Thin Pinstriped Line

  The Prime Minister has confirmed that the UK will obtain a new ‘national flagship’, to be crewed by the Royal Navy, at a cost of approximately £200m, and which is due to enter service in around four years’ time. This vessel will be the putative successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia. The intention is that this ship will serve as a ‘flagship’ for the nation, offering accommodation, conference spaces and the ability to serve as a means of representing the UK abroad. The ship will not be a Royal Yacht but will presumably be outfitted to a standard intended to represent the Royal Family and others in conducting diplomacy abroad. The news has had a mixed reaction, with some questioning why now, and others questioning whether this is the best use of resources at a time when the Defence budget is already stretched. Others wonder what the value is in a floating flagship at a time when the world is digitally interconnected. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright The old Royal...

The Social Mobility Commission produced a report last week into the levels of social mobility in the Civil Service. The outcome was a report that suggested that if anything the Civil Service is more privileged and posh now than in the 1960s. What utter nonsense. The report had a variety of impressive lines, including the suggestion that senior leadership talk in Latin, or that they spoke about things like rugby or cricket. Apparently, there is a ‘velvet drainpipe’ in existence (a revelation that must have come as a shock to just about every civil servant out there oblivious to this previously top secret project). There is no doubt that the Civil Service can appear a forbidding institution, and that at very senior levels, it may appear to be something of an ‘old boys club’, but is this fair, or is it reflective of the reality of what the Civil Service is these days? The Civil Service of the 1960s was an organisation whose values and culture are utterly alien to the Civil Service of the ...

 The First Sea Lord has announced the names of the Type 31 frigate class. These five ships, due to enter service from 2028, will be known as the ‘INSPIRATION’ class, with vessels called ACTIVE, BULLDOG, CAMPBELTOWN, FORMIDABLE and VENTURER. Naming a warship is one of the most contentious decisions that will be taken in the life of a vessel. It is more than just a name, it is the personification of a hull, the creation of an identity and reflects the values, standards and ideals of a nation as a whole. It is a very big deal, as it describes so much more than just a name. There is a world of difference between saying ‘this one time on FFG232’ and ‘this one time on the MASSIVE’. The Royal Navy has a long and glorious history replete with names that embody stories and legends aplenty. Names that inspire loyalty and affection – QUEEN ELIZABETH, PRINCE OF WALES, or names that indicate links to ancient dukedoms and counties – NORTHUMBERLAND or SOMERSET. Others speak of vessels whose ...

The Reserve Force 30 review has been published by the MOD this week, setting out a possible vision for the future structure and operation of the British Armed Forces reserve forces component. The paper, written by former Minister, now Lord Lancaster, puts forward a series of recommendations about how the MOD should look to transform reserve forces into a very different body, and one that is more able to reflect the modern military. It is important to note that this paper is not final policy, it is proposals for Ministers to consider, and identify whether they wish to adopt, but it is worth considering this review in more detail and thinking about what it could mean for the future of the Reserve Forces. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright The UK has had a curious relationship with its reserve component for many decades. The Territorial Army was responsible for holding the line in 1915, when its volunteers stepped forward after the attrition of the original regular Bri...

  The news is breaking tonight that the Royal Navy is deploying warships to Jersey to monitor the maritime environment, after disputes with French fishermen have escalated. At least two Royal Navy patrol vessels will be dispatched to monitor the situation. There will doubtless be a lot of breathless excitement about this and what it may mean, and over the next few hours these vessels will become ‘battleships’ and excitable forums may be speculating about the case for why they all need CIWS fitted to face off against the French Navy, as we square off for ‘Trafalgar 2 – This Time Its Personal”. The purpose of this article is to elegantly swerve the political situation as best as possible – protests are an inherently gallic way of life, and this is not the first time that the French have tried to blockade near the Channel Islands. There is all manner of complex domestic political considerations at play in France, and the situation is doubtless far more complex than it may appear a...

  The Royal Navy currently has two aircraft carriers at sea off the coast of the UK in different stages of working up. HMS PRINCE OF WALES is undergoing sea training and getting ready to carry out a range of flying trials and duties this year ahead of embarking on her programme. Meanwhile HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH is now at sea with at the heart of a Carrier Strike Group standing up alongside her. At the time of writing, she has now embarked around 18 F35 fighters, and about 9 Merlin helicopters, ensuring that there are nearly 30 aircraft on board. This represents one of the largest carrier air groups to operate from a Royal Navy carrier in decades, and in terms of raw capability, is to date, the single most potent airwing ever embarked by a British aircraft carrier. As noted before, this is a huge success story for the Royal Navy, which has spent time and money over many decades investing in a range of different projects to ensure that the UK could field a credible carrier strike ca...