Nukes, Cigars and Oil Rigs

Your weekly dose of defence news, biased opinions and poorly curated content. You’re welcome.

On Tuesday a super-injunction was lifted revealing one of the biggest governmental data breaches in history.

Back in 2021 the British government launched the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, designed to relocate and assist Afghanis who had helped the Brits.

Fast forward a year and an “unnamed British official” sent out what was supposed to be a routine email. Except it wasn’t. It was, in fact, a 33,000 row database sent to an insecure computer, which contained the personal details of 18,714 Afghanis who had applied for British assistance.

The MOD only found out about the breach 18 months later when someone alerted them to a Facebook post that contained the details of the original email. Everyone goes into panic mode (which is fair) and the story is silenced for security reasons.

Then came the double kicker - it turns out the breach didn’t only expose the details of Afghani nationals…but also British MI6 spies and Special Forces personnel. All in they now estimate 100,000 people have been put at risk, costs are sky-rocketing and the government is already facing legal action. Defence Secretary John Healey (not in power at the time to be fair to him) offered an apology on behalf of the government citing a “serious departmental error”…yep, would probably agree with that Johnnie boy.

After a bit of light prodding from the Germans, the French have given up their independent position on warheads and taken the nuclear option - joining the British. The Northwood Declaration is the first ever coordinated effort by Europe’s two nuclear powers to share the continent’s deterrent in the face of increased aggression from the East. Combined this delivers a stockpile of 500 or so nukes, still not much compared to Russia’s ~6,000 and America’s ~5,000…but it’s enough to get started.

Genuinely don’t know how you missed this as it has been literally everywhere on t’internet but The Royal Navy had been doing some ex-colonial outreach and shoved the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and basically all the British F35s into Singapore harbour. She’s now left again with her entourage consisting of HMS Dauntless, RFA Tidespring, Norwegian frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen and New Zealand’s HMNZS Te Kaha.

Expect that was a chaotic run-ashore - good luck with the paperwork Cap’un.

There is a bigger power play going on by having a shiny aircraft carrier strutting about the Indo-Pacific. According to our friends at the UK Defence Journal - Russia is about to lose its last operational aircraft carrier. The Admiral Kuznetsov has been docked since 2017, plagued by fires, structural damage and delays. They’ve now announced that repair work has been suspended altogether.

If you’re interested: Admiral Kuznetsov (the person) is a bit of a hero in Russia, but hasn’t always been. Born in 1904, he rose from peasant stock to become Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. Falling from favour under Stalin, he managed to get back in favour for a while, before falling again. Posthumously, he was back in favour, so much so that they renamed the aircraft carrier Tbilisi after him in his honour.

The National Audit Office (…bleak sounding place) published a report last week that highlighted the true cost of the F35 programme to the MOD. Hampered by “delays, lower-than-expected availability, infrastructure gaps and personnel shortages” the MOD has dropped £11bn so far on 37 planes*. Once the full 138 are up and running, the entire project (all in) is set to cost £71bn. Interestingly, there has been some commercial wrangling going on behind the scenes - UK are buying 5% of F35s but building 15% - that economic upside is valued at £22bn for UK businesses. Expect that money will be spent really well.

The rising cost of the programme hasn’t gone unnoticed over the pond either - the scary US Government Accountability Office has put a price tag of over $2trillion on the F35 programme when it finally wraps up in the second half of this century. That makes it the most expensive project ever undertaken by The Pentagon.

*To be fair it was 38, but we dropped one in the sea.

In an interview this week the ex-CGS - Sir Patrick Sanders - has recommended the UK wakes up and starts looking at air defence, civilian defence (bunkers etc) and general re-armament. He also discussed the pitiful size of the military and general lack of engagement from the government. The Standard had some useful context to add: “Sir Patrick, speaking from his Wiltshire garden while smoking an Epicure No 2 cigar alongside his labrador Fargo”…cheers guys.

Big events from the past, covered in brief and probably inaccurately.

On Monday 15th July 1918, Germany launched its final major offensive on the Western Front near the Marne River. Their goal: draw Allied forces from Flanders and break through French lines.

Despite initial gains, the Allied defence - largely led by French but bolstered by American, British and Italian divisions - halted the German advance. Three days later, the Allies counterattacked, recovering lost ground and capturing thousands.

This victory set the stage for the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which ultimately sealed Germany’s WWI fate.

Talking of Sir Paddy - he started a no BS podcast a few weeks back that is available wherever you get your podcasts about all things defence and geopolitics. They’re all under an hour - you’ll cope.

Changing things up? This is where we briefly look at career options from across the civvy world - everything goes here so expect some absolute drivel. Sometimes Forces Assist can help place you, sometimes we can’t. Either way we can offer advice.

It’s tough, remote and not for the soft - but oil rig jobs offer decent money, predictable rotations and a clear career trajectory. From Roustabouts to Rig Supervisors, there’s a role for almost every skillset.

We talked about this in detail on our Insta:

Over at Forces Assist we’re always looking for qualled up drivers nationally. If you have driving qualifications and are looking for work then head to forcesassist.com to start conversations.

This week two more jobs have landed in the West Country:

Get in touch now or share if there is interest.

Joking aside - please ask everyone to sign up - we’re trying to build something positive here and any help is very welcome.

Cheers,

Forces Assist.