Thin Pinstriped Line

The Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) has issued its annual report, recommending an across the board pay rise of 2% for the armed forces, both regular and reserve, as well as a rise in a range of allowances. These reports are always well worth a read, not just for the headline numbers, but also for wider details that provide insight into the state of the modern armed forces. For example that the MOD has some 25,000 service personnel (some 19% of the regular force) held at 5 days notice to move on tasks. Also of interest was the discovery that of the senior officer cadre (1* and above), just 4.5% of the workforce are female. This is a particularly concerning statistic as women make up some 10% of headcount overall, suggesting there remains a significant shortfall of female representation at the very highest levels of the service. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright One area that was particularly interesting though was the comments by the AFPRB on the ...

The Royal Navy has reportedly tried to look at modifying some of its language to make it more gender neutral. This is, according to the tabloids, a bad thing. It seems that the current intention is to try to use more language which is more reflective of the workforce rather than relying on historical titles, and this may see the rate of ‘Able Seaman’ renamed in due course. The response in the online cesspit known as the Daily Mail comments page varies from demands to fire the First Sea Lord, through to suggestions that women have no place in the modern armed forces if they can’t adapt to the job title at hand. Throughout it all there seems to be a clear view that this is a mans navy, and that its clearly woke nonsense pandering to a minority here that want this change to happen. Lets pause and breathe for a moment here and ask what is actually going on, and whether this is something worth getting worked up about or if it is actually a sensible idea? HMS Kent at Sea -...

The US Navy ‘WASP’ class assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (BHR) has been subject to an enormous fire that has, at time of writing lasted over 24hrs. The blaze has gutted the ship, causing significant damage, and is likely to have probably caused sufficient damage to warrant the writing off of the entire vessel. The impact of this fire will be felt for years to come. By the authors reckoning, this is the largest single ship loss by the US Navy in peacetime, and second only to the loss of the USS Lexington in WW2. The US Navy is rightly fiercely proud of its reputation of both saving ships and returning them to service – look at both the veterans of Pearl Harbour, and more recently ships like the USS Cole. The US Navy does not give up the fight. While the US Navy is hopeful of trying to save the vessel, the reality is that 24hrs of uncontrolled fire throughout the platform at temperatures approaching 1000 degrees will be placing the entire ship under enormous pressure. ...

There has been considerable media speculation recently about the future of the Civil Service, amid claims that large parts of it will move outside of Whitehall and instead head to the regions around the UK. To some this move is long overdue, to others it could be an attempt to shackle the powers of the Civil Service and reduce its influence. Historically London, and Whitehall has been the centre of all government power. It is the beating heart of government, with all major ministries located within a mile or so of 10 Downing Street, often occupying significant and potentially highly valuable real estate in the surrounding area. The perception though is that the Civil Service is inextricably linked to Whitehall, and that it cannot move away from it or let go of the umbilical cord to the centre of power. Is this fair, and what is the situation really like? For years now rustication of the Civil Service has been a key goal of governments of all flavours – remove it from t...

Last week marked the third anniversary of the PinstripedLine restarting and becoming an active blog again. In that period, covering some 225 articles and almost two million page hits the blog has continued to comment on UK and wider defence and national security issues. It is perhaps timely then that this weekend has seen more articles and press releases emerge about possible options for defence going forward, and a variety of ‘doom and gloom’ scenarios emerge. The most high profile of this is built around what would happen to Defence if a 5% budget cut was forced on to the MOD, and some of the radical steps that would need to be taken to balance the numbers. The result is a leaking of what can be described as ‘usual suspect’ scenarios, talking about removal of capability X or Y and cuts in headcount. The suggestion appears to be that cutting the budget means no more meaningful Royal Marines capability, far fewer soldiers and reduced numbers of aircraft fleets and airbases. T...