Soft Power, Hard Results - the Red Arrows 2019 Tour

The Royal Air Force has recently sent its aerobatic display team, popularly known as the Red Arrows to North America for their summer display season. This tour will see the team operating at over 20 air displays and nearly 100 ground events, with 12 Hawks and an A400M aircraft operating from Halifax on the East Coast across to San Francisco on the West (full information here).

This tour is the latest example of the superb ‘soft power’ generated by the team, yet some commentators see the Reds not as an invaluable tool for British influence, but an easy target ripe for cutting in a time of tight budgets. Is this a fair view though, and has the time of the air display team had its day?

Bigger than the Big Apple?- Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

 The value of the Red Arrows is that they provide a globally recognisable and iconic brand that is associated with the UK. Much like most other nations maintain some form of air display team, they provide a visible sign of UK influence and interest globally that can facilitate many open doors.

The fact that the aircraft used is the much loved and hugely successful BAE Systems Hawk helps the Team support the wider export opportunities for this superb jet. Seeing one of the older variants put through its paces highlights the potential of the airframe in a memorable manner, which will hopefully help when interested parties then get to see what the newer generation of T2 is capable of for training aircrew.

From an influence perspective, the breathtaking nature of the Teams display and iconic paint scheme helps create the conditions whereby people want to see the display in person. Their reputation and ability to draw crowds is a vital tool in the battle for winning influence on the global diplomatic stage.

The impact the Reds have in doing this is powerful – for instance, a good publicity shot can land on the front page of most papers in a country – Humphrey has been in the Middle East when the Reds were present, and practically every paper carried the visit on their front page.

In simple terms, the Reds open the door to enable the rest of UK Government and industry partners to pile in and deliver key diplomatic objectives. For example, the presence of the Reds at an airshow may lead senior military and government figures, often elusive and hard to reach, and who the UK would like to have a bilateral with to attend, enabling the setting up of key contacts and conversations that would otherwise not happen.

The power of an invitation to see the display or meet the team can often be enough to tempt out the most hard to reach Minister or Air Marshal. The ability to offer occasional back seat flights is enough to help build a long term positive relationship that could be mutually beneficial for both nations.

The Reds should be seen as world class facilitators for networking and lobbying – how many contracts have been gently ushered into success as a result of a quiet meeting on the side of one of their events between people who would never otherwise have met? How many discrete diplomatic nudges, or firmer messages were delivered to people who perhaps were a little hard to find firm time in their diaries to see the Ambassador or High Commissioner?

More widely the backdrop of the team helps set up meetings and events that furthers wider UK lobbying interests. For example in Canada the team has been present at various educations outreach events to further the STEM agenda, or to promote women in engineering.

It also reinforces wider messages about mutual interests – in Canada the strong message to be given is that the Royal Canadian Navy will soon be operating the Type 26 frigate alongside the Royal Navy – this is something that will be a step change for both navies, and helps show how both nations work closely together in the field of international security.

What has become particularly notable is the way in which the UK Government is far better at delivering joined up messaging on these sorts of visits. Just look at the tweets emerging from the various ‘UK in’ twitter accounts from our posts overseas. These help reinforce the messages of the Reds visit and reinforce wider policy messaging goals too. The visit helps give these messages a reach that may otherwise not be achieved.

It is worth looking at the team too as a critical weapon in the influence battle. They enable HMG to meet its wider goals and open doors that otherwise stay closed. The cachet of the team, the ability to meet and work with them and the popularity of their visits all comes together to create a very potent ability to influence and extend the UK’s ‘soft power’.

While many followers of defence matters fixate on issues like how many CIWS is enough, and does the UK need 3 or 4 deployable divisions (and with how many specific types of APC per Bn), the reality is that most people out there neither know, nor particularly care about whether the British Army can deploy a division overseas. They will almost certainly never see it first hand, nor will they need to worry about if HMS FORTH is under armed due being fitted for, but not with, a death star superlaser. But, many people will see the UK portrayed in the media and think of a country that evokes different feelings and images.

Soft Power should be seen as the means by which the UK builds its standing and reputation in the world and uses this to further its own strategic objectives. Hard Power is a useful thing to possess and opens doors to certain issues that matter – for example the UK is a credible leading player in NATO precisely because it invests in full spectrum defence capability and is prepared to deploy into harms way.

But the majority of UK defence engagement across the globe does not involve the use of hard power in an operational way. Rather it is things like ship visits, the deployment of short term training teams, the occasional small exercise and so on. For the UK these are the opportunities to use the military to expand our influence and make nations think more positively about the UK, and seek opportunities to work with us and trade in future.

The Reds are a critical part of this infrastructure – they offer global reach and global recognition. Nations actively want visits from them – the promise of a display by the team at a major international air show abroad can be seen as a major sign of endorsement of the show, and in turn the host nation, by HMG. Similarly the decision, or even the threat, to withdraw or cancel a display can send a powerful diplomatic message to a country.

The Red Arrows open doors and generate the means of access for the rest of HMG to meet its ends. This is something that can generate incalculable benefits across the spectrum, from trade deals to diplomatic results. The cost of replicating this without the team could be huge, and the potential risks to influence and business as a result would be massive.

Some people argue that the team should be privatised, and let industry take up the strain. Yet this is to miss the point – were the team funded by industry then it would lose the perception of being part of the RAF and in turn part of the HMG ‘golf bag’ of soft power capabilities. While people would still be interested, it would be a much less effective lobbying tool as it would be assumed by many that the UK was no longer interested in funding it.

To push the agenda of global Britain requires funding for global soft power that is inextricably part of the Governments suite of capabilities. A private air display team would have an incredibly diminished reach and influence, and the UK’s overall position would be damaged as a result.

The team has spent well over 50 years displaying globally, and drawing huge interest and attention. In 2017 its trip to the Far East saw it reach an audience of over 1 billion people – this is a level of reach that few other parts of the UK system can match.

Perhaps only the old Royal Yacht BRITANNIA had a similar effect – and the decision to withdraw her was one of the most damaging decisions for UK influence taken in the last few decades. Playing to your strengths is what matters, and the Royal Family and the sense of what the Yacht embodied and stood for did enormous good for the UK as a whole.  Her presence and role is sorely missed in a world when standing out from the crowd matters

The cost of the team is barely £10m per year, at a time when total Government spending is around £772 billion per year. The value of their reach, presence and good for the UK overall is realistically incalculable, but if lost would be regretted immediately and for many decades to come.
 

The Reds are a good reminder that much of what Defence does best is not hard nosed kinetic warfighting, but deploying soft capabilities to generate a positive view of the UK to the outside world. The main people who would benefit from the scrapping of the team or its privatisation would be nations that we are in a direct battle for influence and economic competition with.

In a world where some nations use tools to inappropriately spread influence – for example the Chinese State and its myriad network of Confucius Institutes, the Red Arrows represent an excellent example of how goodwill and influence can be built in a positive way that helps the UK globally. They are a priceless national asset and represent the very best of what the UK and its armed forces can do and offer huge value for money to the taxpayer too. Truly, they are the best of British.