Thin Pinstriped Line

  On Sunday 25 Nov, the Royal Navy and RAF have successfully carried out a mission to board and seize individuals posing a threat onboard the tanker Nave Andromeda. This mission carried out in just 9 minutes successfully ended a standoff onboard the ship, which had several stowaways threaten to injure the crew. In the aftermath of the incident there were suggestions in UK media that this was a sign that the Royal Navy needed to bolster its forces capable of protecting home waters, and that more ships were needed to keep the nation safe. This is one perspective, but the other one is that actually this incident demonstrated that the existing measures we have in place seemed to work extremely well, and that the answer is not necessarily ‘more grey hulls’. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright The Royal Navy is but one part of the complex web of maritime assets responsible for protecting the UK’s offshore tapestry. A range of organisations and groups are responsible for...

The next week or two was supposed to herald the announcement of the long-awaited Integrated Review. This key piece of work, a specific manifesto commitment and vital part of the five yearly cycle of defence and security reviews was due to be published. Now it seems this at risk of not happening as planned. The reason for the confusion stems from wider circumstances. It was originally intended that the Government would carry out the regular cross Whitehall comprehensive spending review, a chance for all departments to identify their policy goals, work out what resourcing was needed to deliver them, and bid for money on a multi-year basis. The result would be some financial stability, with budgets assured and locked down for several years to come. To say that COVID has caused a challenge would be an understatement, and for spending it is particularly difficult. There is a not unreasonable argument that given both the wider challenge of managing the COVID response, and the need to ide...

  Defence is a world that is both simultaneously ever changing, and also stuck fast in a morass of tradition. Those who work in the armed forces are expected to both adapt constantly to new ways of doing their core business, while also having to adhere to standards or rules that seem to have gone unchanged or challenged in decades. At the same time it is in a constant battle for talent, trying to maintain relevance to the next generation of skilled recruits and then try to keep them for as long as possible. To do this, it draws upon the very best that the UK, and some Commonwealth nations, have to offer and tries to give them a career. It is against this backdrop that Humphrey wants to consider three separate challenges – that of belonging, of appearance and that of dress styles to try and highlight where issues exist, and where issues may be imagined. The initial basis for this was the Mail article which featured a Royal Navy Senior Rating from the West Indies stating that C...

Its been an interesting week for the British Armed Forces, with a variety of stories emerging that when brought together highlight several of the challenges facing Defence. To start with, early in the week a story was published in the Mail, talking about how the RAF had a large number of Typhoon aircraft out of service and being stripped for spares. The practise of stripping aircraft for parts is not remotely uncommon. In fact its done by every air force on the planet, and has been done since the beginning of aviation history. This happens for two main reasons usually. Either the airframe is potentially needing further deep repairs or replacements, and has spare parts located onboard that can be used to keep another operational, or it has reached the end of its operational life. Taking parts off one jet and placing them on another is entirely common practise. If an airframe isn’t likely to fly for some reason, and its quicker to take the part off it and get another airborne, then ...

According to rumours published today, the National Maritime Museum is to review the legacy of Admiral Nelson, and try to place it into context. In the eyes of the press, he may find himself toppled from a pedestal for holding views that are not in line with the social values of the 21 st century. To some this will be seen as a bad thing, the classic ‘PC gone mad’ headlines write themselves, as many outraged people seek to be angry at the idea that Nelson could be anything other than a bloody good bloke. But what if the museum actually has a point, and what if this is actually a rather good idea? The Royal Navy has long placed Nelson on a pedestal above almost all others, to the extent that it can feel at times as if he has been deified. Cited at every opportunity in studies, and the subject of an annual dinner in memory of his victory at Trafalgar, he is central to the core identity and ethos of the Royal Navy – or is he? There is nothing fundamentally wrong with asking whether t...

  The Chief of the Defence Staff has given a speech setting out his vision of what the future operating concept for the British Armed Forces is. This talk, perhaps politely best described as being long on buzzwords, short on evidenced examples, was an attempt to set out how the Integrated Review will try to shape the way that the armed forces will operate for the next few years. Speeches on operating concepts and doctrinal development rarely get much interest or attention in the defence social media space. Far easier perhaps to focus on easily definable tangibles like ‘how many ships do we need’ or ‘if we scrap this unit, we could fund that enhancement’. But while focusing in on the tactical minutiae is perhaps rewarding, what is equally powerful is understanding the policy that underpins how the military will be used. The speech therefore matters because it sets out the circumstances as to how the British Government is likely to see the world evolve, and the way that military ...