Photos: War games test new battlefield tech

In a small field near Portsmouth, England, a war has been raging for the past couple of weeks. Fortunately this is only a virtual war--part of the global Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) to test whether the armed forces' latest technologies can cope with battlefield conditions.

CWID UK (the British arm of the virtual war) is part of the wider U.S.-led CWID event held online and around the world with countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand involved in testing and developing new military technologies. It is an annual field trial that runs military scenarios over three weeks, involving industry participants as well as the military.

Stephen Borthwick, an RAF wing commander, said industry involvement is key because the U.K. Ministry of Defence "does not have all the bright ideas."