This summary of Chapter 7.3 of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review 2025 provides a high-level overview of the evolving priorities and capabilities within the British Army’s land domain. It highlights the broad direction of travel for modernisation, force readiness, and integration within NATO frameworks, offering a timely context for discussions at the International Armoured Vehicles Conference 2026.

As the world’s premier forum for the armoured vehicles community, the event will bring together senior military leaders, government officials, and industry experts to explore the technologies and strategies shaping the future of land-based defence.

In this exclusive interview, Brigadier General Miguel Freire offers a rare look into the operational priorities shaping modern air and missile defence in Portugal and across NATO. He reflects on a fast-changing threat environment, alongside the importance of interoperability, and the lessons drawn from recent conflicts.

This compelling read is ideal for anyone interested in how senior military leaders are preparing their forces for the challenges ahead.

See why International Armoured Vehicles has established itself, and has been recognised as the world’s premier international meeting ground for all elements of the armoured community, attracting 1,500 delegates from over 60 nations over 3 days of strategic discussions, programme updates, workshops and tech/equipment demos.

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All forces face the question, “How will we fight in the future?” Recent conflicts have highlighted the rapidly changing nature of warfare, from the doctrinal to the tactical, due to quickly changing and accessible technologies combined with their imaginative but practical employment. In preparation for the International Armoured Vehicles Conference 2025, we have had the privilege of having Colonel Armin Dirks, Head of Operations of the Combined Project Team of Main Ground Combat System, share his thoughts on this question. As one of the leading figures in bringing the next generation's main battle tank into a reality, few people are in a better position to determine the future of armoured warfare. To answer the question of “How will we fight in the future?”, we have asked the following subset of questions:

• What are some of the everlasting challenges versus new challenges that forces face?
• Considering the trends we have seen on recent battlefields, are there any calls to rethink aspects of modern armoured warfare rather than simply evolving the thought behind it?
• Modern thought on armoured vehicle requirements has shifted from the “Iron Triangle” (Protection, Firepower, and Mobility) to the “Steel Hexagon” (Lethality, Autonomy, Adaptability, Connectivity, Survivability, and Mobility). What are your thoughts on the implications of this for capabilities?
  

While the battlefield is becoming more automated and robotic, discounting the human factor would be a mistake. While uncrewed technology has evolved rapidly, how we think of human-machine teaming (HMT) on the battlefield needs to catch up; otherwise, the technology will not reach its realised potential. To delve into this topic, the lead engineer at the UK’s Human-Machine Teaming Future Capability Innovation group, Nicholas Valentine, shares his thoughts. This whitepaper by Nicholas Valentine covers:

• The importance of the human aspect in HMT
• The role of understanding purpose in HMT
• The role of Robot Logic on the Battlefield
  

For the 25th annual International Armoured Vehicle Conference, we are expanding to an even bigger venue, the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre. This new and ample space permits us to take our vehicle exhibitions to the next level. The exhibition is, however, much more than a showing of the latest vehicles; it's an opportunity to understand how these platforms will answer the question, “How will we fight in the future?”

The importance of Active Protection Systems (APS) has only increased as threats to armour have evolved to the point where passive protection systems are not enough. New armour-penetrating technologies and techniques, which are more prevalent in near-peer conflicts, vehicle weight limitations, and the evolution of more efficient sensors and effectors have set APS systems to become mainstream. In this interview, we discuss the UK’s APS efforts with Tom Newbery CPhys from the Platform Survivability Group at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the UK’s foremost defence research organisation. In this interview, we discuss:

• Trends in armoured vehicle survivability
• Challenges and opportunities in developing APS
• Implications for Industry and Forces