The game-changing Autonomous Warrior experiment will last four weeks and test a range of prototype unmanned aerial and autonomous ground vehicles which aim to reduce the danger to troops during combat. The exercise will finish with a battlegroup experiment, where the best ideas and products will be tested in the toughest of simulated operational environments.

One of the key areas it is set to test is the autonomous last mile resupply. The ‘last mile’, which represents the extremely dangerous final approach to the combat zone, is crucial to ensuring soldiers have the food, fuel and ammunition to keep them alive.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

Our troops now have the chance to test out a huge range of robotic kit in what will be the biggest exercise of its kind in our history. We’re always working with the brightest minds in Britain and across the world to see how they can support our military of the future, but now the frontrunners have the chance to prove what they can really do on a battlefield. This equipment could revolutionise our Armed Forces, keeping them safe and giving them the edge in an increasingly unstable world.

The exercise aims to test technologies in surveillance, long-range and precision targeting, enhanced mobility and the re-supply of forces, urban warfare and enhanced situational awareness.

The Royal Tank Regiment Battle Group from 1 Armoured Infantry Brigade are providing the bulk of exercising troops and taking responsibility of command and control. Overall there will be over 200 multi-national, cross-service personnel. The US Army, Royal Marines, RAF and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) will join industry partners and academia in working alongside them, experimenting with over 70 products and systems.

Autonomous Warrior will play an integral role within the £800 million Defence Innovation Fund which supports ground-breaking ideas aimed at transforming both defence and British industry.

The land-based exercise follows on from the hugely successful ‘Unmanned Warrior’ which the Royal Navy demonstrated autonomous systems diving, swimming and flying together to engage in surveillance, intelligence-gathering and mine countermeasures.

An unknown British soldier has been afforded a final resting place 100 years after he was killed during World War 1. The burial, with full military honours, took place on 8 November at Buttes News British Cemetery near Ypres, Belgium

Members of the current day Royal Regiment of Fusiliers formed a bearer party to escort their fallen former comrade into the cemetery within a coffin draped in the union flag. The Reverend Stuart Richards CF, Chaplain to the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers conducted the service and paid tribute to the sacrifice the soldier made, and by so many more, 100 years ago.

The service was organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre, part of Defence Business Services, who work to identify the 40 plus sets of remains of British personnel found on historical World War 1 battlefields, and where possible, trace their surviving families.

The soldier was discovered during engineering works in February 2017 in a field near to the village of Westhoek, near Ypres. Although it can’t be certain when he died, research shows the village of Westhoek was fought over from August to September 1917 during the 3rd Battle of Ypres.

Artefacts found with the soldier included British uniform buttons, a belt buckle and a folded rain cape. Unfortunately, as no regimental insignia were found it has been impossible to trace his name because of the tens of thousands of British soldiers killed with no known grave within the Ypres Salient.

Tracey Bowers, Head of the JCCC Commemorations team said:

Today we have provided a British unknown warrior with his final resting place, 100 years after he died. Sadly, it was not possible to identify him but his name is known unto God and we will always remember the sacrifice he made.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who own and maintain the Buttes News British Cemetery, will now care for the soldier in perpetuity.