Thin Pinstriped Line

Well the time has come to pause the blog for about three weeks. The authors new set of Nos1's have arrived, his medals are gleaming and the sword is ready for a rare outing to a suitably naval wedding. As such, with a wedding imminent, there will need to be a break until Humphrey is back from wedding & honeymoon. The next article on the site will be in about three weeks time, and the Facebook page will be updated at a similar point. See you all in three weeks!

In a week when news seemed focused on whether the UK is, or is not, a serious player on the world stage, or if it is retreating away from the global limelight, an interesting little story emerged on the Navy News website which perhaps speaks volumes. In itself it’s a bit of a non-story, the RN creating a new ‘squadron’ but it actually is quite an important signal. The story can be found here - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thin-Pinstriped-Line-blog/201503350017062?ref=hl The story is very simple – the Royal Navy has decided that the vessels assigned to Bahrain, which comprise four MCMVs and a ‘mother ship’ (in this class a Bay class LSDA) will from now on wear the badge of the 9 th MCMV squadron. This small gesture is important for it was the squadron previously based in the Gulf until 1971 when the UK temporarily withdrew from the region. Although the UK has spent many years in these waters, the clear signal has been that it was always on a deployment, not an enduring ba...

The media led on reports today about the Public Accounts Comittee report into the decision to switch CVF from STOVL to CTOL and back to STOVL again. The report received headlines suggesting that JSF posed huge risk and that millions had been wasted through various blunders. As ever though, the situation is more complex than perhaps suggested. The full report can be read HERE The first thing that struck the author on reading it was that it highlighted the challenges posed in bringing any large piece of equipment into service. There was a lot of comments about the risk posed to the UK by not having the so-called ‘Crowsnest’ AEW capability in service until 2022 which left the platform at risk. It is very easy to focus on the idea that a carrier is late, and that is a relatively simple piece of kit, so why should it take so long to bring into service? In reality the introduction into service of CVF is a watershed moment for the Royal Navy – it will represent a step change in capabi...