In The July 2010 Edition Of Warships IFR
- SMALL IS NOT NECESSARILY BEAUTIFUL (OR EVEN USEFUL)
- IS IT TIME FOR A COMMONWEALTH 'NAVY'?
- CARRIERS GLOBAL SURVEY Pt3
- HOME IS THE WARRIOR
- LOSS OF HMS HOOD MARKED BY TALK
- A LESSON FROM HISTORY
- MORE A WHIMPER THAN A ROAR
SMALL IS NOT NECESSARILY BEAUTIFUL (OR EVEN USEFUL)
Some retired senior army officers, keen to preserve their own service from further defence cuts, have in recent months attacked construction programmes creating the new aircraft carriers, destroyers and submarines of the Royal Navy. These vessels - large compared to their predecessors, with powerful and sophisticated capabilities at the high end of warfare - seem to the army lobby’s so-called experts to be an expensive waste of taxpayers’ money.
The army’s armchair warriors suggest the navy can make do with small ships. While the army’s lobbyists appear to be playing devil’s advocate for their own partisan gains, is there any worth in their argument? Dr Duncan Redford weighs up the pros and cons of the ‘big versus small’ debate.
Photo: Jonathan Eastland/AJAX.
IS IT TIME FOR A COMMONWEALTH 'NAVY'?
We live in an era in which naval task groups are a key tool of enforcing international security, fielded by NATO and the European Union, regional coalitions, as well as the USA. Associate Editor Peter Hore, recently returned from Canada, where he contributed to conferences on the nation’s naval centenary, has been inspired to ponder the possibility of a Commonwealth Navy.
Photo: Nigel Andrews.
We conclude our consideration of the world’s carrier forces
and evolving programmes including a
look at Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), plus CVs in the USA,
UK, French and Indian fleets, as well as commentaries and a report
on the British defence industry effort to build the new HMS Queen
Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Report on visit of French Navy
assault carrier Tonnerre.
Image: Lockheed Martin.
The British nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Sceptre has returned from her final deployment, having been away from the UK for eight months in which she ranged on operational tasking from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic.
She began her life 32-years ago, at the height of the Cold War, playing her part in the long face-off with the Soviet Union. Sceptre is the last of the Swiftsure Class SSNs in service and after a period alongside at Devonport will be officially decommissioned later this year.
As
the boat returned to the UK, Iain Ballantyne
interviewed the Commanding Officer of Sceptre, Commander Steve Waller,
about his submarine’s
final deployment and also about his own life in the Royal Navy. It
forms the opening part of a new series in which we meet members of
the ship’s
company and also look at Sceptre’s long career. For extracts
from our interview with Cdr Waller, see elsewhere on this web site.
Photo: Nigel Andrews.
LOSS OF HMS HOOD MARKED BY TALK
We report on how the Editor of this magazine, Iain Ballantyne, and its Associate Editor, Captain Peter Hore RN, gave a talk at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, to coincide with the 69th anniversary of the loss of the battle-cruiser HMS Hood during WW2. Held also to mark the imminent publication of a new book called ‘Killing the Bismarck: Destroying the Pride of Hitler’s Fleet’, by Iain Ballantyne, the talk painted a graphic and thrilling portrait of events surrounding the destruction of Hood, considering the motivation of seamen and aviators involved in the subsequent pursuit and destruction of the German battleship.
Capt
Hore unveiled a new photograph that
possibly shows the exact moment a deep penetrating shell, or shells
- fired by Bismarck during the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May
14, 1941 - destroyed Hood, causing the deaths of all but three of
the Royal Navy vessel’s 1,418
ship’s company. If the
photograph, now in the collection of
the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), truly does reveal the
catastrophe that shocked the world, then it is one of the most incredible
images of war to be discovered in recent times. To see the photograph
and full account of the talk buy the August edition of WARSHIPS IFR
magazine now!
Photo of HMS Hood prior to her demise in WW2, used courtesy Strathdee Collection.
The scourge of piracy in Africa didn’t start with the Barbary corsairs and it won’t end with the current Somali threat. Kicking off a two-part essay, Brian Wilson ponders what he terms echoes of the ‘Barbary Age: 21st Century Somali Piracy’.
Meanwhile, Rupert Butler looks at a fascinating new history of the legendary Barbary corsairs, the forebears of the Somali pirates who today are providing the navies of the world with an urgent mission to protect trade and prevent hostage-taking in the Gulf of Aden.
Image: USNHC.
Mark Simmons considers the often-overlooked naval dimension of the Battle of Britain, during which a strong Royal Navy deterred Hitler’s Operation Sea Lion plans for a cross-channel invasion.
Photo: USNHC.
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