View allAll Photos Tagged Defence
Securing the area, Gibraltar Defence Police are a regular feature at the road barriers with the runway. On this occasion they also acted as additional security to the departing Governor and military personnel on the airfield.
Sir Adrian Johns left the Rock on Wednesday 13th November 2013 for the final time as Governor of Gibraltar.
©2013 Tony Evans. All Rights Reserved.
Written permission should be sought if one wishes to use an image.
Estonian Defence Force Soldiers live fire training while serving with BKN09 in Mali
Photos: srs Valner Väino
@kaitsevagi.edf
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the 4th week of May 2017.
Most of the main civil engineering works have ceased along the Slang/Rehills section of the river bank.
However, the soil-shifters are at it again.
Smaller operation than before, but a steady process of removing soil, shifting soil and reshaping the banks.
Said it before, and I'll say it again . . . . .
I call it the 'Biggest Sandpit/Playarea' in Wicklow, in Leinster, in Ireland.
The place is a mess. Aesthetically, the uneven flow to the ridges and terraces annoys me.
You don't have to be a certified civil engineer to figure out that there are quicker and more efficient ways to move the soil.
Using one excavator, a few dumper-trucks and a single bulldozer is a process not driven by time/cost.
If you 'really' had to complete this work quickly, you'd line up a few 'bigboy' bulldozers . . . . . and shift the soil in days, rather than weeks-months.
This 'hurdler on the ditch' simply comments on the piecemeal nature of this planning!
Hard to believe - but I've been recording this project now for 5 years.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken by the end of the 3rd week of November, 2017.
Standing on the new riverside walkway, previously known as Ravenswell Road, temporarily closed due to on-going works.
That was the site of the old Bray Golf Club -- hotly contested as a (potentially) poorly considered as a site for a shopping centre development complex, and still an area of ground that has to act as a flood plain in the event of tidal surges.
As well as raising a heightened flood protection wall, they've created an access ramp down to the riverside.
The area in the background, site of the old Bray Golf course, was both a works compound and vehicle route for the transportation of material to/from the other sectors along the River Dargle involved in construction works.
By now, most of the heavy works have been completed.
=========================================================
Between Bray Bridge and the Railway Bridge there was a wooden footbridge linking Ravenswell Road and the Seapoint Road, this bridge was built at the time of the railway coming to Bray.
It closed in 1870 and was removed shortly afterwards.
"The Little Book of Bray and Enniskerry" by Brian White.
==========================================================
The Irish Rail Bridge, Bray Harbour:
Phase 1 flood defence works to the Irish Rail bridge commenced in August 2016.
Phase 2 flood defence works will be completed during May to September 2017. This work is being undertaken directly by Irish Rail.
The work includes strengthening the integrity of the bridge by creating buttresses around the base of each pillar.
To do this they have to pile-drive sheets into the river bedrock.
The work is complicated by;
(a) the need not to damage or disturb in any way the actual bridge itself (Irish Rail train and DART carriages pass overhead on an hourly basis), (b) the confined spaces under the bridge, and (c) the twice-daily rising tides from Bray Harbour which spill upriver into the newly expanded basin.
The length of the Ravenswell Road gas been landscaped into a pedestrian 'experience', with plants, seating and viewing points created in the sea-wall. This will link up with a new road and pathway being constructed around to Little Bray.
Through the past few weeks/months, we can see the construction in and around the Irish Rail bridge, where new and extensive reinforced concrete collars are built up to support the existing support pillars/piers. The river and sea beds are also engineered to control the flow of tides and river flows.
Ornamental railings and abstract wooden hangings are fashioned on-site.
Israeli paratroopers take their positions during a military exercise in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, November 25, 2009.
401 Reconnaissance Battalion Exercise in the Galilee
These soldiers serve in the Reconnaissance Battalion of the IDF Artillery Corps' 401 Brigade. Last week, they participated in a unit-wide exercise in the beautiful mountain ranges of northern Israel's Galilee region.
Photo credit: Tal Lisos & Ben Ram David, IDF Spokesperson's Unit
Estonian Defence Force Soldiers live fire training while serving with BKN09 in Mali
Photos: srs Valner Väino
@kaitsevagi.edf
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken in the second full week of November 2014.
There's a big drop-off in activity on this site now. Some finishing touches to the river bed itself, cosmetic work along the riverbank sides, and a jig-saw pattern of large boulders placed in mid-stream. The main (final) focus will be on completing the profiles to the wall, securing with poured concrete, and then the completion with the pre-fabricated stone capping.
The guys have attached steel frames to the recess of the sheet-steel uprights, and filled with concrete. They very carefully check levels, laser-assisted. There's still a surprising amount of intricate manual work involved -- machines can only do so much!
The next step involves swinging in pre-formed capping slabs, with inset jacking points, and embedded rods to intertwine with the sheet-steel wall. Accuracy satisfied, the welder melds them together.
It's a race against time, schedules - and expected heavy rains and high river levels on the way.
The fume given off by welding and hot cutting processes is a varying mixture of airborne gases and very fine particles which if inhaled can cause ill health.
Gases that may be present in welding and cutting fume are:
nitrous oxide (NOx),
carbon dioxide (CO2),
carbon monoxide (CO),
shielding gas (eg Argon, helium) and ozone (O3)
The visible part of the fume cloud is mainly particles of metal, metal oxide and flux (if used).
The exact level of risk from the fume will depend on 3 factors:
How toxic the fume is;
How concentrated the fume is;
How long you are breathing the fume
(HSE.Gov.UK)
Irish Military Static Line Parachute Course
Members of the Irish Defence Force during the Military Static Line Parachute Course at the Defence Forces Training Centre – 29th March 2012
Photos: Sgt Paul Brady
Netley Castle is a former artillery fort constructed in either 1542 or 1544 by Henry VIII in the village of Netley, Hampshire. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and it defended Southampton Water near the Solent.
The castle included a central, stone keep with two flanking gun platforms and was garrisoned by ten men.
It was decommissioned during the English Civil War and by 1743 it was overgrown and in ruins.
In the 19th century the property was gradually converted into a private house, being extended in a Gothic style, complete with octagonal towers.
Between 1939 and 1998 it was used as a nursing home, until the high costs of maintenance led to its closure.
Following an archaeological survey, it was then converted into nine residential flats. It is protected under UK law as a Grade II* listed building.
Guido Crosetto (Minister of Defence, Italy) and Krsto Perovic (State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Montenegro)
Israel's Special Unit Bardalas Take Part in Training Exercise
Israeli male and female combat soldiers of the Bardales battalion take part in a training exercise July 13, 2016 in Nitzana, Israel. Bardales battalion is a new mixed-gender combat battalion that has been active since 2015.
Source: Ilia Yefimovich
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the 4th week of May 2017.
Most of the main civil engineering works have ceased along the Slang/Rehills section of the river bank.
However, the soil-shifters are at it again.
Smaller operation than before, but a steady process of removing soil, shifting soil and reshaping the banks.
Said it before, and I'll say it again . . . . .
I call it the 'Biggest Sandpit/Playarea' in Wicklow, in Leinster, in Ireland.
The place is a mess. Aesthetically, the uneven flow to the ridges and terraces annoys me.
You don't have to be a certified civil engineer to figure out that there are quicker and more efficient ways to move the soil.
Using one excavator, a few dumper-trucks and a single bulldozer is a process not driven by time/cost.
If you 'really' had to complete this work quickly, you'd line up a few 'bigboy' bulldozers . . . . . and shift the soil in days, rather than weeks-months.
This 'hurdler on the ditch' simply comments on the piecemeal nature of this planning!
Hard to believe - but I've been recording this project now for 5 years.
Often overlooked by many, there is a smaller Palmerston fort in the Solent, near Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.
This is St. Helens Fort. Construction began in 1865 and was completed in 1878. It's much smaller than the other, circular, forts in the Solent.
Periodically (often in August), on one of the lowest tides of the year, there is a mass walk from St Helens beach out to the fort and back.
On this day the causeway appears from the sea upon which the original materials were carried out from the shore at St Helen's Old Church, where there was formerly a quarry. Access is from this point, but also along the spit from Bembridge.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the 2nd week of September 2017.
Hard to believe - but I've been recording this project now for 5+ years.
Most of the main civil engineering works have ceased along the Slang/Rehills section of the river bank.
The soil-shifters have finished. The main area of land has been seeded and growth is already happening. In selected areas, plants/shrubs have also been planted.
The plan now will be to allow nature to complete the task of reverting this section back to a wild habitat.
The deer, the foxes, the herons, the raptor birds and other associated wildlife can reclaim the banks . . until the planners decide on their next, belated, unnecessary intervention.
============================
Between the M11 motorway, and the Upper Dargle Road / Hazelwood areas, a stream has run for many years. As well as running from the Fassroe region (west above the M11) this also funnels much of the water run-off from the motorway itself.
There is a culvert running under the road and draining directly into the river opposite The Slang/Rehills.
A branch also runs parallel and through the Egan Business Park before exiting under the road and into the Dargle close to what is identified in historic Ordnance Survey maps as 'Rose Cottage - Laundry'.
There are plans to lay a proper pipe system to channel this water directly across to the Dargle. No doubt a welcome relief to householders along this stretch of road, given that their properties have been victim to the flash flooding that is happening more often due to changes in the meteorological systems, compounded by developments on the opposite side of the motorway.
The downside of this work is the removal of many trees here, and the consequent unwelcome exposure to said properties.
However, recently the contractors have 'filled-in' a large swathe of the previously cleared opening.
To develop this new pipeline, they need to channel a branch pipe under the Upper Dargle Road, discharging into the adjacent Dargle River itself.
This is not a simple 'cut and fill' overnight operation. They have to excavate deeply, pile-drive the cuttings for support, and lay the pipe sections. The plan here is to close off one lane of the road, at a time, while the work proceeds.
This is quite a busy road, with traffic especially heavy during morning and evening rush hour.
Control traffic lights allow contra-flow systems.
This is causing yet more inconvenience for local residents.
Unfortunately, based on previous bad experience with mindless hooliganism, the temporary compound now requires 24-hour security to protect the assembled machinery.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the second week of April 2017.
Most of the main civil engineering works have ceased along the Slang/Rehills section of the river bank.
However, the soil-shifters are at it again.
Smaller operation than before, but a steady process of removing soil, shifting soil and reshaping the banks.
Said it before, and I'll say it again . . . . .
I call it the 'Biggest Sandpit/Playarea' in Wicklow, in Leinster, in Ireland.
The place is a mess. Aesthetically, the uneven flow to the ridges and terraces annoys me.
You don't have to be a certified civil engineer to figure out that there are quicker and more efficient ways to move the soil.
Using one excavator, a few dumper-trucks and a single bulldozer is a process not driven by time/cost.
If you 'really' had to complete this work quickly, you'd line up a few 'bigboy' bulldozers . . . . . and shift the soil in days, rather than weeks-months.
Obviously someone has a Plan.
So everyone works to the Plan.
Except that there have obviously been many Plans.
This 'hurdler on the ditch' simply comments on the piecemeal nature of this planning!
Coming up now on 5 years of this work.
Defence Forces Indoor Track & Field Competition Held in Athlone Institute of Technology Stadium 2015
On November 20th, IDF soldiers from the Ground Force's 71st Battalion completed a training exercise in the hilly terrain of the Golan Heights.
Photo Credit: Tal Lisus, IDF Spokesperson's Unit
The remains of WWII defences on Teesmouth's South Gare, night shoot.
10mm, cropped vertically.
ISO100, 30sec @ f/4.5
The sea defences I photographed a few months ago, but from a different angle, and just after the tide has retreated - the seaweed is still fresh. The sound of the lapping water, and the complete absence of people, made this a quiet, almost secret place, hidden below the sea wall, facing away from the land.
Incidentally, I was able to go to a much longer exposure than I am usually comfortable with handheld, because I was balancing my elbows on the sea wall.
Canon 50D, 70-200mm f/4L
200mm, f/4.0, 1/60, ISO 200.
Rimon Training in the Jordan Valley
Soldiers from the elite Rimon Battalion, part of the Commando Brigade participated in an all night exercise in the Jordan Valley.
Photo by: Staff Sergeant Alexi Rosenfeld, IDF Spokesperson's Unit
Defence towers, Sheerness docks. One is like a Martello Tower, and another is disguised as a house complete with slate roof and chimney. In the mist to the left is the chimney of Grain Power Station.
The Yugoslav Ministry of Defence (Serbian: Savezni Sekretarijat za Narodnu Odbranu - SSNO) was the governmental department responsible for defending the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from internal and external military threats. The building of the Ministry of Defence, which was considered to be a masterpiece of post-war architecture, was bombed on 7th May 1999 during Operation Allied Force.
The building was built in 1963 and it was designed by Serbian architect, Nikola Dobrović. The building is divided by Nemanjina Street and the design of the building is meant to resemble a canyon of the Sutjeska river (where one of the most significant battles of the WWII in Yugoslavia was fought), with the street as a river divided the two sides. Nemanjina street, coming up the hill from the main railway station to the city, passes between the two parts of the building as a symbolic gate.
The building is today Belgrade’s most famous ruin. The reconstruction is not planned.
An Israeli soldier carries a shell on a Merkava tank on the Israeli-Syrian border near Quneitra on June 22, 2014 Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. An Israeli teen was killed on June, 22, and three men were wounded, one seriously, in an attack near the border fence with Syria in the Golan Heights.
Mario Nađ (pronounced Nadge)
Rujani - Livno 23rd April (23 Travanj 1992
Bosnian Serb M84 destroyed by
a ATGW shot by HVO Volunteer
Mario Nađ
The Irony is that this was the
last missile, the day was St
Georges day and the church
nearby to where the tank was
destroyed is St Georges Church
or in Croatian language 'Crkva
Sv Jure'' You call that divine
intervention not luck...!
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the 3rd week of November 2017.
I've been recording this project now for 5+ years.
Most of the main civil engineering works have ceased along the Slang/Rehills section of the river bank.
These images show the reclamation works now happening to restore the western end of The People's Park, adjacent to River Lane, which was once the major works compound and a site that proved of great inconvenience to the local residents for the best part of 6 years.
The works units are being shipped out, the machinery moved to other projects, the ground surface is being relaid, and a hoggin path is to be completed around the perimeter of the park.
The Givati Reconnaissance Brigade's Final Test
The Givati Reconnaissance Brigade concluded its training in an exercise testing its soldiers' skills in navigation, camouflage, urban warfare and assaults in open areas. The soldiers completed the exercise using the weapons that they had specialized in during their basic training.
Images Copyright: Israel Defence Force
Israeli Troops Conduct Anti-Terror Training Exercise
Israeli soldiers from a Counter terrorism unit take part in a drill simulating a terrorists attack on a school in the early morning of October 5, 2011 in Kiryat Uno, Israel. The Israel Navy have recently introduced anti-terror technology including simulator called the ''Bridge'' which comprises of 20 plasma screens and will commandos, navel and marines to counter terror threats more easily.
Members of the Irish Defence Force serving with the 118th Battalion, serving in the Lebanon with UNIFIL
Photos: Airman Gibney
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the 2nd week of July, 2017.
This drawing is a cropped section of the file '1.9 151-4351 Sections Elevations 2', released by Bray UDC, giving a fisheye view of how the works are designed to protect the riverbed itself, as an adjunct to the works on the railway bridge and it's piers.
Members of the Irish Defence Force serving with the 118th Battalion, serving in the Lebanon with UNIFIL
Photos: Airman Gibney
Brother's Keeper Operation in Judea & Samaria
On the night of June 12, three Israeli teenagers suddenly went missing in Judea and Samaria. Our forces are relentlessly searching for them, operating under the presumption that they were kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. These exclusive photos show the efforts of the IDF soldiers in Judea and Samaria.
The names of the abducted Israelis are Eyal Yifrach (age 19), Gilad Shaar (age 16), and Naftali Frenkel (age 16). Our mission is to bring them home as quickly as possible. We will do everything to #BringBackOurBoys
For more updates:
The Israel Defense Forces Facebook
The Israel Defense Forces blog