Editorial: Naval Review 114/1

The world has usually been shaped by seismic events over millennia, but there have been days, weeks, and months, where things happened extremely quickly and the geography was changed forever. The challenge for our leaders is how to communicate these shifts to ignorant populations without ‘frightening the horses’.

Perhaps I can continue that theme with the help of Sir David Attenborough’s excellent wildlife documentaries; the great game over the last century has been played out between four beasts: a lion, a pack of dogs, a bear and a dragon. For many years the dogs squabbled, and the lion and the bear snarled at each other and watched and assisted in both minor and major conflicts whilst the dragon slumbered. Over the last 80 years, following a particularly unpleasant squabble, the animals put in place a number of rules and organisations to keep themselves in check, for the most part the lion kept himself to himself would play with the dogs and worry about the bear, meanwhile the dragon started to wake up from years of slumber and, realising it had many mouths to feed, decided to join the great game in seeking global resources to fuel that demand.

The dogs, led by the bulldog, the poodle and the Alsatian, meanwhile realised that squabbling and fighting amongst themselves meant that individually they were not a force to be reckoned with and over the years developed and grew stronger ties between themselves. For much of the time, they enjoyed a friendship with the lion, where the lion was happy to provide the share and for the most part – they played ‘nice’!

But now there is a new lion, which like many members of the cat family likes to grin a lot, preen himself and ensure that everyone knows who is king of the jungle! This lion has learned fast and over the last few years realised that the people who kept him and caged him could be swept aside and that the cage was nothing more than an illusion. This invincibility now seems to know no bounds. The only real threat to this philosophy, dare I say, ‘the elephant in the room’, lies in the midterm elections in November where a poor result for the lion’s party may draw his teeth.

Is everything the lion is trying to achieve bad? Possibly not, but the laws of the jungle will prevail, so if the dogs, who as a pack, have the ability to keep a lion, if not in check, at least under control, need to get their collective act together. Time will tell but currently the world is about to be divided into three between the lion, the bear and the dragon. What is clear as day – is the dogs need to sharpen their old wolves’ claws or become an irrelevance! Ask the Great Dane!

In that vein, if we are to heed the call to rearm at pace, the current production rate of naval vessels simply will not cut the mustard, so if we are to muster any form of urgent valid defensive maritime capabilities a new approach is needed. The Naval Review applauds 1SL’s direction and implores our membership to use these pages to become critical friends in seeking solutions through technology and innovation over the coming months and years.

I am sorry to report the death of Matthew Wills who was a regular contributor to the Naval Review and will be specifically remembered for his book on The life of Captain John Leach. As an American citizen, he was highly invested in the history of the Royal Navy and the exceptionally close relationship between the US and Royal Navies. I was therefore particularly pleased that our former Editor Bruce Williams was able to visit Matt in Colorado during the Summer to wish him well. An obituary is included on the last pages of this edition.