Thin Pinstriped Line

The results of the 2019 Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS) have been released, and make for fascinating reading. This survey, open to the military to complete represents an opportunity for everyone, regardless of rank and rate to honestly express their view about how they perceive the state of the Service. There is a common perception if you look online that somehow ‘everything is shit’ and that the pay sucks, everyone is threaders and all planning to leave ASAP and ‘the only reason Pte Bloggs is hanging on is so that when he finishes his 22 he can retire on an RSM pension’ or other such nonsense. In reality these results make for far more positive and upbeat reading but are worthy of analysis and questioning about how things can be improved further. Royal Marines in action in Afghanistan- Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright The first key statistic is that overall individual and unit morale seems to be improving but is below the levels last s...

The newly appointed Secretary of State for Defence, Penny Mordaunt MP has delivered her first keynote speech about her Department and her vision for it. Sometimes these speeches say little and reveal even less, covering routine lines to take but not much in the way of really substantive thought-provoking debate. By contrast this speech was a genuinely revealing insight into the challenges facing Defence and the bright future ahead for the Royal Navy. The Sir Henry Leach memorial lecture is a timely opportunity to allow senior leaders to put across a vision in keeping with an Admiral who, perhaps more than any other leader in the post war Navy put forward a vision of leadership and change throughout his career. Although perhaps best remembered for his leadership during the Falklands War, his whole career was one of leadership of change. From helping deliver the Sea Slug missile into service, ushering in major changes to the way the fleet planned to fight, to delivering major chan...

It’s okay to not be okay. A simple phrase, but one that is increasingly heard in conversations around modern society. During Mental Health Awareness Week (13-19 May) the MOD has been particularly effective at raising the issues of mental health and talking about how people feel. There has been a lot of coverage on social media and elsewhere on this critical issue. One of the most positive developments of the last few years is the slow and steady removal of the supposed ‘stigma’ of admitting that you are not feeling great in yourself. The military is a very macho culture built on projecting an image of self-confidence, calm reassurance and trying to show that you are in complete control of the situation. When you observe a group of thrusting staff officers in any social situation, the one thing that stands out is the sheer confidence emanating from them as a group, and how everyone tries to project out that they are in control. It is in some ways exhilarating, and in others w...

There are times when it feels as if to some commentators, the MOD and Royal Navy can’t do anything right. One such example of this is the story discussed over the last few days on twitter about the US Marine Corps embarking a squadron of F35 on-board HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH for her first major deployment in 2021. This story, which for reasons that will become clear is an astonishing accomplishment, was seized on as evidence that the US was having to bail the UK out because the UK hasn’t bought enough F35s yet… There are times when it feels as if no matter how good news the story, someone will find a way to complain about it. Why is this a big deal? In a world where NATO interoperability and coalition operations are taken for granted, and land-based aircraft can easily stage out of different airbases, people may ask why it is so different to embark foreign aircraft on an aircraft carrier? In the over 100 years of naval aviation, conducting truly joint operations where...

The Royal Navy has celebrated 50 years of maintaining continuous nuclear deterrent patrols at sea (CASD). At a service on Fri 03 May in Westminster Abbey, the Naval Service gave thanks to those who had supported this effort, led by the new Secretary of State for Defence, doubtless fresh from her introductory briefings to the MOD and its global military efforts, which could have ranged from planned future naval operations in the South China Sea via operations in the Middle East, all the way to opportunities for possible peacekeeping operations across Africa. The effort to keep the nuclear deterrent at sea is something that is now perhaps so routine that we take it for granted. But it is worth reflecting on the scale of the achievement and its wider implications too. For every minute of every day of the last 50 years, a British ballistic missile submarine has been at sea, in the depths of the ocean and far from home, or help. Cruising in absolute radio silence the 130 or so peopl...