Graduate in International Politics & Strategic Studies. Dabble in naval history. Frequently distracted by cricket.
England
Joined July 2009
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Matthew Warwick retweeted
'The Heavyweight Punch' by Geoff Hunt.
HMS Victory, HMS Temeraire and HMS Neptune lead the Weather column towards the combined fleet, off Cape Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 [1599 x 1059]
Matthew Warwick retweeted
Agree, a para taken from some notes I tapped out last night:
"The communications are already troubling. Defence Minister Luke Pollard welcomed her into Devonport today like she was a returning combat veteran. With two ocean-going tugs strapped on amidships and one through the bow because her engines don’t work, this is not a smart tweet. Her decline will have been known about for a long time. Where is the aggressive plan to replace her? Instead, the same tweet gave us a loose reference to how the Defence Investment Plan says she will be replaced. What does that even mean? How about, for once, recognising a gapped requirement in advance, being aggressive in seeking a replacement and then honest in the communications. Who knows, voters might even like that. If we can’t get this right for an ice breaker, what hope is there for genuinely complex systems and ships."
Matthew Warwick retweeted
40 seconds of colour footage of the battleship HMS Vanguard leaving Portsmouth for the final time.
youtube.com/watch?v=cq-ahulp…
Matthew Warwick retweeted
HMS Dauntless seen at the UHAF yesterday @HMSDauntless @NavyLookout @WarshipCam @WarshipsIFR @seawaves_mag @UKDefJournal @UKForcesTracker
Matthew Warwick retweeted
Tech bro drone bores should pay close attention.
The prime air threat to the UK remains Russian ship, air and sub launched cruise and ballistic missiles. They’re hard to shoot down. And getting harder.
This requires specialist integrated air and missiles defences, inc at sea, not something that doesn’t exist dreamed up by the MoD bean counters to save money.
Preliminary figures for last night's combined missile and drone attack on Ukraine:
~30 Kh-101 cruise missiles launched, ~10 intercepted.
~24 Iskander-M ballistic missiles launched, ~6 intercepted.
~12 Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles launched, 0 intercepted.
~6 Kalibr cruise missiles launched, 6 intercepted.
~2 Kh-59/69 cruise missiles launched, 2 intercepted.
~74 missiles total, ~24 intercepted (~6/24 ballistics, ~18/50 cruise missiles).
Air defence performed far more poorly this attack compared to the previous ones, despite still having quite a few Patriot interceptors. It seems that a large portion of the Patriot PAC-3 interceptors were wasted on trying to intercept Zircons, which are much harder to shoot down than Iskander-Ms.
F-16s, Mirage-2000s, and IRIS-T interceptors worked quite well on the Kalibrs. They also did decently well east of Kyiv considering the fact that so many missiles were flying in at once, which overwhelmed air defence. However, the overall interception rate was far lower this time.
These above figures are not final and will be further refined in the coming hours. A full report on the attack will be posted later today.
Matthew Warwick retweeted
My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph
Buy a print of my cartoons at telegraph.co.uk/mattprints
Original artwork from chrisbeetles.com
Matthew Warwick retweeted
Type 45 never had Cooperative Engagement Capability installed to save money, but we are supposed to believe now 70-90 meters USVs will be plentiful and reliably linked in to crewed CCV on network with anti-missile quality shared target tracking. Somehow at less cost.
Good luck.
Matthew Warwick retweeted
Type 83 decision could be the most demented in a long time. Those ships are floating radars and high performance interceptor missile batteries for high end air and anti-missile defence.
Nowhere in world has any real progress been made towards a "drone" ship that can do THAT (1)
Matthew Warwick retweeted
BREAKING: The Treasury only offered the Ministry of Defence an extra £10bn in real cash for its investment plan over four years - the actual settlement was an additional £13.5bn but £3.5bn of that was regarded by military chiefs as treasury trickery.
John Healey told the Prime Minister the promised funding was not enough to keep the UK safe.
Matthew Warwick retweeted
A Royal Navy today without the carriers would still be in a sorry state. It just wouldn't have carriers.
(17/17)
Matthew Warwick retweeted
I appreciate that Think Defence is asking this question to pose a discussion, and it is a fair question to ask. But the answer is a resounding "no".
It is easy to blame the carriers for the navy's woes - but I really don't think it stands up to any scrutiny.
(1/17)
Matthew Warwick retweeted
The carriers represent c. 0.9% of UK defence spending since 2008. So not convinced they are wholly to blame for the state of the MoD...
Matthew Warwick retweeted
Until we have low cost and abundant energy we will not be a secure and prosperous nation. It is a fundamental, all else is secondary
Matthew Warwick retweeted
Not that you'll hear much of it from the British MoD, opaque as it usually is; but consistent with their 2025 business plan OCCAR continues to indicate that work on Sea Viper Evolution Capability 2 - which would integrate Aster 30 B1NT into the RN Type 45 destroyers - continues.
Matthew Warwick retweeted
In 1982, the UK Government was sufficiently concerned about the threat of the Spanish attacking Gibraltar to issue covert 'Rules of Engagement' to UK forces setting out when they could open fire on Spanish forces, and brought the military to readiness for war.
PSL Thread.../
Matthew Warwick retweeted
the 80’s. xitter.cf/Nostalgia822/status/17…
Matthew Warwick retweeted
I genuinely have no idea how the barely alive British armed forces put anything of substance into Ukraine and then sustain that without looking absolutely ridiculous. No artillery, no armour, no air defence and no artillery locating radars to draw from to resource it.
