BFBS Radio Sitrep

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.

The Allied Reaction Force is the new “tip of the spear” for NATO’s military power. It’s  described as a strategic, high-readiness, force-generated, multi-domain and multinational capability.The ARF replaces the NATO Response Force and Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), as part of a radical update of military structures and plans since the invasion of Ukraine.The idea is to pack more military punch more quickly, and significantly the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) has been delegated authority to deploy the ARF without having to wait for NATO’s decision-making committees to give approval.General Sir James Everard, a former Deputy SACEUR, explains why the ARF matters, how it will work, and the UK’s part in this new force that sits at the very top of NATO’s plans to be able to mobilise up to 300,000 troops if needed.

75 years since NATO was created to defend Europe, Sitrep asks what’s needed to do that job properly today.From organising hundreds of thousands of troops, to digging ditches and ensuring bridges can carry tanks, the challenges are explained by Professor Michael Clarke and Oana Lungescu, a former senior advisor to the NATO Secretary General.Part of the jigsaw is the new Alliance Reaction Force. It’s commander, Lieutenant General Lorenzo D’Addario tells Sitrep how the ARF plans to pack more punch more quickly.And former Royal Navy Commander chooses his ‘moment that made me’, when an engineering mistake flooded his ship and threatened to sink it.

Two Royal Navy minehunters, given to Ukraine last year, are still in UK waters because they can’t get into the Black Sea while the war continues.But Ukraine’s Navy is using them to prepare for when they can start clearing the hundreds of explosives lying on the sea-bed. Sitrep’s Simon Newton has been watching some of that work on Exercise Sea Breeze in Scottish waters.Mark Rutte has been appointed as the next NATO Secretary General, so we ask a former alliance insider what the job involves and what the new leader will bring to the role.And another veteran shares the moment that made them. Professor Neil Greenberg tells Sitrep how hearing a radio interview by chance led him from young medical student to a world respected authority on military mental health via many Royal Navy ships and submarines.

Sitrep analyses the main party manifestos for the general election in which defence has had its highest profile in decades.AI and data collection are promised to bring a revolution to military capability.  But they could also make it harder to work with partners and allies by creating a new “language barrier”, so how do we avoid that?And the 2am phone call ordering a Brigadier to take his men to an unexpected war within days.  Julian Thompson, who led 3 Commando Brigade, in the Falklands shares his story in the first of our new interview series “The Moment That Made Me”.

While North Korea sends hundreds of balloons, loaded with rubbish and manure, across the border, South Korea is setting up giant speakers to blare K-pop music for miles into the North.Sitrep assess the risk of a playground scrap going out of control, and explains why many heavily armed nations indulge in childish tactics when they don’t want an all-out fight.Ukraine has been trying out experimental AI drone technology on the battlefield to lock onto targets by identifying their voice, or avoid Russian jamming.  Olivia Savage from Janes tells us what she’s seen and heard.And former RAF Officer Mike Murtagh shares stories from his time spying on the Kremlin in the 1990s, including fake firefighters, honeytraps and a bear on the loose.

From the wooden horse at Troy to rubber tanks in Dover military deceptions have been central to war for thousands of years.In the lead up to D-Day the allies convinced Germany their assault would be 150 miles away from Normandy. Professor Michael Clarke and Sitrep’s Claire Sadler explain the complex web of deceptions involving radar interference, wooden planes and King George VI.Former Royal Signals commander John Kirby tells Sitrep how he helped deceive Saddam Hussein’s forces during the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, and General Sir Richard Barrons explains how deceptions can still happen in the transparent battlespace which revealed Russia’s invasion plan for Ukraine months before it happened.Plus Christian Andrews, from the cast of Operation Mincemeat, tells us how one of history’s most audacious military deceptions has been transformed into an Olivier Award winning musical.