BFBS Sitrep

The Defence Secretary has said “we will do our part” as the government prepares us for a “difficult” budget, fuelling speculation that some big defence projects, like new planes or ships, could be axed.Sitrep’s Professor Michael Clarke explains why the Chancellor won’t be making any such announcements, but that that everything is up for consideration, and how difficult choices will have to be made early next year.Also on Sitrep why the Armed Forces are pushing big into e-sports.  We talk to the Army team manager from international Call of Duty tournament Code Bowl.And the recently retired Surgeon General, Major General Tim Hodgetts, talks to us about soldiering, saving lives and how writing war poems helped him with both. 

Major General Tim Hodgetts served 41 years as an Army doctor, rising to become Surgeon General.He’s lived through gunfire and explosions while trying to save lives, from Germany via Northern Ireland, to Afghanistan. Throughout much of that time he also wrote poems as a way to help him process those experiences, but now he’s published some of them in an anthology, “Frontlines and Lifelines”Major General Hodgetts talks to Kate Gerbeau about his poems, the events that inspired them, and his contributions to revolutionising military medicine.

Rishi Sunak wanted one of the UK’s top generals to be the next National Security Adviser, but Keir Starmer has decided to readvertise the job.So far it’s always been a civilian, but would a top-ranking officer make more sense? The UK’s first ever National Security Adviser, Lord Peter Ricketts, tells us what the role involves and shares his thoughts along with ex Royal Navy officer Professor Peter Roberts.Jamie Gordon from BFBS podcast Mavgeeks reflects on the legacy, and hair-raising flying, of one of the founders of the RAF Red Arrows, Squadron Leader Henry Prince.And despite a career where he’s been captured and tortured, decorated for his SAS service, and sold more than 15 million copies of Bravo Two Zero, Andy McNab tells us why reading a “Janet and John” book was the moment that made him.

The UK’s first sovereign military satellite, Tyche, is now in orbit.  It’s the first piece of a planned constellation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance orbiters, at a cost approaching one billion pounds.Former Royal Navy officer Darren Jones, from Tyche’s manufacturer, explains what capability it can offer the Armed Forces, while Professor Michael Clarke and Juliana Suess from RUSI discuss the value of spending in space from a hard-pressed defence budget.Three years since Afghanistan fell, once again, to the Taliban, Sitrep hears one Afghan commando’s story of trying to fight back and eventually escaping.And former submarine captain Ryan Ramsay shares the moment that made him, while serving on exchange with the US Navy.

Is this Chess, or Russian Roulette? Professor Michael Clarke explains why Ukraine has chosen a path with big risks, but also potentially big rewards by taking the fight to Russia on its own turf in Kursk.Sitrep’s Simon Newton analyses the forces and movements of each side as we assess how this could develop and affect the war.75 years since the Geneva Conventions created a rulebook for the conduct of war their effectiveness is facing big questions.  Military ethics lecturer David Rodin sets out the case for new rules that would give different rights to troops depending on whether they are defending their country or attacking another.And decorated high-threat bomb disposal operator Kim Hughes tells us how an unwelcome assignment as a driver in Northern Ireland became the moment that made him.

Sitrep’s looking into the role of the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, after reports of fierce fighting in the West African country of Mali and asking why this conflict has caused a diplomatic row between Mali and Ukraine? And where is the balance between the needs of the military and the needs of the media? Sitrep will discuss that with the former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Sir Richard Shirreff, and Mark Urban, former Defence Editor at BBC Newsnight. And Sitrep has the latest in its series, The Moment that Made Me - this week there’s a powerful account from Major General Chip Chapman about what he learnt during the Battle for Goose Green in the Falklands. 

Most servicemen and women are getting a 6% pay rise, twice the rate of inflation.  The government says it’s the biggest increase for more than 20 years. But in real terms pay has been falling for a decade, and satisfaction with it is at a record low. Sitrep talks to the Defence Veterans and People Minister, Alistair Carns, to ask whether it’s really enough, and why accommodation costs are also rising despite numerous problems. Ukraine appears to have received the first of its long awaited F16 fighter jets.  We explain the challenges it faces to put them into action, and how much difference they could eventually make. And Liz McConaghy tells us why, after loving her seventeen year career on RAF Chinooks, the moment that made her was recovering from an attempt to end her own life.  Parts of her story are distressing, but her fightback is also inspiring.  Information about support is available at https://forcesnews.com/audiencesupport

The new head of the Army has warned the UK has three years to be ready to fight a war or deter conflict.General Sir Roly Walker’s talked about an “increasingly volatile world” but he said war wasn’t inevitable and the Army had "just enough time" to prepare itself.He says he wants to double the Army's fighting power in three years (and triple it by the end of the decade) and he’s stressed the need to modernise quickly using technology like AI.Professor Mike Clarke and former army officer Ed Arnold, who’s now at RUSI, join Kate Gerbeau and reporter Sian Grzeszczyk Melbourne to discuss the plans and the future shape of the battlefield.And in the latest of our series, we hear about the moment that made Andrew Fox after 8 years in the army… passing P Company to earn his maroon beret and become a Para.

From where the armed forces are deployed around the world, to the kit they have for the job, and how they’re looked after, the government has launched a “root and branch” defence review. Two people who’ve been hands on with past reviews, Lieutenant General Sir Nick Pope and Sitrep’s Professor Michael Clarke, explain what will be different about this one and the job that it has to do. Sian Grzeszczyk-Melbourne has been talking to Defence ministers and gives us some insight into their thinking on accommodation problems and a new Armed Forces Commissioner, who’ll be an access-all-areas advocate for service personnel and families. And one of the RAF’s first female fighter pilots, Mandy Hickson, tells us how dogfighting on two-wheels was the moment that made her.

Around one in twenty of the UK’s MPs have military experience, but what do they bring to the job and does it help them make a difference?Sitrep talks to the new MP for Derbyshire North, Louise Jones, and Jonny Ball who hosts the Veterans in Politics podcast and has mentored several of the new intake to Parliament.India’s Prime Minister claims to be neutral on the war in Ukraine, but he’s been pictured hugging President Putin on a visit to Moscow.  So what’s Narendra Modi up to, and should we be worried?And Colonel Rosie Stone shares her “moment that made me” – conversations about motherhood, gardening and football while under fire, for the first time, in Afghanistan.  She tells Kate Gerbeau how it led to her new career as an expert in gender and human security.