Military

A New Zealand naval ship that sank after smashing into a coral reef in the South Pacific was left on autopilot, an inquiry has found.

An interim report into the incident said human error was to blame for the sinking of HMNZS Manawanui, the first ship that New Zealand has lost since the Second World War.

Yvonne Gray, the vessel’s British-born captain, is originally from Harrogate, Yorkshire, and previously served in the Royal Navy before moving to New Zealand with her wife.

She became the target of online trolling in the wake of the £48-million ship’s sinking on Oct 5, prompting New Zealand’s defence minister to criticise “armchair admirals” and stress that Commander Gray’s gender was not to blame.

However, the report has revealed that the crew failed to realise the vessel was on autopilot. They wrongly believed that its failure to respond to direction changes was because the thruster control had failed.

Sigh.

Rybar, another prominent pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, said that as well as providing inaccurate reports, Col Gen Anashkin had thrown poorly prepared and ill-equipped units into battle, unnecessarily killing hundreds of men for little apparent tactical gain.

So Russian tactics haven’t changed since 1942 then? Since 1915, even since 1812?

A senior Russian general has been sacked for faking reports of battlefield successes in Ukraine, according to Russian media and war bloggers.

At least this time there seems to be at least some mild disapproval.

Russian training of infantry has always been appallingly, horrendously, bad. A great belief in quantity not quality….

The departments have informed military parents they will receive more information about the CEA uplift ahead of the tax raid coming into force on Jan 1 2025.

The internal memo to military families earlier this week admitted the Government will only be able to offer military families “some protection” from fee increases.

“Whilst the CEA cap uprating will provide some protection from fee changes as a result of the VAT exemption being lifted, the parental contribution may also increase [if] schools choose to pass this on,” the memo said. “Some claimants may need to consider this before the policy takes effect.”

No, it’s worse than not paying the higher fees:

Budget documents said the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA), a form of taxpayer-funded support to pay up to 90 per cent of service families’ private school fees, will instead receive extra funding.

The Government, however, has not yet spelt out how much this will be

It’s ignorant twattery.

Sure, you can say no upgrade in hte subisdy to oay fees. Tehrefore kids change schools. OK, maybe not a good idea but, you know. Or you can upgrade it. OK.

But months after insisting you’re going to change VAT not to have an answer for the troops? What sort of fuckwit is actually in government these days?

He said: “Over 300,000 miners and their families have been punished to the grave, men who fought in two world wars and helped rebuild the country afterwards.

Mining was a reserved occupation. You couldn’t get conscripted if you were a miner. More than that I think – they’d not accept you volunteering either if you were? In fact you could get conscripted to be sent down the mines…..

A senior female officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) was awarded a £2,000 payout after she was told by male colleagues to “grow a pair”, a High Court judge has revealed.

Squadron Leader Anne Rubery first submitted an official complaint of “bullying and discrimination” in her unit in September 2018, an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) heard.

In the complaint, she alleged that she had been “mistreated, undermined, unsupported and mismanaged in the workplace by her chain of command”.

She also alleged that senior officers used “discriminatory and sexist language”.

Sqd Ldr Rubery’s allegations were dismissed by two Wing Commanders, named only as Wg Cdr Bradley and Wg Cdr Ward, who said she was “ballsy” and that she should “grow a pair”, it was heard.

A RAF investigation was subsequently opened into the comments made by her male colleagues, but it dismissed her complaints, concluding that their comments could be applied to “both genders equally”.

All her allegations of sex discrimination and harassment were dismissed by the Decision Body.

It also found that the comments did not meet the threshold of bullying, adding that Wg Cdr Bradley had made some “poorly judged comments” but they were not discriminatory.

Ombudsmanfound ‘overly masculine culture’
At this stage, Sqd Ldr Rubery received an apology and was told that the RAF would share “lessons” from her complaint to its diversity team, but she was told Wg Cdr Bradley left the service so could not be counselled.

However, she was “dissatisfied” with the outcome of the Decision Body so an Appeal Body was appointed.

The Appeal Body dismissed her case.

Sqd Ldr Rubery, a serving RAF officer of over 30 years, then took her case to the official Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF).

Equiv to Major after 30 years is not “senior”. It is, rather, dead end. You got as far as seniority and (one) exam will take you and have been found wanting for any higher rank. Missed your promotion band and you’ll not be promoted again before retirement (at 55?). That is, good enough not to get fired but a duffer all the same.

That, perhaps, is rather more of this than being told to grow a pair.

A British chip factory involved in sensitive military projects has been nationalised by the Ministry of Defence following warnings that it was at risk of closure.

The Government confirmed on Friday that it had purchased the site in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, from US company Coherent.

The deal is understood to be worth around £20m and will secure around 100 local jobs at the company, which is being renamed Octric Semiconductors UK.

A statement described the factory as the country’s only secure site capable of producing gallium arsenide semiconductors, making it “critical to the defence supply chain and major military programmes and exports”.

Ga/As, yes, OK. But one of the things about defence uses is that they’re always vastly behind the curve. Chips advance in 18 month or so cycles. Well, Si ones do, Ga/As might have its own cycle. Defence projects take 15 years to get going and last for decades. The electronics is always vastly behind that bleeding edge.

So, you know, maybe not as militarily important as all that. On the other hand it’s £20 million, in the current contecxt, pfft.

The Canadian military has admitted that new sleeping bags issued to troops last year were not suited to “typical Canadian winter conditions”.

Sigh.

The British Pacific Fleet, which included vessels from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, had been formed in late 1944 and was the biggest fleet ever assembled by the Royal Navy. It included six major aircraft carriers, four light carriers, two aircraft maintenance carriers and nine escort carriers, with a total of 750 aircraft, as well as five battleships, 11 cruisers, 35 destroyers, 14 frigates, 31 submarines and nearly 100 other warships and supply vessels.

Not sure even the Americans could produce that these days.

Yes, yes, obviously, modern carriers are larger etc. But do they have 6 at sea at one time?

The commander of a nuclear-armed submarine has been sacked after filming a sex video with a junior sailor.

The officer of the Vanguard-class submarine, who was awarded an OBE, had a relationship with a younger sailor while on patrol. The commander was also accused of sharing explicit photographs, The Sun first revealed.

It’s sex up or down the chain of command that’s the real problem.

Labour backs Greens’ call to end ‘emotionally harmful’ Edinburgh Tattoo flypasts

Whose emotions? When?

But now Edinburgh’s Labour council is considering calling for an end to the Royal Military Tattoo RAF flypasts.

The aerial displays have come under attack over claims they cause environmental damage and inflict “emotional harm” on residents.

Scottish Greens have won cross-party support to scrap the flypasts over Edinburgh Castle, with Cammy Day, the Labour council leader, writing to military chiefs to express “concerns” over hitting net zero targets.

Campaigners are now calling for this year’s flypast to be the last.

Oh, the emotions of the people on hte ground. Well, tough tittie really, no?

Not that any of these arguments are to be taken seriously. Just the usual ghaslty types wanting something to whinge about. If it wasn’t this it would be kids playing football in the close.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, has been killed in Tehran

Women struggling to survive in the war-torn Sudanese city of Omdurman say they are being forced to have sex with soldiers in exchange for food.

Depends onm your definition of the word “forced”

More than two dozen women who have been unable to flee fighting in Omdurman said that sexual intercourse with men from the Sudanese army was the only way they could access food or goods that they could sell to raise money to feed their families.

Now that is true.

To get something from the men with guns you’ve got to offer something the men with guns want. That this often is – the men with guns are often young men with guns – some poontang is just one of those things. But it is a transaction of varying levels of distaste, not a “forcing”.

Injured Russian soldiers are being sent back into the line of fire in “meat wave” assaults.

The Ukrainian army has reported capturing Russians already suffering from their wounds sustained in previous attacks.

They had been given minimal medical attention before being sent back to fight.

The tactics show an apparent disregard for foot soldiers as commanders throw thousands of men into the front lines in a slow and grinding summer offensive.

Some Russians have been captured re-entering the battlefield on crutches.

This particular war is not exactly free of the propagandistic arts. So, pinch of salt and all that.

On the other hand the basic Russian attitude toward recruits and troops is pretty vile, so could be. Which doesn;t get us very far, just tells us that if it’s propaganda then they’re using something that’s easy enough to believe.

Former heads of Bolivia’s army and navy arrested over failed coup

The current boats are on Lake Titicaca but they do have a Navy, Admiral and all. No coastline but a Navy.

Part of the argument is that Peru (I think? Maybe Chile?) nicked that coastline a century and more back. And maybe they’ll get it back one day so best be prepared.

BTW, yes, there is a Hungarian Navy. I think so at least – Lake Balaton needs defending after all (poss more important, the Danube).

Dotted among the 1,400 soldiers in the parade on Saturday were soldiers sporting a variety of beards beneath their bearskin hats.

However, the style of grooming differed very little as rules regarding facial hair remained strict.

All the beards had to be “full-set” – with a moustache – and be trimmed neatly off the cheekbone and neck. Bristles had to be thick – not patchy – and the length had to be between 2.5mm and 25.5mm, or between a Grade 1 and Grade 8.

Wonder how they’re going to do the other bit of it?

Traditionally, the Navy was fine with someone having a beard or not. Not so fine with someone growing a beard. So, the actual production of one was limited to either leave or a long cruise (note that this is a generation ago). At which point, “Permission to stop shaving, Sir” and the responsible officer would muse on whether he thought a full beard could be produced in the time to the next port. If yes, then OK. If not, then no.

So, what’s the Army’s equivalent of a cruise – and do they have to ask permission – which can be denied – to grow a beard?

Israeli special forces have freed four hostages held in Nuseirat, central Gaza, as Israeli attacks and airstrikes in the same area killed at least 93 Palestinians, including children, local medics said.

The way The Guardian has that it’s here’s the rescue, over here, then there’s this entirely other thing, over there but just close by, which is the massacre of innocents standing in the street.

Some other – possibly more balanced but who knows – reports have the rescue going on then armed men tuble out of nearby buildings to try to prevent it who then get shot and bombed and so on.

Who to believe, eh?

Man ‘caught with explosives and cyanide in makeshift lab in shed’
Neighbours reported loud bangs and smoke coming from the garden over many years

They do not, in fact, work together. Bang and useful poison are choices, not complements.

Commander ‘Sharkey’ Ward obituary: pilot who played a decisive role in Falklands
A pugnacious fighter known as Mr Sea Harrier who fought the war his own way and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross

My father would have known of him, probably not known him. But the son of someone who served with my father was someone I worked with for a time. And that son had been RN and was one of the fighter controllers in the Falklands. And, well coincidence, right?

But that smallness of British military life:

He only started to thrive after spending three years in Pakistan, after his father was posted to RAF Mauripur in Karachi, where his health improved in the dry climate.

Where the father would have known my grandfather. Quite a number of serving and immediately post-retirement were sent out to set up the varied armed forces of the newly independent nations…..

No grand point to this, other than to point out how small British service life can be. Generations of the same families intertwining perhaps. Which does lead to a thought – if a generation leaves, or doesn’t join, then that’s that whole subsequent family that doesn’t. Something to think about over terms, conditions and the attraction of recruits. Historically, it’s not been going fishing in the general population at all.

Machines may replace crew on Royal Navy’s warships of future
The proposed multi-role support ships could need a crew of about 100, a quarter of the total on today’s vessels

We do, after all, use guns these days rather than boarding and fisticuffs.

Machines replacing human labour is normal.

Israel hits Iran with retaliatory strike

Umm, not good, eh?