The Defence Picture Library was formed in 1984 and is currently based in offices at the former Royal Naval Hospital in Plymouth. The library supports a wide client base as well as supporting The Ministry of Defence and foreign government defence departments. If you cannot locate the subject you are looking for on the website please email the picture desk and we will respond straight away. In addition we have a brochure of our images and copies can be obtained again by emailing the picture desk.

The Library is a specialist source of military images covering all aspects of the world's armed forces in the air, on land and at sea The company's photographers were among the first into liberated Kuwait City in 1991 and regularly sends staff to cover conflicts and humanitarian operations.

During the Bosnian war DPL photographers were again in the frontline and in the recent Balkans crisis Dil Banerjee and Andrew Chittock spent three weeks in Pristina documenting the work of the British soldiers who spearheaded the multi-national force which advanced into Kosovo.

DPL took the first picture of the top secret Russian research submarine Beluga1 just weeks after the Cold War ended, was on the streets of West Belfast to record the 20th anniversary of the trouble in Ulster and was again among the first agencies into Bagram in Afghanistan and Iraq to cover the 2003 conflcit.

Formed in March 1984 the library has more than 900,000 images on file covering the weapons and formations of forces in the USA, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, China, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, India, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Serbia, the Netherlands, as well as Latvia and Estonia.

The Library supports a wide spectrum of UK Ministry of Defence organisations and has a wide range of commercial clients ranging from book publishers, magazines and defence companies to advertising agencies and academic organisations. In addition the Library has been commissioned on several occasions to provide photography for key recruiting and military doctrine brochures.

From Swiss soldiers on their bicycles to the latest British Army Apache attack helicopter our portfolio is diverse and is constantly growing. If you have a picture request please browse our site and email your requirements to our picture desk who will advise you by return of the material we have to support your subject.