Politics: badly served

By Richard North - 5 July 2026

Once you start drilling down into the technology of defence equipment, the structure and organisation of fighting units, and the details of the support infrastructure, it all starts getting rather complicated. You can see, therefore, why the media would want to stick to their comfort zone of the political soap operas and report defence issues… View Article
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Media: indifference on defence

By Richard North - 4 July 2026

Following on from yesterday’s piece on the Navy’s adoption of the CCV concept, it is instructive to note that the legacy media has largely abandoned any attempt to maintain a dialogue on the merits (and demerits) of the system. It seems to be leaving the discussion and analysis to specialist journals and, of course, social… View Article
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Defence: disasters afloat

By Richard North - 3 July 2026

Looking at the train-wreck proposals for the Army in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), as I was doing yesterday, it is hard to credit that the MoD would have the capacity to make a similar mess for the other services. However, in respect of the Royal Navy, they seem to have excelled themselves, producing a… View Article
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Defence: pig in a poke

By Richard North - 2 July 2026

All too quickly, the defence “debate” – such that it is – has narrowed in the legacy media to become another soap opera episode, this one centred on Starmer dumping the cost of the DIP on The Replacement – who will have to find the money by making unpopular cuts elsewhere (or by increasing taxation)…. View Article
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Defence: DIPsh*t

By Richard North - 1 July 2026

Well, the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP) has been published, bringing the defence “community” out of their holes to dissect it. Generally, I find this specialist commentariat a bit cliquish, over-fond of jargon, and not entirely lacking in pomposity and self-importance. And while they do occasionally provide some entertainment, their reviews and analyses of this… View Article
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