Not yet, but the US administration’s behaviour over Ukraine is leading the rest of NATO to ask how real US defence guarantees are. The EU Commission has announced a funding route for arms and Germany is looking to exclude defence expenditure from their “debt ceiling rules”. My notes and links …
Read moreSDR 2024/25
There is to be another Strategic Defence Review, its being going for a while just showing that all new governments need one; and I am of the view that it is clear that the Tories left the Armed Forces in a very poor position. This was first made in Dec 14, and I made a…
Read moreOn Britain’s Aircraft Carriers
They don’t seem very reliable, and we have to ask, do we really need them. Some notes and links …
Read moreAbout the Eurofighter, and its future
What’s happening to the Eurofighter Typhoon? Do we need a replacement, and who’s going to build it? In this article, What does the future hold for Eurofighter Typhoon?, Air Force Technology suggest that it’s design is old, and that the older versions are being retired; they argue that the Tempest programme is an upgrade programme…
Read moreKa-52 “Alligator”
I came across this article, in business insider, and their No 1, most deadly helicopter gunship is the Ka-52 “Alligator”. I think the picture below/overleaf is dramatic, and I also think shows one in Red Army (or Air Force) livery.
Read moreThe EU and defence policy
I have a couple of notes on defence policy on this wiki. All recent white papers have emphasised that the defence capability we build is onky capable of success if working with allies. The primary military alliance is of course NATO, which has over the last 30 years concerned itself with “out of theatre” operations….
Read moreTanks
I needed to extract what I said about Tanks from my piece on the 2021 Defence White Paper as it took a lot of space on a peripheral issue. What I captured was the leaks before publication which suggested that the Tanks were going to be chopped, and then comments on the white paper’s outcome….
Read moreDreadnought 2050
Which’ll come first, this or the Bakerloo extension? A concept of what might be. Here are some notes & links …
Read moreBritish Army Command & Doctrine
I was prompted by a plaque in the Tank Museum to consider if the Army was always looking back to the last war. It certainly seems to have done poorly in both Iraq & Afghanistan. In fact, once the British were known for winning their wars, but the hostory over the last 40 years is…
Read moreEU-UK trade & co-operation agreement
The UK Govt. and EU Commission have agreed a treaty to govern the UK’s 3rd party relationship with the EU covering trade, some programmes, security and governance. I put my first thoughts on my blog, inspired by Tom Kiblasi’s instant reaction, but I needed to go further. Here are some links and notes. …
Read moreArmy Helicopters
My planned defence piece led me to look up the British Army’s Helicopters; I think there is a joint helicopter command now, but otherwise here are my notes. Updated in 2024 …
Read moreWar Pensions
While researching issues surrounding the Ovcerseas Operations Bill, I did some reading on UK War Pensions, where there seems to have been a failure meet promises. Here are my notes …
Read moreUK Defence Review 2020
Thinking about defence policy, there’s going to be another review. This started as a collection of articles leaked or inspired probably by senior army officers but in Nov. Johnson made a financial announcement seemingly in advance of the review announcement which led to me doing some reading and looking at previous strategic reviews, the armed…
Read moreDefending the UK
What started it I found myself doing some reading about recent British Defence strategy and policy. It started with a blog by John Snow, questioning the British military’s obsession with supporting the US, it’s a sort of trickle down, but we can’t afford the technology any more. Military technology works because its new and different…
Read more