Tom Sharpe
@TomSharpe134
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Communications | ex-navy Commander | Daily Telegraph columnist | leadership speaker | off duty - motorbikes, sports, trombone
London, England
Joined March 2013
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🚨Very pleased, proud and slightly surprised to announce that as of today, I am a columnist for the
@Telegraph
.
Of all the things I didn't expect to be doing when I left the
@RoyalNavy
, this is up there.
Quite cool though.
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Captain Richard Sharpe OBE, 1938 - 2024
Not sure if he’s with his family on the 14th tee at St Enodoc or 50ft in the trail of a Soviet nuclear submarine ‘exceeding orders’ and being an absolute menace now but either way, lost a good one this weekend
RIP Dad
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Have recevied some follow on Qs from the phot du jour:
1. What are the white hoods?
A. Anti-flash hoods worn when at the highest alert state to prevent burns should the ship get hit. Hoods up = this s*** got real.
2. Did Diamond use her Phalanx close in weapon system (CIWS)?
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14 years ago today this amazing/terrible ship sprung a leak. Half an olympic swimming pool of water came in in 30 mins. Our Mayday call went unanswered. 100 brilliant sailors and a few brave civilians (who were expecting a better ride than this!) saved the day. Cheers🥃
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Operational AND decorational! BZ the RN.
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What do we know from this📷
1⃣Long patrol - BZ team (new record?)
2⃣Warm water ops (common)
3⃣Littoral/shallow (less common)
4⃣Sustained slow speeds (standard)
5⃣Outside now as honking as inside (new)
6⃣I can't do 100% serious tweets (standard)
Welcome back everyone🫡
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Not sure what’s more remarkable here;
1️⃣The stupidity of fixing a trackable device to your ship
2️⃣No one noticing it
3️⃣It’s use being kept a secret within a small cabal onboard
I actually think it might be3️⃣
Would be hilarious if implications were not so serious...
Senior enlisted personnel on 🇺🇸USS Manchester secretly installed Starlink dish and private WiFi network (named "STINKY") on board to check sports scores, text home and stream movies.
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Early thoughts on USS Carney engagement in the Red Sea today, in no particular order:
➡️Ship only transited Suez yesterday. Engaging missiles in Red Sea on day one is impressive (noting that Eastern Med isn’t exactly banyan time)
➡️Engaging crossing missiles more complex...
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My one Trafalgar story. Before the Traf200 dinner (in the Falklands), our French🚁pilot was greeted rather aggressively by the Brigadier with "why are you here?". To which he replied, without missing a beat, "I'm here to celebrate killing your admiral..."
🎤
#immortalmemory
🥃
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10 years ago to the day we nearly lost HMS Endurance. Part 1 of a three part blog describes my experience in command that day.
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Anyone who has ever tried to organise (very) different objects into the same patch of oggin close enough for a photo will know how difficult this was.
#Skills
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12 years ago today...now, 1000s of tons of freezing water coming into the ship and no prospect of help.
Small glass-raise to the crew of HMS Endurance for their bravery that long night. 🥃
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Doing this with unmounted small arms is epic shooting. BZ indeed!
BZ to Ukrainian crew of a container ship sailing through the Red Sea.
Destroyed a Houthi one-way attack USV by rifle fire.
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Brilliant action picture
“Birds Away”
➡️Action rig
➡️YO on Stuart’s distance meter🤣
➡️someone taking cover🏃
➡️Nav’s prepping his next entry
➡️Off camera, WEO asking why no one shook him
BZ Diamond…again.
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🇨🇳🧺 - end of an era
Anyone else who served at sea in the
@RoyalNavy
slightly sad that the final few Chinese laundrymen are being removed for security reasons🕵️♂️
Always loyal. Some squirrelling away their earnings for a family they hardly ever saw, some spaffing it all...
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Great article.
@hmsdiamond
- I Don’t want to appear giddy here but:
➡️Seven air threats defeated in one sitting
➡️One with the 30mm cannon. A gun😳
➡️VHF calls to all merchant vessels to ‘increase full ahead’.
2 Corinthians 10:4💪
Latest article:
After action report - Royal Navy's busiest air defence activity since 1982
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Top comment:
“If we really want to stop the Houthis operating effectively, then instead of sending aircraft carriers and destroyers to the region, we should send DE&S, HMRC and the H&S Exec. Give that lot a week of doing their stuff, and the whole country will grind to a halt”
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HMS Diamond has joined the room.
BZ💪
HMS Diamond has shot down a suspected attack drone targeting merchant shipping in the Red Sea - destroying the target with a Sea Viper missile.
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Outstanding. The deployment of this generation, by far.
Victory markings on
@hmsdiamond
bridge wing.
9 x assorted UAS plus the addition of a mark denoting the destruction of an Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile on 24th April.
Via
@TomLeachPhotos
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Zero points for anyone mentioning cost-per-kill today re HMS Diamond's Aster engagement:
1⃣Should've discussed it weeks ago
2⃣Cost of not kill?
3⃣First RN surf-to-air engagement since GW1🎖️
4⃣Consider T45's journey to get here
5⃣Good pol/mil planning👍
➡️Moan about logs tmrw😳
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A. Not sure. Mod statement says missiles and guns. The main gun lost its anti-air capability some time ago so if guns were used, most likely CIWS (i.e. at range of about 1 mile = 15 seconds to impact😳)
3. And the RMT are still demanding a f******* pay rise?
A. None required🤣
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1/3
On the Norwegian Frigate Helge colliding with a tanker. This we know:
1. Seven people are hurt – hopefully not seriously
2.The Captain deliberately drove onto the rocks to save the ship. Right up there with the hardest and bravest of decisions.
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Latest thoughts on the Red Sea.
“Ultimately, international markets need the Houthis to stop disrupting shipping in this important chokepoint. This can be done one of three ways: they decide to stop, they are told to stop or they are made to stop.”
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On this day in 1982, Captain E.S.J. Larken received a signal in HMS Fearless ordering him to, “Store ship for war. Report when ready.” Seven words of mission command perfection.
Makes “England expects...” look positively wordy.
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In all the💎excitement I nearly forgot this😬
🚨15 years ago to this day, the brilliant awful HMS Endurance nearly sank in a faraway land and in🥶water.
A🥃to the ship's company who saved her that day.
Also, I now have2⃣book offers☝️I suppose I should get on and write it…
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Visiting this beautiful monster today!
Has the potential to be a v interesting capability. Looking forward to hearing what the plans are.
Some thoughts (from last year) here:
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Options for
@HMSQNLZ
.
Knight - defect rectification and return to North Sea/NATO as planned. Keep preps for CSG 25 on track. Most likely.
Pawn - stay in Portsmouth. Reset but at v high readiness.
King - bomb up, take some escorts, head to western Med…
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I was onboard
@hmsdiamond
this week to discuss her recent Red Sea deployment which I previously described as "the deployment of our generation, by far":
➡️10 months
➡️Sailed for a NATO op
➡️Diverted to Med then Red Sea
/1
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And so it begins...😬
Luke 14:28
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Lads, those 17 support ships you're about to bin - any of them solid support ships?
Can we have a word please...
Zoom ok?
Navy Could Sideline 17 Support Ships Due to Manpower Issues - USNI News
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Latest on some of the tactical issues the warships in the Red Sea might be facing now.
Air threat warning Red
"...the warships there will be on a war footing. With 93 drones and missiles having been fired...
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Armed forces day photo🧀
This was a good day. Had just moved from XO to CO HMS Lindisfarne and won an acting half stripe into the bargain.
Such a good ship and a huge privilege to lead. Was 28 so flying largely on instinct. I knew one thing - they’ve got this.
#goodtimes
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I spent my entire career both envious and in awe of the US Navy’s Arleigh-Burke destroyer. In the Type 83, the UK could finally dethrone this incredible ship, but if we arm it like the Type 26, we won’t.
A blog/mini-rant on why the proposed T26 weapons suite isn't acceptable.
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Lots of discussion surrounding the coverage of
@HMS_MONTROSE
's intercept of small vessels attacking/harassing a UK flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. Here is a short blog describing what might have occurred on the bridge of the warship that night.
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Thoughts on the current situation with the RN's submarine fleet. Not pretty ones...
"...culture across Defence needs to change...We might begin this change by abandoning the habit of saying “everything is fine” when it obviously isn’t."
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Might as well dig this one out again for the wind experts💨
Why QE doesn’t sail (in peacetime) when it’s windy…
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Yet more woes for the creaking RFA, excellently summarised here
2x potentially capable and crew-lite ships now languishing alongside, adding to the list
Would love to know what the recovery plan for the RFA is…
Latest article:
Setbacks in the Royal Navy’s effort to get newly acquired auxiliary ships into service
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The next Defence Secretary needs 3 things in my view:
1⃣Fearlessness in No10 and 11 to honestly represent the thinness of defence. +£24bn doesn't cut it.
2⃣Have sufficient deftness/courage to put defence communications on the front foot.
3⃣Not to have served in the Army.
#AMT
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Thoughts on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary voting to strike
➡️Wide spread agreement on the problem
➡️Almost no consensus on the solution (pay part of it but see US equivalent, MSC)
Comfortably the most glass-half-empty article I've written
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Personal thoughts on what it feels like being in a warship in maintenance and just how hard it is to yank one out at short notice.
Top effort by PoW and her team(s) and hats off, as ever, to the families for whom 'life in a blue suit' doesn't apply...
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"You need Joint experience" was (to an extent) Navy code for "you need to understand how the Army works if you want to compete for the top jobs in town." How long before fast-tracking Army officers are advised they need to go to sea for a bit if they are to compete?
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To the group hijacking the
#naveandromeda
just off the IoW, you are currently about 50 miles east (as the helicopter flies) of a place called Poole.
Was this,
a) Sensible
b) Other (please specify)
P.S. You probably want the police to keep this one.
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Navy thought for the day.
Better a DefSec who supports the carriers even if he thinks they’re run by space unicorns than one who knows they’re operated by the RN but slyly hates them with every fibre of his single service being.
#strategicasset
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HMS Glasgow coming together nicely.
Is that middle shape a ball? If it is, someone should let them know...
And please tell me those stanchions under the bridge wings will be covered. Seaman Specialists and anyone interested in radar cross-section demand it!
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Interesting development.
Good ships…and not to be an AWO bore…but…that RCS…😬
French assualt ship🇫🇷FS Tonnerre leaving Toulon today - deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean.
Via
@GGYSSELSSHIPS
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Troubled by this.
I might be over-calling it, but I don’t think so.
You would never choose to deploy for this long unless it was a fully supported, and rotated trip in which case, no real need to thank the families.
A deployment this long suggests.../1
Honoured to welcome home HMS A…after 403 days deployed delivering on operations with our
@NATO
allies. Thank you, to you and your families, you have been superb.
@fightingsailor
@pinstripedline
@RNRMC
@VAdmAndrewBurns
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I watched an Isle of Man TT highlights programme last night. If you didn’t know, you’d swear it was a video game or sped up.
Of the charts insanity.
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33 years ago I strode confidently though the gates of BRNC with saltwater in my veins, a yearning for the sea and a sense of duty and adventure in the air.
Or…
Joining up was the least bad of my 3 options on leaving school and I was in a bus.
I forget which…
#timeflies
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My thoughts last night on the RN ship collision in Bahrain.
Looking increasingly like control failure rather than 'driver error'.
Does this matter? To the RN - yes.
To the business of damaging warships/defence as a whole, not really.
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Pretty excited to be heading to Hereford today to discuss maritime leadership with 100+ of HM’s finest.
“Pull up a bollard everyone…”
P.S. If this is the last you hear from me, it’s been a blast.
#whodareswins
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The imagination will always be drawn to blades abseiling onto the ship but in many ways, getting a warship, 4 helos (from different stations), SF, Navy HQ, CG, police and political leadership all on the same hymn sheet in that timeframe is as impressive. Awesome in fact.
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Stunning picture of the 🇿🇦 Aghulas II arriving at the Antarctic ice shelf.
“XO, remind me what thickness of ice we’re cleared for?”
Never a dull day down there.
📷Stiaan Kotze
@hmsprotector
@JFRumble
@tarrant_bob
@BAS_News
@UKHO
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➡️Women in submarines
➡️Female Paras
➡️Engineer CASs
Close call as to which has teased out the worst of Twitter this week.
Maybe there should be a 2nd rule?
2⃣If you read something and your first thought is 'not in my day' then log off, immediately. Maybe burn your computer.
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Discussions on
@HMSQNLZ
'where next' and current high winds reminded me of something I wrote in '20 about getting her out of harbour.
It was in response to 'so we can't go to war if it's windy' wind🌬️
Not seeing that this time but hopefully of interest
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Pleasure to be at the rededication of
@HMSStAlbans
this morning. A lovely day to welcome our youngest🤣frigate back into the fleet.
Fair winds and noisy submarines.
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Interesting chart showing just how much of the
#EVERGIVEN
is aground. No wonder that
@SuezDiggerGuy
is up against it.
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A good summary of what the
@RoyalNavy
does really well.
Worth being reminded occasionally that the RN, day-in-day-out, does excellent work around the world and that media coverage of it is like a FOST report - no one ever mentions the good bits.
New article:
10 reasons to be optimistic about the strength of the Royal Navy
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"Overweight, over engineered and over there"*⃣
➡ Thoughts on the Franken-FREMM (and why we need it to work)
➡ We all need more frigates, Nelson was right
➡ Respectfully request the USN rediscover its inner Nimitz
*⃣I should not write my own headlines
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If you like and/or believe in the Royal Navy, and fancy ruining your Sunday afternoon, give this a read.
An excellent but depressing summary of the RN's current ability to operate unsupported.
'Operate' not 'fight', mind. But let's not go there today...😬
As news breaks indicating defence cuts will force a 30% cut in RFA tanker numbers, Pinstripedline blog asks whether the Royal Navy is still a true 'blue water navy' and concludes that no, it is not.
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I’ve put together a handy maritime recognition guide for those who either need it or also can’t sleep:
1. Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer
2. UAE Navy Baynunah Corvette
3. Bully’s special prize
4. Some Muppets
This ropey video, apparently shot from an IRGC boat has been doing the rounds.
Claims of “harassing a British warship” are nonsense. This is not HMS Duncan or Montrose. All it shows is a boat struggling to keep up with a warship, almost certainly a UAE Baynunah class corvette
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“No I don’t know who the next Chief of Defence Staff will be, and neither do you.”
A short and slightly irreverent look at thy whys and wherefores of the top military job and why guessing who it’s going to be is doomed to failure.
@DefenceHQ
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.
@HMSQNLZ
delayed sailing today due to strong winds. The following short read is a counter to the emerging ‘what if we had to go to war and it was windy’ commentary.
#yeswecan
@smrmoorhouse
@AEssenhigh
@qhmportsmouth
📸
@ShaunRoster
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➡️Wonder if 🇸🇦will use this as an opportunity to smack Houthis
➡️I won’t be comfortable until Duncan is detached from SNMG2 and assigned to the 2xRFAs
➡️➡️The water is warm in Crazyville and everyone is jumping in🤪
/F
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#CSG21
is home, their excellent work expertly covered elsewhere. This short blog focuses on the leadership difficulties being back in base port can generate.
The cameras have stopped rolling but the work has not.
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My glass-half-full take on AUKUS
Strategically brilliant but looking under the bonnet is not for the fainthearted
It can work, it just needs an unprecedented(?) level of peacetime collaboration and a ton of💲
How hard can that be?👀
@Jacob_Rees_Mogg
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"Between 1991-95 alone she [HMY Britannia] hosted a series of ‘trade days’ on board. These attracted business leaders from also over the world and are estimated to have helped to win £3 billion worth of business for the UK."
I'm in.
Exclusive new article:
In focus: the new National Flagship for Britain – a Royal Navy vessel
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Latest on the Red Sea
➡️Houthi hypersonics🚀
➡️USS Eisenhower extended 😬
➡️
#DDay
🎖️
➡️General Eisenhower on uncertainty in war🫡
🚨Ikes exemplifying leadership, then as now
@ChowdahHill
HT
@know_it_ale
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Last transmission on the
#TheodoreRoosevelt
sacking (assuming this format works). My top 20 observations, only one of which - number 1 - is actually important.
I've tried not to pass judgement - too early and too many unknowns. All thoughts welcome.
@stavridisj
@DavidLarter
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Looking forward to episode 3 of
@channel5_tv
's
#Warship
programme tonight; the one where
@HMSNORT
's towed array and a Russian sub become closely acquainted👀
Here are my thoughts after the first two episodes, some in response to the usual 'noise' when RN documentaries air:
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➡️Diamond confirmed to Kipion
➡️Best guess will stop at Bab el Mandeb/Gulf of Aden on missile/drone/piracy duties.
➡️Not sure what anti-drone kit she has - Arleigh Bs using 5” (a lot) with modified ammo…
➡️Last 45 there got🏅
➡️Tough gig - fair winds🫡
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Seems to me that the one thing missing from the
@BritishArmy
advert debate is a sarcastic flowchart:
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Some words from me in today's Telegraph on under-resourcing Defence:
"That defence isn’t a vote-winner is a truism as old as…defence. Influencing decision makers in No 10 and 11 either directly or via the voting public has eluded the Ministry...
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FT has run a hatchet job on CDS contender Admiral Radakin. Primary objection is that he goes round blockages-to-progress. What👀? Argument weakened further by being a cut-and-paste job from anti-GZ rhetoric of ‘16. Means it’s both imminent and undecided.
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On the plus side, the ‘I wonder what would happen if I had a steering gear failure now?’ question that EVERY CAPTAIN EVER has asked when transiting Suez has now been answered.
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Mayday in the Magellan! Part 2 of the HMS Endurance flood story, from going to anchor to recovery back to the UK.
#leadership
#RoyalNavy
#survival
.
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@IsabelOakeshott
@Telegraph
Isabel, next time you’re fed by an army source, please give me a bell for some balanced (and accurate) thoughts on how the carriers could (and right now should) be used.
I called out inter service tribalism 5 days ago (plus thoughts on the carriers):
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Enjoying the suggestion that the presence of journalists onboard HMS Defender is proof that the ‘scuffle’ with the Russians was somehow reverse engineered as part of a master UK comms strategy. Brilliant.
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I’ve altered my settings so that I can’t see or read anything with the word ‘gunboat’ in it today. Tidy.
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and hardship. And they always do. BZ.
But…I was in a ship that nearly sunk (partly) due to over-deploying and under-maintaining.
Let’s not do that again.
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Today the world-beating E3D was retired “to allow investment into Wedgetail…”
Last week, two of our world beating mine hunters were decommissioned “to allow investment…”
Change is good, but only if correctly paced.
BZ to those who served in both.
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Yesterday morning, the
@USNavy
stopped the Iranian Navy from boarding two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Shots were fired (by Iran).
In 2019,
@HMSMontrose
did something similar. This describes what it’s like onboard a warship during this sort of action.
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Catching up on this.
Options from 'tapping faulty depth gauge' to 'deepwater ICBM recovery' all covered.
However, worrying that even bomber crews now feel at liberty to ring the press when they get back off patrol. Will the leaker be able to not leak that they leaked though?
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The recent photo of
@HMSQNLZ
task group in close formation has divided opinion between v positive (ignoring the haters) and those who think it misrepresents
@RoyalNavy
operations. Some thoughts on this conundrum from a
#communications
perspective:
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Great article on this finely balanced issue
However, if I was to design a deployment for this stage of QE's life it would be to the Gulf of Aden, right now:
Directly affects the UK✅
High threat but not extreme - punchy✅
Logs and protection shortcomings mitigated by allies✅
Latest article:
Should HMS Queen Elizabeth be deployed to the Red Sea region?
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2/3
3.Inside the ship, actions would have been heroic
4.The salvage job will be complex, public and lengthy.
5.There will be speculation as to how this can happen given modern tech etc.
6.Please ensure you have served at sea before adding to it.
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When you finish a maintenance period and take the XO’s word that the upperdeck is clear of scaffolding. 🙄
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Apparently Defence is not being cut it’s “force adjustments”. On that basis I’m popping out tomorrow to get my hair adjusted.
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Was on
@BBCBreakfast
this morning discussing
#suez
with
@rachelburden
. If I was to make one point again it’s in this clip; how vital int’l shipping is and how so many out-of-sight mariners have maintained it before, during and after the pandemic...and forever.
#seablindness
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@petemorristwit
Change ‘knew’ for ‘suspected’ in your first line and it renders the rest of your tweet wrong. Acoustic detection and classification is not an exact science and neither is search and rescue at sea. Evidence was needed, not informed (or otherwise) guessing. No conspiracy here.
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