News, Articles and Comment

Ed. The practitioner author paints a stark picture of a casualty-intensive opening phase of a near-future Pacific war, employing lessons from the Second World War to argue that depth of capability must be actualised today. Originally published in the USNI’s Proceedings, April 2026. A 10 minute read.

Ed. Originally published in November 2013 [101/4, p. 325], the author’s concluding comments from his series [101/1, p. 10], [101/2, p. 132], [101/3, p. 230], on long-term budget trends during the Great Depression and Great Recession eras provides a framework for where the RN stands today. A 20 minute read.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a book examining the development of the aircraft carrier in French service through the 20th century and beyond.

Ed. When the 1980s Iran-Iraq War bled into the maritime sphere, the US Navy raced to halt depredations to oil shipments; the mine-warfare factor weighed heavily in the operation and offers lessons for today. Originally published in the USNI’s Proceedings, June 2025. A 15 minute read.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers the latest edition of Geoffrey Till’s Seapower: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a timely edited volume on the naval history of the Middle East, providing a wide-ranging set of chapters and case studies.

Ed. With Operation HIGHMAST complete, the author, Commander UK Carrier Strike Group (COMUKCSG), provides a retrospective on the deployment, demonstrating the range of defence engagement, diplomacy and deterrence embodying the flagship mission. A 10 minute read.

Ed. Originally published in November 2012 [100/4, p. 363], members may find this article from the NR’s archive instructive as to how geostrategic developments in the Persian Gulf have changed (or not) over the past decade and a half. A 25 minute read.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a new biography of Admiral Raymond Spruance, whose “achievement is not merely to reconstruct Admiral Raymond A. Spruance’s operational record, but to illuminate a deeper and more unsettling truth: that victory in industrial war may depend less on boldness than on restraint, less on charisma than on intellect, and less on the commander as hero than on the commander as thinker.”