Terror attack in Manchester

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

Army units were on the scene shortly after the Manchester synagogue attack yesterday, which left two Jewish worshippers and the suspect dead. 11 EOD and Search Regiment, RLC, were deployed after the attacker was seen wearing a suspected explosive vest. Two SAS helicopters were also filmed landing nearby as high-readiness CT teams supported the police operation. Although a tragedy, the swift work of the police in neutralising the suspect is credited with containing what could have been a far larger attack, given he failed to gain access to the target building. Manchester police have named the attacker - Jihad Al-Shamie - a British citizen of Syrian descent.

As the Royal Navy struggles with manning shortfalls, BAE Systems is betting that autonomy will keep Britain in the fight. Its uncrewed warship concept - the Sensor Effective Platform - is designed for long-range patrols, strike missions and air defence support. SEPs operate together under the command of a central Type 83 destroyer; not replacements, but major force multipliers. The design builds on progress with the Herne extra-large autonomous sub, now in its third iteration and moving rapidly towards operational viability. Together, these projects signal a strategy shift: if we can’t get people to run these ships, they’ll just have to run themselves.

Ex-National Guard Major, ex-Fox News anchor and current US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth flew in hundreds of top military brass to a conference in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday. In a bizarre tirade, over 800 defence bigwigs were told to be stricter on beards, avoid being fat and end “wokeness” in the ranks. He called for a return to 1990s standards - a not-so-thinly-veiled critique of what he sees as lowered standards to facilitate women in combat roles. The reaction from the room of incredibly experienced military professionals: utter silence. Weird.

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

On 3 October 1990, Germany officially reunified, ending decades of division and leaving the Berlin Wall as a relic of the Cold War. While crowds celebrated in Berlin, the East German military - the Nationale Volksarmee - quietly disappeared. Around 90,000 soldiers suddenly found themselves in limbo. A few thousand were absorbed into the West German Bundeswehr; although most weren’t. Some officers retrained, others took early retirement. In the blink of an eye, a highly trained army just vanished.

Thirty years later, Germany is only just thinking seriously about what kind of military it wants next.

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.

Proper click bait for you here: we’ve done a deep dive into the top paying jobs available to people leaving the military and uncovered a few gems.

Wander over to our Insta for the DL.

While you’re there follow us…clearly that’s good for both of us.

Quite a few roles have opened up in the South this week. Get in touch if you are looking for civvy driving work. Also - if you have veteran mates in the driving game and they are looking for jobs send them our way.

If they land one of our roles and name drop you during the application (and your email matches the one on our systems), we’ll give you £250.

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Cheers,

Team Forces Assist