BFBS Sitrep – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Oslo is spending £10bn to equip itself with five Type 26 frigates – a big vote of confidence in these submarine hunters already being built for the Royal Navy.

But it will also mean the already-stretched timeline to deliver the Navy’s eight new frigates becomes even longer.

Former Director of Navy Acquisition, Commodore Steve Prest, explains what cutting edge capabilities of the Type 26 that persuaded Norway to buy British, how the delays might impact Britain’s maritime capability, and why despite that he thinks it’s still good news for the Royal Navy.

Sitrep analyses open-source intelligence which shows an uptick in secretive surveillance flights, by the UK, US and Russia, in the High North and over the Baltic.

Defence Analyst and former infantry officer Ed Arnold explains the possibilities behind the activity, and we hear first hand from NATO's Arctic Ocean patrols.

Could peat-bogs be used as tank-traps to help protect Eastern Europe from Russian invasion? We hear from Estonia where they’re looking at potential spin-off benefits from their plan to tackle climate change.

And BBC weather forecaster Simon King draws on his RAF experience to explain the science of weather manipulation, and whether militaries could ever hope to use it to their advantage.

The history of the Battle of Britain has been written many times over the last 85 years, but almost always from a British perspective.

The award-winning aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor believes that’s led to the Luftwaffe’s role being oversimplified, meaning we don’t truly understand what happened.

She talks to Sitrep editor James Hirst about her new book “Eagle Days”, which takes a fresh look at the story of wartime Germany’s air force to understand the psychology which drove its actions.

Researched through the letters and diaries of the men who served she tells us why this was not the David vs Goliath fight that is often simply portrayed, and why the idea that “they were just like us” is a troubling misunderstanding.

Tempest will be the RAF’s next generation fighter jet, and the heart of the new Future Combat Air System.

After a decade of conceptual development work is now underway to turn it into reality, with a first prototype due to fly in around 3 years.

Will it really be equipped with laser weapons or brain scanners in the pilot’s helmet? That’s still secret, but Sitrep has been told the much of the initial design is now locked down.

Air Commodore Martin Lowe talks us through the progress so far, and tackles the tough question of whether it can truly be delivered on time and on budget ready for service in little more than a decade.

Rishi Sunak has pledged tens of billions of pounds to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030, but how much will it improve our military capability?

Professor Michael Clarke explains why the extra cash will probably be used to firm up our forces rather than making them bigger, and we fact check how much of the £75bn figure given by the Prime Minister is actually new money.

Months after US military supplies to Ukraine effectively dried up the Washington deadlock is broken. But what will the new $60bn package deliver, when, and how much difference can it make to the war?

And we hear from the London Defence Tech Hackathon where coders, engineers, and businesses had a direct line to Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield as they tried some rapid problem solving for the troops.

RAF Typhoons fired in defence of Israel as part of a multi-national operation to stop Iran’s onslaught with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. A former fighter pilot tells Sitrep about the threats posed to pilots.

The Armed Forces put a lot of effort into leadership training. But what about the other side of the coin – followers? The Centre for Army Leadership has been researching a concept called Followership – Sitrep discovers how it could benefit the service.

When a tank was found on the seabed off Devon in the 1980s it brought worldwide attention to a highly secretive but tragic exercise of the Second World War. 

Thousands of American troops trained along Slapton Sands to prepare for the D-Day landings in Normandy but a tragic turn of events meant hundreds of US Army and Navy personnel lost their lives. Sitrep’s Briohny Williams has been there ahead of the 80th anniversary.

The Armed Forces put a lot of effort into leadership training, but have they lost sight of the people who are led?

The Army’s been researching the concept of followership, how it could benefit the service become part of its culture.

But what is followership, is it really different from the results of good leadership, and can it be part of an organisation that relies on command?

Sitrep talks to Lieutenant Colonel Dean Canham from the Centre For Army Leadership, and one of the leading experts on followership, Barbara Kellerman.

Defence Procurement minister James Cartlidge tells Sitrep the history of armed forces having “kit that let them down” keeps him awake at night. But he has a plan to fix the problems.

He tells Kate Gerbeau about the changes aimed at delivering equipment on time, and on budget, while Professor Michael Clarke assesses whether it will give troops what they need, when they need it.

We also look up close at one of those big procurement projects, as Sitrep’s David Sivills-McCann visits the under-construction Type 26 frigate HMS Cardiff.

Israel has sacked two officers over the air-strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza, which it calls a ‘grave accident’. Sitrep explains the process of ‘deconfliction’ that should have prevented it from happening. 

British servicemen and women rely on having the right kit to do their jobs, and protect their lives at the front line, but MPs says the process of buying that equipment is broken.

Sitrep talks to Defence Procurement Minister James Cartlidge about his new plan to fix long delays, multi-billion pound overspends, and hopelessly overoptimistic ideas.

A new integration authority can veto plans that don’t work across all three services, equipment will be put into service earlier in development, and exportability will also be a priority.

But governments have struggled with these procurement problems for decades, so will this plan finally deliver the forces the kit they need, when they need it, or will the “legion stories of kit that let them down” continue?

Troops and hardware which Russia’s been holding in reserve have been moved to the 600-mile-long front line, and handful of local armoured offensives point to the start of a wider push.

Sitrep’s Professor Michael Clarke explains how Moscow wants to exploit Ukraine’s ammunition shortages, while Kyiv tries to keep the initiative by forcing Russia’s hand, and journalist Tom Mutch tells us what he saw and heard visiting frontline troops.

RAF airdrops have delivered tonnes of urgent food aid to Gaza in operations that carry risks both for the aircrew and civilians on the ground. Retired Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell explains how it’s done.

And is the mysterious Havana Syndrome, suffered by hundreds of US diplomats and spies, linked to the Salisbury poisonings? Hamish de Bretton-Gordon assesses new findings which claim the same Russian military intelligence unit is behind both.