Thin Pinstriped Line

 The Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace MP has stated that of the 76 RN/RFA vessels, just 57 are available and 19 are ‘inoperable’. This has led to suggestions in some quarters that the Royal Navy is struggling to meet its goals due to the numbers not available. Is this something that we should be concerned about? Inoperable is a strong word, and one that in some quarters, particularly some with a naval background, would interpret as meaning ‘long term broken’ – it implies that a piece of equipment is simply unable to work and is not capable of functional use. This usually means refits or long term capability gaps till a solution can be found. In other words the ship is knackered and not suitable for any form of use. Warships are complicated engineering marvels, requiring extensive work and support to keep operational and effective. A modern escort ship is a floating town, able to generate power to provide life support and hotel services, propulsion, aviation operation...

The Royal Marines have been an integral part of the wider Naval Service since the 17th Century.  Throughout centuries of loyal services, the Corps has always been proud of its naval roots and heritage, serving on land and sea with almost unparalleled distinction to keep the nation safe. But although  the RM have always been proud of their naval heritage and background, the relationship has, at times, been an arms length one, with the rank structures being derived from the Army, and the training at Lympstone and the associated Commando Tests helping define who is a true ‘bootneck’ and in the club, and those who are not. While historically the Corps made up a very small proportion of total naval strength, particularly post WW2 when its head count as a total part of the Naval Service overall (for example less than 10% of the Service at the end of the Cold War), today the Corps proportionately is a much bigger part of the overall headcount strength. From a regular headcount of...

It has been a glorious day for the Royal Navy, and one that marks yet another key point in the return to operating ‘big deck’ strike carriers. HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH has embarked F35 aircraft off the coast of the USA to conduct the next stage of tests to ensure she is ready to operationally deploy in harms way. Unlike last year, the MOD has been far more on the ball with releasing pictures and news of the event, preventing repeats of ‘embargo-gate’ that occurred last year, when despite social media being flooded with images of the first landing, total silence was maintained in providing any official news due to a press embargo that had clearly failed. This time around things are far more proactive, which is pleasing to see. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright This latest series of embarkations is important as it marks the first point when a UK owned F35 will be embarking onboard. During last years trials the UK utilised the services of two specialist instrument...