Mike Looseley

@amberECN You Need one of these

Had my first hand through letterbox dog bite of the campaign 😭😭 luckily got away unscathed

@UKForcesTracker In my view it was overly optimistic about British military capabilities. It assumed a single Type 45 and a single Astute were available for operations in home waters. As we have discovered, neither is true at the moment.

Cannot recommend The Wargame enough for people interested in how the UK can respond to a potential military challenge from Russia. Available for free on YouTube.

@Gunbust09696378 This inter service paranoia has done more harm to UK defence than all the politicians since Thatcher put together. Please stop.

Well the RAF is glowing in its praise of Wildcat and Merlin helping to build the RAF air picture Vs air threats. Not once did it mention that they are RN assets maintained by RN techs. Great example of the RAF playing inter service games... raf.mod.uk/news/articles/…

@nicholadrummond Where would you base such an exotic and valuable asset?. Every UK base is within harms way from Russian drones and missiles.

One of the most significant reductions in UK capabilities since the end of the Cold War was the retirement of Vulcan and Victor long-range, large-payload strike aircraft. Numerous situations since 1990 would have benefited from the employment of a bomber if we had retained them. In the unlikely event that the USA offered to sell the B-21 to its allies via expanded production, the cost per aircraft would be around $750 million - double the anticipated cost of GCAP / Tempest. Two B-21 squadrons or 24 aircraft would be around $18 billion. With an intercontinental range and the ability to carry a nuclear payload, the B-21 is the apex predator of strategic power projection. But is it worth it? I would be interested to know what RAF seniors think.

@MilitaryBanter I sympathise. After one very bad day at work I drove home to my MQ. When I parked outside I realised I had moved out about a month before.

@SGTWipper1Each Not Sea Harriers.

Just a couple Sea Harriers out for a stroll among the clouds. Sea Harrier: Designed for strike, recon, and fighter roles. Single Rolls-Royce Pegasus turboran. Used by Royal and Indian Navies. Retired in 2006 (Royal) and 2016 (Indian)

@woodchippings1 @afneil Of which 1 SSBN and 1 SSN are active.

@afneil Leaving out the 10 submarines is a bit misleading for a 21st century naval analysis.

Happy to be corrected by naval experts. But by my calculations the entire Royal Navy surface fleet of warships consists of: Two aircraft carriers Six Type 45 destroyers Seven aging Type 23s And of these 15 warships only three are currently active (soon to be four if HMS Dragon leaves port tomorrow. In any sensible estimation of deployable capability we don’t really have a Navy, do we?

@afneil The UK armed forces do not have enough people, kit, stores, ammunition or money. The only thing keeping them going is their service or unit pride. Now is not the time to take that away as well.

Maybe you’re right. One combined military structure and command has been such a disaster for the IDF, hasn’t it? UK military obviously in much better shape 🤣

@DPJHodges Who needs air defence when you have international law to defend you?

The failure of the British Government to deploy the necessary assets to protect Akrotiri, especially given the amount of warning we had prior to the launch of US strikes, is nothing short of a scandal. Why were we so unprepared. Why were deployable RN assets kept in dock.

@russellcrowe BZ, but "THE" HMS Surprise. Oh dear!

Today Feb 27th Onboard the HMAS Sydney I was presented with the honorary rank of Commander in the Royal Australian Navy. Here I am with Vice Admiral Hammond and Lord Blakeney ( Max Pirkis ). I served with Lord Blakeney on the HMS Surprise back in 1805. Once Navy, Always Navy.

@afneil Seems to me that the argument comes down to this: If you believe the best defence for a strategic asset is international law then you like the deal. If you think hard military power is more likely to prevail then not so much! I'm pretty sure I know what would best deter China!

Yes. I read it. Interesting insights. But not convinced. Quite a few holes in the argument. It’s an unnecessary deal and the threats of not doing one are largely imaginary.

@gregbagwell It is hard to see why we should abide by the letter of UN resolutions when the US, Russia and China are prepared to ignore them. I fear that the era of the UN is over.

To all Chagos fans out there who think the Government is mad, the deal is crap and we should just carry on regardless. Here’s why the status quo won’t work (for long). In the eyes of the UN we are holding the islands illegally and have been asked nicely to give them back.🧵1/5

@histories_arch Sounds like the old Air Force story of someone who mistakenly ordered 20 Hangars (aircraft) instead of Hangars (coat)

In the quiet English county of Surrey, a planning dispute in the late 1980s took a strange and memorable turn. A local man had applied for permission to build on a small empty plot of land, but the council rejected his request. Not willing to give up, he submitted a new application, this time asking permission to place a “tank” on the property. The officials approved it, assuming he meant a harmless septic tank or storage container. Instead, he purchased a real Soviet-era T-34 tank, a famous World War II design, and placed it squarely on the lot. The heavy green vehicle, complete with its long cannon, quickly became the most unusual object in the neighborhood. To make his point even clearer, the tank was positioned so that its gun faced directly toward the local planning office, a silent but very visible protest against the earlier decision. The stunt caused plenty of attention and a fair amount of embarrassment for the council. While the tank posed no real threat, it turned a routine planning dispute into a story that spread far beyond Surrey. For years, it stood as a reminder that sometimes a single word in an application can lead to one of the strangest acts of protest a quiet town has ever seen. #archaeohistories

@afneil Starmer is no giant of politics but compared to Sarwar.......

Reports that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar about to call on Starmer to step down … if so, the dam is breached …

@afneil I don't know anything about German politics but he has a point about those of the UK.

Spare us the high moral ground. Your party (SPD) is at 15% in the polls, 10-points behind the hard-right AfD. So carry on talking about policy — it’s doing you the world of good. And we both know German media/politics is now above personal attacks.

@pinstripedline I was on a Buccaneer squadron 84-89 and I am amazed that there were not more complaints from the Soviets. We used to beat the **** out of their ships, including once when they were having a parade on the Kiev's flight deck.

The RN accepted the Soviet complaint about the Buccaneers, noting it wasn't an attack but "regretting that the manner of their departure, passing between the ships at 100ft while accelerating could have been construed as such"! 🤣

This is a Soviet Typhoon class submarine. In 1989, when a Royal Navy Lynx had flares fired at it while 'observing' a Typhoon while on a secret intelligence mission in the Barents Sea. Short thread on Soviet / UK naval incidents and interactions in the late Cold War era...

@USAinUK Brits are very slow to anger, but your President has angered the whole of the country, and the rest of Europe, in a way that I have never seen before.

This year, we mark 250 years since America’s independence in 1776. Our nation’s story has been written alongside allies and friends, none more so than the UK 🇺🇸🇬🇧 Join us throughout 2026 as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday.  #SharedHistoryUnitedFuture #Freedom250

@Mr_Andrew_Fox Was the Afghanistan operation an Article 5 response? NATO did respond under an article 5 request but that was to send AWACS to the USA to bolster their air defence radar coverage.

There is a mind-numbing stupidity in calculating the success of a defensive alliance by “who was on the frontline”. Stand fast that the only time Article 5 was called, Afghanistan, was an aberration and not really what Article 5 was designed for. The strength in the NATO alliance was deterrence: collective defence. Its success was not in the wars it fought, but in the wars it deterred by its very existence. The rounds not fired count double for every shot in combat. The Trump White House knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

@WilliamJHague How about the "Sovereign Base Area" concept as in Cyprus. Define an area around a US based, call it sovereign US territory like Brit SBAs in Cyprus. Trump can claim US is expanded and pays Greenland a wad of money. Denmark still the sovereign power. Everyone's a winner!

I once landed at Narsarsuaq and wondered why a tiny place had a runway fit for a superpower. The answer? During WWII it was a major US base where 10,000 aircraft stopped en route to Europe. America has always been able to use Greenland for security. It doesn’t need to own it 🧵

@pinstripedline Not Green Goddess - a BBC transmitter van. Look at the coat of arms. There should be a plastic dish aerial at the top of the lattice mast. It was one of 3, Camera van, control van and transmitter. I had the set!

Tonights 'abandoned on pavement' find - I think its a dinky toys Green Goddess - does this seem right?