Thin Pinstriped Line

  HMS PRINCE OF WALES (PWLS) has reportedly spent more time ‘in dock’ being repaired for various problems since commissioning than she has at sea. In the eyes of the media she is a broken ship unable to do her job – is this accurate or fair or is the picture more complex than portrayed? It is very easy to look at statistics and reach the assumption that a ship is somehow broken because she isn’t at sea. It is also easy to look at minor incidents and assume that these in turn have much bigger impact than the reality of the case. In the case of PWLS, the real picture is actually more positive than some may have you believe. The PWLS is the second ship of the QUEEN ELIZABETH class aircraft carriers, designed to provide a large platform capable of embarking up to 40 aircraft and operating globally as required. Displacing some 65,000 tonnes and some 284m long, she is the joint largest warship ever constructed in the UK and one of the largest, and most complex, warships on the planet....

  As the year draws to a close, the silly season in defence news reporting appears to be kicking off. The current contender for ‘most mind-blowingly wrong’ article on defence is based on an article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph this week, all about plans by Germany to ‘snub’ Britain by buying F35 and not Eurofighter for the replacement Tornadoes for its tactical nuclear mission. The article describes how the decision to buy the F35 is apparently a ‘blow’ to BAE Systems which helps manufacture the aircraft, and how in turn this is a snub to the British Government and Typhoon.  Rather oddly, the Telegraph splashed this story as a scoop in December 2022, when the announcement was made back in March 2022 The problem with articles like this is that they take a random collection of facts and turn them into a story which bears little resemblance to reality… It is often forgotten that at its heart NATO is fundamentally a nuclear alliance. During the Cold War not only did the...

  Historically the sight of a fleet of Dutch warships sailing up the Thames is a reason for panic in the UK. Over the centuries some of the more ‘uncomfortable’ moments of British naval history have occurred as a result of encounters with the supremely professional and capable vessels and sailors of the Royal Netherlands Navy. This week though four Dutch warships have visited London as friends and representatives of one of the UK’s strongest and most enduring military relationships. While it is fashionable to focus on the UK’s links to nations like the USA and other ‘Five-Eyes’ partners, or consider how to thicken military links in the Indo-Pacific, it is worth reflecting on the strength of the relationships enjoyed with other partners much closer to home. Some of the most important defence relationships that the UK enjoys occur with partners in Europe where joint operations are vital to securing long term British strategic interests. The publication of the ‘High North’ strate...