Warships Pod

Welcome to the second part of a Warships Pod special, with returning guest Lee Pilgrim and host Iain Ballantyne diving into the state of the Royal Navy today, its decline since the 1990s and where next. Also in this episode, Iain and Lee consider the failure of strategic vision in the UK when it comes to its navy. They ask what can be learned from a crucial oceanic struggle during the Second World...

In the first instalment of a two part discussion host Iain Ballantyne talks to returning guest Lee Pilgrim about the State of the Royal Navy and its decline over the past 20-30 years. Topics they tackle in this initial helping include: the shortage of Type 23 frigates and Type 45 destroyers; Britain’s enduring dependency on the sea; seablindness that sees governments good at lawfare but poor at wi...

Host Iain Ballantyne talks to guests Gary Blackburn and James Bosbotinis about the Iran War, including the Strait of Hormuz struggle, how the conflict could shatter NATO plus what it has revealed about the state of the Royal Navy. Topics also touched on in their lively chat include the American decision to try and coerce the Tehran regime with the use of airpower alone, conceptual confusion at the...

In this episode host Iain Ballantyne talks to guest Steve Kershaw, a former Royal Navy submarine officer, about his amazing career under the sea and his work today helping to bring about the UK’S ‘Hybrid Navy’ transformation. Iain kicks off by asking Steve to explain what led him to choose a naval career in the mid-1980s and why it was the engineering side of the Senior Service that appealed most....

Guest Roger Moorhouse and host Iain Ballantyne discuss the German submarine threat in WW2 in a lively and engrossing chat. Roger is the author of several acclaimed books, including ‘Killing Hitler’ and ‘First to Fight’ and now ‘Wolfpack’, an excellent single volume deep dive into the submarine arm of the Kriegsmarine - Hitler’s navy - and which was reviewed in the November 2025 edition of Warships...

During the second part of a fascinating chat with host Iain Ballantyne, guest Dr James Bosbotinis things kick off by addressing how a future battleship might shape up following President Donald Trump’s call for a new generation of the fighting steel behemoths. James suggests that, rather than following a WW2 pattern, such a 21st Century capital ship could be armed with a huge number of missiles an...

During the first part of a fascinating discussion with host Iain Ballantyne, returning guest Dr James Bosbotinis provides insights into the naval significance of a big military parade in China. Also considered is the current status of the Russian threat and the scale of danger being faced by NATO. More specifically, Iain asks if a recent incident involving the allegedly broken down diesel-electric...

In the second and final part of their discussion defence expert Lee Pilgrim and host Iain Ballantyne resume their survey of the Royal Navy and how to fix it. They ponder the need for a new ‘Dreadnought moment’ under a leader as radical as the legendary Admiral Jacky Fisher who introduced war-winning tech and a new mindset. Fisher pushed through construction of the all-big-gun, steam turbine powere...

In the first of a two-part discussion, defence expert Lee Pilgrim provides some common sense, but possibly provocative, suggestions on how to sort out the mess in which the Royal Navy currently finds itself. In this wide-ranging part one chat Lee considers the current state of the RN - underperforming against the budget given to it - and recommends some radical cures for what ails the Naval Servic...

In this episode host Iain Ballantyne and returning guest Dr Gary Blackburn convene to discuss the substance, or otherwise, of the UK’s recently published Strategic Defence Review (SDR) paper. They also tackle topics relating to the Israel-Iran War, the British reaction to it and also what President Donald Trump may or may not do next. Gary proposes that the UK SDR paper was more of a template than...

Our guest is John Foreman, naval officer and former UK Defence Attaché in Moscow and Kyiv. He provides amazing insights into what it was like dealing with the regime of Vladimir Putin as Russia invaded Ukraine and reflects on other dealings with the Russians, at sea and ashore. Topics discussed include the halcyon days of the old Cold War ending at sea between the Royal Navy and Russian Navy - ami...

In this episode of the Warships Pod guests David Murrin and Dr David Blagden, with help from host Iain Ballantyne, discuss a worldwide struggle in a multi-polar era that is rapidly turning kinetic - from Ukraine, to the Red Sea and Gaza. It may soon burn even hotter should China invade Taiwan and/or the USA attack Iran. A number of topics are discussed during this episode, including the following:...

In this episode of the Warships Pod Dr Gary Blackburn returns to have a chat with host Iain Ballantyne about the impact of the second presidency of Donald Trump. Topics discussed include the transactional fashion in which the returning POTUS runs domestic and foreign policies along with defence matters, plus how he seems intent on creating a tripolar world in which the USA, Russia and China have t...

In the second of our podcast episodes devoted to the State of the US Navy - as it and a troubled world sail into 2025 - guest David Axe chats with host Iain Ballantyne. A range of topics, including many covered in the recently published Warships IFR ‘Guide to the US Navy 2025’, are covered in the discussion. After giving his overall take on the America’s navy David provides his perspective on how...

In the first of two podcast episodes on the State of the US Navy as it (and a troubled world) sail into 2025, guest Dr Emma Salisbury chats with host Iain Ballantyne They look first of all at areas Emma wrote about in the recently published Warships IFR ‘Guide to US Navy 2025’, namely: the USA’s ‘shipbuilding woes’; the future size and composition of the USN; the US Navy and AUKUS - is it mission...

As the United Kingdom strives to maintain a credible strategic deterrent in the face of Russian aggression – including threats from President Vladimir Putin to ‘go nuclear’ due to alleged Western interference in the Ukraine War - our guest on the podcast is Dr David Blagden. Together with podcast host Iain Ballantyne he considers the case for augmenting the UK’s sea-based Trident missile force. Am...

Dr James Bosbotinis draws on his considerable expertise in naval weaponry and the threats they pose, along with offering insights into geopolitical developments that do not augur well for world peace. The discussion with host Iain Ballantyne includes the part played by the US Navy and Royal Navy defending international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden against attack by the Houthi rebels of...

Our guests on this episode of the podcast are Dr Emma Salisbury and Will Freer, who recently wrote a commentary for Warships IFR, headlined ‘How to Achieve a More Lethal Royal Navy’, which was based on their recent report for the Council on Geostrategy. Here they discuss various topics associated with the report with podcast host Iain Ballantyne. They include the Royal Navy’s role today, what ‘bei...

Back for a second discussion of hot topics are guests Dr Gary Blackburn and Dr David Blagden. With host Iain Ballantyne, they weigh up the prospect of European NATO nations being forced to cope with a bigger burden of defence, if a re-elected President Trump decides to to pull American land forces out of the Continent. It is a policy that is being called ‘Dormant NATO’ by some commentators. They a...

Our guests for this episode are Dr Gary Blackburn and Dr David Blagden who, with host Iain Ballantyne, discuss a recent proposal by the UK Government to introduce a new National Service scheme for 18-year-olds. Iain asks if it is just a case of blatant electioneering by the incumbent Sunak administration, which looks set to lose a summer General Election to the Labour Party? Or does the proposal o...

Our guest on this episode is Dr Helen Fry, the author of more than 25 books on the social history of WW2, not least British intelligence activities, spies and the like.  She is a leading authority on many related topics, including on the ‘secret listeners’ who eavesdropped on what enemy Prisoners of War were discussing. This was in order to gain insights into what was going on in the foe’s war eff...

In part two of their discussion, Warships Pod host Iain Ballantyne and guest Doug Littlejohns touch on numerous things, not least nuclear deterrent matters. As in the previous episode, the situation during the Cold War is compared with today’s, including the problem of Royal Navy submarines that carry the deterrent becoming elderly and badly in need of replacement. Doug recalls his role in selling...

In the first part of a discussion with Captain Doug Littlejohns, who commanded a nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine against the Russians during the old Cold War, the primary topic is whether or not we are on the brink of World War Three. Doug provides insights gained when he played key roles tasking NATO submarines during 1980s spikes in tension and also from working in the corridors of power...

A National Audit Office (NAO) report on ‘The Equipment Plan 2023 - 2033’ in the UK makes for grim reading, revealing a massive so-called ‘black hole’ in the Defence budget, which means there is apparently no money for key projects, including future warships. In part two of the discussion, host Iain Ballantyne and guests Gary Blackburn and James Bosbotinis weigh up the shortfall in funding. They al...

This episode begins with a discussion by host Iain Ballantyne and guests Dr Gary Blackburn and Dr James Bosbotinis about the bid by Venezuela to annex a major part of neighboring Guyana. How might navies attempt to prevent escalation as the communist client state of Russia and Iran considers its next move against an oil-rich Commonwealth nation? How the Venezuelan Navy stacks up against Guyana’s f...