President Barack Obama has admitted that American forces still "don't have a complete strategy" for training Iraqi troops to stand their ground against Isis (Islamic State) fighters.

The news that Islamic State (Isis) fighters have advanced to within 100km of Camp Taji where New Zealand's 143 military advisers are based wasn't the only bulletin from the war zone.

The American Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter, could not have been blunter in his assessment of the Iraqi Army.

NZ First MP Ron Mark has labelled the Iraqi Army "cowards" and questioned why New Zealand forces were being put at risk trying to train an army that did not want to fight.

NZ's contingent of military training specialists have barely arrived and the folly of this military (mis)adventure is already becoming apparent, writes Armstrong.

Europe's most expensive defence program, the A400M has one advantage keeping it going: it's too big to fail.

Air forces across Europe grounded the military aircraft after one crashed near Seville, Spain, killing four people.

The Defence Force chief has downplayed a car bomb attack which killed three people near the NZ base on the first day of its deployment in Iraq.

The Anzacs fought for seven months on the beaches and in the trenches of Gallipoli's Sari Bair range.

The Returned and Services Association says it cannot afford to wait until after the centenary of Anzac Day this month to take its fight against proposed changes to the country's flag.

Prince Harry paid his respects to the lost brothers of the Australian military he's joined for a month-long secondment Downunder.

Prince Harry has flown a Spitfire as he caught up with an injured serviceman and veterans hoping to pilot the aircraft in a Battle of Britain flypast.

Nine years ago, the decision to buy eight NH90 helicopters for the air force was accompanied by considerable fanfare.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee says the difficulties in using the Royal New Zealand Air Force's helicopters in cyclone-hit Vanuatu shows the Government needs to be very careful in making its next military purchases.

The illegal fishing vessel at the centre of a New Zealand Navy operation earlier this year has been detained in Thailand.

Canada's mysterious and small operation has become a lot bigger and more costly since it began, writes Dita De Boni. Which could be our fate, too.

On March 26, the last of the southern coastwatchers, John Stuart Jones, was to have voyaged to the Auckland Islands with an expedition to restore his old home in Ranui Cove.

If the PM handed me a gun and asked me to ship out to the Middle East to do my duty for this great land, I know exactly what I would do, writes Matt Heath.

The enemy is no longer on a singular battlefield, the enemy is in every major town and city on the planet, writes Mike Hosking. So in sending the troops in, the purpose is what?

The quality of New Zealand's training contribution to the Iraqi armed forces would be a welcome addition to the fight against Isis (Islamic State), Iraq's ambassador to New Zealand, Mouayed Saleh, said last night.

No sooner was the announcement made that New Zealand was heading to Iraq, the war of words broke out.

An officer who served alongside a soldier who collapsed while running has described his comrade's death as "the cruellest timing imaginable" - coming just weeks before his wedding.

The film clip of Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee striding into the bowels of the $250 million Boeing C-17 Globemaster for a test drive this week was scary.

A Royal Marine with 173 confirmed kills of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan is the deadliest sniper in the world, it has been claimed.

Exclusive: NZ has been asked by Britain to contribute 100 defence personnel to a joint training mission in Iraq with Australia.

One hundred years after a Tauranga mill-hand was cut down by machine-gun fire high on Gallipoli Peninsula, his war medals have been reunited with his descendants.