Best bits: 2020 highlights from the air, land and sea desks

In this episode of the Weekly Defence Podcast, we say goodbye to 2020 by looking back at some of our best coverage of the year across the land, air and sea domains.

Naval desk coverage and worldwide defence news [00:38]

News Editor Ben Vogel highlights some of the main stories written by Shephard’s contributors reporting from outside the UK.

- In March, we reported on deployment of a new Turkish radar jamming system to northern Syria in support of operations against Kurdish insurgents. Will NATO allies learn lessons for EW against Russia?
- The annual Russian Victory Day parade was delayed by COVID-19 but when it eventually went ahead, we looked at some of the new, old and upgraded capabilities on display in Moscow.
- Hypersonic weapons have hit the headlines this year: in April, for instance, the USAF stated its intention to upgrade a number of B-1 Lancers with the ‘Arrow’ AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).

In the naval domain, Senior Editor Naval Richard Thomas skims through some of his 2020 copies.
His top stories include:
-  Ongoing EU operations in the Mediterranean, in the form of Operation Sophia and Operation Irini, are intended to help counter one of the most significant maritime crises in recent history.
-   In May, a statement from the UKMTO reported a piracy attack to a British flagged tanker in the Gulf of Yemen.
-   In October the UK MoD had revealed that the Fleet Solid Support ship programme will restart in Q1 2021 to ‘revitalise British shipbuilding’. The rescue strategy for UK shipbuilding is already in progress, after  Infrastrata bought the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. 

Air desk 2020 highlights [22:21] 

Air Editor Tim Martin reports on updates in the F-35 programme, including the US FMS for the UAE.

Tim also looks back to an interview in March with the Swedish Defence Minister, in which they discussed the Swedish defence industry and  potential complications for future equipment acquisitions.

Land desk 2020 highlights [42:25] 

Land Reporter Flavia Camargos Pereira looks at her extensive coverage of ground forces programmes both in the UK and abroad. 

She highlights the success and failures of the UK’s armoured vehicle programmes, including their omission from  the UK government announcement of an extra £16.5 billion for defence spending over the next four years; discusses the advantages of EU collaborative defence programmes; and brings us up to date on two of the largest US efforts: the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle and the Robotic Combat Vehicle.