Thin Pinstriped Line

The Foreign Secretary is coming under intense scrutiny for allegedly spending £500,000 on the use of a private jet to travel to Australia rather than travelling by commercial airlines. This has been attacked as a waste of money, when allegedly it could have been done more cheaply by commercial airlines. Is this a reasonable view, or is it more complex than this? Practically  every government on the planet  maintains some form of VIP transport aircraft to move Ministers and their aides on official business trips. These vary in size and scale, but the reality of Government business is that it can be useful to have access to a discrete ‘in-house’ air transport capability to move staff at short notice to talks around the world. The RAF Voyager is both VVIP transport and AAR Tanker - Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright    The UK approach to ministerial air transport is twofold. It has traditionally made use of commercial airlines for ministerial travel – it is...

The Royal Navy is providing disaster relief support to Tonga, following the undersea volcanic eruption near this small island nation, and fellow Commonwealth member. The assistance, which sits alongside support from other nations such as Australia and New Zealand, is a very vivid reminder of the importance of the humanitarian aid mission. Providing aid to areas affected by natural disasters is a critical task for the modern Royal Navy. There is a long standing tradition of providing support when required to those struck by disasters, and helping provide humanitarian support and assistance, particularly to smaller states whose ability to respond may be more limited. This mission is not exclusively a Royal Navy mission – it is a truly purple effort. While RN and RFA ships make excellent platforms to support the mission, both the British Army and RAF are also heavily involved in this space. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright For example, in 2020-21 RFA ARGUS, containing...

  It is a common phenomenon for people to say ‘the Navy is going to the dogs’ – or variations on this theme. It is also common to hear people bemoaning ‘health and safety gone mad’ or other complaints about the state of the Service or the nation. It is less common to see these complaints given physical form in the context of a ‘haul down letter’ by the outgoing Second Sea Lord . In a letter which gained national media attention, Vice Admiral Nick Hine noted his concerns on a range of fronts about the state of the RN today, from its lack of ambition to its unwillingness to change. He expressed concern about whether a failure to embrace change and transformation would in turn be responsible for causing the RN to lose a war. These comments are at the heart of the debate on the issue of change, risk management and ambition and the state of the Royal Navy today and are worth further analysis. Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright The curious paradox of the armed forces is ...

  The Royal Navy has been in the headlines this week for allegedly colliding with a Russian submarine somewhere in the North Atlantic. This moment of high drama was captured on film by the new series of the Channel 5 show ‘Warship’, now on its third season. The result has been national attention on the difficult work carried out by the ASW force, often in challenging and demanding conditions far out to sea. The decision to invite camera crews onboard Royal Navy vessels to film Warship has proven to be an inspired decision, and one that has helped shine a light on one of the most secretive and poorly understood parts of the Service. The threat from submarines has never gone away and the Royal Navy more than most understands recognises what threat a capable and competently operated submarine can present. Throughout the Cold War the RN specialised in hunting Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic, tracking them and trying to ensure that in wartime, the enemy would not get through...

The MOD has been accused of wasting some £13bn of taxpayers money since 2010. This serious charge, levied by the   main UK political opposition party, is at the core of a ‘ dossier ’ which suggests that there has been serious and profligate mismanagement in Defence, with enormous amounts of public money wasted, which could have been spent elsewhere. Is this a fair and reasonable accusation to make? From the outset, it is important to be clear that this blog article is not taking a subjective view on the political party in question, nor is it taking political sides. This blog is, and always has been apolitical in its approach, and has not, and will not, express any views on the political views or policies of Political parties. This blog should be seen as an impartial attempt to understand the charges, and present an alternative perspective on some parts of them. Waste is an enormously emotive word, and one that brings to mind images of inept public sector workers intentionally t...