Thin Pinstriped Line

  The evacuation of civilians from a hostile warzone, sometimes referred to as a ‘Non Combatant Evacuation Operation’ (NEO) must rank as one of the most difficult and dangerous operations a modern military can undertake. It requires entering a potentially hostile conflict zone as a third party to try to find and evacuate people entitled to your support. It is difficult, dangerous and incredibly complicated to deliver. It is therefore unsurprising but tediously depressing to see commentators round on the FCDO for its perceived failings in Sudan, where conflict in the capital Khartoum threatens stability. Media coverage in the UK has focused on the decision to evacuate FCDO diplomats and their families while leaving the roughly 4000 UK Entitled Persons (UKEP) in place pending a further decision on their extraction. At the time of writing this article, no formal decision has been taken to evacuate them. There is criticism that the UK has abandoned its own nationals while others are ...

  Its never easy being the younger child. You don’t get anywhere near the same level of interest when key development milestones occur, people take your presence far more for granted and you often end up with your older siblings ‘hand me downs’ and cast offs. This is definitely true for warships where there is sometimes a perception that the first of class has a style and elan that other siblings lack. In the case of the QUEEN ELIZABETH class aircraft carriers it could be argued that QE has very much grabbed the headlines and glory while the PRINCE OF WALES (PWLS) has perhaps lacked as exciting an opportunity. Following an incident which involved a propellor loss (something that befalls other navies too as the French carrier CHARLES DE GAULLE discovered), PWLS has had a challenging year in dry dock. The media are reporting it as the ship is broken, she needs a year in dock for extensive repairs and now todays Mail on Sunday story is that she has effectively become a ‘scrapyard’ ...

  Being a small nation is challenging when it comes to working out how to afford armed forces and what you want to do with them. Being a small nation without enemies is even harder when it comes to answering this question. This was brought sharply into focus this week through media articles focusing on the states of the Irish Defence Forces, with a Foreign Policy article suggesting that Ireland was the weak link in European security – the problem with that statement though is what is it defending against? Armed forces are always expensive to maintain, they are consume resources that could be spent on other projects and where you are a small nation, are likely to see procurement for most major projects done abroad, meaning the taxpayer sees little economic benefit of financial largesse. The scale of requirements that a modern military needs to be capable of meeting is also equally challenging – from infantry able to conduct basic attacks to air defence to maritime constabulary wo...

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Poland will construct parts of the new Type 31 frigate HMS ACTIVE. The vessel, laid down in January 2023 will be constructed with some parts of the ship built by Polish yards. The reason for this is to help Poland gain experience in construction of the Type 31 ahead of their own vessels entering service in due course. Is this good news or a cause for concern? Building ships is an emotive issue in the UK where there is, in some quarters, a strong desire to ensure that ships are built in their entirety in by British shipbuilders and not abroad. This desire to have a ‘built in Britain’ stamp sits uneasily with the same desire that the UK should be a shipbuilding exporter and provide vessels to foreign nations – why should other nations buy British but it is not acceptable for the British to work with global partners? This is an uneasy tension at the heart of the shipbuilding debate. It has been thrust into the public consciousness with the news tha...

  We live in a world where information cannot be taken for granted. Images, documents, and briefings can be modified or interpreted in different ways to suit different agendas. Understanding what is really going on is often extremely hard and trying to determine what is true, versus what is a falsehood is all but impossible. This may sound downbeat, but it is hard not to reach this conclusion and wonder how to discern fact from fiction in the information age. Three events in the last week have highlighted the ease by which information can be manipulated and used to shape opinions even where in each case some form of fakery, misrepresentation or lying has occurred to shape the story narrative. The first example is the story from the Mail on Sunday which alleged that the ‘Kings Guards’ were living in squalor. In an article which ran as their top news story for much of the day, it was alleged that troops lived in squalid surroundings, had no litter cleaning, foul toilets and disgust...

  If you are reading this article on Sat 01 April having found yourself seeing red and being hot under the collar today at the news that the MOD is going to issue ‘equivalent rank’ tabs to Civil Servants, then you’re probably not alone.   The author ensured that the ‘MOD press release’ was intentionally designed to both see how many people could fall for something without doing their due diligence and is a good reminder that we should not take all we see for granted. For example both the people quoted have names that mean “April Fool” when translated (e.g. Major Fool), while working for the Director Fuel Operations, Operational Logistics (FOOL) team must be fun! More seriously though this was an attempt to touch in a light hearted way on a serious issue that inspires even stronger views from some quarters than having beards in the Army or wearing denim in a RIFLES mess… The subject of ‘equivalent rank’ is a uniquely MOD issue but one that raises questions about integration, ta...