Thin Pinstriped Line

One of the most potent military symbols of national power and sovereignty is the aircraft carrier. Its ability to embark an airwing and sail globally with the ability to deploy strike aircraft at will is a significant statement of military power and reach. While the days of many nations operating carrier fleets have drawn to a close, as the last of the WW2 vintage Royal Navy designed ‘COLLOSUS and MAJESTIC’ class that served across so many nations for nearly 70 years in one form or another have paid off, there are still a number of carrier operating nations out there. France is the operator of the sole nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the world outside of the USA, and while the Charles De Gaulle (CDG) represents in many ways a compromised and slightly uncomfortable design (due in part to the insistence on nuclear power), she has given the French Navy many years of valuable service. As she enters middle age, discussions are now afoot as to whether the successor could enter ...

Why are millennials leaving the navy? A simple question to which a poster on reddit, claiming to be a sailor has tried to answer in an open letter to the First Sea Lord. In it the author addresses the reasons why they feel that people are leaving, and the challenges facing millennial recruits today. It is an interesting read, some of it cuts through and raises difficult questions, while other parts of it feel reliant on ‘anecdata’ not hard analysis of numbers. People will always leave the military, many of them far earlier than planned. There are many thousands of sailors who have joined who leave early for extremely good reasons. Equally it is common to find military personnel moaning about life and their job – the ability to ‘have a good drip’ is the quintessential hallmark of being in the military – alongside good humour and a willingness to live an, at times, difficult lifestyle. It is not unusual or unexpected then to see posts like this – there are plenty of mili...

On Thursday 14 March the last ever operational Tornado flight occurred at RAF Marham as the aircraft finally left active RAF service after 39 years of near continuous operations. To consider how long it has been in service, it is the equivalent of the RAF retiring an aircraft in 1979 that first flew in 1939. Originally emerging in the early 1970s as a ‘Multi Role Combat Aircraft’ (or as wags often put it ‘Must Replace Canberra Again’) the Tornado has provided sterling service across the globe since entering RAF service. Nearly 400 aircraft were built in two main types – the bomber configuration, and the interceptor (the F2/F3 variant). Initially intended to provide conventional and nuclear strike capability against the Warsaw Pact, it later evolved to become a maritime strike aircraft (replacing Buccaneer), an ISTAR platform (with the RAPTOR pod proving itself a worthy successor to Canberra PR9) and a strategic cruise missile attack platform with Storm Shadow. Since its f...

When it comes to discussing how to save money in the Defence budget, one of the most common themes emerging on comment sections of newspaper websites is the refrain ‘sack all the civil servants who just sit behind desks’ or words to that effect. These comments are usually accompanied by tired clichés like ‘the SA80 is known as the Civil Servant – it doesn’t work and cant’ be fired’ and how they have no idea what it is like on the front line and our poor soldiers have boots that don’t fit while fat cat civil servants get bonuses.   Attacking the MOD Civil Service is an easy win – few people stand up for them, few people like civil servants and frankly anyone who dares work for defence without wearing uniform is probably suspect? There is a completely false public perception that during a time of large manpower reductions to the regular military, the Civil Service has gotten way without suffering the same pain. According to self-proclaimed experts, a large cull of these ...

“The Russians Are Coming – PANIC” – this seems to be the default reaction in some quarters whenever a Russian warship comes near UK waters. According to some commentators the Russians pose a clear threat to our national security, and it is usually either a source of concern that the Royal Navy has to ‘scramble’ an escort vessel towards Scottish waters (cue complaints that there are allegedly no warships in Scotland) or that whichever ship is escorting is not appropriate for the role. The latest in this series of incidents involves the arrival of a new visitor to UK waters, the ‘Admiral Gorshkov’, a new class of vessel that entered service in 2018, along with a couple of support ships and the ubiquitous rescue tug that has to accompany most Russian surface warships during deployments. Roughers! There are several compelling issues that arise from this news. The first is that the Gorshkov is a timely reminder that for all the (unfair) complaints about UK shipbuilding delays,...

There are some news stories concerning the Armed Forces that are so predictable, you can usually set markers in your calendar for them to be republished. One such story is the tired assertion that the Royal Navy ‘has more Admirals than ships’, the latest iteration of which was published in the Sun this morning. A very quick google search finds similar examples of this story occurring in 2008 , 2013 , 2014 2016 alone. Sadly this sort of nonsense is usually found by defining ‘warship’ as whatever the author wants it to mean. According to the latest article, the Royal Navy only has 20 warships (19 escorts and a carrier) but 34 Admirals / Generals. The subject of Admirals and Ships (or Squadron Leaders and Squadrons) seems to set off a near pavlovian response in some people. The idea that the UK doesn’t have a ‘real’ navy anymore, just a bunch of overpromoted chinless wonders in uniform with large retinues and little work to occupy their comfy jobs for life while arguing over...