Weapons and military systems

Abstract

The end of the Cold War signalled a change in the basic security environment and in the requirements of the armed forces. Nowadays, the main task of the armed forces involves what are commonly known as peacemaking and peacekeeping operations, some of which are carried out far away from the respective home country. As a result, mass military forces, equipped as a rule with heavy battle tanks, are less in demand today than specially armed units that can be moved quickly even across very long distances. This change is reflected in the development of the weapons and military systems used. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.