blocking and dodging result in points deducted. Candidates now wear head protection as well as boxing gloves.

  • A Parachute Regiment recruit is in mid-flight and leaps across a wide space between scaffolding and a rope net during the 14-week long Pegasus (P) Company selection programme. Seen in silhouette, the man is in full stretch, half-way between the gantry he leapt from and the rope net that he is about to meet. It is an image that describes a mid-point, a half-way position between safety and uncertainty. Known as the Trainasium, it is an 'Aerial Confidence Course' which is unique to P Company. In order to assess his suitability for military parachuting, the Trainasium tests a candiates ability to overcome fear and carry out simple activities and instructions at a height above ground level. Recruits wanting to join the British Army's Parachute Regiment held regularly at Catterick army barracks, Yorkshire, need to pass this and other tests before earning the right to wear the esteemed maroon beret.

  • A female member of the Territorial Army hangs on to ropes before falling in pond water during weekend initiative manoeuvres

  • Young Nepali boys do a leadership initiative test in Pokhara camp, hoping to be recruited for the Gurkha Regiment in the British army. This is part of a tough endurance series to find physically perfect specimens for British army infantry training. For example, they will need to perform 25 straight-kneed sit-ups at a 45° slant both within 60 seconds to pass. 60,000 boys aged between 17-22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000-12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the journey to the UK. The Gurkhas have been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

  • Wearing a large green helmet with the number 26 painted on the front, a worried-looking black soldier recruit gazes into the distance in front of a white army instructor at the large Garrison at Catterick, England. Here, the Parachute Regiment (The Paras) - hold part of their famous basic training programme called Pegasus (P) Company. The most notorious selection procedure in the British Army. After initial recruitment, each student is sent to either pass or fail a set of 9 events from which a total score of 90 points is possible. 58% or more passes, less fails. Events like the 18 mile Forced March followed by a further 5 miles can earn 10 points though this will inevitably prove too much for many young man, desperate to pass P Company and earn his prestigious beret (Like the Foreign Legion).

  • Young Paratroop Regiment squad run with 35lb loads during rigorous 10-mile march near sheep through Yorkskhire countryside

  • A boy soldier has collapsed on the ground suffering from fatigue and dehydration on a rigorous march conducted as a squad of soldier recruits, over undulating terrain with each candidate carrying a bergen (back pack) weighing 35 pounds (plus water) and a weapon. Two senior trainers haul the buy up who fell under the weight of his backpack and weapon carried on a hot day and without drinking enough fluids. The 10-mile march must be completed in 1 hour and 50 minutes and it forms part of the 14-week long Pegasus (P) Company selection programme that recruits wanting to join the British Army's elite Parachute Regiment, held regularly at Catterick army barracks in Yorkshire, need to pass (with other tests) before earning the right to wear the esteemed maroon beret.

  • A boy soldier collapses on the ground suffering fatigue and dehydration on the rigorous 10-mile march conducted as a squad, over undulatiing terrain with each candidate carrying a bergen (back pack) weighing 35 pounds.(plus water) and a weapon. Three senior trainers help revive the lad with smelling salts who fell under the weight of his backpack and weapon carried on a hot day and without drinking enough fluids. The march must be completed in 1 hour and 50 minutes. This forms part of the 14-week long Pegasus (P) Company selection programme. Recruits wanting to join the British Army's Parachute Regiment held regularly at Catterick army barracks, Yorkshire need to pass this and other tests before earning the right to wear the esteemed maroon beret.

  • An Officer Cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is loaded into the back of a British Army Land Rover ambulance to join the downfacing trainers of a collapsed colleague, after retiring from an endurance race. Recruits run a 5 mile steeplechase around the Academy grounds to assess individual stamina and accumulate team points. Sandhurst is an institution which has bred staff officers since 1800. Today it trains future officers for the demands of leadership and military understanding of military understanding,. Students are tested for their command instincts, intellect, strength of character and physical endurance often under great psychological pressure - the demands asked of them in modern warfare. Failure in this test might not necessarily mean dismissal though perserverence or refusal to give up won't harm their prospects.

  • Four members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles are on tactical manoeuvres on heathland above Farnborough airfield, England. These Nepali-born boys belong to an elite Regiment of the British army. Every year 60,000 boys attend recruiting sessions in villages and towns in the Himalayan Kingdom but only 150 are selected each year to serve on active duty across the world. They fly to the UK for basic soldier training where they learn the skills required for infantry, transport, communications or clerical duties. Their reputation as a fierce but intensely loyal fighting force and many Victoria Crosses were won for bravery during World War 2. Here they are seen cradling modern SA-80 rifles while dressed in camouflaged helmets with oak leaves. The nearest to the camera points his weapon past the viewer with a yellow blank cover attached. .

  • Arranged on a hill with their barrels pointing upwards and lights glowing, weathered Challenger 1 tank crews of the 1st Batallion Royal Tank Regiment are stationary at Tidworth Barracks, England. Their turrets are all pointing to the viewer and the helmet heads of their commanders and drivers can be seen protruding from their respective places. The Royal Tank Regiment is an armoured regiment of the British Army but tanks were first used at Flers in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Challenger 1 was the main battle tank (MBT) of the British Army from 1983 until superseded by the Challenger 2 in the mid 1990s. Challenger 1 took part in Operation Desert Storm where the Iraqi forces failed to take a single vehicle out of combat while Challenger destroyed roughly 300 Iraqi tanks.

  • While visiting London's tourist sites, a young boy of about 5 years-old spends time at Horse Guards where a soldier from the Household Cavalry, also dressed in a deep red coat, stands motionless and at-ease. It is a bright day and the gray stonework amplifies the scarlett uniform tunics as the boy has his picture taken by family. The British Household Cavalry is classed as a corps in its own right, and consists of two regiments: Life Guards (British Army) and the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons). They are the senior regular regiments in the British Army, with traditions dating from 1660.

  • While on ceremonial duties at the Queen's Buckingham Palace, members of the Welsh Guards prepare the finer details of uniform presentation at the Wellington barracks, opposite the Palace in central London, England. Buffing up their bearskin hats and brushing away any specks of dust from shoulders, they each help the other appear as near-perfect as they can before parading in front of thousands during the Changing of the Guard or at other times, during tropping of the Colour on the Queen's birthday occasion. Formed in 1915 by order of King George V, have fought in every war since but are housed at the Wellington Barracks purely for ceremonial reasons, also serving on active duty in the world's trouble spots, where their professionalism is demanded by their British Ministry of Defence masters.

  • Marching grenadier bandsmen pass the war memorial in Horseguards Parade on the Queen's official Trooping the Colour ceremony

  • A formal military dress uniform and a civilian jacket on display in a london's taylor's premises in Sackville Street, London. Jones Chalk & Dawson have well over a century of fine tailoring tradition. The company commenced trading in 1896 when William Jones broke away from Hawkes of Savile Row (later Gieves and Hawkes), where he was head military cutter. Joseph H Dawson and Arthur Chalk also worked at Hawkes. In 1902 the young company were soon a Royal appointment from HRH the Prince of Wales, later King George V. In 1940 they were appointed by King George VI and today, Jones Chalk & Dawson continue to hold a warrant to the Belgian Royal Family.

  • A detail of a second world war Canadian veteran's chest, festooned with gleaming military campaign medals that symbolise an era of conflict, warfare and especially of survival. Seen as a close-up of polished silver, gold and zinc-alloy, we see only the upper body minus the face of this old soldier whose campaigns include the D-Day landings at Normandy in 1944 because at the bottom of his rack of fine insignia is a badge denoting the Normandy Veterans Association. Elsewhere, a medal is worn for service in Palestine. The unseen gentleman wears a Canadian pin at the top and the contribution of his fellow-countrymen as members of the British Commonwealth is recognised in battlefield cemeteries around the world. But on this day, the 11th November, old soldiers like him march past London's Cenotaph to remember friends who did not return from war.

  • A newly-recruited Nepali boy is about to leave his homeland for the UK, where the British army is to make him a fully-trained soldier in the Gurkha Regiment. Daubed with saffron and paint, the sign of good luck on a journey to come, he stands with absolute pride with garlands of fresh flowers draped around his neck by well-wishing relatives before they wave good bye to their son or brother for his two years absence away from home. Some 60,000 young Nepalese boys aged between 17 - 22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000 - 12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the flight to the UK. The Gurkhas training wing in Nepal has been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

  • The rare Victoria Cross is worn on the chest of the celebrated Nepali war veteran Bhanu Bhagta Gurung (also written Bhanubhakta), an ex-soldier of the British Gurkha regiment who in the second world war, earned his medals from repeated bravery against Japanese positions in Burma. He sits here on the terrace of his home, above the misty valley of Gorkha, Central Nepal. He is one of the last survivors of the remarkably brave men who helped defeat the enemy in the jungles of south-east Asia. Gurung is the name of his Nepalese tribe (like the Sherpas who also come from the high Himalayan Kingdom). His company commander described him as "a smiling, hard-swearing and indomitable soldier who in a battalion of brave men was one of the bravest". Born September 1921 - died March 1 2008.

  • Standing near Hougemont Farm, Waterloo, Belgium, scene of some of the fiercest fighting on the battlefield on the day in 1815 when French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the (Iron) Duke of Wellington, we see the current Duke, Brigadier Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, KG, LVO, OBE, MC, DL, FKC (born in Rome on 2nd July 1915). He is a British hereditory peer and a retired officer in the British Army. When he succeeded his father as Duke, he was known as Marquess Douro but is now styled His Grace The Duke of Wellington. Making an occasional visit to the battlefields, he stands on a raw winter's day on the very landscape where his ancestor's brave British men fought off a fierce French attack, the Duke gazes out over the rolling hills that proved the undoing of Napoleon and which changed the course of European history.

  • Deep below-decks, we peer through a striped window of the highly-classified Conflict Direction Center or War Room on the aircraft carrier US Navy USS Harry S Truman during its deployment patrol of the no-flyzone in the Persian Gulf, near the Kuwaiti coast. This top secret office is used for planning and executing sophisticated tactical electronic warfare that fighter jets and surveillance aircraft engage in from air operations mounted from the carrier. The Truman is the largest and newest of the US Navy's fleet of new generation carriers, a 97,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,137, 650 are women. The Iraqi no-fly zones (NFZs) were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom and France after the Gulf War of 1991 to protect humanitarian operations in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by US, UK and French aircraft patrols until France withdrew in 1998. .

  • Red webbing inside a Lockheed Martin-built C-130J Hercules airlifter. Externally similar to the classic Hercules in general appearance, the J model sports considerably updated technology. These differences include new Rolls-Royce AE 2100 D3 turboprops with Dowty R391 composite scimitar propellers, digital avionics (including Head-Up Displays (HUDs) for each pilot). During more than 50 years of service the Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. Strategic, automated low-level airdrops keep 60 road transport vehicles and up to 120 supple troops off hostile roads using only three flight crew.

  • Exercise Dogfish 2001, will take place in the Ionian Sea to the east of Sicily. Eight NATO surface ships from Standing Naval Force Mediterranean will join the exercise...P-3 Orion..Seven submarines from Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United States are also scheduled to take part...Over 130 air missions are planned, and on average this will result in a crew briefing every two hours, day and night, throughout the 14-day exercise. ..Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903. .

  • Green light from the Head-Up Display (HUD) in the cockpit of a Lockheed Martin-built C-130J Hercules airlifter. Externally similar to the classic Hercules in general appearance, the J model sports considerably updated technology. These differences include new Rolls-Royce AE 2100 D3 turboprops with Dowty R391 composite scimitar propellers, digital avionics and HUDs for each pilot). During more than 50 years of service the Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. Strategic, automated low-level airdrops keep 60 road transport vehicles and up to 120 supple troops off hostile roads using only three flight crew.

  • A C-17 Globemaster belonging to the 60th and 349th Air Mobility Wing of the US Air Force. Seen at the Farnborough Airshow in England, this airlifting jet transporter is manufactured by the Boeing Company. The C-17 is used for rapid strategic airlift of troops and cargo to main operating bases or forward operating bases throughout the world. It has the ability to rapidly deploy a combat unit to a potential battle area and sustain it with on-going supplies. The C-17 is also capable of performing tactical airlift, medical evacuation and airdrop missions. The C-17 is operated by the US Air Force, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,NATO and Qatar.

  • Former Chief of the Air Staff Sir Jock Stirrup toasts the achievements of the Wright Brothers at RAF Hendon...Air Chief Marshal Sir Graham Eric (Jock) Stirrup and guest RAF dignitaries chat and drink at the Royal Air Force Museum Hendon on the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903. Behind them, Icarus falls to earth on melted wings before the Red Arrows RAF aerobatic team flew over the North London museum in a perfect Diamond Nine formation.

  • Members of the Royal Marines band march under a giant backdrop of Nelson's flagship HMS Victory during the Royal Tournament.

  • Flight Lieutenants Steve Underwood and Anthony Parkinson and Wing Commander Bill Ramsey of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, discuss logistics beneath the emblems of long-disbanded fighter squadrons which decorate the squadron building at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. They sit in faded pink armchairs supplied by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that are seen in many RAF stations and airfields with the same drab blue paint on the walls. Painted by hand are circular badges with bold colours (colors) and illustrations of birds of prey, fighter-jets, swords and shields which all symbolise warfare. The three pilots are relaxed wearing their red flying suits with their sunglasses dangling in the regulation loop, they are holding a bottle of mineral water and a coffee cup.

  • With hands in their pockets and walking in step, three friends pass along a street off the Shankhill Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland, have just passed beneath a Loyalist mural drawn by a paramilitary artist, whose handiwork is based on a well-known representation of a kneeling gunman shouldering a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and aiming past the crest of the protestant Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the organisation behind many a sectarian action against neighbouring catholic supporters of the Irish republican Army (IRA). In loyalist areas, the red, white and blue of the British Union Jack is painted on kerbs, houses and railings to signify peoples' allegiance to the crown, having historically followed the 17th century activities of King William of Orange against Catholics. .

  • The US aerospace manufacturer Lockheed-Martin's exhibition stand spells the words of warfare technology at Farnborough air show

  • Granite reliefs depicting suffering in First World War battles on the side of the Royal Artillery war memorial at Hyde Park.

  • Vintage hangar door of 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team, but once to 617 Dambusters Squadron. ..The hangar dates to World War 2, housing Lancaster bombers of 617 Dambusters squadron who attacked the damns of the German Ruhr valley on 16th May 1943 using the Bouncing Bomb.

  • NASA Space Junk Auction.Atlas rocket.A 90ft US Air Force Atlas rocket lies on its transporter, its wafer-thin skin still intact after years of storage. Rocket scientist Charles Bell, paid $10 for it though it is estimated that it cost $10m to build. It had been standing at Patrick Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral until a storm blew a tree into it. It is estimated these rockets cost around $10m to build at the time though they were bought at auction for $10,000.

  • NASA Space Junk Auction.The collapsed wafer-thin skin of a 90ft long Atlas rocket which space scientist Charles Bell bought from NASA for £10. It probably cost approximately £10m to build..The side of a 90ft long Atlas rocket that Charles Bell bought for $10 from NASA. It had been standing at Patrick Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral until a storm blew a tree into it. It is estimated these rockets cost around $10m to build at the time though they were bought at auction for $10,000.

  • Two US Navy helicopters have been parked next to some cacti at the Pima Air and Space Museum near Davis Monthan Air Force base, Tucson, Arizona. In the arid desert heat we see only the rear sections of the aircraft, their rotors have been moved into a storage position and so echo the arm-like form and camouflaged tones of the cactus branches. The ground is sandy from the desert floor and soft, overhead light casts a shadow beneath the aircraft's fuselage. Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903. .

  • A US Navy electrician looks straight into the camera wearing a brown colour-coded uniform and beneath the cockpit of an EA-6B Prowler, a communications and intelligence-gathering patrol aircraft on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman, on patrol off Kuwait in the Persian Gulf enforcing the coalition's no-fly zone over Iraq. Behind him are the signs and emblems of the US Navy aircraft that is parked on the deck of this carrier so named after the US President who was in office from 1945 to 1953. Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903. .

  • Two crewmen aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman sit on a fire vehicle on the ship's deck. Wearing red signifies that they are part of a crash and salvage team who respond to emergencies and fire hazards and so wear flame-retardant and anti-flash clothing material. Ordinarily they are responsible for making safe and towing ("doing the bow dance") $38 million F/A-18s fighters round the deck of the Navy?s newest aircraft carrier, here on coalition patrol somewhere off Kuwait in the Arabian Sea. The Truman is so called after the US President who was in office from 1945 to 1953. Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903.

  • RAF fighter pilot in Harrier ground attack aircraft at RAF Wittering.

  • A half-eaten bar of chocolate has been left on an armchair supplied by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is seen in a crew room at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Much of the facilities at RAF and MoD outposts are basic and spartan leaving small luxuries to be imported by visiting air and ground crew. In this case, the 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, are occupying this building while on their detachment to the British Mediterranean base while putting the finishing touches to their air display routines ready for PDA (or 'Public Display Authority'). After passing this test, they are then allowed by senior RAF officers to perform as a military aerobatic show in front of the public - following a special test flight when their every move and mistake is assessed and graded. Until that day arrives, their training and practicing is done in the privacy of their own airfield at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, UK or here in the glare of Akrotiri. The pilots are called Reds and their ground crew, the Blues after their summer air show uniforms. Since 1965 the team has flown over 4,000 air shows in 52 countries.

  • Corporal Chris Ward, one of the photographers belonging to the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, reads a novel while wrapped up in sleeping bag and hammock aboard a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft during a two-day journey from RAF Scampton to RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. Corporal Ward has established for himself a comfortable nest in the rear section at the loading ramp. The interior is basic with sharp corners but the walls are padded. Ward wears a heavy camoulflaged coat to counteract the cold and ear-plugs from the droning engines. The Red Arrows pilots fly their Hawk jet aircraft to air shows but on long journeys requiring the support of ground crew borrow RAF transporters that fly behind the main airborne squadron shipping 10 tons of spares and personal effects for their six-week winter training stay. . .

  • Vinnie Browse switches off his overhead reading light in his Junior Rating bunk aboard HMS Vigilant, a 16,000 ton, 150m long Vanguard class nuclear submarine while moored at HM Naval Base Clyde, Faslane, Scotland. Vigilant has a crew of 140 men and when at sea, only incoming communication, family-grams, are allowed so many months away on operational duty can be tough on home life. On-board entertainment is therefore important for morale. The Vanguard Class SSBN (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear) provides the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear deterrent and carries Trident II ballistic missiles, powered by a pressurised water reactor (PWR) fuelled by a ton of fissionable uranium elements producing huge amounts of energy. Image taken for the 'UK at Home' book project published 2008.

  • A married couple ready themselves for a formal Buckingham Palace garden party in after sunshine. The lady and man have been invited to take tea with and meet the Queen along with many hundreds more in London England. They are Mr and Mrs Johnson and he is a Flag officer junior rating serving in Britain's Royal Navy. His wife adjusts his Navy cap (denoting his ship's name) to make sure it's straightened and presentable for Her Majesty. It is a proud day for her husband and his spouse, when the achievements of his military career are recognized by his Sovereign. The Queens' garden parties are held ever summer, allowing ordinary men and women from diverse members of society the chance to walk the Palace grounds and meet others from all walks of life. Some may be from the armed services and others , merely known for their charitable work or individual merit.

  • On the edge of an old Soviet parade ground, peeling murals show the physical style of Russian marching techniques seen in this army boot camp in the former East German peninsular called Halbinsel Wustrow near Rostock. For the benefit of recruits or as a reminder of Soviet discipline, the picture shows soldiers marching in that unmistakable goose-stepping style reminiscent of the Nazi era, with high forward kicks and a strenuous arm movement to the chest as seen in iconic May Day celebrations in Red Square. Wustrow was once a WW2 German anti-aircraft artillery position then housed civilian refugees before the eventual Soviet occupation of the former DDR during the Cold War, up until 1990 and the fall of communism and the Berlin Wall. The camp was ransacked and all its assets stripped before its desertion that summer and is a reminder of a fallen ideology

  • Member of the 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team has ear, nose, throat medical check by RAF doctor.

  • Military flight survival suits displayed by Transaero at the Farnborough Airshow.

  • NASA Space Junk Auction.Chemical suits. NASA chemical suits hang on their rack at the space junk auction. Hanging Scape Suits before the auction. Confusingly, these are not space suits as worn by astronauts but chemical protection suits for those working with chemicals and liquid oxygen on the giant gantries that stood alongside the rockets. They were sold for $60 each and now appear on e-bay.com... .

  • Standing with a recently-killed deer run-over on a nearby highway, members of a special US Air Force (USAF) survival course (see Corbis image 42-18212808) pose by the gutted carcass of their animal in a forest near their facility at Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington State. These tough-looking men host visiting air crew whose flying careers depend on passing this rigorous week of escape and evasion instruction. Should they land in enemy territory for example, they will need all the skills learned here to survive possibly weeks in the wilderness so trapping and preparing fresh meat for human consumption is of paramount importance. Here the teachers stand around the venison which is strung up on a branch, its intestines and organs already removed by a hunting knife. They wear camouflage uniforms, face paint to look vicious, threatening and heartless. .

  • Looking skyward is a USAF pilot learning how to vector in a potential helicopter rescue as part of a special US Air Force (USAF) survival course (see also Corbis image 42-18212808) Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington State. The man has been taught to use a special escape and evasion (E &E) techniques to visiting air crew whose flying careers depend on passing this rigorous week of survival instruction. Should they be downed in hostile territory for example, they will need every skill learned here to survive possibly weeks being hunted in the wilderness so trapping and preparing fresh meat for human consumption is important for survival. Here the crewman has let off a red smoke canister to mark his location for the friendly aircraft to see.

  • Lying in undergrowth, a camouflaged British infantry soldier is seen looking down the telescopic sight of the new British-made Long Range L115A3 sniper rifle on Salisbury Plain, Warminster, England. Sniping means concealment, observation and assassination, a strategy the British are using more against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Swiss Lapua .338 inch rounds (8.59mm) travel at sub-sonic speeds of 936 metres/sec, finding its target accurately up to 1,100 metres. The rifle weighs 6.8kg with telescopic image-intensified scopes to 25x life size vision, made by Schmidt & Bender. Front-mounted 'suppressor' minimises the signature normally compromising snipers' position. At £23,000 each, a £4 million contract has been awarded to Accuracy International, to provide the Army, Royal Marines and RAF. The British say this is the best sniper rifle in the world.

  • From 1,100m away, a shooting target at a firing range belonging to the Land Warfare Centre, has been punctured by bullet holes from a new British-made Long Range L115A3 sniper rifle on Salisbury Plain, Warminster, England. Sniping means concealment, observation and assassination, a strategy the British are using more against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Swiss Lapua .338 inch rounds (8.59mm) travel at sub-sonic speeds of 936 metres/sec, finding its target accurately up to 1km. The rifle weighs 6.8kg with telescopic image-intensified scopes to 25x life size vision, made by Schmidt & Bender. Front-mounted 'suppressor' minimises the signature normally compromising snipers' position. At £23,000 each, a £4 million contract has been awarded to Accuracy International, to provide the Army, Royal Marines and RAF. The army say it's their best ever sniper rifle.

  • A US Navy airman stands holding a recently-bought hot dog from a food dispenser at the Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily Italy. Wearing a green flying suit, the snack is wrapped in a napkin and its chemically-enhanced yellow mustard echoes the stripes and badge of his squadron. Home to over 5,000 military and civilian personnel including family members, Sigonella is an outpost for American nationals who have the luxuries from home freighted out to their remote mission, a hub of naval air operations in the Mediterranean Sea and home comforts keep up morale. Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903. .

  • US Navy pilots sit in the cockpit of a Sikorsky MH-60R helicopter at the Farnborough Airshow. ..The MH-60R is the U.S. Navy's newest and most advanced multi-mission helicopter, designed for anti-submarine and surface warfare (ASW/ASuW). Secondary missions include: Search and Rescue, anti-ship surveillance and targeting, communication relay and medevac/vertical replenishment. The Sikorsky-built helicipter with integrated avionics and mission systems by Lockheed Martin.

  • In the foreground we see the strong forearm of a British army soldier whose blood group O-Negative has been tattooed in large letters beneath an image of a Japanese Geisha girl. He also wears a watch with aq green strap matching his working army fatigues uniform. Behind him are two part-time territorial army conscripts who are sitting on their army-issued rucksack Bergens awaiting further orders to serve on active duty from Sandhurst military academy to the Balkans during Operation Resolute, the National Support Element to support NATO action. The dominating figure in the foreground stands upright though we don't see his face. His two conscripts sit on the ground looking dejected or perhaps worried about their forthcoming duties. They are still in civillian clothing, jeans and t-shirts but will soon change into uniform.

  • Chief Technician Kerry Griffiths is a with the 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team, the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team. In camouflaged military green jacket, large forearms and rolled-up sleeves, he oversees the loading of spares and personal effects into a C-130 Hercules aircraft before the two-day journey from RAF Scampton to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Surrounded by heavy-duty flight-spares, survival equipment boxes and a tyre for a Hawk jet aircraft, the Hercules looms large in the overcast sky. The team complete their winter training schedule in Cyprus. The Red Arrows pilots fly their own jet aircraft to air shows but when requiring the support of ground crew they borrow a transporter to fly behind the main airborne squadron. 10 tons of spares and personal effects are shipped for a six-week stay.

  • Re-enactment soldiers at Housesteads Fort on Roman Hadrian's Wall, once the northern frontier of Rome's empire.

  • Two military officers from Ecuador admire an air-to-ground PARS 3 LR missile at the Paris Air Show, Le Bourget France

  • Red shirted ordnance men prepare to fit smart bombs and missiles to an F/A-18 fighter jet on deck of USS Harry S Truman. The Truman is the largest and newest of the US Navy's fleet of new generation carriers, a 97,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,137, 650 are women.

  • US Navy personnel line-up for a below-deck briefing on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman. The Truman is the largest and newest of the US Navy's fleet of new generation carriers, a 97,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,137, 650 are women. The Iraqi no-fly zones (NFZs) were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom and France after the Gulf War of 1991 to protect humanitarian operations in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the .

  • Brown-shirted plane captains, responsible for cleanliness and operating readiness of aircraft on deck, wash an F/A-18..On the deck of USS Harry S Truman, the largest and newest of the US Navy's fleet of new generation carriers, a 97,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,137, 650 are women.

  • A red shirted ordnance man walks through a crowd of US Navy fighter and intelligence-gathering jets on deck of USS Harry S Truman. The Truman is the largest and newest of the US Navy's fleet of new generation carriers, a 97,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,137, 650 are women.

  • Seen from the air at dawn, the last remaining B-52 bombers from the Cold War-era are laid out in grids across the arid desert near Tucson Arizona. These retired aircraft whose air frames are too old for flight are being recycled, their aluminium worth more than their sum total. In the nuclear arms treaties of the 80s, Soviet satellites proved their decommissioning by spying the tails had been sliced apart huge guillotines and set at right-angles. This is a scene of confrontation, with opposing forces apparently facing each other in the way that Soviet and western armies fought the war of propaganda. Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903..

  • The grand unveiling of Eurofighter (now called Typhoon) the fighter jet built by a consortium of European nations. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft, designed and built by a consortium of three companies. Its maiden flight took place on 27 March 1994 watched by VIPS from UK industry and military.

  • We see the head and shoulders of a man in military uniform who stands motionless beside the American flag. he is at a graduation ceremony for United States Air Force pilots who have just passed a week-long survival courseheld at the Fairchild Air Force Base, Spokane, Washington. Its highy-trained personel conducts a survival, escape and evasion course which combat pilots and air crew need to pass before rejoining their units for real-time warfare. Conducted, in hangars and the surrounding forests, it forms part of an extensive physical and psychological assessment of young aviators on active service. In the future any one of them may be shot down behind enemy lines and need to use the lessons passed-on here to help facilitate their rescue by US forces. One pilot who passed this course in 1991, himself a Spokane-born boy, was F-16 pilot Scott O'Grady. He put his skills learned here to the test while evading Serb forces before being airlifted to safety and a hero's Presidential welcome.

  • Two US Navy sailors carefully fold the nation's on an upper deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman. The Truman is the largest and newest of the US Navy's fleet of new generation carriers, a 97,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,137, 650 are women. The Iraqi no-fly zones (NFZs) were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom and France after the Gulf War of 1991 to protect humanitarian operations in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the .

  • New recruits of the Royal Gurkha Regiment swear allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen's portrait during their passing-out parade at their camp at Pokhara, Nepal. After being recruited into the regiment after a gruelling series of tests to eliminate the weaker and less able candidates, the lucky 160 fly to the UK for basic training. 60,000 boys aged between 17-22 (or 25 for those more educated to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000-12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the journey to the UK. Nepal has been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857

  • 24 hours before the royal marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, a guardsman stands by his sentry box in front of Clarence House in St James Palace where the royal bride is staying. A lady royalist stands admiring the soldier in a bright Union Jack-coloured hat as the guardsman approaches in tandem with an unseen colleague. Taking place on Friday 30th April in front of millions of Britons and foreign tourists (many American), the crowds are already gathering to claim their ideal locations in the front rows along the procession route.

  • RAF support admin man belonging to the 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team.

  • At the foot of a tree located opposite the charred Pentagon building days after the September 11th attacks in New York and Washington DC, children have made a makeshift memorial by placing a garland around the model of a military B52 bomber, a NASA space Shuttle, portrait of a smiling president George W Bush and their own interpretation of the attacks on the Twin Towers - with airliners flying towards those symbols of capitalism. Icons of American technology and patriotic success lie on the ground here beneath the tree near Arlington military Cemetery. In a show of unity, many of those gathered on the grass to view the damage done by terrorists worked for the government or defence organisations, their Hawkish rhetoric appearing to suggest heavy-handed retaliation on those held responsible.

  • Now an overgrown, mildew-ridden farm shack in woodland in Seething, Norfolk England, this wall mural was once one of the barracks housing 3,000 young World War 2 bomber crews so was probably painted by a young aspiring artist and aviator with the 448th Bomb Group, a fleet of bombers based in England from November 1943 to July 1945. The picture depicts a confrontation between US Air Force B-24 Liberators, a P-51 Mustang and probably a German Dornier. There are hairline cracks in the plaster but the yellow hue of the hand-painted wall is largely intact despite damp conditions in the shed. There are however, other artistic details now faded. Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903. .

  • On a foggy Spring morning at RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, a yellow MoD airfield telephone stands alone in the mist. Scampton is the headquarters of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team who largely have the sole use of its air space. The ageing equipment is a push-button type and its colour matches the painted stripes on the damp, concreted ground. The gloomy mist is obscuring buildings and hangars in the background and flying has been cancelled so an eerie stillness has settled on the normally busy facility that would normally host up to six red Arrows sorties (flight) a winter's day. Communications with remote areas of the aerodrome is often necessary to alert the air traffic control tower. Only qualified personnel are to use this system, just as drivers must have undertaken an MoD vehicle course. .

  • Anti-war graffiti at the Lincoln memorial, Washington DC..Patriotic Americana - After 9/11. Chalked anti-war graffiti on the pavement near the Lincoln Memorial. In the week after the September 11th attacks, America sought to express their anger and patriotic unity. Rarely-seen anti-war graffiti was chalked overnight around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, angering Vietnam veterans and visitors paying respects to the nation?s war monuments. "Look at this, Jane Fonda's grand kids - damned peace nicks!" - Overheard from a passer-by.

  • Vietnam memorial, Washington DC. Patriotic Americana - After 9/11. Vietnam memorial names and reflected visitor, Washington DC. In the week after the September 11th attacks, America sought to express their anger and patriotic unity. At dawn, a lone person pays their respects at the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington DC...

A loose theme of army, Navy and Air Force images sourced from personal projects and assignments.

On the nature of militarism: From Roman foot soldiers, Parachute regiment training and Gurkha recruitment to life below the surface on a Royal Navy submarine and at sea level on a US Navy carrier.

We pause to see war veterans and memorials to an anti-war protest and even paramilitary murals in Belfast; the ranks in a parade and the sometimes comedy of just being a...
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