BFBS Sitrep

Kim Hughes was a driver in the Army who’d already quit once and was feeling disheartened again. But a moment watching a colleague prepare for a potentially deadly duty in Northern Ireland finally awakened his ambition. He tells James Hirst how that new found drive, a lot of classroom graft, and a childhood fascination with fireworks led to a George Cross for selfless bravery while disarming more t...

Ryan Ramsay spent three years at the helm of a Royal Navy attack submarine, before teaching the next generation of leaders. But he gives big credit to the US Navy, and one particular leader, for helping him reach command after 20 years at sea. Ryan tells James Hirst why a transatlantic exchange was the moment that made him, with insights into leadership styles, the importance of supporting familie...

When the RAF opened fighter pilot roles to women Mandy Hickson was one of the first in line. The powers that be told her she was a test-case, and a key flying exam threatened to prove their prediction of failure correct. But a moment of inspired teamwork, cycling with her fellow student pilots, transformed her struggles into a pass with flying colours. Mandy tells Kate Gerbeau how that moment made...

At the age of 23 Chip Chapman not only went to war for the first time, but also had to lead his platoon into the first fighting of the decisive battle in the Falklands war. When Argentinian forces lost at Goose Green they surrendered and the islands were liberated, but it had been a hard fight that could have gone either way. Chip tells Kate Gerbeau how Goose Green taught him the importance of dis...

Andrew Fox always knew he wanted more from his Army career. But poor eyesight kept him out of the Army air corps, and a bad luck injury ended any hope of Special Forces selection. He didn’t give up though, and his moment came when he took on another of the Armed Forces toughest selections. P-Company to join the Parachute Regiment. Andrew talks to Kate Gerbeau about passing the selection and finall...

Neil Greenberg is a world leading expert, and practitioner, in military mental health. He signed up to the Royal Navy while still in medical school, then travelled the world on ships and submarines, not just attending to crew health but getting stuck into everything else required of an officer to keep a vessel operating successfully. But it could have been very different, had he not heard a radio...

Liz McConaghy joined the RAF on her 19th Birthday and flew on Chinooks for seventeen years. She helped save hundreds of lives on MERT rescue missions for dangerously-wounded troops, during her ten tours of Afghanistan. But saving others lives left a big impact on Liz’s own, and months after leaving the RAF she attempted to end her life. Liz tells Kate Gerbeau why, the moment she woke up in hospita...

Julian Thompson had already served thirty years in the Royal Marines when a phone call, in the dead of night, would come to define his career. It brought news of an imminent invasion, and orders to lead 3 Commando Brigade more than seven-thousand miles across the Atlantic, in just a matter of days, to liberate the Falkland Islands. He tells Kate Gerbeau how his first reaction to the call was horro...

Andy McNab faced the IRA in Northern Ireland, served on numerous SAS covert operations around the world, and was captured behind enemy lines in Iraq. But he tells Kate Gerbeau the real moment that made him was reading a Janet & John children’s book at the age of 16. It unlocked the Army career which took him away from a life of teenage crime, and eventually led him to becoming a bestselling au...

Rosie Stone was recording an audio diary at the moment she came under fire on a patrol in Southern Afghanistan. This was her first experience of a combat situation after more than eight years service in the Army. But it became a very different learning experience as she was given shelter and tea by local Afghan women while a gun battle raged behind their compound wall. Rosie shares her recording o...

On the 16th of December 2008 HMS Endurance suffered a very sudden and catastrophic flood in the South Atlantic. Tom Sharpe was in temporary command of the Royal Navy ice breaker as her engine room filled in less than half an hour, and she lost power in turbulent seas. Tom tells Kate Gerbeau why he ignored advice from the UK to abandon ship, how he led his crew to save the ship from sinking, and ho...

“Please don’t look back, more dangerous times lie ahead which means you need to look forward… so that we are ready if war chooses us”.  So says the head of the Army, General Sir Roly Walker, in this special edition of Sitrep explaining what 2025 may bring. Kate Gerbeau and Professor Michael Clarke tackle some of the biggest questions for our defence. Could fighting in Ukraine end, and might B...

Sitrep’s Simon Newton is back from the frontline of Ukraine’s war with Russia.  He shares stories from troops who led the push into Kursk,  how British Challenger 2 tanks are used (and extremely well hidden), and the challenges of even reaching the frontline. The UK led Joint Expeditionary Force is a British defence success, according to a new study.  But the author Ed Arnold joins...

Two architects of the Strategic Defence Review have lifted the lid on how they’re working on the plan for the future of our Armed Forces. But when they tell MP’s one aim is to get it “as least wrong as possible” on predicting future conflicts, does that inspire confidence?  Kate and Mike are joined by Sitrep’s Sian Grzeszczyk Melbourne to analyse what’s been revealed, and what is still shroud...

Sitrep talks to the outgoing Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute, Dr. Karin von Hippel RUSI has contributed to UK defence & security thinking for almost two centuries, and under Dr. von Hippel’s leadership it’s help the country face threats ranging from the Covid pandemic to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Before leading RUSI she was a key figure at the US State De...

Drones buzzing airbases and HMS Queen Elizabeth. Undersea cables cut.  Mysterious parcel fires at air-freight depots.  These have all been described as hybrid, grey-zone, or sub-threshold attacks against the UK and it’s allies. But if they are all below the threshold of an act of war, where does that threshold lie? Sitrep explores the use of deniable attacks, from disruption and disinfor...

From testing whether we’re ready for war to checking whether forces families get the support they need, the Commons Defence Committee plays a key role in overseeing our defence. Kate Gerbeau talks to the man chosen by his fellow MP’s to chair the committee in this Parliament. Tan Dhesi has a background in maths, management science, and running his own construction business. So what does he bring t...

BFBS Forces News presents ‘Great British Battle Commanders’ hosted by Professor Michael Clarke, Sitrep’s defence analyst, assessing the leadership and strategy of Admiral Lord Nelson with Dr Gregory Fremont-Barnes, author of several books on Nelson and his Navy, and senior lecturer in war studies at RMAS. The interview is recorded in Nelson’s cabin on HMS Victory in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. N...

Russia thought it would conquer Ukraine in 10 days, Ukrainian resolve is still preventing that.  But after more than a million casualties on both sides, thousands of pieces of military hardware destroyed, will it simply come down to which side can outlast the other?   Sitrep’s Simon Newton and Hannah King join us from Kyiv to share how the people, and their resolve, are holding up, while...

The Defence Secretary has announced that more than 30 helicopters will be retired early, along with 5 ships, and 46 drones, all of them he calls ‘outdated capabilities’. Most significant, after years of ‘will they, won’t they’, the Royal Marines amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, get the axe. Critics call it a black day for the Marines but the Defence Secretary insists they have...

BFBS Forces News presents ‘Great British Battle Commanders’ hosted by Professor Michael Clarke, Sitrep’s defence analyst, assessing the leadership and strategy of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery with the former Chief of the Army and former Chief of the Defence Staff, General Lord Richards. The interview is recorded in the D-Day Map Room at Southwick House, outside Portsmouth, which was the ne...

First it was sending ammunition, then troops for the war in Ukraine, now North Korea has signed off on a formal mutual-defence treaty with Russia. NATO’s new Secretary General has called it a threat to our security. Defence researcher Joseph Dempsey, who’s spent years uncovering the secrets of North Korea’s military, explains the risk, and what’s in it for Moscow and Pyongyang. On the Korean penin...

BFBS Forces News presents ‘Great British Battle Commanders’ hosted by Professor Michael Clarke, Sitrep’s defence analyst, assessing the leadership and strategy of Boudica, Queen of the Iceni. The interview is recorded in Colchester Castle, Essex, which was built on the foundations of the Roman Temple that was sacked and burnt by Boudica’s forces in AD 60.

On the campaign trail Donald Trump said Russia should “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies who underspend on defence, while attacking his former top military officer as a “traitor” who should be hanged. Is this going to be the reality of his second term in the White House? And what does it mean for Ukraine - an end to vital military aid or a new determination that Russia can’t be seen t...

BFBS Forces News presents ‘Great British Battle Commanders’ hosted by Professor Michael Clarke, Sitrep’s defence analyst, assessing the leadership and strategy of Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding with aviation historian, Dr Victoria Taylor. The interview is recorded in Dowding’s former office in Bentley Priory, Stanmore, which was Headquarters Fighter Command during the Second World War.