Thin Pinstriped Line

There are many tired clichés and easy to write stories about UK defence issues that regularly feature in the press – such as this recent one from the NY Times . One of the most popular to trot out to fill column inches is some kind of article that suggests that the UK military no longer matters to the US and that France / Australia / Asgard are the new best friend of the US, usually followed by a comment about how the Special Relationship is no longer special. These articles have been written for decades, with author after author proudly proclaiming the demise of the UK / US relationship due to UK defence cuts or other reasons. Frankly, they’re utterly predictable and usually built on emotion and not logic. Is the UK a declining power though and has France supplanted it, or are these articles merely wishful thinking? In practical terms the UK and US enjoy a particularly close security relationship that covers some of the most sensitive areas of a nation states activity a...

The Times published an article last week focusing on the fact that under current MOD plans, the British Army will reduce its holdings of Challenger 2 (CR2) tanks from 227 to roughly 150 tanks.  This will give the UK a total tank fleet that ranks 56 th in the world, down from the current position of 48 th (according to the IISS), giving it a force smaller than that of Burma, Cambodia or Serbia. Is this reduction a sign that the British Army is now outgunned and unable to pose a credible military threat, or is it a pragmatic investment decision intended to keep the Army at the very front of global capability? This article is intended to focus on the wider discussion around capability. It is emphatically not an article on technical details about the CR2 or wider tanks. Humphrey does not possess anywhere near enough experience to comment knowledgeably on the technical parameters of tanks. In these circumstances he would strongly recommend following highly experienced a...

Is the answer to the Royal Navy’s challenges more, less capable, ships, or fewer but more capable ships? A simple question but one that has been at the centre of naval policy making agenda for decades now. At its heart is the difficult question about whether the Royal Navy is best placed to meet the many global operational challenges it faces by investing in a small but highly capable force of escort ships, able to operate in every threat environment against peer competitors, or whether it invests more in a larger force of less capable platforms which increase its presence around the world. Underpinning this argument is a sense by many commentators that what the Navy needs is more ships, and that the only way to get this is to invest in buying lots of smaller ships now to improve overall levels of capability. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright This argument was recently made in an article by respected defence commentator Nicholas Drummond, who argue...

“This hasn’t been a good week for the Army”. In a system where messaging is everything, and trying to maintain a positive approach on the news cycle drives so much activity, in a way it was rather refreshing to hear the Chief of the General Staff speak blunt, honest words to his soldiers. Coming at the end of a week in which two incidents, both of which are under Police investigation and thus not appropriate to comment further specifically on, have had a strong immediate effect on the British Army’s public image,   this video message fromCGS was absolutely the right message to send. The use of social media to air publicly his concerns, coupled with what could best be described as a ‘damn good bollocking’ is almost unprecedented and sets the tone for his tenure as CGS. There is something very impressive about watching a clearly severely pissed off CGS delivering a reprimand to his Army that reading the same words on paper cannot convey There is little doubt th...

At times it can be hard to separate fact from fiction on the internet and understand what is going on, or know what to believe. This is particularly true in the field of Defence, where rumours can appear as if out of nowhere, and quickly gain credence as ‘the truth’ no matter how untrue they are. Often these rumours emerge as twisted offshoots from factually accurate statements, or at other times they can be utterly false. The challenge is trying to spot where the truth lies, and what, if anything, to believe. This was brought into sharp focus today by a debate on twitter where a credible commentator noted they had heard reports that the UK is planning to ‘sell’ one of the QUEEN ELIZABETH class aircraft carriers to India. This immediately sparked debate as to whether it was true or not. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright Like all good stories, this seems to have its roots in a couple of different issues that have been conflated together to form one entire...