Latest news article: HMS Scott finally goes back to sea on completion of life extension refit navylookout.com/hms-scott-fi…

A Tridente Class diesel-electric submarine of the Portuguese Navy @MarinhaPT inbound to @HMNBDevonport Plymouth, England. Video courtesy of @StephenJagger4

Welcome the next captain of the Titanic. Former Army officer, @DanJarvisMBE becomes the new Secretary of State for Defence. His main task will be explaining why the government is unwilling to fund its own Defence Review.

3 Type 45 destroyers at sea! @HMSDauntless sailed from Portsmouth today on completion of maintenance period. Via @PortsmouthProud

Ex-HMS Richmond and HMS Iron Duke stripped of equipment in preparation for disposal in the basin at Devonport. When pressed on the status of HMS Iron Duke in Parliamentary question by @BenObeseJecty, the MoD refused to admit she was being scrapped. questions-statements.parliam… Photos @air_maritimepic

The key pars of the John Healey resignation letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

BREAKING: UK military chief writes to PM amid concerns about offer for defence plan, Sky News understands Exclusive from @haynesdeborah ⬇️ news.sky.com/story/politics-…

Wow. The Defence Investment Plan. I have spoken to a number of very senior sources this evening and it is, frankly, a circus behind the scenes. The dates now circulating may well be the plan. But discussions are still live, with changes being made late in the day and not cleanly. I understand that those working around this announcement have seen planning change not day by day but hour by hour over the past few days. Arrangements made in the morning have not survived to the evening. Industry is frozen and earlier today I spent time with a major player in the UGV world, who told me the delay has effectively stopped the customer community from starting anything, because any programme begun now could be cancelled the moment the plan lands. Everything is paused, waiting to see what the document says. In the meantime, they said, the lack of UK spend has forced British-based firms to chase business in Europe, the Middle East and the US instead, in a field the UK once led and has let drift. The settlement between the MoD and the Treasury may be being agreed at some level, but the manner of the past few days suggests rather less is settled than the official line implies. Even by the standards of this process, in which autumn became Christmas and Christmas became spring, the degree of last-minute change is something I have not seen before. As ever, things may shift again and it is a case of believe it when you see it. But this is where things stand as of this evening, this is unprecedented.

Royal Navy Submarine Fleet 1989/90 Resolution Class (SSBN) S22 Resolution S23 Repulse S26 Renown S27 Revenge Valiant Class (SSN) S46 Churchill S48 Conqueror S50 Courageous S102 Valiant S103 Warspite Swiftsure Class (SSN) S104 Sceptre S105 Spartan S106 Splendid S108 Sovereign S109 Superb S126 Swiftsure Trafalgar Class (SSN) S91 Trenchant S107 Trafalgar S110 Turbulent S117 Tireless S118 Torbay S92 Talent S93 Triumph (Building) Upholder Class (SSK) S41 Upholder S42 Unseen (Planned) S43 Ursula (Planned) S44 Unicorn (Planned) Oberon Class (SSK) S10 Odin S12 Olympus (to be paid off 1990) S13 Osiris S14 Onslaught S15 Otter S16 Oracle S17 Ocelot S18 Otus S19 Opossum S21 Opportune S21 Onyx At least 1/3 of the fleet deployed at any one time. Industrial capacity. Full SQEP Perisher course using your own Navy’s submarines. Reduce demand and you reduce industrial capacity to meet it. Today our only active boat is the SSBN deployed on CASD. To have influence in the world, as a maritime nation, you need to be able to deliver effect in the maritime domain. I’m sure someone in MoD will have a nice paper on that 🤷🏻‍♂️

Maintenance complete. Store ship complete. All done whilst remaining operational at all times. The Nation's Flagship is good to go for the next phase of Operation Firecrest. Standby for Lightning ⚡️✈️🇬🇧.

.@HMSDaring looking increasingly shipshape with both Phalanx CIWS now reinstalled. Via @AWenham1

US Navy battleship USS Arkansas (nearest) unleashing a bombardment of German positions in Normandy on this morning - D-Day - 82 years ago. Also firing are French cruisers George Leygues and Montcalm. This is by American war artist Dwight C. Shepler. Image: USNHHC.

UK Prime Minister (allegedly) thinks the Iran War has mucked up his government's spending plans and so the supposed increase in Defence spending has to be cut, while the Defence Secretary is supposedly being castigated for the Strategic Defence Review of a year ago not being fully costed when it comes to the long delayed Defence Investment Plan. Meanwhile 'war footing latest' - standard.co.uk/news/politics… Someone make it make sense 😬

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is not serious about defence says @spectator. Defence Investment Plan one year late. Critical capability gaps in the armed forces - No medium RAF helos - 14 howitzers - No HMS ALBION or BULWARK - No new ship orders under Labour archive.is/2026.06.02-064038…

The Strategic Defence Review was published one year ago today Aspiration without commitment... navylookout.com/implications…

#OnThisDay 50 yrs ago in 1976 the 3rd and final Cod War between the UK & Iceland ended with Iceland winning a 12 mile exclusion zone and a 200 mile economic zone around it's coast, now an international standard. The Royal Navy was heavily committed to escorting UK Fishing Boats.

.@HMSTrent alongside with 🇺🇸USCG Mohawk for Sail 250 New Orleans.

The frigate HMS Campbeltown departs Plymouth on this day in 2004, heading across the English Channel to act as flagship for the Royal Navy's commemorations during D-Day 60. I am aboard the ship (the tiny figure, centre, in the sandy jacket, alongside photographer Tony Carney, my great friend and colleague who sadly crossed the bar about a week ago). At Caen in '04 Campbeltown would host the First Sea Lord. Tony and I were on assignment for @WarshipsIFR We had covered the D-Day 50 events in 1994 for the Evening Herald in Plymouth, on that occasion sailing across in a Type 21 frigate with the Allied commemorative fleet. That time we were put off at Ouistreham, but in 2004 secured accommodation on Her Majesty's Ship throughout. Both great times with Tony and an honour for us to cover them. Tony and I did numerous assignments aboard Royal Navy vessels across years, most memorably spending several weeks in Dubai in 1990 and visiting various ships on task in the Gulf. He didn't go back to that part of the world, but was instrumental in getting me to Brize Norton in 1991 (driving his car very fast through torrential rain, like a motorboat) to deliver me for the RAF flight to the Middle East. Sail on TC.

HMS Warspite and the Battle of Jutland - 110th anniversary post 2: 'As 6am on 1 June came around, Warspite was about to enter a danger zone off Scotland where German submarines traditionally lurked to attack British warships leaving, or returning to, Rosyth. At just after 9.30 am a U-boat fired two torpedoes, which passed down either side of the battleship. Commander Humphrey Walwyn reckoned that'one missed across the bow, the other followed up astern alongside the starboard side.' Warspite increased her speed despite having sustained serious damage the previous day and zigzagged away as vigorously as she could. Lookouts had already been doubled. Officers not on watch, or otherwise engaged, were ordered onto the upper deck to watch out for periscopes and torpedo tracks. Below decks Surgeon Lieutenant Gordon Ellis, who had been busy dealing with the wounded, heard about a torpedo near miss from a sailor who stuck his head around the curtain of the Principal Medical Officer’s cabin, saying it passed ‘only about some ten feet off.’ Ellis observed: ‘This was a new complication and had the effect of making me feel I wanted to go up on deck at once - for what reason I don’t know - but the PMO went on writing with his usual imperturbability so that for sheer shame I felt bound to stay also.’ At 10am a 6-inch gun opened fire at what looked like an attacking U-boat. Surgeon Lt Ellis, who was getting some fresh air, followed the German torpedo track with his eyes. ‘It had come from astern, and, as we watched, the periscope and top of the conning tower of the submarine from which it had been despatched emerged above the surface about half a mile distant on the port quarter. The gun’s crew of the port 6-inch on the forecastle deck immediately fired in its direction, and the shell pitched sufficiently close for the spray to hide all sight of it. It probably wasn’t hit, but at any rate when the spray subsided it was no longer visible...’ Not long after, a submarine periscope was seen right under the battleship’s bows. Despite Warspite’s delicate condition an attempt to ram the U-boat was made - the 6-inch guns opened up too, but hit nothing. At Rosyth Dockyard HMS Queen Elizabeth was immediately moved to allow Warspite to be docked down. She would be under repair for nearly two months. • Compressed & edited account of the battleship in the aftermath of the battle from my 'Warspite' punblished by @penswordbooks #history #Jutland #WW1