Thin Pinstriped Line

  It is a rather remarkable state of affairs to be in when No10 Downing Street feels the need to confirm that it is not HM Government policy to bring back conscription to the UK. This previously unthinkable interjection occurred after remarks from the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), General Sir Patrick Sanders, on the wider context of how the UK needs to shift its thinking towards the move to conflict. In his view, there is a need for a national debate around how the UK population need to mentally prepare for the changes that society would experience were the Russian threat to become outright war. These remarks have in turn spurred a wider debate about conscription and national service in the UK and what more can be done to boost the mass of the armed forces in peacetime. The UK has not had any form of conscription since the last national servicemen were called up in 1960. Since that point it has been reliant on an entirely volunteer force made up of three core parts. The regul...

  Even as the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force continue to acquit themselves with distinction in the Middle East, there are loud murmurings from the home front that the UK has wasted time and money on the carrier fleet, and that a failure to send a carrier to strike the Houthi sites means that apparently carriers are useless white elephants. No matter what the crisis or relevance, we seem destined to live in a world where armchair ‘experts’ decry any decision to not use the carrier operationally. What is it they know that the MOD does not? The UK has spent many years and a lot of money acquiring a Carrier Strike capability, built around a pair of aircraft carriers, designed from the outset to operate the F35 (both UK and allied), every major military helicopter in the UK inventory, including Merlin, Chinook, Apache and Lynx Wildcat as well as a range of uncrewed UAVs. Supported by air defence and anti-submarine warfare escorts as well as RFA stores support (currently theoretically ...

  The Royal Air Force has conducted air strikes in Yemen as part of wider international efforts to disrupt the Iranian backed Houthi rebels from attacking international shipping. These strikes were a proportionate and necessary response to needless provocation that threatened wider global economic stability. Much will be written over the coming days on this, but it is worth noting some immediate thoughts and reactions. The first is that these strikes were necessary only because the Houthis had failed to respond to international pressure to cease their attacks. If anything the international community had demonstrated significant restraint since Nov 19, when the first attacks were launched. Despite this, and the increasing presence of western naval assets to defend their maritime and trade interests, they have persisted in launching unwarranted attacks on both commercial and military shipping. There is no excuse or justification for firing anti-ship missiles, ballistic missiles and...

  In an ‘inspired’ leak that seems to fit the Yes Minister definition of a ‘Confidential Security Briefing’, the Daily Telegraph is reporting that the Royal Navy is to pay off two Type 23 frigates, HMS ARGYLL and WESTMINSTER early in order to find crew for the Type 26 frigates. Assuming this is true, this means that since 2010 the Royal Navy escort fleet will have been cut by 40%. Meanwhile the Times is reporting that the Royal Navy will mothball both LPD’s and no longer have an active amphibious assault ship command platform. This represents a 100% cut to the active assault ship force. The reasons given in both cases seem to boil down to the line that this is about providing sailors to crew the Type 26 frigate. It doesn’t seem to be linked to the rumoured huge budgetary challenges facing the MOD this financial year, which could equally be responsible for this decision. There are different ways that this information can be interpreted depending on how you look at it. For starte...