The end of 2025 and the festive season are almost upon us, and the staff at Defence Leaders and its sister site Navy Leaders are about to down tools and begin celebrating.
But before we do, we’d like to thank everyone who has helped make this year such a resounding success: the hundreds of speakers and exhibitors who graced our seven events this year, and the many thousands who attended them.
We very much enjoyed organising and hosting them, and we hope you found them as rewarding and useful as we did.
Thanks, too, to the thousands of visitors reading our news updates on our websites: we’ll do our best to continue to keep you abreast of industry news as it happens in 2026.
All that remains is for us to wish you a safe and fun-filled Christmas and a happy New Year. We’ll be resuming normal operations from Monday, January 5.
We’ve also put together 30 defence-themed festive brainteasers for you below: no prizes, it’s just for fun. And while the format’s the same as last year, none of the answers are!
You can follow the link at the bottom of the quiz for the answers once you’ve had a go.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Round 1: Name the war movie from the clue
Below are ten cryptic crossword-style clues to the names of war movies, with the number of letters in each answer in brackets. How many can you solve? (N.B. One clue has an American spelling)
- And walk back how? Confused? Drop a letter! (5,4,4)
- Ashamed they can’t spell? That’s just rude! (9,8)
- A Greek philosopher who’s never switched off. (7)
- I’ve not seen a decent John Wayne movie in ages! (3,5,2,3,7,5)
- More than angry. (4)
- Making a meal of Med Sea cone. (4,3,3)
- Keep treasure. (5,6)
- Traditional Christmas charade? (3,9,4)
- It’s very dim… is Ms. French imminent? (7,4)
- Best place to keep John Merrick, Winston Smith, and Kane? (3,4,6)
Round 2: Name the war movie from the quote
Below are quotes from ten war movies: the answers are the same as the solutions to Round 1 (not in the same order)
- “Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.” (4)
- “Your nation does not deserve to exist. Some nations have no right to a future.” (4,3,3)
- “The interesting question is, just because something, uh… thinks differently from you, does that mean it’s not thinking?” (3,9,4)
- “What’s the best way… to… to go about disarming one of these things?”
“The way you don’t die, sir.” (3,4,6) - “You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin’.” (9,8)
- “You cannot reason with a tiger, when your head is in its mouth!” (7,4)
- “That’s what this place feels like. Hell. I hate it already, and it’s only been a week. Some goddamn week.” (7)
- “Nobody asks to be a hero, it just sometimes turns out that way.” (5,4,4)
- “You still think it’s beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it’s better not to die at all.” (3,5,2,3,7,5)
- “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant.” (5,6)
Round 3: Name the common denominator
All the answers are types of military air, sea or land assets (and the solutions are in alphabetical order)
What links…
- Gaming gear manufacturer; 16th-18th century pirates; French airline. (7)
- Humphrey Hawksley novel; Laena Velaryon’s demise; capable of consuming nearly all the Rings of Power. (10)
- 1981 John Boorman epic; American ‘neoclassic’ luxury car; weapon drawn from a stone. (9)
- Novel by Samuel Dashiell Hammett; fastest animal; Star Wars spaceship. (6)
- 1991 River Phoenix/Keanu Reeves movie; Gem state; 14/50. (5)
- Forsyth thriller; Canis aureus; 1993 Ronny Jordan hit. (6)
- Sith weapon; Disney/Pixar hero; ball, sheet and forked. (9)
- Tom Clancy novel; 2000 Mel Gibson movie; posthumous political prisoner memoir. (7)
- Personification of death; 1865 Gustave Doré painting; 1976 one-hit-wonder track. (6)
- Apocryphally founded ancient city; fratricide; seventh movie in Alien franchise. (7)