Guest Contributor

NATO and Russia: In the last couple of years we have witnessed important military manoeuvres that demonstrate the heightened tensions between the two blocs.

The rise of China as a maritime power was further enhanced by the news that China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier will be transferred from the dry dock of the Dalian shipyard, and will soon undergo trials and be fitted with systems to make her fully operational.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has put in a a request of 5.2 trillion Yen or $48 billion dollars for 2018 which includes defensive measures including missile protection technology.

This year’s DSEI event in London will see the launch of a new naval design from engineering and risk management consultancy, BMT Group Ltd. 

The planned decommissioning of the Royal Navy’s helicopter the HMS Ocean in 2018 without replacement is a nonsensical step and puts accountancy and politics above our nation’s security and our national interests.

President Putin’s Russia is behaving in a calculated, geopolitical way in Syria, which is indicative of Political Realism, and the move from an American dominated international order towards a one where America’s power and ambitions do not translate into preferred diplomatic outcomes.  

As Russian and Chinese navies have been practising together for the first time in the Baltic Sea during the start of August, Beijing has been busy on the domestic front.

There is deep concern that tensions in the South China sea will erupt into a conflict with more aggressive posturing by both the United States, Japan and China, accompanied by the deteriorating situation in North Korea which could erupt into a catastrophic conflict at any time.

The United States has been unquestionably the most powerful and influential nation in the world since the Second World War.

The technological sophistication and capital-intensive nature of providing and maintaining a modern Navy requires long term plans.