Science & Technology World

The uniform of the British Army is to be changed for the first time in almost 40 years. The new Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) will replace the traditional four colour woodland uniform known as No.8 : Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM). Forces in Afghanistan will start to get the new uniforms in March next year, with the whole army upgraded by 2011. MTP is designed for a wide range of environments, including the volatile "green zone" of Helmand province. British troops in Afghanistan currently use a mix of desert camouflage and temperate DPM, depending on which area they are operating in. There are three main types of terrain in Helmand - desert, the agricultural "green zone" either side of the Helmand river, and residential areas with dusty buildings and mud huts. One soldier said that the mix-and-match was far from ideal and made units stand out, especially in the "green zone". Not perfect Lt Col Toby Evans - a military advisor with the Government's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory - told the BBC the new uniform was a compromise between having a uniform that was perfectly suited to a specific environments and one that would work well across a wide range of conditions. "We've realised that Afghanistan is more complex - especially Helmand - than, say Iraq, which was predominantly a desert background or north-west Europe, which was predominantly green," he said. "The new camouflage is optimised for all the Afghan background colour sets and in doing so we never reach a point - which we did with the old colours - where it is actually wrong. "It may not be quite perfect, but its good enough for everything," he added. The Army's Infantry Trials and Development Unit and the government's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory tested a number of different designs in the UK, Cyprus, Kenya, and Afghanistan before selecting the MTP design. Developed by Crye Precision, MTP is developed from the firm's MultiCam pattern, currently used by some special forces units. 'Looks good' Corporal Adrian Gibbs, from The Grenadier Guards, told BBC News his first impressions of seeing the new MTP uniform. "I think it's good - when you see it compared to the green and desert DPM I think it will work well both on tour and within the UK itself. "This new uniform will make it harder for us to be seen and so much easier for us to do our job." The MoD say the dark green DPM uniforms will slowly be phased out and replaced by MTP. However the current No.5 : Desert combat dress will remain in service and be used along side the Multi-Terrain Pattern.

Esa's Council of Ministers has approved an initial budget of 850 million euros to support the missions. It will need to increase the cash available by about 150 million euros in future years. "This marks an important moment for Europe in its steps towards space exploration on the world scale," said Professor David Southwood, the director of science and robotics at the agency. "We have been to the planets before, sure. But now we have a plan for exploration ahead to build our technical capability and explore Mars in a long-term partnership." The two-mission scenario has been born out of a much smaller proposal passed in 2008 which had the idea of launching a technology- demonstration rover to Mars in 2011 known as ExoMars. Technical considerations that saw this concept grow in scope and cost meant the whole endeavour was revised. The 2016 orbiter would be designed to track down the sources of methane and other trace gases recently detected at Mars. The presence of methane is intriguing because its likely origin is either present-day life or geological activity. Confirmation of either would be a major discovery. The 2018 ExoMars rover - now a much bigger vehicle - could then be targeted at one of the most interesting sources. The 2016 mission would also have sufficient mass margin to put some sort of lander on the surface, although this would stay in just one location and may not be very long-lived. Even so, Europe is keen to have a go at putting down some sort of instrument package on the planet to gain expertise in entry, descent and landing technologies. David Southwood told BBC News that the programme was "on the road in that full implementation of the hardware build will now start".