MPs will return to the House today with three new reminders of New Zealand's losses and service in wars overseas.

A record number of defence staff last year sought psychological help as the country suffered its greatest combat loss since Vietnam.

MPs will give way to New Zealand soldiers - including SAS troops - and their families this evening for a ceremony in Parliament's debating chamber.

Two brothers seriously injured in separate army training incidents are a step closer to ending their 16-year battle for compensation.

The commanding officer of the New Zealand Army deployment on which Corporal Douglas Hughes committed suicide while in Afghanistan has defended the training of the unit before its went overseas in 2011.

The Defence Force has a $600 million shopping list for technology such as GPS tracking of troops in war zones to reduce friendly fire mishaps, as well as unmanned aircraft and drones.

The families of three airmen killed in an Anzac Day 2010 helicopter crash have been offered $70,000 for each death.

The mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan says footage released by the Defence Force of a firefight shows how well our soldiers are trained.

A live grenade was carried on the body of a dead Kiwi soldier from Afghanistan to Christchurch without Defence Force officials knowing.

The Defence Force will today present the findings of a Court of Inquiry into two incidents which resulted in the deaths of five New Zealand soldiers in Afghanistan last year.

A criminal inquiry has started into a firefight in which two New Zealand soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last year.

Weapons and military equipment worth more than $330,000 have been stolen over four years from the Defence Force.

Last Sunday morning Matt McCarten was on TVNZ as a Q+A panelist.

With his colleague's lifeless body lying nearby and insurgent fire around him, Lance Corporal Leon Smith's back was to the wall. But the New Zealand soldier wasn't leaving without his friend or without completing the mission assigned to him.

With bullets kicking up dust in front of him and insurgent rounds pinging off his helicopter cockpit, every fibre in Flight Lieutenant Ben Pryor's body told him to flee

It's every soldier's greatest fear - the unseen enemy. The improvised explosive device (IED) buried beneath the road, which is detonated by Afghanistan insurgents who lie and wait for Coalition soldiers to pass.

A New Zealand Army officer charged with beating a fellow soldier has appeared before a court martial this morning at Linton Army Camp.

Defence bosses were asked to allow soldiers in Afghanistan to ignore the Geneva Convention so medics could use heavy weapons.

The Defence Force has issued a handbook to personnel with guidelines on how to use social networking sites.

Twenty armed forces personnel have been killed in the past three years - with a number of deaths linked to training failures and gaps.

Some family members of Corporal Douglas Hughes say they want an open inquest to satisfy their questions over the soldier's death.

The coroner who declined a full inquest into the suicide of a gay soldier is a Mormon church elder who attacked same-sex marriage in a submission to Parliament, saying it was an unnecessary "social experiment".

The remains of an unknown New Zealand soldier killed on the Western Front during World War I were buried last night in a ceremony in Belgium.

Cost-cutting at the Defence Force has not compromised the safety of New Zealand's frontline troops in Afghanistan.

New Zealand's overseas defence force personnel will be turning to heavy doses of Skype tomorrow for a link with home on Christmas Day.

There was rioting in the streets and parts of Honiara were burning to the ground in protest at the recent elections.

The killing of a senior Taleban warlord, blamed for the deaths of four New Zealand soldiers, has been met with shock and sadness by one grieving mother.