This is terrible.
No battering ram visible.
Vulnerable to hot oil being poured on them as they cross the drawbridge.
No saps or undermining in evidence.
Siege engines also not visible.
If this is how the Army teaches how to storms castles, then we're in trouble.
Close to 1,000 Ukrainian marines have spent more than six months being trained by the British military.
Aimed at assisting Ukraine in establishing its own unique marine force, it was the first training initiative of its kind delivered by the UK with the help of partner nations.
The Armed Forces. Where you join up one day and a few months later, at the lowest rank, you’re front and centre at an event of national importance with an incredible duty to perform and to get completely correct in every tiny respect.
Please be carefully retweeting videos. Bare in mind please that Ukrainian and Russian kit often identical particularly to lay people. Please be mindful. Photos and videos of T series tanks deep in Ukraine likely to be Ukrainians. Russian tanks can’t fly.
The biggest lesson by far from Ukraine - war stocks and latent production capacity.
The first lesson that will be forgotten from Ukraine - war stocks and latent production capacity.
Basket: 1 US Army WW2 Infantry Division.
Estimate Delivery Time: 457 days.
A thread on activating and raising US Army infantry divisions in WW2. (Niche I know...). It all takes longer than you probably think to raise a division in a war at maximum national effort. 1/20
The hard facts are UKR is getting battered in the Donbas & won’t be able to win this war with hand to mouth economic and military aid. There has to be a comprehensive and indefinite military and economic aid pipleline that includes manufacturing for UKR the full range of land kit
Fundamentally the British Army will now need to restructure itself to defend against conventional attack on NATO territory. It is what the politics of the alliance demands, & it is sensible risk management. Im sure there will be debate over what that looks like - but must happen
Missed the Coronation today to attend a different crowning.
Hello Mali Wyn.
8Ib 10 oz.
Mother and baby doing well.
Daddy feeling fatigued but bearing up well, still able to make top Dad jokes.
I used to argue that the Harrier dispersal in the Cold War would have been pointless and useless. Another example of me talking out of my arse. State leaders, if you’re facing invasion from a bastard, buy F35B.
Fascinating. Potentially almost all Ukraine Leopard losses repairable. I’m not surprised personally even in WW2 we managed to repair an awful lot of tanks as long as they didn’t burn. H/T to
@TotherChris
for the article
Some very initial thoughts on lessons learned so far from Ukraine.
1. You can’t divorce a military and its campaign opening from the political context it existed in pre war. Analysis has to include this aspect, it’s not a nice-to-have. This means multidisciplinary approach…
People who keep dangerous dogs and allow them to be out of control deserve everything they get. If he cared about them he’d have kept them under control.
For reasons I’m not sure why I’ve taken this war very personally and have felt bereft and full of rage over it. After a friendly tap on the shoulder via DM, went outside & got some fresh air. If you’re feeling like me, take a break from Twitter & the news and look after yourself
I wouldn’t do this normally but I’m too much of a proud new Dad.
This is Betsan Fflur and she’s pleased to meet you all.
Arrived 1320 today.
Like her Dad an enthusiastic starter but then got bored and distracted - so had to be forcepped out!
I’ve been thinking about this all day. If they feel this is okay to do publicly, what on earth is going on when there’s no cameras? The IDF is beginning to reek of unprofessionalism and being out of control. Is there any discipline being maintained? Is the IDF a rabble force now?
Defence revenue spending falling from £35bn this year to £32.8bn next year.
Capital spending to drop from £19.2 to £18.9bn.
A cut in real **AND** cash terms.
With a war on.
🚨The Defence Secretary says we are in a pre-war world.
🚨NATO allies and rivals/adversaries like China/Russia announce plans to increase defence spending & bolster weapons production
🔕Then (while welcome) this is the only budget announcement for UK Defence from
@hmtreasury
So far the Senior Service seems to be having a better time of it than other Euro navies. Maybe that’s where a lot of the money goes? Making sure the fleet can fight? Bravo to the crew.
Congratulations to Sgt Ed Goodyear on his
@UKStratCom
Spotlight Award!
Surg RAdm Fleur Marshal recently visited his local sustainability initiatives. Ed has collaborated with
@MOD_DIO
, driving forward on sustainability projects such as waste reduction at DMS(W).
🎉
The Jackal Armoured Fighting Vehicle is crewed by the Light Cavalry regiments of the RAC. It is an agile, well-armed, highly mobile fighting vehicle allowing for deep battlespace reconnaissance, rapid assault and fire support.
I'd love to be able to ask
@ArmyCGS
what he believes will make us more 'lethal' than Poland which is on its shopping spree at the moment. Genuine question. What is going to give a smaller army this edge of which he speaks?
"The
@BritishArmy
will be the most modern and most lethal army in Europe by the end of this decade".
In an exclusive interview with Forces News, General Sir Patrick Sanders said within the next 6 to 7 years the Army will look "radically different".
👉
Family goes on a hiking trip in the Golan and finds abandoned and open tanks full of ammunition. The tanks, which were there as part of an
#IDF
drill were left with no one watching them. No Beuno.
Wife and I both working from home now.
I’ve emailed her the clear desk policy and open plan office etiquette guidance, but she’s not too thrilled with the fire alarm tests. Or the note I’ve had to place over her dirty mug in the sink.
If we were really learning lessons from Ukraine we’d see what in the British Army?
My starter for ten - emergency entrenching tools on belt kit; cope cages on AFVs; drones in every infantry platoon.
We’ve seen almost no videos of conventional Ukrainian Army units on operations. Don’t think I’ve seen a single video of a non-MANPAD SAM, no artillery in action, maybe one video with a tank in action. No Javelin. This all seems good and well disciplined to me?
I understand these are Russians on the attack. Bunched and now coming under artillery fire. Not a good start to your attack. Showing poor command and control and individual tank craft (whatever you armoured lot call it!)
Quiet, private remembrance and a few pints with old Army friends tomorrow in a cosy pub. The whole thing has become a pantomime and I’m not interested.
Some people are drawing some very big conclusions from a few videos and photos of less than one company group of damaged / destroyed AFVs… as predicted. Ukraine should just throw in the towel now right.
Every deliberate capability gap. Every war stock & spares run down. Every delay in procurement. All these chickens are coming home to roost for our armed forces personnel in the next weeks. As a state we have to do better for them & our own security. The world comes at you fast
I didn’t think Russia would invade and I didn’t think Ukraine would be able to hold out long then I didn’t think there’d be a coup against Putin. Don’t hire me for any analyst jobs.
Really pleased to see the first two of our Wedgetails coming together. Great team
@STSAviation
with
@BoeingDefense
that will give us a World-leading Air command & control capability.
Amazed and saddened to see so many in my timeline choosing the name of a dog, which was offensive and dickish even for the times, as a hill they want to very much loudly and publicly die on.
Been reading lots of mental gymnastics about why the Russians didn’t further yesterday. It’s possible they’re just not as good as we’ve convinced ourselves they are. And/or this sort of thing is much harder than exercises when a smaller but determined enemy has a vote.
Get a feeling the next big push is on its way. General Melchetski no doubt believes there’s no way the UKR forces will anticipate them driving down the same roads for the tenth time, and they’ll all be taken by surprise. Last thing they’ll expect.
10. You can’t hide your armies anymore. You can hide units. But you can’t hide your army. Deception will need to be structured to not rely on location.
If I can point out the obvious - military effectiveness in war is relative. We may have overstated RU effectiveness but we need to make sure we haven’t over-stated our own in NATO. You don’t have to be the most efficient army, you just need to be more efficient than the enemy
Will the Army ever be caught with its pants around its ankles by not having a Ranger regiment? Or might it be caught with its pants around its ankles by not having, say, a truly global & sustainable rapid response force, or a heavy deterrent force to stare down a near-peer?
Judging by the actions of Great Britain, this country decided to directly enter the war with Russia. Are the bomb shelters in London ready?
British Defense Secretary confirms that London will transfer Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine
Not so sure about the mutiny vs coup. Mutinies don’t drive tanks toward the capital. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck I think it was a duck.
Some early thoughts:
-More questions than answers
-Short-term compromise ≠ long-term solution
-This was a mutiny not a coup
-Too soon to say Putin will fall anytime soon
-Not clear this will affect Ukraine's offensive
-The previous Kremlin-Wagner relationship is over
I'll disagree with Nicholas here. It's showing its age now but I think in its A2 and A3 versions with current optics they're perfectly acceptable general purpose assault rifles for line infantry. Spending on this means spending less on the systemic capabilities we need.
10 reasons why the L85 needs to be replaced:
1. Too heavy - weighs 5.1 kg versus 3.5 kg for most competitive products
2. Terrible ergonomics - positioning of controls, weight distribution, awkwardness of bullpup configuration
3. Stoppage drills are faster with conventional
We purchased 101 armored tracked vehicles of 8 types: FV103 Spartan; Samaritan; Sultan; Stormer; Shielder; Samson; FV432; FV434.
Used by the British Army, now out of service.
Upon arrival we pass vehicles to the Ground Forces Command of the Armed Forces of UA for distribution.
On winning & losing. UKR likely won’t “lose” this war, but it’s not going to “win” it either. & Russia will never “lose”as it sets its own criteria for “winning”. The end is going to be messy & unsatisfying for everyone as neither has the strength to force a decisive conclusion
NEW: A western official says Russia's Vladimir Putin has "clearly failed in his initial pre-war objectives but he is still in a position to win" in Ukraine.
I learned in Afghanistan - you really cannot exaggerate how bloody hard and miserable being in the infantry is. Everyone thinks they can do it, but they're pretenders.
‘I love the infantry because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without.’ - Ernie Pyle
British Army doing the ‘less risky’ “dispersed fires” whilst allies die in amongst the rubble and collapsed trenches won’t wash - especially as most NATO states will have deep strike / precision rocket capabilities.
The British Army is less than 100,000 strong and has a single manoeuver division yet I struggle to understand all its vehicle programmes. It's bewildering all the variants, roles, blocks, types. Does this tell us something? It seems enormously complex - or am I simple?
Astonishing what winds up some people. I simply cannot fathom why any reasonable person would get upset about the military supplying sanitary products for females.
A time in Afghan. ISAF triple amputee. He was going to sleep. I started flapping.
Got my pipette out.
3 drops of Bergamot and 1 of Sandalwood.
He stabilised rapidly.
Limbs grew back, and we cracked on with the patrol.
I hear those that say platform numbers and capabilities / effects whatever aren't synonymous, but this graphic from
@TomSharpe134
excellent Telegraph article is rather stark...
Highly recommend the article
#Russia
#Ukraine
🇷🇺🇺🇦: A recent video of Ukrainian "Territorial Defense" with noteable weapons.
Panzerfaust 3-Improved Tandem (PzF 3-IT) with DM72A1 munition (supplied by
#Germany
🇩🇪), M240B machine gun (supplied by
#USA
🇺🇸) with Dedal-450 NV scope and AK-74 rifles can be seen.
It blows my mind that the MoD has consistently failed to demonstrate, clearly, succinctly, & insightfully, the answer to the question why do we spend so much to operate fewer platforms than spending peers. There's many good reasons why we might do that but I don't see answers
“Something is rotten in British defence. The UK is the sixth-largest military spender in the world and the largest in Europe, but it is not always clear where the money goes. The navy’s fleet operates fewer FF/DDs than Japan, South Korea or France”
The source of this information is the official US Army history (aka the Green Books). None of this is new knowledge, but sometimes its fun to take a deep dive on a logistical aspect of preparing an Army to fight in a war of national survival. END
This is one of the emergency rapid manufacture ventilators being installed in St Thomas. It’s called the ESO2. Named after the WW2 airborne vapouriser ventilator made in 1943 by Penlon. Interesting fact for you.
British Armoured vehicles departing Germany for Estonia, video looks to include:
Warrior
Challenger 2
FV430
Also what appeared to be the back of a AS-90 in the final clip
I see the RAF managed to get their Ministerial briefing in before the Navy did. Congratulations to the RAF on gaining two aircraft carriers - next, the planes.
It is the largest movement of military personnel via the railway network since Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965.
5000 troops have arrived in London and marched over Westminster Bridge as they assemble ahead of the coronation. 🚂
More here 👉
5. You can’t argue the AT light infantry approach is the future whilst simultaneously explaining that Russian casualties are due to a failure of combined arms. Combined arms works because weaknesses and strengths collectively overlap…
9. If you’re a state that feels it may feel attract the gaze of Putin - a top priority is to rearm with western weapons of a particular type - medium SAM being a critical one. Otherwise you risk a valley of death in replacing losses. NATO states should pool resources to assist…
Ask yourself: what could the British military have done differently to have made Afghanistan a success. When I think about that question the conclusion becomes pretty obvious to me. Nothing.
Didn’t polish the gong (singular) and go to the service today. Spent the morning with my little sis, and my little girl and niece. Playing and trampolining. This year that’s how I remember them - by living well.
Challenger 2 and her Ukrainian crews will now meet their destiny. I sincerely hope the kit serves them well and that this is just the start of bolder support.