Thin Pinstriped Line

  It has been a momentous few days, observing the collapse of the post Cold War order and the emergence of a new epoch in global affairs. The appalling and utterly unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, ordered by the despot Putin, and supported by his criminal regime is an attack on the values western society holds dear. It threatens to do immeasurable damage to the people of Russia – a proud cultured people with a long history, who have suffered heavily under Putins despotic regime. We must remember our quarrel and focus should be the coterie who enable Putin, not the ordinary Russian. As the war continues, a wide range of lessons and thoughts are emerging which will shape western and wider military thinking for many years to come. There will be time for debates, insight and wider discussion as time progresses, and it is clear we are on the verge of potentially substantial and significant revision to many nations approach to their defence policy and strategies. The people of Ukra...

As the world waits to see whether President Putin will commit to an all out, and utterly illegal invasion of Ukraine, a wider battle is being fought using open source intelligence material. In what has been a challenging period, it has been fascinating to watch the way that open source material, downgraded intelligence products and an aggressive information operations campaign has been effectively deployed by the West to hold Russia to account. What is notable during this period has been several strands of activity that brought together raise intriguing questions about the way that the UK and wider Western allies look to conduct operations, particularly those short of outright conflict. This crisis has once again demonstrated the raw power and value of open source intelligence products that can be used to easily show and disseminate information to an audience. The widespread use of satellite imagery to show troop movements, and presence of Russian forces in different locations cl...

  One of the big challenges nations face in the 21st century is trying to work out how to prioritise security challenges, and properly resource their response to them. The rapid changes to the global security landscape, coupled with the rise in ways by which threats can manifest themselves makes for a demanding environment for national security policy makers to work in. In Ireland a Commission on the Defence Forces has published its findings on the future options into how the Irish Government should seek to respond to threats, the types of equipment and force structure required to deal with this, and also the wider challenges of people and career management. The report is lengthy, but worth reading if you are interested in trying to understand better the balance of challenges that nations face in trying to conduct defence policy making in a very uncertain climate. Reading the report, several themes emerge which are worth further consideration.  The first is the difficulty in ...

  There are times when doing blogging on defence matters that it can all feel a little bit ‘groundhog day’, and given this was last week, this feels strangely apt. To misquote Marko Ramius, once again we seem to be going into the blogosphere to fight against the ill informed commentariat about the Type 45 availability. The news breaking today (07 Feb) is that apparently all 6 Type 45s are alongside or in refit, and that this puts the UK at risk as it has no ‘active’ Type 45 destroyers. As usual the media are focusing on the location of the ships, not their actual readiness status. There are several issues to unpack here and contextualise, and its really important that these are considered when trying to assess this issue. The first is what do we mean by ‘active’ warship, and when is one ‘active’? Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright The cycle of Royal Navy vessel operations can best be summed up by their availability. Some ships will always be in deep refit – they ...

Sunday 6 February marks 70 years to the day since the beginning of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II reign. Now the longest reigning monarch in British history, this is a feat unlikely to ever be repeated. The Queen began her reign in the early Cold War, in a period when the United Kingdom still possessed significant colonial possessions, and was at war in Korea, but not yet a nuclear power. Seventy years later, the world has changed out of all recognition to that time, other economies have grown, populations exploded in size, and humanity has begun its journey in space. In real terms the UK is both smaller and less militarily significant than it was in the 1950s, but somehow it remains a globally influential power. But can this position remain given wider global events? Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright In many ways 2022 is not dissimilar to 1952. The West is somewhat disunited but aligned in broad thinking, while Russia and China remain hostile and belligerent to outside...

  In a week when attention focused on how much the UK was spending on enhancing the MOD military capability in space (approx. £1.4bn), the RAF seemed determined to take it one step further and create uniforms for their ‘away team’. Leaked slides have put forward proposals that show a new look RAF uniform that looks more ‘Galaxy Quest’ than modern military. Naturally these proposals have drawn the ire of veterans, and some serving personnel, who ridicule the concepts under consideration and generated reams of media coverage. But is this proposed change actually a bad thing? Part of the challenge with being in a uniformed service is wearing a uniform that is fit for purpose, practical to work in, and which is comfortable while still being recognisably part of a disciplined fighting service. Over the last 104 years the RAF uniform has evolved, from battledress and wearing jacket and tie to shoot down the Hun from a Spitfire to combat gear, flying suits and an office uniform that app...