BFBS Sitrep

HMS Diamond has been sent to the Red Sea after missile and drone attacks against British owned cargo vessels, and RAF spy-planes have been deployed to search for hostages held in Gaza. Professor Michael Clarke and former Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe explain what these assets and personnel can achieve, the limitations & risks of their missions, and the possibility of more UK military capabil...

Sitrep’s Simon Newton has just returned from Ukraine - he reports for Sitrep from a drone testing centre where new models are trialled before being used in combat. Sitrep also hears from the  former Champion Boxer, and now Mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, on his country’s will to resist. Also on Sitrep, as  tensions remain high in the Middle East, Britain deploys a Type 45 Destroyer HMS...

As winter sweeps across Ukraine the ideal window for its counter-offensive is now closed, with seemingly minimal gains from five months of hard fighting.  So what happens next? Sitrep assesses whether Ukraine has another chance for a significant fightback next year, and if so how it could do that. Professor Michael Clarke, Ukrainian researcher Mariia Zolkina, and former infantry officer Ed Ar...

Cyber-warfare was is no longer simply science-fiction, it is now a military fact that hits hard.  Military communications, power systems and nuclear processing plants have all been taken offline in recent years by purely digital attacks.  The UK’s capability for this domain sits in the National Cyber Force, created three years ago as part of Strategic Command, bringing together military...

The Army’s future is built around the new Ajax armoured fighting vehicle. After years of delays, faults, and even injuries to troops, ministers say the Ajax programme is now ‘in recovery’. We take a look for ourselves, from the production line to training on Salisbury plain and hear from soldiers using the first of the vehicles. Another cold-war treaty has collapsed. It aimed to prevent surpr...

Every single country in the UN is signed up to the same laws of war, but Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is reminding us interpretations of those laws often differ. In this extra Sitrep podcast Kate Gerbeau talks to Rev. Nicholas Mercer, who was the British Army’s top legal adviser in Iraq 20 years ago. He explains the key principles that govern the legality of military action, how he applied t...

He’s been called a strategic and tactical genius – but he also abandoned tens of thousands of his soldiers to their deaths. Sitrep goes behind the Hollywood gloss of the new Napoleon film to assess his true military legacy, and Professor Michael Clarke explains how Napoleonic innovations are still used in wars today. Japan is on a massive military spending spree aiming to become the worlds 3 rd la...

Japan is one of the world’s third biggest economic power, but until now its military power has come nowhere close to matching that. That’s changing though, with a 5-year defence-spending spree to include new counter-strike capabilities which will enable Japan to fire on enemy land for the first time since World War Two. Kate Gerbeau talks to the author of ‘Japan as a Global Military Power’, Dr Chr...

Russia is planning a new naval base in territory it occupies on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, because of Ukraine’s strikes against Russian ships near Crimea. Sitrep hears from the Georgian capital about worries it could make their country a target for Ukraine. Professor Michael Clarke and Simon Newton share their assessments, and examine how we can improve ammunition supplies to Ukrainian forces who...

Israel’s mission to destroy Hamas has some parallels with the battle to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State terror group – tens of thousands of fighters among a densely packed population of around two-million citizens. Major General Rupert Jones, who was deputy commander of the anti-IS coalition, shares the lessons from Mosul, and Professor Michael Clarke assesses how they do, or don’t, apply in...

British ships, planes, and personnel have been sent to Mediterranean, tasked with waiting and watching as war rages between Israel and Gaza. Professor Michael Clarke explains how they could be used, to stop weapons smuggling and gather intelligence, with the aim of preventing a wildfire spread of the conflict. Sitrep hears first-hand about the challenges facing Ukraine’s troops as they continue to...

General David Petraeus commanded multinational forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote America’s handbook on counter-insurgency, and went on to lead the CIA. Now he wants to help those who follow him learn the lessons of the wars he fought, and many others since World War Two. General Petraeus and acclaimed military historian Andrew Roberts tell Kate Gerbeau how the outbreak of war in Ukraine spurre...

Israel declared war because of a Hamas terrorist atrocity, invading from Gaza, killing more than a thousand people, and seizing more than 150 hostages. But what was Hamas hoping to achieve? Is Israel doing exactly what its enemy wants by launching a war, and did it have any other choice? Professor Michael Clarke and former senior intelligence officer Colonel Philip Ingram address the big military...

Iron Titan is the Army’s largest land exercise in more than 20 years, involving 8000 troops across more than 40,000 square miles of South-West England and Wales. Sitrep hears from some of those taking part, and Forces News reporter Rosie Laydon explains how its using the lessons of Ukraine to test the deployment of the UK’s warfighting division. Violence, and a Serbian troop buildup, have prompted...

Ukraine has punched a new hole through Russia’s minefields, ditches, and ‘dragons teeth’ in Western Zaporizhzhia, but is it enough to start taking back big swathes of land? Professor Michael Clarke explains why this is halfway to being a turning point, and Forces News reporter Simon Newton explains what obstacles are still in the way of Ukraine’s tanks. British Army Veteran Shaun Pinner made headl...

When Shaun Pinner left the Royal Anglian Regiment, after 9 years as a soldier, he had no intention of ever returning to military life. Two decades later he was fighting in Ukraine as one of the country’s marines, besieged in the city of Mariupol as it was battered and starved by Russian forces. When he was captured Shaun was beaten, tortured and eventually sentenced to death by firing squad. Yet h...

The Army’s about to test software which, with the help of tiny drones, can give soldiers a 3D model of their battlefield on a phone or tablet in minutes. The ‘Farsight’ system eliminates the need for network connections, big servers, and long waits. A former US special operations commander who’s helped develop the software tells us what it will mean to troops on the ground. Russia expert Emil...

This week Sitrep focuses on how the British military and defence industry are learning lessons from the war in Ukraine. Rear Admiral Andrew Betton, Director Joint Warfare at UK Strategic Command, says the way warfare has evolved in Ukraine is a wake-up call. Sitrep also explores how the defence industry is responding to the conflict in terms of new weapons and equipment. Plus General Lord Dannatt,...

In a special Sitrep podcast, the Head of the British Army says by the end of the decade the Army will be the most modern and the most lethal in Europe. Listen here to the exclusive interview with the CGS, General Sir Patrick Sanders

Sitrep hears from the 3 star British General helping to enforce the uneasy armistice on the border between North and South Korea. The UK is a member of the US-led United Nations Command Korea. Its role is to enforce the armistice and de-escalate tensions. Its Deputy Commander, Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison, tells Sitrep that the Demilitarised Zone is a ‘surreal’ and ‘dangerous’ place and warn...

For 70 years there’s been an armistice – but no peace treaty- between North and South Korea. In this special addition, Sitrep hears in full from the 3 star British General helping to enforce the uneasy armistice in his role as Deputy Commander of the US-led United Nations Command Korea.

Shaista Gul was known to thousands of British servicemen and women over the years. He created a small oasis of peace at the UK’s headquarters in Southern Afghanistan. But after Lashkar Gah main operating base closed in 2014 he had to leave the job he loved, and with it the garden he’d created.  What followed was Taliban intimidation, fatal attacks on his family, and eventually a perilous...

Supporting Ukraine, recruitment & retention, procurement problems and a budget to balance. The new Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has a lot to manage, but does it matter this is his first defence role, indeed does it matter who does the job right now? Professor Michael Clarke explains why his room for manoeuvre is limited, and what we can expect. Waiting on the Defence Secretary’s desk are 67...

Is it time for a radical rethink of who the Armed Forces allow to join, and at what rank, to fill critical skills gaps? For centuries most people have only been able serve their country by starting at the bottom and working their way up, after meeting strict elegibility criteria. But in the 21 st century, amid ever greater competition for top talent, should the forces be embracing neurodiversity,...

Amid a swirl of questions and conspiracy theories about the apparent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a plane crash in Russia, one fact is clear. The mercenary group which has been doing the Kremlin’s dirty work for a decade has lost its founders and top team. Professor Michael Clarke explains what it means for the war in Ukraine and why the group, branded a threat to the UK by MP’s, will not b...