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Photos: Virtual war tests new technology
Getting muddy at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Thursday 14 June 2007

In a small field near Portsmouth, a war has been raging for the past couple of weeks.

Fortunately this is only a virtual war - part of the global Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) to test whether the armed forces' latest technologies can cope with battlefield conditions.

CWID UK (the UK's arm of the virtual war) is part of the wider US-led CWID event held online and around the world with countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand involved in testing and developing new military technologies.

It is an annual field trial which runs military scenarios over three weeks to put the tested technologies in context and uses employees from industry and the military to help out with the demo.

Stephen Borthwick, an RAF wing commander, said the industry involvement is key because the Ministry of Defence (MoD) "does not have all the bright ideas".

Pictured is the field on a military base near Portsmouth, UK where the trials are taking place.

The field itself is the 'war zone' and houses a selection of tents containing the 42 technology trials being run as part of the event.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson