News, Articles and Comment

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a new book providing an account of, and examining the circumstances around PQ17.

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.

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.

Ed. The author assesses the growing threats to the UK’s subsea infrastructure as a component of hybrid warfare, and makes direct recommendations for reducing grey-zone ambiguity and improving the RN’s capacity to respond. 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.

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.”

Ed. The expert author, BMT’s Head of Business Development in the UK and Europe, provides a pathway for actualising the hybrid navy – and modernising RN warship procurement. A 5 minute read.

Ed. The author argues that the RN’s shift toward a ‘hybrid’ model of crewed and autonomous systems is necessary but insufficient. As ministers warn of a worsening strategic environment and the need to be ready to fight, the Royal Navy faces an uncomfortable arithmetic: ambition exceeds resources. A 10 minute read.