Hamish De Bretton-Gordon

When the internal propaganda collapses, regimes soon follow

The world’s attention is now fixed on a narrow but strategically essential stretch of water: the Strait of Hormuz.

The war in the Middle East grinds on, regardless of what the mercurial occupant of the White House might suggest. From where I stand, having fought in previous wars in the region, it is anything but o...

There’s a dangerous whiff of theatre about US president Donald Trump’s talk of seizing Iran’s uranium. If it’s not a ruse, then it’s a profound misunderstanding of how Special Forces operations actually work.

Ukrainian forces have, by credible accounts, achieved something novel on the modern battlefield: the seizure of a Russian position using only drones and ground-based robotic systems. If confirmed in full, this marks a significant inflection point in the evolution of land warfare.

If symbolism matters, and in Russia it always has, then today’s Victory Day parade on Red Square spoke volumes. The absence of tanks grinding across the sacred cobblestones was not merely an omission; it was an admission.

The perennial obituary of the tank has once again proved premature.

The reason why the defence investment plan has not been published has been made abundantly clear through John Healey’s resignation as defence secretary: the Government has failed to find the money needed to pay for it. No serious person could continue to serve as defence secretary in these circumstances given the state of the Armed Forces and of the world.

Dan Jarvis, the new Defence Secretary, is a former Parachute Regiment officer for whom I have had the highest regard. Although I do not know him particularly well, when I was gathering evidence of Bashar al-Assad’s war crimes in Syria he was one of the few politicians willing to engage seriously with the issue. At a time when much of the international community seemed content to look the other way as Assad gassed innocent civilians, Jarvis’s support mattered.

Any problem involving British Army procurement, or indeed procurement across the Ministry of Defence, is guaranteed to attract headlines – especially at the moment. It is easy ammunition for critics of defence spending and irresistible clickbait for those eager to highlight perceived failures.