Admiral Sir Tony Radakin has highlighted that the UK is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a nuclear power, a trading power and the world’s fifth-largest economy.
In a speech to the Royal United Services Institute, Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said:
“Our air stations and garrisons, our dockyards and training schools, are the life blood of so many communities. We invest billions into aviation, shipbuilding and other high-tech industries, in every region and every community across all of these islands. We’re the experts at levelling up. We’ve been doing it for centuries and we’ll be doing it long into the future.
But that bond between the country and its armed forces rests on more than jobs and investment. It’s about our place in the world, our values, and our sense of worth as a country. We should be proud of Barrow, and the many communities that supply and support us –because of what it allows us to achieve. We’re a country that takes our national and collective security seriously.”
Tonight I delivered my first speech as CDS.
Post Afghanistan, we have returned to a world dominated by the nation state, where the pursuit of our national interest – in all its forms – must be the guiding principle of the British Armed Forces. pic.twitter.com/rB8ttfNIM6— Chief of the Defence Staff 🇬🇧 (@AdmTonyRadakin_) December 7, 2021
“The rest of the world see us for who we are. A permanent member of the UN Security Council. A nuclear power. A trading power. The world’s fifth largest economy. A strong, powerful country but outward looking, cooperative and generous too. The country that has cut carbon emissions faster than any other. One of the largest donors of overseas aid. A science and education superpower.
The one thing our competitors lack is the one thing we have in riches – real friends, all around the world, who share our interests and values. NATO, Five Eyes, AUKUS, the Joint Expeditionary Force, the Commonwealth, the Five Powers Defence Arrangements, and with France, the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force.”
Radakin concluded:
“I want to conclude by reflecting what a pivotal time this is for Defence. We are returning to a more classical model of persistent inter-state competition. We have the clarity, ambition and increased resources of government, despite a pandemic. And we have the obligation to fulfil that ambition in the pursuit of British national interests, with allies and partners who also share those values and aspirations.
And we have the opportunity to unlock the potential of UK Armed Forces; to be more deployable and more effective; to modernise; to be more lethal; and to be more diverse. And to become Global Forces for Global Britain.”
Love his words, hope he didn’t reflect too much on the irony of his speech and the present govt.
Which party would do better, I have to ask…
Its not hard todo better than the government we have had for the last 11 years.
Yeah if only Jeremy Corbyn had won the last election !
If Corbyn was in power we would of been a Russian state, but that does not excuse what the Tories have done.
This is the thing. This gov has been atrocious in many ways. Would I vote for them again seeing who is in opposition?
Absolutely.
A 3rd centrist party is desperately needed because its either tweedle dum or tweedle dee at the moment.
Being in opposition and being Captain Hindsight with the problems the world faces is all sooo easy, with no commitment or responsibility to make a decision.
Hi Daniele, overheard on an internal flight in the U.S. (2016). Two US citizens discussing Trump and Clinton: “It’s like having to choose between two abusive parents”. Sums it all up really.
No. People just need to grow up. It sometimes feels like people have no comprehension of a wider world in which others do not share their interests,preferences or prejudices. Anyone or anything that doesn’t give them exactly what they want whenever they want it is unacceptable or worse. For good or ill for most people in this country Defence is not their priority or sole interest and many people cannot accept that and they need to be told. Fully accepting that doing so will not be popular.
Center politics is needed.
Off topic but not centrism. That’s no guarantee of the best policy. What’s needed is the principle that the government acts for the common good and is not in thrall to one party machine and to ‘sectarian’ ideologies and interests. Housing is a good example. When Margaret Thatcher sold off council houses it was both what voters wanted and gave people who couldn’t afford to buy a subsidised purchase. The new owners put their own money into maintaining and improving their own property. Her policy was a natural evolution of post war social housing. But right now we have homelessness… Read more »
Cheers, interesting👍
I can’t agree more. I think the 2 party system is no longer working, it forces people to vote for people they don’t like and Don’t agree with, the first past the post makes so many peoples vote a waste of time ( I know it’s really pointless me voting, but I do it anyway as a civic duty). what we need is an executive that is not linked to the two ideological driven parties. Maybe we need to have: 1) directly elected members of the executive ( the Sec of state roles and PM ) are all directly accountable… Read more »
Well Jonathan, good luck with all that. I think labour has Gordon Brown working on ideas for constitutional reform. Send him your ideas. I’ve no idea what the Tories are doing except probably trying to turn the clock back 300 years. Actually 600 years is the way to go….Agincourt. Church on Sunday followed by compulsory archery practice. 😀
helps if you could spell it right.
Yes my dyslexia got the better of me then , thank you for pointing it out.
Mate your right, no longer do we vote for who is best, we vote for the least worse from a dismal bunch of bent no hopers!
Howsit Airborne. Its the middle of the night here-can’t sleep😁 Despite issues with British politics you still have a well functioning democracy-one of the best if not THE best. You would not believe just how bad the ANC government is here-this is the wrong forum but I could tell you some stories that would make the top ten in Ripleys! For all their flaws, you should cherish your government and institutions
Cheers Geoff
Hi Geoff, your right no matter how much we moan I know we still have a decent political spectrum, which is relatively honest and transparent, and dishonesty and corruption are quite relative to the bigger picture. But it is sad that the various parties would rather play politics rather than deal with real issues which effect real people and the country. I’m also a policy man not party, and cannot stand those who support party no matter what! Weak, blind brainwashed sheep I’m afraid. Cheers mate take care.
Well said Geoff
Well said and agree 100% Daniele. I am more an issues than Party man-in reality most political parties are just loose alliances. A centrist party or alliance is particularly needed in Scotland to counter the SNP who themselves are a very broad church. In the UK at large, such a party could form around the Libdems and “New Labour”segment of the opposition with perhaps centrist input from the Tories although old loyalties and identities are difficult to abandon. As to the article above-well said and something to be proud of. Durban tomorrow peaking at 28 degrees Cheers my friend ps… Read more »
Afternoon geoff.
Keep safe my friend.
Ah we all know what is needed dont we, Goverments , Politicians have been slagged off for ever and a day as being incompetents graft ridded lazy and every other negative you can think off, However we have what we have and its still the better of all the alternatives avilable as evidenced across the world , So be happy to slag off and value that you can express your opinions without being banged up in a gulag
Unfortunately I don’t think there are many true statesmen/women left in the two major parties. The conservative front benches are a pretty contemptible bunch of morally defunct power mungers who would step over large parts of our population to stay in power. The Labour Party needs deal with the fact it’s full of protesters and get more serious politicians before its electable, I was hopeful that starma could do it but he just does not have that air of a statesman, Thatcher (and I could not stand her politics) was a true stateswoman and did deal with what needed dealing… Read more »
On the same page as you Jonathon. I also like Rory Stuart and think he would have made a good PM-perhaps a little too analytical and cerebral though for the mainstream. Also the LibDems have had some really good leaders-Ashdown,Campbell,Clegg even Kennedy despite his alcoholism
I’m not a Corbyn fan but a lot of misinformation around his defense thoughts going around. His manafesto for example had strengthening ties with NATO whilst it’s commonly stayed he wanted to leave.
Realistically they are all as bad as each other. Policitcs is about short term gains, not long term expedenture that is required for military stuff, which also doesn’t get used or hopefully, so isn’t sexy.
Same as the normal person, insurance is normally one of the first things to get cut when people go through financial difficulties.
The Labour manifesto had strengthening ties with NATO but Corbyn himself was opposed to it and would have taken us out of it if he could have.
He was Labour Leader but that didn’t mean he had carte blanche to write the manifesto however he wanted it. He’d have had to balance what he wanted with what the rest of the PLP wanted.
Leader doesnt’ have power to make decisions alone either, but we will never know for sure what would have happened under him. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him but after this government, not sure that was the right decision.
All we know for sure is what has happened under a over a decade of the conservatives.
I know exactly what you mean. Really sad situation when “none of the above” was the only thing I could think of in the last election.
To be honest if only Jeremy Hunt had won the last Conservative party leadership.
He is actually a man of integrity and has a real understanding of what it means to lead.
I don’t agree with many of his views and I did one call him the devil himself at a kings fund convention but he handled it really well and I do believe he is honest competent and always tried to do the best for the county.
On individual politicians I don’t know enough to comment or care ! Brexit, balance the budget and don’t take shit from Biden, Macron and especially Putin. Apart from that Meh.
All I want is competent serious individuals who make decisions based on the greater good and national interest and not their own needs, parties needs or financial backers needs ( which is what we have with the conservatives and labour).
Except we haven’t. We have multiple different governments during that period, you can hardly claim the Johnson administration is the same as the Cameron-Clegg administration.
True but he still bought in more cuts.
Cuts in some areas, increases in others. 🤷♂️
You’re always going to have some cuts, otherwise the army would still have horses and swords for everyone.
Just cuts you mean, what new stuff? Not talking promises for stuff in the future, talking actual money spent / orders placed.
They do still have a lot of horses and swords to be fair.
Not relative to the size of the army, and only for ceremonial purposes.
Still 500 horses is a lot of horse flesh and a lot of money spent on looking after them. not sure you need that many for ceremonial purposes, I could see keeping about 100, but 500 horses is a lot of money being shat out on the road.
To be honest, the whole different administration thing is a smoke screen, they are always beholden to their parties and parties backers. A conservative government is a conservative government and a labour government is a labour government. The front men and women change but the parties and the powers within and behind, don’t really change that much.
if we had a directly elected executive arm then you could say they are different beasts, but they are not, the party with the most seats decide who and what the administration’s faces will be.
I think Brexit proved how utterly wrong you are there. A very pro-EU Conservative administration replaced by an anti-EU administration overnight.
That was just factional infighting over a specific subject. Within the party. The administration is still bound the the parties will, the faces will change as the party wills it and Boris will be gone when the party decides he’s gone.
I’m not playing a Labour=good, Cons are bad here; I’m saying that our armed forces still hold dear the ideas of service and are a beacon; unlike the present govt headed by Johnson.
David. I’m not going party political either but what has he and the government done, defence wise, that is so bad?.
I would suggest the damage he and his cabal are doing to the international reputation of the UK – friends in Latvia, Cz, Svk, Pol, Germany, AND Sri Lanka (ffs!) can’t believe what is happening here – one friend is a NATO Col – others are snr Civil Service, it’s just their opinion, true, but these are good people – the Col did Shrivenham for example. So, the least the Cons could do is change the leadership, but, with who? I posted on a pro Sir KS website that Keir was weak today, I want to see him tearing out… Read more »
that infighting and unwillingness to have resonable political discussion in the labour movement at present is why it’s still not electable ( and I’m a traditional labour voter FFS). If your not for someone on that day your against them, valid discussion is just not accepted.
We feeling the same pain?
I think I would go with Barry on this one, the damage is Geopolitical in nature. We had a prime example just this week, with Boris accidentally announced a polical boycot of the next Olympics in PMs questions Because Duncan smith pushed him a bit hard was a classic example. It makes the U.K. look weak and irrelevant and in the geopolitical game that can become lethal. Other nations formally announced it explaining why and what it meant. We had our PM going…well you know we are not planning to send a minister so we’ll that’s a boycott really (… Read more »
You’re much better than I am! I want a Party that is strong on Defence – that’s not the present day Cons, Libs are rolling around in the hay, but a modern day Hutton who stood up for defence manufacturing in Barrow under Labour. Defence is the weak underside of the Cons and what my mother votes for; she loves the Cons soundbites even if they are just thin air. Labour, defender of the Union Labour, defender of our people Labour, defender of employment across the UK Labour, defender of the people of the UK. Rant over… 😉 SKS needs… Read more »
Yes a party for the greater good, for the betterment of the population, that is ethical, fair and puts the national interest first and makes sure we are strong and rewarded through our labour.
it’s so sad that it seems a bit to much to ask.
What Jonathan said!
Morning David. Yes the Labour Party of old,particularly in Scotland was strongly Pro-Union and despite mixed motives, it was Gordon Brown who pushed through the carriers and saved from possible scrapping by Cameron. In the old days things were exactly opposite from a Defence point of view-Harold Wilson savaged not only the Armed Forces but also Britain’s Defence Industry. MacMillans Tory Government had desperately tried to accelerate defence procurement in the face of a looming Labour victory and managed to get supersonic Harriers on the floor and the TSR2 flying very publicly not to mention the two new carriers in… Read more »
Absolutely, and many fail to understand our position in the World. I do hope this new appointee can stop the penny-pinching Treasury from meddling with procurement programmes.
Adm. Radakin may possibly be a breath of fresh air, I hope so, but it must not be forgotten that he is a political appointee and, as such, his speech will have been scrutinised by Whitehall and or Downing St. It seems odd that as the worlds 5th largest economy we don’t have the financial clout to maintain the Armed Forces in a fit state. I’m a firm believer in the “Speak softly, but carry a big stick” philosophy.
Yes, agree, …and make that a very big stick!
We do. Spending on the armed forces could be tripled with out excessive tax increases.
But
No political party thinks it’s a good idea to do:that so they all propose about 2% of GDP. The people have voted for them on that basis.
Hi Ian,
Whilst I agree with you sentiment, to me I make a subtle but important difference. We as a nation can invest much more in our defence but we simply choose not to. This – and the MoD’s scandalous mishandling of procurement s – in my opinion, leaves us where we are today unfortunately.
True
I worked at Abbey Wood for 2 years as a civilian after 34 years in the army. Military procurement is incredibly complex – technology is often ‘cutting edge’ and constantly evolving, budgets are often insufficient, ‘Requirements’ sometimes have to change, Industry can be inexperienced, rules are complex and lead to slowness of process except for UORs, and there is much external interference. It is amazing that the vast majority of procurements go well. It’s not just the MoD to blame when procurements go wrong – it is invariably service directorates, the Treasury, politicians and Industry to blame as well. Fortunately… Read more »
Bravo.
I have said similar here countless times to the usual 5th Columnists who constantly try to do my country down. One of whom has now been banned.
Agreed! and a nice olive branch for France from the architect of AUKUS.
He’ll be back under a different name soon enough I’m afraid. Harold, TH, Iqbal, Mike and soon to be………. Who knows.
It’s as predictable as the sun rising or an England batting collapse.
On topic, good to hear his words and let’s hope they are backed up.
Absolutely.
Hi Rob. Sadly you are correct, however once we identify the individual, we can all ignore him.
The saddo will be back, very much like chlamydia….very irritating and hard to get rid off!!!!! 👍
Scan the forum well mate for any new incursions. You’re usually quick enough to spot them!
Will do mate, not hard to spot, same style, spelling type and errors and subject matter attraction (and lack of knowledge) lol!
Lol did I miss something?
Nothing worth repeating mate.
Good to see you back.
I’m not back. My laptop is on the fritz and I hate posting on my phone XD so I’m lurking for the foreseeable.
That’s OK then. Lurk away. You’re still here and you can “wheel yourself out” if needed!
Yes definately a Russian troll .
Watch the HBO documentary “Agents of Chaos” to see how much damage Russian trolls have inflicted.
Who who who, tell please ?
Mike. Harold. TH. Take your pick. They’re all the same.
Broadly agree with his points on how much soft power the UK still wields which is too often underestimated.
Are we still the 5th largest economy though? We’re definitely below China, USA, Japan and Germany but what about India? I thought we were 6th or 7th by now?
No idea, it changes. But to me it does not matter if we are 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th or 10th. We are somebody. How many hundreds of countries in the world are there to scoff at Great Britain?
You are a good man Daniele
Hope you’re well Ulya.
We are 5th largest economy apparently according to wiki , due to covid India has dropped to sixth .
As of this year we’re 5th. India has had larger issues with COVID and will probably fail to meet its projections of 3.08 trillion. We have projections of 3.12 and are on track to exceed that. France is further behind that with somewhere between 2.7-2.9. Because of COVID it’s likely that India won’t overtake us until 2023/2024, but that doesn’t really matter because it’s inevitable. However, IMF says we will overtake Germany in the early 2030s, and Japan in the late 2030s; faster if the pound rises. Since our economy is measured in pounds and internationally in dollars, if the… Read more »
Was not India hit worst by COVID this year?
Arguably some other countries did worse, but western countries with service-bases economies suffer less. By economic impact, definitely. Whenever we have a lockdown, our output falls by 10-20%. Whenever they have a lockdown, it falls anywhere between a third and a half.
One word I’d like to see him to use sometime alongside being more deployable, effective, lethal, modern, etc, would be to actually and truly “enlarge” the British armed forces even by a fraction. Would do wonders for morale. Other countries meanwhile are also modernising.
Spot on.
Daniele, it was interesting that he mentioned working his Perm. Sec. civil service counterpart twice, and also that ‘other parts’ of the defence establishment have to level up to the excellence of service personnel. I think MOD reform is on the cards and sparks may fly.
Which in many ways will be a good thing procurement wise.
He still evades the basic fact the forces have become too small, as Q above mentioned. Future Soldier has hardly been a great start.
I think he plays a smart game. He has been able to find ways to enlarge the Navy, using clever ideas – and he has been given a large budget for next four years. I think he wants to prove they will get an excellent bang for their buck and by doing so ensure defence is front and centre and cash keeps coming. He will need to make sure procurement reform happens.
I suppose technically they are, with the plan to increase the frigate and destroyer fleet to 24 ships. As long as this is actually an increase and not some other kind of spin.
Actually if he pulls it off its +5 frigates and +5 batch 2 OPVs makes 10, Some navies would say the RN ‘frigate’ fleet has increases from 19 to 29: by 50% and we have 2 big carriers to boot. And with forward deployment the ships are spending more time at sea so our global presence and influence increases by more than that. I’m hoping Radakin can work similar miracles with the army. He is right to focus on sclerotic delivery, (procurement) teamwork and lethality. These are all connected. He is also right to remark that the services have been… Read more »
Actually, the RN would be in a better place if they had got all 12 Type 45 Destroyers and all 6 Fort Victoria Replenishment Ships
The end of history garbage that has followed the cold war for the last 3 decades has done more harm than good
I believe the saying goes if you want peace, prepare for war
No anti-ship missiles for at least 10 years is likely to dent the purpose of the RN.
Only if we need to use them. Which generally doesn’t happen – and if did we would mostly likely have some warning. Naval warfare is pretty rare after all and we would likely buy an uprated batch of Harpoon as quickest solution. Barring that ASM’s are not the only lethal weapons the navy can deploy.
That’s what annoys me; the only way we can reliably kill an enemy ship is with an Astute, of which we have only a handful.
Really we need an anti-ship missile asap and it needs to be ship-launched and air-launched, F35s, Poseidons and Typhoons.
Only people on these kind sites think that it’s so urgent. Of all the capability gaps, this one worries the RN the least. The subject matter experts.
N2 are the SMEs and they same the same thing. Without them the enemy TTPs will be a lot simpler.
SME, N2, TTP – any chance of that in English?
Naval intelligence, subject matter experts, tactics and procedures, sorry jargon
It bears repeating. We have owned anti-ship missiles for almost 50 years and have yet to fire a single one in anger either ship or air launched.
Ditto for nuclear weapons.
Understand where your coming from but very different. The purpose of nuclear weapons is to prevent others from using them against you. Using them would mean they have failed in their sole purpose.
Off topic but this exchange from Mr. Steeper, is a great example of how differing views can be discussed without deteriorating into insults, (mis)catergorisations and silly accusations about armchair critics and so on. Whatever flavour of government we have, whoever is running the MoD or the armed forces there is always a shortage of money for the projects people want to start, and for as long as there have been soilders, aircrew and sailors its always the person at the bottom of the piramid that gets the shitty end of things.
Agreed on all of the above.
This is not a rhetorical question or me picking a fight. What would you say the Royal Navy’s purpose would be in a major war? I’m not talking about the carrier group but the rest of the frigates and destroyers? How would it respond to being attacked by other ships?
Neither am I. In that case as far as the ships themselves we would use SAMS in there secondary role and the ships helos would use Martlet. Of course neither are ideal or close too it. But the effect of even a single hit from the SAMS in particular would be catastropnic to any but the largest opposing ship.
Depends on who we’re fighting? If it’s Russia then it’s role is as it’s always been, to keep the Atlantic sea lanes open so that Europe can be reinforced by the USA.
If it’s China then to support our allies as and when we can (long way to go). In both cases we will be operating with allies.
The frigates operating against SSNs with the destroyers providing AAW protection for convoys. Frigates and destroyers are escort vessels and don’t generally go toe to toe with the enemy, that’s the job of SSNs and CS.
That’s the problem, though. We have 7 SSNs, of which likely max 2 would be able to be deployed into a conflict against the likes of Russia or China, and our Carrier Strike has no real anti-ship capability at the moment; until we get Spear 3 the only thing our F35s could do is target enemy ships with Paveways, which means they have to get dangerously close. It could work but it’s likely to result in the losses of some of our planes and pilots. Although escorts aren’t meant generally to go toe to toe with the enemy, I think… Read more »
Totally agree mate, it is the problem. We will only have 7 Astutes, not nearly enough – should have been 12-14 really. CS hampered by long delay with rollout of Blk 4 improvements, as you say even then it will only be S3 and Meteor. A purchase of JSM wouldn’t go amiss, or, are we getting whatever comes out of FC/ASM programme for aircraft? Either way we appear to be in a weak position in this respect when compared to our peers, but, have to believe the Navy know what they are doing, as we’ve just had a shedload of… Read more »
Relying on allies to plug capability gaps is a big gamble as the foe will look to exploit the weakest links first, ie RN surface fleet with no ASuW.
We’ve not had a surface to surface fleet engagement either. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen unless you have a crystal ball. Without them we make it easy for any peer. You underestimate how good and clever our peer adversaries are. Without ASuW capabilities the RN surface fleet wouldn’t last an afternoon against a peer possessing ASuW capabilities.
If it didn’t contain a QE or Astute. Which in that circumstance would be astonishing.
What ASuW will QE have? ROEs wouldn’t help Astute these days
And you are basing that assessment on what exactly?
What assessment? That the RN surface fleet wouldn’t last long against a peer surface fleet. Simply they will have studied a set of TTPs to defeat a foe (us) that has no ASuW capability. It’s called mission planning, ie their N3 will use their N2 to develop a set of tactics. Do you think having no ASuW is a good thing in a surface fleet scenario?
I think you might find it’s a tad more difficult to sink a integrated flt just because we don’t have much in the way of LR ASuW capabilities. Granted we could do with some, but the Navy don’t appear to rate that as a ‘must have now’ option. I like to think they actually know what they are doing! Certainly it’s a risk on their part, if push came to shove I’m sure we would buy something pronto. We are very unlikely to be fighting any peer advisary alone but as part of an alliance, so, whilst I do get… Read more »
As you say it’s risk management and the RN have risk accepted it. Whilst likelihood is low, the impact of losing a ship with >200 crew is high. Given the impact, and duty of care, I can’t see a good reason to risk accept. I hope we’d be able to buy something pronto, however I think the gaps we have today would be the gaps we’d go into a conflict with.
There is a big difference between being able to survive a ASM attack and launching one to sink the opposition. We are world leaders in EW which is our first line of defence in such a scenario, followed by the various futher layers culminating in CIWS. The only major sea conflict in the last 40 odd years (FI) didn’t evolve a ship on ship action even though both sides were fitted with ASMs. These were all launched by aircraft, and yes they inflicted considerable damage on our flt. However, we have learnt from this and as I say, are world… Read more »
Defensive systems are great but it just takes 1 to get through, and saturation can have its own virtue. As I said the enemy N2 will have studied this and worked out a set of tactics, they don’t work in a mission planning vacuum
Ah hands up I was wrong. We fired Sea Skuas from Lynx in Gulf War 1. I’ll get my coat. 😥
Doesn’t mean we won’t need them, though. With the way things are going with Russia & Ukraine at the moment and what that could turn into, I’d be much more comfortable if our navy had a way of striking at enemy ships that wasn’t solely in the hands of a handful of Astutes, of which likely max 2 could be deployed for a conflict at any given time.
Agreed. Ideally we would always have across the board capabilities. It’s always a good idea to give your enemy as many things to worry about as possible. But we do have QE as well as Astute’s for this job. I believe in carriers and there importance both today and tomorrow so if I had the choice I would prioritise F35’s over ship launched missiles. But definitely the sooner we fill this capability gap the better.
We do have QE but at present the F35s can only launch AMRAAMs and Paveways until we get the Block IV versions, so not really effective against enemy ships. Dropping Paveways onto enemy ships requires the F35s to get within 12 miles or so of the ship; dangerous territory even with their being stealth. Not sure I’d want to be the F35 pilot going on that sortie.
So that currently leaves us with just the Astutes.
Weird thing to say in 2021 but weather and/or darkness would be important in that regard. No argument from me that air to surface missiles would be far preferable but we do have options.
I’m pretty sure a Paveway or 2 would very reliably kill an enemy ship…..
If the launching plane can get close enough and not be shot down by the enemy ship’s air defences.
They’d have to get uncomfortably close to drop a Paveway onto enemy ships.
Hi Steve, I’m with you on this and at the same respect those that take a quite different view. The FC/ASW should hopefully alleviate our some concerns if only it came sooner. Fair enough to look back at history but there’s a lot of very “missiled-up” potential adversaries in the present. Even our French, German, Italian and Norwegian allies all seem to like having ASMs on their vessels. They must see a need that we don’t. Down here in Aus too, they’re even putting Tomahawks v5 on the Hobart AWDs and their Hunter T26s like the Canadian T26s will also… Read more »
Sorry for some bad grammar typos.
Only the UK thinks omitting AShMs or other capabilities is acceptable. It is insanity & an invitation for anyone to have a go.
“We must be willing to dispose of older equipment even earlier or adjust our existing programmes to generate the cash to take advantage of rapidly emerging and radically transforming technology”. Radakin is taking a flyer on Harpoon generation missiles and forcing the pace on future ASM. Worst case if we need them we can buy a few block II Harpoons as an urgent requirement and put them on our P8s, which are wired to take them. Air launched would be fastest and safest way to launch in any case. With our forward bases we can reach our UK areas of… Read more »
Not just a saying but the motto of the Royal Navy!
If this is true it does not need to be repeated so obsessively.
I think my preferred measure would be pensions out of the defence budget.
And cross party agreement on ring fencing defence spending. Who is to say the opposition, if they get in, won’t gut defence like they did from 97 to 2010?
It’s all very well defence getting its stable in order, will the next government think the same?
I envy Australia, they don’t seem to have that trouble.
Spot on Daniele, ring fence the defence budget… Stability and cross party support for Defence, NHS , Social Care and the ‘Green’ conversion of society in general (and the massive implications that brings with it) with agreed and funded plans for all for the next 30 years…. Take the House of Lords out around the back of the barn and put a bullet in its head, that creaking old anti democratic institution should have been put out of its misery many decades ago…. Replaced with a non political elected assembly ( about half the size of parliament), with Senators overseeing… Read more »
Could these “Senators” be SME’s in their fields? Academia, Science, Business, and so on?
I agree regards the Lords, Nigel wanted it ousted years ago.
Excellent idea Daniele…..👍
Sorry, I think we need law lords in the Upper House… they do improve the written law.
However, once again, that needs the polies and media to raise the issue with the public and agree on a ring fenced budget of 3%? Spent in the UK? The elephant in the house of public spending is the NHS and a poster presented a comprehensive missive about just how disjointed and unconnected it was. Of course, I’m not going to argue for privatization but, a review of all the many management boards might go a long way to cutting costs. Same with rail, one org without mngt accts and lawyers scoring points of each in delay attribution costs, with… Read more »
Hi D how right you are! I’ve said the same thing on many occasions.
Hi Daniele, yes, with you on that. I’m a pom down here in Aus and they do seem to be getting on with modernising, rearming, sovereign missile production, T26, and despite the hiccups with the subs. The new liberal Defence minister Dutton here has got a bit of “I’ll get things done” about him. Tensions with China in the regions around us and SE Asia are pushing us. At least he’s responding with action.
suppose there a immediate conflict at sea , in which the royal navy was involve against advisory that have a very arms warship like the Russian and Chinese . there politic stand off , how the hell you can anti ship Missiles on broad the ship immediately by eBay or asked your enemies for sometime to put your house in order.
Slightly off centre here, just a little note too any Lads either RN RM who partook in OP Corporate 39years 8mths ago have been given the freedom of the City of Portsmouth took long enough
About bloody time … You have to wonder what is going on re the Falklands Conflict, considering it’s an extremely important 40 year anniversary coming up and I get the impression the Government wants to just forget it and brush it under the carpet… I was at the otherwise excellent Fleet Air arm Museum a few weeks back and you immediately notice the Falklands Conflict has become a side note, barely mentioned in fact, only a few discreet cabinet displays and of course Humphrey the Wessex…. Why isn’t there a hall display being prepared for next year, there’s enough airframes… Read more »
Thanks John ,I only posted this as It wasn’t just late in coming but when you hear of Veterans on the streets, or have taken their lives from their experiences of the Falklands campaign,,yet illegal migrants get put up in hotels given food and clothing, money and mobile phones shows Governments past and present look at forces personnel as a commodity too be used with no after care
“Curious, why has the largest RN operation since WW2 been deliberately sidelined?”
You know as well as I do. Great Britain “winning” something and being proud of it and its personnel who took part???
No no no, the woke PC brigade would have a pink fit. It’s no longer “the agenda” and far too much like “Global Britain”
Hope I am wrong or am I just cynical?
Increase troop numbers and overall depth of our armed forces then I would agree , but for now its seems a little bit delusional.
Many things in what the CDS says are correct: Britain is a nuclear power, it is a member of the UN Security Council, it is a leading economic power in Europe. But the hard reality is that it is also cutting its defence capability and has been for thirty years. That did not change in the 2021 defence review: the army was cut, the RAF lost aircraft (Typhoons, C-130s, Wedgetail order cut, Protector plans cut), the Navy is not in good shape despite some improvements. It has completely insufficient depth and that won’t be corrected by “frigates” like Type 31… Read more »
I broadly agree Roy, capability all round has been cut to the bone since 1990, what’s worse is we actually spend a fairly healthy amount on Defence (3%would be preferable) but we waste huge amounts of money on poorly thought out programmes like Ajax instead of buying off the shelf at vastly cheaper prices. Again and again we do it, Puma replacement will no doubt be just the same, huge sums of money blown on half the number of Helicopters needed…. The huge song and dance about 24 escorts by 2030, totally ignores the fact that they should never have… Read more »
Evening John, yes, totally agree our numbers across the board are to small, unfortunately that’s the reality of lack of sustainable investment in defence.
However, what is often ignored/overlooked is that we will not be acting alone, but as part of an alliance, so lots more assets available, which makes a big difference.
Evening mate, very true…..
Our ability to act unilaterally is somewhat diminished, but that’s been the case for many decades to be honest.
Have a like!
Ta good sir!
Don’t call me Sir 😉
👍😂
Good points. If you take the ‘Rule of 3’, then of the 7 SSNs, there should be an excellent chance of 2 boats being available for operations – 1 to protect the duty SSBN on CASW and 1 for a deployed CSG? It’s just ridiculously taut.
I can’t stand this rule of three. Can we make it 4? Two out and about, 1 in Port… waiting to go out , 1 in maintenance… I have no real idea of course… Lol 😁
The rule of 3 is not really applicable and hasn’t been for a while. Only if a vessel is in a deep refit period will it be unavailable for OPs If a vessel is in a 4 week FTSP (alongside maintenance period) it still remains at 48hrs notice for sea. It can sail and fight if needed within 48 hrs. Even with a vessel in a big maintenance period it can still sail but at a longer notice say up to 96 hrs notice. What is important is a vessels OC, Operational Capability and being able to deliver that to… Read more »
Thanks Gunbuster – sounds like you have good knowledge or experience on this subject. The rule of 3 has been quoted to me so many times over the years, I had no idea it was invalid. I assumed that we could guarantee one SSBN on CASW because we have (a bit more than) 3 boats. I have heard a recently retired Admiral (Alan West, I believe) quote the rule of 3. Perhaps our navy is big enough, after all! When I was in the army (REME) we had to keep 70% of kit (vehiles, weapons, radars etc) in unit hands… Read more »
Hi Graham.
Didn’t the army once operate on a rule of 5? Up to 2015 cuts it seemed to regards deployable brigades and their enablers.
Hi Daniele, That was all about Harmony guidelines ie to maintain a tour interval of 2.5 years for an enduring op. So, for an enduring op like Herrick or Telic, you need 5 building blocks, be they brigades or a task force or BGs (whatever is the size of the deployed force), so that one of those deploys and then those troops have 2.5 years until the next deployment out there. This to enable quality of life and the chance to do Other Tasks (like MACA/C/P, do core collective training, do career courses etc). For a maximum effort one-shot operation,… Read more »
Thanks.
And if we need to do an enduring op, the brigades no longer exist. Unless we use BGs now.
Hi John. Your point on the reduction rings true. I recall the 2004 cuts resulting in RN surface warships cut from circa 30 to 24 . My overriding concern is the effect on the RAF front line jet combat squadrons. 1990 = 31 2002 =20 today = 8 . My all time favourite MOD “spin” narrative is a new modern and sophisticated asset can do twice as much as the asset(s) it’s replacing. Sadly, this ignore the blindingly obvious point that it cannot be in two places at once. Scale, surge and relevancy are heresy in the MOD modern armament… Read more »
Spont on Klonkie, that’s where we are…. The RAF fast jet fleet is on the very edge of becoming irrelevant, as it’s so far below critical mass. The only saving grace is an RAF force of 30 Typhoons with Meteor and Spear3 etc will be an exceptionally capable force….. You can’t escape from the fact that deploying 30 would require a massive effort. Son of Mosquito and Tempest are going to be the saving grace of the RAF putting back mass that’s simply been allowed to disappear…. All the eggs are in that basket, god knows what plan B will… Read more »
Another faint hope I have is that with all this tension going on with Russia at the moment, that if things start to deteriorate that the MoD will reverse the decision to scrap all the Tranche 1 Typhoons by 2025 and instead upgrade them, give them AESA radar etc. Would help with our lack of depth somewhat.
Hi K.
That has always been my main bugbear too, the loss of fast jet squadrons. The cuts and what the orbat was and is now is indelibly in my mind. Utterly scandalous.
And the main culprits of that are not the current incumbents of government.
I take the points at how capable modern aircraft are by comparison but that is really no excuse. I could have accepted the reduction if there was a marked increase in other areas, but of course the enablers are slashed too.
Very true and in turn that make the job of selling the need for more defence funding very diffcault.
Lethality has to be priority no1, it’s a major weakness. We have also have too many centres of gravity.
“real friends” what, Macron, Putin, Xi? I would want the UK £2 trillion+ debt reduced before I got cocky. Our armed forces are great in parts, but the capability gaps would be attacked by a peer enemy. We should be spending more on reshoring & self sufficiency. Much less on virtue signalling net zero.
Come on, we’re weaker than for centuries & so individually self centered we keep throwing other nations freedoms under the bus. Do we have the will to really do what’s needed to stand up to Russia, PRC or anyone? We gave up & capitulated to the Taliban, abandoned our Kurdish allies to the Turks & if we faced a real peer war, what proportion of us would be willing to fight? Decades of ideological cuts have made us fragile militarily. We’re sending all the wrong signals to dictators worldwide.
Spin & bluster may decieve some, but not any enemies.
Let us hope Admiral Radakin is not like his predecessor and more like Admiral Fisher and manages to push through what is needed not just for the RN but for all the Armed Forces.
We have had enough of “The cheque is in the post” statements.
Anyone reaching that level is polictical by nature, and that means their job is to make their polictical masters look good and not talk about problems / issues. As with everyone before him, he will suddenly realise there were issues / capability gaps once he retires.
He can only reform the services if they themselves want to genuinely reform. Unfortunately there’s no evidence that they do.
I’m not sure the Royal Navy has reformed but it has defo transformed – crewing in particular – CSG21 showed that.
Army. It’s in a shoite state.
RAF. Ask Daniele!
Yeah didn’t mention Radakins reforms of RN to not wind people up. Have very little hope RAF would follow suit and non that Army would.
What reforms should the Army make?
RAF’s in a decent place. RAF has world class offensive capabilities to control it’s domain. By contrast RN surface fleet would be outgunned by a modest corvette.
What reforms do you think are needed in the 3 services?
Translation: the CDS has to talk about cutting carbon emissions and being a large foreign aid donor because the UK is no longer a strong, powerful military power.
“We’re a country that takes our national and collective security seriously”
That must be why the contract to fit RN warships with an interim anti-ship missile to replace the completely obsolete Harpoon has been cancelled then
Most of this predictably echoes the language of the integrated review. But two things struck me-the mention of 118 priorities and the emphasis on much increased lethality. The former links directly to the IR which tried to cover everything yet failed to set clear priorities ,The latter seems to have little substance yet. In what way will the Type 31 increase RN lethality? How does the recent mention of giving up an interim ASuM, but instead waiting for the joint Franco British project to deliver, add to our firepower? Does upgrading just 148 MBTs with a marginally more effective anti-armour… Read more »
Excellent summary. Forces personnel also feel this gap between talk and action. Other examples – QE the only major aircraft carrier in the world protected by just a few guns. T31 has no ASW capability, read what happened to Bacchante class to see how that could turn out! Whilst possessing some world class capabilities our forces are littered with gaps that a clever adversary will take advantage of..given current world affairs FFBNW is a disaster waiting to happen as the gaps we have today are the gaps we fight with.
As for Radkin speech I think those are interested would like to see us much stronger. The Army in particular in terms of size and high end fighting is woefully equipped. Cyber war etc is no excuse for this. The procurement process, like they did with the city, needs the red tape removed and the drip feed funding needs to stop. Inflation alone leads to overspend. Defence companies love that.As for the political angle, the Civil service run this country- they do not always have the UK interest at heart and regard the PM & co as front men/women. Re… Read more »
Now if we could vote for a Sec of state for defence, I would vote for him. Vision, leadership, competency and the right knowledge and experience.
Radakin has credibility. He knows you get credibility by working with the budget you have, increasing T23 availability and making things better for your crews. And also helping the MOD and BAE to dig themselves out of the T26 project screw up by accepting 5 batch 2 Rivers and a mixed fleet with T31s. Problem = opportunity. He knows when to tack if you are headed and when to exploit a lift when you are sailing into a wind.
I’ll believe that when the British Army can’t all be seated in Wembley Stadium with 10,000 seats to spare.