PeterSpayne

@thinkdefence 7.62 CIWS. I’ll die on this hill

I know a lot of people think a low speed drone should be countered by a low speed aircraft (helicopter or turboprop), and this might be OK if it's all you have, but surely, fast aircraft with cheap weapons (guns, lasers, rockets) is a better option to cover large areas?

@hattra2 @blagden_david You’ve heard of a P8….

@PeteSpayne @blagden_david What aircraft? The one you take with you in case you spot a submarine?

Turns out that welding a basic sonar to a patrol vessel to make it into a somewhat-less-useless corvette is something you can just do… [Stares at both the gaping shortage of sonar-towing RN frigates and the risible under-utilisation of eight River-class ‘warships’]

@hattra2 @blagden_david That’s easy. Run away or let the aircraft tell you where it is

@PeteSpayne @blagden_david Something you would have to figure out if you are the only ship available

@hattra2 @blagden_david Pretty hard to be fighty towing a sonar. One can be nosy or fighty, but not at the same time

@PeteSpayne @blagden_david But it's a lot more "fighty"

@hattra2 @blagden_david Find and kill don’t need to be on the same platform.

@PeteSpayne @blagden_david Such as finding & killing submarines?

@callmeMaharani 56k modem

What is a sound or smell that doesn’t exist anymore, but 30 years ago was so common it was considered background noise?

Jim Hacker: Humphrey, I'm told there's a situation at Diego Garcia. Sir Humphrey Appleby: Only geographically, Prime Minister. Jim Hacker: Geographically? Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes. It's still in the Indian Ocean. Jim Hacker: Humphrey, Iran fired missiles at it! Sir Humphrey Appleby: Towards it, Prime Minister. Jim Hacker: Towards it? Sir Humphrey Appleby: One missile ceased to function and the other was intercepted. So the island remains entirely where it was. Jim Hacker: I'm not worried about the island moving! I mean the implications. Sir Humphrey Appleby: Ah. Strategically speaking, the implications are extremely stable. Jim Hacker: Stable?! Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes. Since nothing actually hit us, we can express grave concern without the administrative complications of retaliation. Jim Hacker: But the base is on British territory! Sir Humphrey Appleby: Indeed, Prime Minister. Which means we are in the enviable position of being attacked in principle while remaining uninvolved in practice. Bernard Woolley: It's what the Foreign Office calls a very tidy situation, Prime Minister. Jim Hacker: Tidy? Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes. Untidy situations are the ones where the missiles land.

@latterdaylaura You always come first. You and your health and wellbeing is priority 1, above all else. But that need only take 1% of your bandwidth. Kids etc are priority 2, but can have 99% of your time. Then you’re giving them a high quality version of you. No one wants 100% of a shouty mess

My super strong parenting opinion is that while the kids are awake, you come last. No spending all of Saturday golfing. That’s family time. 6 am tee time only, maybe. Wanna go to the gym? Go after the kids go to bed, or wake up at 5. In a few short years, they’ll be out of the house and you’ll have all the time in the world for your own stuff. It’s okay to come last for a while.

@TBrit90 Now draw the circle from anyone of their proxy territories

Would be wild if we saw Aegis ashore splat a missile.

@dgcfc1905 Tease!

@PeteSpayne You had me at CIWS

The solution to C-UAS for warship defence is 7.62 CIWS. Lots and lots of it.

@thinkdefence AI infrastructure facilities and hyper scaling centres. But Amazon will pay them to do it.

Will be interesting to see if the gulf states start to increase point defence at power stations and desalination plants at the expense of gas and oil infrastructure.

@DrChrisParry @UKLabour T42s vs Super Entendard was in design envelop. And we still got a very bloody nose. T45 can take out SKUD, MiG, Brimstone etc in typical numbers, at range. But several hundred low, slow shaheeds at no notice is a very different threat. They’ll destroy most, but not all

The usual pocket Napoleon opining that our warships aren't designed to go in harm's way. It's a good thing that @UKLabour wasn't running things in 1982.

@gregbagwell Mind sweeping went in the 90s. Mine hunting still exists but the sensors don’t look like ships. MW has evolved quicker than solutions can be procured. The drone aud threat means that MCMVs couldn’t get near anyway. Plan C isn’t pretty

The RN have been caught mid transition of capabilities such as minesweeping, and in a post HIGHMAST and pre FIRECREST maintenance lull. The Gulf crisis couldn’t have come a worse time, and now we have a choice to make over home waters & NATO vs the Straits.

@DavidColby10 @NavyLookout That’s a very good point! And I just spat my coffee!

@NavyLookout Very sophisticated of the Iranian leadership, considering they’re all dead. They really played their cards well. 😂

Those in peril on the sea Iran has learned from Ukraine how to trap Western navies in an impossible choice. Deploy a billion-pound warship and risk losing it — broadcast live to the world — to a swarm of cheap drones. Or stay home and be accused of weakness. Either way, the West loses. Peter Spayne @PolicyBrief_UK explains why this dilemma is by design. policybrief.org/briefs/those-i…

@johnkrempasky Littoral warfare is slightly different to at sea. The attacking forces measure their magazine depth in factories, the ships in shelf space. ASBMs cost millions and get fired in manageable numbers, Shaheeds cost thousands and attack in the hundreds.

At sea, moving Western warships are highly unlikely to be sunk by a "swarm of cheap drones." Mines, large volleys of ASCMs, or an ASBM vs a ship with limited terminal BMD capability? Different story.

@James_WE_Smith @NavyLookout @IBallantyn @DrChrisParry Some great parallels there, and a really interesting point. My observation would be that social media didn’t exist at that time, nor smart phones or HD footage. Some great work on this in ‘Radical War’ by @warmatters

I’m wondering about the parallels of when it was reported to PM Thatcher that SHEFFIELD & COVENTRY were sunk. ‘Shall we fight and go on or run home?’ What about the USN at Pearl with aircraft or the sinking of HOOD? Many of other examples. @DrChrisParry is there an element of what is the right thing to do and who Britain is and what it says about you aka protect shipping versus dare I say, ‘cower away’ behind the fiscal spreadsheets?

@Gunbust09696378 @johnredwood @DominicFarrell It’s just equipment, computer networks, explosive stores, hydraulics, pneumatics and scientific instruments. Far more complex things on some commercial ships working with oil and gas. Valid points both ends of the argument here. With a logical compromise to be had in the middle

@johnredwood @DominicFarrell Oh FFS. Name me one shipping company, not a cruise company with a crew of 200-300 per ship Or a A command system A 3D radar An anti submarine sonar A Helo Missiles and Guns Electronic warfare... And that's before I start on Marine Engineering... Think before you tweet...

A commercial shipping company does not have to have three to five fairly new ships undergoing maintenance to keep one at sea. So why does the navy?

Latest weapons analysis on the Iranian conflict. Since 2022 armed forces all over the world have committed to learning lessons from Ukraine. But for a naval force defending from shore based drone barrages, who learned from Russia? policybrief.org/briefs/those-i…