It is actually a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship - RFA Cardigan Bay…
A timely reminder of the RFA’s vital work globally. Yet RFA sailors say they’ve suffered a real term pay cut over 14 years that amounts to 30% - and could take strike action if Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 don’t offer a better deal

As the first journalists inside MBDA's Storm Shadow production facility, classified 'secret', we watched as a group of highly skilled technicians assembled the weapons by hand Steven Swinford thetimes.co.uk/article/81b0dc…

Idea: Royal Navy recruitment ad with actual footage from the Red Sea.

This imagery is the best for 30+ years. We should be making the most of it, unapologetically. All the other good stuff the RN does is secondary to this; fighting and winning at sea.

👍🏻🇬🇧⚓️💪🏻

How whole-of-society defence works: Crown Princess Victoria is entering officers' training.

At the age of 46.

Everyone can do their part to keep our countries safe.

Exclusive: A Royal Navy destroyer has shot down a ballistic missile for the first time in 30 years by hitting an Iranian-made Houthi weapon fired at a merchant vessel thetimes.co.uk/article/10421d…

China has a new fleet of spy satellites that could be used to help target American and allied warships during a potential war over Taiwan, according to space chiefs from the United States thetimes.co.uk/article/china-…

After 30+ years of “peace dividends” and “no votes in defence”, we now have all of HMG promising more defence spending. But it would be so much more reassuring if it wasn’t years into a crisis, 6 months before an election and it came with a realistic funding and spending plan.

Sky's Deputy Political Editor Sam Coates Sky tells you everything you need to know about the May local elections and why they matter⬇️

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The Treasury is claiming that hitting the target of raising UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in 2030 amounts to a '£75 billion increase'.

How do they get to this £75bn number? 🤨

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x.com/hmtreasury/sta…

The figure announced by Rishi Sunak of an extra £75bn for defence over 6 years (should he stay in power) was the only thing that made the 2.5% pledge sound meaningful. But if it’s just a fudge (⬇️) that would be staggering given the threats. Now isn’t the time for smoke & mirrors

Government deserves real credit for the defence boost & they could’ve spent the money elsewhere. But this sort of needless chicanery in presentation is what erodes public and expert trust in every such announcement.

To get the £75 billion number, the government has assumed a baseline with spending frozen in cash terms and then added up all of the differences. If you instead assume a baseline of spending frozen as a % GDP, it's an extra £20 billion over 6 years. Details here.

Amid all the tough talk by PM Rishi Sunak about increasing UK defence spending, has anyone heard anything about a pay dispute with sailors in the Royal Navy's support fleet?
If Royal Fleet Auxiliary crews go on strike it would impact the ability of the entire navy to operate...

A pledge by the PM to put the arms industry on a 'war footing' & boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 will ring as hollow as his military unless he wins the election. So why didn't Rishi Sunak make the move sooner & aim higher given the threat?

news.sky.com/story/confusio…

'What is Labour's policy?'

Sky's Deborah Haynes tells Sophy Ridge today's government announcement, to increase defence spending, has one 'big question' with the general election approaching

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Details to follow clearly, but it’s an old promise being delivered rather late and without the certainty of seeing it through. It would be nice to see where and how this is going to be spent, but Ukraine and everything supporting them has to be the immediate priority now 1/2.

The PM has put the UK defence industry on a 'war footing' & plans to lift defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030. But, in the small print, the only new cash this year is £500mln for Ukraine - not UK military. Everything else is after the election (or not)
gov.uk/government/new…

BREAKING: UK is putting its defence industry on a 'war-footing' - investing £10 billion to ramp up production- as part of a plan to increase defence spending by 2.5% by 2030, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has declared.

This is a really big deal

BREAKING: The UK will increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030, the prime minister is expected to announce in a hardening of military policy at a time of growing threats.

news.sky.com/story/uk-to-in…