On the Far East Station With the Royal Navy’s Big, Sturdy Submachine Gun
The photographs in this story were taken during the 1965-’66 deployment to the Far East station by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Barrosa. Barrosa was part of a task force supporting British operations in Borneo during the Indonesia–Malaysia Confrontation, an undeclared war along the border between Indonesia and East... Read more
The Royal Navy Faces a Future Without Anti-Ship Missiles
Right now, the Royal Navy’s main surface-to-surface anti-ship weapon is the over-the-horizon Harpoon missile, which is also the primary equivalent weapon in service with the U.S. Navy since 1977. Back then, the missile soon became a workhorse that provided considerable range compared to other anti-ship weapons at the time.... Read more
The Royal Navy’s Next ‘Frigate’ Is Not a Frigate
In 2023, the Royal Navy hopes the first of its new Type 31 frigates will hit the waves to replace HMS Argyll, the first of 13 Type 23 frigates scheduled to begin retiring that year, with another to retire every year until 2035. The new vessels will add desperately... Read more
Two Supercarriers Meet at Sea — One’s Missing Airplanes
The Royal Navy’s new supercarrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and her battle group met the U.S. Navy’s carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the North Atlantic for an exercise beginning on Aug. 1, 2017. The 10-day exercise Saxon Warrior 2017 “allows both U.S. and U.K. naval forces a chance to... Read more
The Sinking of HMS ‘Victoria’ Led the Royal Navy Astray
Why would any sane naval commander execute an order sure to bring about catastrophe? That’s among the questions historian Andrew Gordon investigates in his masterful work The Rules of the Game. Ostensibly about the 1916 Battle of Jutland, The Rules of the Game is really about the perils of... Read more
‘Iron Duke’ Was the United Kingdom’s Super-Dreadnought
HMS Iron Duke was the second battleship named after the Duke of Wellington. The first, scrapped in 1906, had the distinction of ramming and sinking HMS Vanguard, another Royal Navy battleship. The second Iron Duke was the name ship of the last class of dreadnoughts to enter Royal Navy... Read more
HMS ‘Dreadnought’ Changed Naval Warfare Forever
State-of-the-art battleship armament in the late 19th century involved a mix of large- and small-caliber weapons. Naval architects believed that most engagements would take place within the range of the smaller guns, and that a variety of guns would combine penetrating power with volume. Indeed, some argued that large armored... Read more
Britain’s Nuclear Arsenal Is a Hazardous Mess
Is the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent, the Trident ballistic missile submarine program, worth keeping? For the British Parliament and much of the media, the problem is mainly the vast amounts of money spent to keep it going. According to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, the program’s total cost is... Read more
The British Vampire Fighter Jet Didn’t Suck
HMS Ocean, a British light aircraft carrier, was fog-bound and awaiting an approaching aircraft on Dec. 3, 1945 — so it could make history. The plane was a jet-powered, specially modified de Havilland Vampire piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Eric “Winkle” Brown of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, arguably... Read more

Paul Richard Huard

Contributing Writer

Military historian, free-lance journalist, and contributor to War Is Boring. Areas of expertise: American military history, the Cold War, Russia and the Soviet Union, military small arms.