Photos: Talons, Eagles and Enforcers - the tech behind war
Fight 'em on the beaches… (with holographic tech)
Holographic quantum technology and acoustic sniper sensors may sound like the stuff of science fiction films - but they are actually new defence technologies destined for the battlefield.
The Future Soldier event at London's National Army Museum blew open the UK's arsenal of the future.
Here Baroness Ann Taylor, minister of defence equipment and support, tries out the controls for the Surveillance Target Acquisition and Weapon Sight system (Staws) and Enforcer Remote Controlled weapon system. The Staws system utilises advanced non-cooled thermal imaging technology.
Combined with a high-resolution daylight sensor, Staws provides a 24-hour all-weather surveillance and target acquisition capability.
Enforcer is designed to be fitted to a wide range of combat vehicles and can control anything from a 7.2mm general purpose machine gun to a 40mm automatic grenade launcher.
Photo credit: MoD
There are already more than 1,000 Talon robots (pictured here) in service, mainly with US forces, ranging from remote-controlled fully armed reconnaissance bots, to bomb disposal units.
The machines, built by QinetiQ, have all-weather, day/night capabilities and can navigate virtually any type of terrain.
Photo credit: MoD
These Q-Sight helmet displays from BAE Systems use quantum technology and holographic techniques to deliver a lightweight system that provides seamless transitions between day and night vision.
Photo credit: MoD
Cobham's Eagle close combat radio, shown here, uses state of the art technology to provide a full duplex networked radio designed to provide the soldier with a more cost-effective handset which can cope with modern voice and data requirements in the varied environments of the battlefield.
Photo credit: MoD
Taylor is shown the array of weaponry available to today's UK soldiers.
She told delegates at the event: "There is already a huge difference between the personal equipment a British infantryman used in Kosovo back in 1999 and what they are using now in Afghanistan."
Photo credit: MoD