How to communicate the positive case for the Royal Navy?

2018 is now well underway, and Christmas and the predictions of doom and gloom about the UK no longer having a navy anymore because ships weren’t at sea feels a remarkably long time ago. Last week saw a range of updates from across the Naval Service about the activities of its ships across the globe, and what they are up to right now.

At Christmas the media was full of stories about how the UK was unable to send an escort overseas and that this was a disaster for the Royal Navy. The papers were full of negative commentary about the RN being in decline and how this reflected poorly on the UK. Yet 6 weeks later and already the RN has had ships operating in four of the five oceans of the World (Atlantic, India, Southern & Pacific) and it is very much a case of ‘business as usual’, which rather makes you wonder what all the fuss was about.

Right now the Royal Navy & Royal Fleet Auxiliary have ships deployed in the West Indies, where RFA MOUNTS BAY continues to deliver vital support to recover from Hurricane Irma. HMS CLYDE continues down in the Falklands as the patrol ship, while HMS PROTECTOR continues her deployment to Antarctica, delivering support to UK interests in the region.

In the Med, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH and HMS SOMERSET visited Gibraltar over the weekend, along with a Wave class tanker. HMS ECHO should still be and HMS ALBION is definitely now in the Med conducting work with NATO as part of a wider deployment for most of 2018, and HMS DUNCAN and HMS ENTERPRISE are in the Black Sea, supporting reassurance work to NATO allies.

East of Suez there are still four MCMVs in Bahrain, supported by RFA LARGS BAY and RFA FORT AUSTIN, HMS SUTHERLAND has sailed from the UK transiting Suez and is now in Diego Garcia on her way out to the Asia Pacific rim, while further east in the Pacific, one Tide class tanker is on her final sea trials off Korea, while another is on her way home, having recently pulled into Pearl Harbour. HMS ARGYLL will shortly sail for Asia too, and further ships will follow to relieve others on station.

While all of this is going on, there remains escorts, OPVs and MCMVS on permanent readiness in the UK, and SSN’s & SSBN’s on patrol too. This busy picture does not include the wider presence of the Royal Marines and the Fleet Air Arm who are also deployed in Norway and the Middle East, and the ongoing and often unsung efforts of the various support detachments in locations like the Falklands, Gibraltar, Singapore, Bahrain, Diego Garcia and the like, as well as the many HQ’s, support parties and other teams & individuals deployed across the world.

Simply put, right now the Naval Service is doing as it has been doing continuously for centuries – going out to sea to keep the UK safe. The Royal Navy has had more ships at sea over the last 6 weeks than some navies will manage to put to sea for the whole year.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

What Challenges Do Lie Ahead?

For all the good news, it is important to take a balanced view on how the RN is likely to fare during 2018. Yes, it has got the new year off to a good start with a quick succession of deployments, exercises and operations, but there are still challenges ahead.

The continued uncertainty on funding remains at the forefront of many peoples minds – until there is clarity on the future structure of the Service, and clear idea of what to expect in terms of force structures and deployments, it will be hard to motivate people and lead them. No one likes to read reports that their ship is due to be scrapped – particularly if you’ve been working hard to deploy for a long time (such as the case with HMS ALBION), and you feel that your efforts have been for nought.

There is a real leadership challenge for many of the Officers and NCO’s in the system who will have to motivate and lead people who want answers and clarity on their future, when they themselves don’t know. The perception by some of a continued lack of direction, decision taking and open honest communication about the scale of the problem from the Centre and resolve a defence review that has already lasted longer than many celebrity marriages is a source of frustration to many.

Balancing the budget and ensuring operational commitments are met, whilst not breaking the manpower plot is also going to be difficult – particularly as in year saving measures start to bite. It is going to be a real challenge to not over commit troops to operations to ensure the UK’s continued relevance internationally without unintentionally breaking the force and leading to mass resignations. People management will continue to be the RN’s biggest challenge.

There is also a need to make sense of what is going on in the Equipment Programme. The radio silence over ASTUTE 7 seems to indicate that she may suffer the fate of Type 45 hulls 7&8 where intentions to order and lay down got replaced by bland statements, and eventually a quiet cancellation to meet in year savings measures. The loss, or reprofiling of the delivery of Boat 7 would have significant and potentially damaging impacts on the UK industrial base, and also the ability to deliver DREADNOUGHT on time too.

Finally there is a sense of some risk that the RN is on the verge of getting the future navy it promised itself nearly 20 years ago, but its not quite there yet. On the one hand the arrival of QEC, the Tide class and so on herald a bright new future. On the other, the loss of HMS OCEAN as planned does leave a gap in LPH capability. There is a small risk that as QEC continues trials, and the Tide class get up to speed (while two out of three supply ships are in refit) that it would be a challenge to deliver a response to some crises. In some ways 2018 marks the point of maximum risk, but the gap is closing daily before it is reduced again.

Why Does This Matter?

This recap of the busy commitments of the Fleet matters because if you speak to the average commentator on the street (or twitter) there seems to be an all-pervading belief that the UK somehow doesn’t have a navy anymore. People genuinely feel like the UK is helpless and unable to defend itself and that the ships we have are broken and don’t work properly.

Yet the reality is that the RN of today is well equipped, is globally deployed, such as putting 100,000 tonnes worth of ships into Gibraltar last week alone (more tonnage than most nations entire navies), and that the RN is one of only a handful of world class navies out there.

The same commentators often assume that the UK is somehow alone in experiencing problems with its military equipment, yet only today it has emerged that Germany may not be able to deploy anymore naval vessels this year due to lack of spares, slow refit work and insufficient ships, while its new build vessels have been delayed being accepted into service due to technical issues. All nations have problems with their ships, its an issue inherent with using complex machinery – the difference between the UK and many other nations though is that the UK is far more open and honest about the challenges it faces.

How Does the RN Communicate Better?

For all the top level worry, one thing that has been genuinely delightful to see is the way that individual RN ships have really grasped social media this year. While it isn’t uniform in its application, there has been a real step change in how some ships are now actively broadcasting and informing on their activities in a manner unthinkable even a few years ago.

This positive engagement with social media is to be welcomed and proves that rather than spending days or even weeks (in some cases) drafting bland anodyne press releases that get staffed from ship to HQ and beyond for ever more senior levels of approval to talk about something that will never be covered, a quick tweet with an image will reach a cast of thousands and get people talking about RN activity. As an example some RN ships websites last ‘latest news' update was nearly two years ago, despite them being on active duty since then – how can the public understand or be sympathetic to the cause of the RN when the system will not officially talk about its activities in an easily accessible way?

By contrast, the weekend just gone saw highly informative tweets from HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH talking about her visit to Gibraltar, with a package of photos and footage that showcased her arrival and departure. The sheer level of retweeting and reach these images generated helps serve as a reminder of the strong public interest in her.

It is a measure of QUEEN ELIZABETHS importance that they have a designated ‘tweeto’ who has led on social media engagement. The first incumbent has just left post, on promotion from Senior Rate to Officer, a well-deserved promotion for an individual who has made an enormous impression on the country of their new flagship.

Similarly, the survey flotilla are doing an excellent job of advertising their activity and also the role their people play. HMS ENTERPRISE does a superb job of combining gentle humour, information and imagery to really explain the role played by their ship in both survey work and wider MCMV operations. HMS PROTECTORS tweets showcasing their visit to Antarctica have shown a wider look at the life without limits that their sailors lead.  It is also encouraging to see the work done in home waters, by smaller ships highlighting their presence and training, as well as the efforts of the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Marines. Across the spectrum it feels as if there has been a step change in the level of social media presence by many units.

This sort of engagement works because it lets the units engage with followers and talk about their activity, rather than put out a press release that is unlikely to be noticed. People like to see images of activity and they like to see interesting news quickly – frankly twitter is a far better way of issuing bite sized chunks of facts and news than many MOD press releases, and far more likely to be noticed and raise the profile of the Naval Service.

The MOD has long had a curious approach to social media, on the one hand wanting to get more coverage, but on the other being reluctant to support its use or do so except under very tight and carefully controlled conditions. To make the most of social media requires doing the opposite of what seems to have been the RN press handling strategy in recent years, which can be summed up cynically as ‘run away, hide, avoid engagement for risk of difficult questions and then spout utterly bland lines that reek of defensiveness and a fear of bad headlines’.

Social media offers huge opportunity, but to be effective and timely, there must be significant trust placed in social media officers to tweet appropriately. It is perhaps ironic that it feels as though the armed forces trust their people to take human life but seem reluctant to let them near a twitter account for fear of what they could do without appropriate approval from a designated 'grown up' - at times it feels as if the system regards it as probably less career ending to  negligently discharge 140 rounds, than it is to issue 140 characters . But when properly used and with appropriate direction and guidance, social media like twitter offers a superb chance for the Royal Navy to really show how hard it is working, how capable it is and how it can influence audiences across the planet with a reach far beyond a press release that is unlikely to make it further than specialist media. The public have embraced social media, they love learning about the Navy and this is a perfect combination to help sell the RN. HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH has almost 39,000 followers on twitter – more people follow that one ship than serve in the Naval Service right now.

It must be hoped that 2018 marks a significant shift in approach away from a media strategy best described as having a KPI saying ‘be more silent than an SSBN on patrol’ to one which goes out and actively delegates freedom to ships and units to shout as loudly as possible about the great work they are doing.

Army Press releases often take time to reach the UK from the front line...

The problem for the RN is that the last few years of approaching the internet as something which is dangerous means it has left a void that has been filled by commentators and rumour. It is fascinating to watch how the lack of a credible RN presence has been replaced by twitter accounts like ‘Carrier corrections’ (@CarrierCorrect) which spends its day challenging the falsehoods and myths like ‘carrier with no aircraft’, due to the lack of the RN having an account to do this job.

What must be hoped is that as more ships become better at advertising their presence and activity, the next step will be to have a more robust rebuttal policy, getting the RN to actively take on and correct errors, not express views, merely correct falsehoods, and stand up for itself online.

How Does Defence Communicate Better?

Similarly, it must be hoped that the MOD will change its approach to personnel writing about their activity in Defence. At present anyone in the MOD running a blog which openly states their role, or which talks about their identity and job runs the risk of disciplinary action. The all-embracing fear that someone may say something which may possibly be misconstrued runs so deep that rather than embrace people who are proud of their work, want to talk about their life and role, but occasionally offer productive, objective criticism means that the MOD is actively shutting itself off from building a community of bloggers and writers who could reach out and sell its message for it.

It is perhaps an irony that there are many people out there who write about Defence because they are passionate, and they care deeply for it. There are many more frustrated service personnel and civil servants who want to do the same but can’t for fear that they will lose their jobs - the reason this blog temporarily stopped in 2014 was because Humphrey was given an offer he felt he couldn’t’ refuse. 

This approach is in sharp contrast to allies, where serving military personnel can write, and are actively encouraged to do so. All that happens is they add a disclaimer that their views are their own and do not reflect those of the organisation they work for. This has led to an emergence of top quality thinkers and talent, often at junior levels of the armed forces being able to emerge as thinkers and communicators for their organisation. A good example being the US Army Officer T.S.Allen who has written prolifically on a range of issues, yet were his UK equivalent to do likewise, it would be considered career suicide.

One must hope that 2018 not only sees a resurgence in twitter accounts for the UK armed forces, but active encouragement by senior officers for their people to write openly and honestly about their roles, careers and thoughts on the challenges facing Defence. There is a constant mantra of ‘empowerment’ chanted throughout the MOD, talking about downwards delegation and trusting people to do their role without referring upwards. Loosening the social media constraints, letting people tell their story, and simply asking for a disclaimer noting that views stated do not represent official views of the MOD would help empower staff to go out and talk about their experience more.

It is faintly ridiculous that the only blogs and twitterati fighting the MOD’s corner are not allowed to be those serving. There should be nothing wrong with encouraging people to write accurate blogs that defend Defence, not force them to sit in frustrated silence watching the service they love being eviscerated online yet knowing that to defend it is to commit a disciplinary offence.

2018 has shown that the Royal Navy has an incredible story of success to tell. Yes, it has challenges, yes there are issues, but these are not insurmountable. What is now needed though is for the Service and the MOD to take the next step of trusting its people, empowering them to stand up for their Service and talk loudly and proudly about the amazing success story that is the modern Royal Navy. Be loyally loud, be truthfully proud, but most of all be out there-  a simple mantra for all budding social media officers for showing the world just how good the Royal Navy really is.