Thin Pinstriped Line

In the previous part of this series, Humphrey looked at the proposals for what an independent Scottish Navy would look like, and whether it would be fit for purpose. His general conclusions were that any force would struggle to achieve the goals placed on it due to the lack of support, infrastructure, money and manpower. The next part of this series will focus on the proposals for the Air Force. The current proposals seem somewhat vague – they seem to imply the acquisition of around 12 Typhoon jets for QRA and 6 C130 Hercules, presumably operating out of Lossiemouth and a helicopter squadron (type unknown) plus contributions to wider regional air defence and seeking fast jet training overseas. The assumption is that around 2000 personnel will be required for this task. The first challenge is the Typhoon fleet and how it can be operated to best effect. QRA is a very expensive thing to do properly – its not just about having pilots based in a cockpit ready to take off. Setting u...

The Scottish Government has put forward its proposed plans for independence, and the way Scotland would be governed in the event of it becoming an independent country. At the heart of these plans were details on the future structure of a Scottish Defence Force (SDF), and how it would be structured. Humphrey has long had a close personal interest in this debate and has watched the arguments in favour and against with interest. He is genuinely neutral on the outcome of the referendum, believing that the final decision is a matter for the voters concerned, although he retains a keen interest in the proposed structure of any proposed SDF.   The Think Defence website has helpfully summarised the findings of the paper on Defence matters, and it is well worth a read (the link can be found HERE ). In summary though, over the 10 years after independence (2016-2026) the plan is to grow an SDF of some 15000 regular and 5000 reserve personnel operating on an at independence budget o...

Humphrey has been away with work, and watching developments in Defence with interest, albeit from afar. One of the most interesting has been the continued opposition to the restructuring of the Army, and drawing down 20,000 regulars, to replace them with an enlarged Army Reserve. The wider dynamics of the debate are interesting – it seems to Humphrey that there remains a very strong opposition to the Army Reserve playing an enlarged role in national society, and some of the headlines that have been generated on the topic seem to vary from wrong to downright offensive. Part of the challenge is the way in which the AR continues to be seen in the eyes of many as a grown up cadet force, populated by social misfits like ‘Gareth’ from the office. There is also a dislike of the concept of people conducting soldiering in their spare time, and a sense that the organisation somehow has lower standards than the Regular Army. One only has to spend time over on ARRSE to quickly realise that t...

The tragic news from the Philippines over Typhoon Haiyan has highlighted the wide range of international responses to this awful event. In addition to the usual commitments of international aid, rescue teams and other assets, there has been a large military commitment from both the US and the UK in responding to the crisis. For the UK the response has once again shown the flexibility of the armed forces, and their capability to respond at short notice to major problems around the globe. But it also highlights a few other salient issues as well. At the time of writing the current UK commitment is one C17 aircraft, the presence of HMS DARING and the announced deployment of HMS ILLUSTRIOUS to relieve HMS DARING. In addition there are suggestions on the MOD announcement that the UK is going to deploy heavy airfield clearance equipment to help free space on runways to make room for aid flights. The relatively quick UK response is in marked contrast to many other nations military ...

The news in the UK is dominated today by the announcements of mass redundancies in  the BAE shipbuilding business, with almost 2000 jobs being lost at three sites in Portsmouth and Scotland. The news is very sad, particularly for those families involved, but offset slightly by the news of a planned order of three new OPVs for the Royal Navy, ostensibly to replace the current River class vessels. The news has been seen as highly damaging to the UK shipbuilding industry, and resulted in headlines claiming the end of 500 years shipbuilding as we know it in Portsmouth (in fact utter nonsense as Portsmouth has gone many decades without building warships other than HMS CLYDE - it had only recently regained construction of blocks for the Type 45 project) and leading to unpleasant suggestions about it being a sop to the Scots ahead of the referendum. In reality this day was always going to come, and has been realistically expected for many years. Despite the regular outbreaks of cla...

The Daily Telegraph appears to be continuing its campaign to highlight that any form of capability in the military other than infantry (and preferably Fusiliers) is wrong continues apace. The most recent article on Sat 2 Nov put across that the MOD has increased the ranks of military lawyers from 130 – 190, while spending on civilian lawyers continues. This is put across as a bad thing that shouldn’t happen while we are sacking soldiers.(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10421907/MoD-lawyers-soar-as-Armed-Forces-budgets-cut.html)  The Forces have always needed effective legal support, and arguably the tiny number of military lawyers provides an utterly vital capability. Its not just about the provision of support to people who understand the arcane intricacies of a military law system which is very complex, and very different to our normal law – though this is extremely important. It’s about the provision of people who bring a vital advisory role to Commanders on ...