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OCEAN GREYHOUNDS

Adrian's writing is found on the book shelves of discerning people on both sides of the Atlantic.

Both Dick Nesbitt-Dufort and Adrian Hill are published authors. Dick's father wrote a book about his experiences as a special operations pilot flying agents into Occupied France. Dick has edited and produced the memoirs of a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. Adrian has written novels about espionage set in South Korea and Switzerland and remains the only British diplomat to have written part of the history of the US Department of State. When not organising sky tours he's working on a novel set during the height of the Vietnam War.

These books are on sale through Parapress based in Tunbridge Wells.

Parapress

For those interested in the Vietnam War copies of  'Escape with Honor' written together by Ambassador Francis ' Terry ' McNamara and Adrian may be found via this link to the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training in Washington DC.

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When Adrian Hill served as a diplomat one of his most rewarding jobs was Director of British Information Services across Canada. At one stage he gave Britain's messages across the United States as well. Apart from network and local television and radio broadcasts a key part of his job was to brief and often write editorials for the hundreds of newspapers across North America, concentrating on foreign news. Most newspapers in North America view the World from a continent which could get along comfortably without anyone else - and the US/Canadian border is a surprising obstacle. Henry Ginsberg of the New York Times once challenged Adrian to find any Canadian news in his own paper. At that time Henry was their correspondent in Ottawa - he returned to New York City as the Foreign Editor and the Canadians featured more often!

Adrian's editorial contributions with a British slant proved highly popular right across North America so alongside these touring and history pages we opened this editorial page. Here we try to bring some historical perspective to the latest political and military events around the World. Military experience as a paratrooper came in handy as a diplomat. Adrian knows Afghanistan, Pakistan and India from his very first overseas posting as a diplomat serving at the British Deputy High Commission in Lahore and subsequent return visits. His career took in Cyprus and the Near East, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, South Korea and Jamaica and most places along the flight path.

Apart from witnessing huge armoured and airmobile battles from the Near East to the Far East, Adrian studied campaigns and battlefields on four continents, has written three books and articles for the Royal United Services Institute Journal.

This news page has a complimentary purpose. Although this website is about our tours we also try to promote the heritage of the Atlantic Charter and the Special Relationship. The United Nations and NATO owe their existence to the Atlantic Charter, unique among treaties in that there were no signatures, just messages to their respective cabinets from Churchill and Roosevelt on board a battleship and a cruiser anchored off Newfoundland - plus mutual trust at a time of great danger for the democracies.

Updates will occur when the news makes one worthwhile. Articles on British defence matters are very much works in progress and frequently edited, improved, modified to reflect new conversations and fresh information. All views expressed are personal reflections based on talking to people involved in events and over thirty years military and diplomatic service in the world's hot spots including three wars.

 

Adrian Hill

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FUTURE BRITISH DIPLOMACY AND DEFENCE STRATEGY

BRITISH NAVAL POWER

' OCEAN GREYHOUNDS '

 

' When you're on the phone to Downing Street this morning, Adrian, remind the lady who ordered all those ships that she's sending south.'

The late former Prime Minister Jim Callaghan ( who served in the Royal Navy) discussing events with Adrian over a coffee in an Ottawa hotel during spring 1982.

 

HMS Richmond firing a Harpoon missile. After the South Atlantic War the Royal Navy replaced its utility Type 21 Frigates with the larger and powerfully armed Type 23 Destroyer.

TYPE 23 DESTROYERS

The Duke class - all were named after British dukes - avoided design mistakes revealed by combat in the South Atlantic. The Dukes' defence against missiles and aircraft has three layers - Seawolf vertical launch missiles and Phalanx for close quarters plus smaller mini-guns. Harpoon gives the ship a 70 mile reach and its 4.5 inch gun has a range of nearly 17 miles with a secondary role against air attack. A Merlin helicopter combined with the ship's highly efficient sonar extends its defences beyond submarine attack range.

Two of the Type 21s ( replaced by the Dukes ) were lost around the Falkland Islands and the remaining six now serve with the Pakistan Navy. One must bear in mind that the Type 21s only partly replaced the 26 strong Leander Class themselves replacing the 21 strong Rothsay Class. Both older classes served with the Falklands Task Force and HMS Plymouth took a bomb through her funnel while assisting a Type 21 already on fire after an air attack.

Sixteen Dukes were commissioned - three were sold to Chile after the 2004 Defence Review, one ship only eight years old. This scandalous waste of the tax payers' money combined with severe damage to our nation's defence, remains breathtaking nearly a decade afterwards. No offence to our long standing friendship with Chile - but the sales were enforced by the Treasury at least a decade, possibly two decades before they made any sense, and represent Gordon Brown as Chancellor venting his own personal hostility towards our armed forces, most of all it seems, the Royal Navy. 

HMS Southampton and HMS Iron Duke taking heavy seas.

HMS Somerset making a high speed turn - from the bow are the 4.5 gun, vertical launch battery for Seawolf and the quadruple launchers for Harpoon. Amidships, slightly forward, either side of the funnel are close-defence AAA positions - at the time of this photo 30mm cannon but nowadays Phalanx. Decoy and chaff launchers are fitted along the deck and super-structure. Decoys are small missiles that lure and confuse a sea-skimming missile. Chaff is a round which bursts near the ship, throwing out clouds of plastic shards to confuse the radar homing on a sea-skimming missile. Tubes for anti-submarine torpedoes are fitted aft.

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HMS Manchester an older Type 42 destroyer armed with the long range Sea Dart missile against aircraft though fitted with Phalanx close defence weapons against sea skimming missiles.

TYPE 42 DESTROYERS

Two sister ships were lost during the South Atlantic War - HMS Sheffield destroyed by fires after a hit by an Exocet and HMS Coventry sunk by bombs - and Phalanx would have saved both ships. Once the task force reached southern winter obvious problems arose that the scientists had over-looked. To give only one example - Admiral Sam Salt described to me how his sailors in HMS Sheffield regularly poured kettles of boiling water over the mechanical parts of the Sea Dart missile launcher to stop them freezing up. 

HMS Nottingham has been decommissioned this spring after 700,000 miles - that's 1.3 million kilometres for those brought up as metric children. She will be replaced by a new Daring Class Type 45 destroyer. I hope that the Royal Navy mothball HMS Nottingham until an order is placed for a further 4-6 Daring Class destroyers bringing the Type 45 fleet up to the original planned 12 ships. Argentina objects - or rather Madame Kirchner and her party - object to oil exploration around the Falklands. There are plenty of potential oil fields along the coast of Argentina but no big oil company trusts Madame Kirchner, given the record of nationalising companies owned by foreign investors. In this sense she really is a second Evita - when the Perons rose to power some 40% of investment in Argentina came from British companies. The Perons nationalised almost all this investment. We may need a stronger naval presence around the islands and in the South Atlantic for many more years. 

HMS Chatham a Type 22 frigate though larger than a Type 42 destroyer. Again the lessons of the South Atlantic are visible from stem to stern. The 4.5 gun added on the later and lengthier ships forward of the Seawolf battery, astride the bridge superstructure are quadruple harpoon launchers and along the deck, either side of the funnel, Goalkeeper similar to the Phalanx system. The after Seawolf battery is visible on the hangar roof.

TYPE 22 FRIGATES

These ships also are heavily armed for general warfare. Type 22s carry the Sea Wolf close defence missile against both aircraft and missile attack. Harpoon and the 4.5 gun provide longer reach and Goal keeper last ditch protection. Their anti-submarine weapons combined with helicopter reach and long range sonar make them dangerous opponents. Human skills play a significant part in exploiting their power. The navy retains four Type 22 frigates - and five Type 42 destroyers. All these ships should transfer to an active reserve fleet as their replacements are commissioned. The thirteen Duke class Type 23 destroyers will give several more years service and after phased replacement also should join the active reserve.

Sleek thoroughbred lines, few right angles, a specially cooled funnel all contribute to a stealthy destroyer with the radar signature of a small fishing boat - HMS Daring weighs 7,500 tons fully loaded.

TYPE 45 DESTROYERS - HMS DARING - LATEST NEWS

 As pictured above, she's a superb streamlined hull - she reached 30 knots in 70 seconds and went past 31.5 knots on trials - with a 4.5 gun and two 30mm guns mounted either side of the funnel. HMS Daring has been fitted with Phalanx close defence systems - she's off to the Gulf and patrolling the waters around Iran. BAE are working on a 6.1 gun with assisted rounds. This would provide a reach of 70 miles against surface targets - and possibly supersede the Harpoon missile system. Such a large hull also has room for the Tomahawk cruise missile and this would make these destroyers capable of strategic deployments.

With its radar mounted 30 metres above the sea surface, HMS Daring can search 400 kilometres radius - 250 miles - track 1000 targets and engage 10 at the same time. Her missiles are steerable in flight. The guided missile system works against aircraft and missiles and has been renamed Sea Viper. This passed its first trials in the Mediterranean as the photos below of HMS Dauntless - courtesy of the Royal Navy - bear witness.

 

Three masts crammed with a great amount of electronic gadgetry.

 

Sea Viper burns a path through the Mediterranean sky.

Once worked up with all the radar up and running she will be the most modern ship in the world - able to defend London from aircraft and missile attack - but she needs Phalanx or Goalkeeper for her own point blank defence. This has been put right on Daring - we'll have to look at the photos of Dauntless as she heads south to patrol the Falkland Islands. Ideally a pair of Type 45's should patrol the Falklands with a nuclear submarine to deal with surface ships and submarine threats. 

The original pair of 30mm cannons are ideal for dealing Somali pirates but not much help against Exocets. What is the point of saving comparative peanuts after spending hundreds of millions - unless the ships were built to safeguard jobs before a tough election rather than defend this country. Nor is a helicopter enough against submarines, torpedo tubes should be added. 

Modern submarine launched torpedoes are fast and long range. Russia's latest torpedo is designed to reach speeds of 200 knots and run for 7-8 nautical miles. Britain's modern Spearfish torpedo has a top speed of 80 knots and a range of 30 nautical miles. The torpedo runs fast to close on its target then slows for accuracy over the last stretch before impact. Helicopters allow a surface force to detect and engage hostile submarines beyond torpedo range. The British air-launched torpedo - Stingray - has a speed of 45 knots and a range of 4 nautical miles. Stingray was designed to out-run submerged nuclear submarines. Although big helicopters operate in pretty awful weather, often conditions that ground fixed wing aircraft, their mother ship also needs torpedo tubes as a fail-safe.

There is enough space on board for the ship to take on 60 Royal Marine commandos and their equipment.

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HMS Daring and her Type 45 sister ships were designed as replacements for the fourteen Type 42 destroyers but that scheme predates the recent Labour government selling off new Type 23 destroyers. Twelve of the Type 45 destroyers were ordered but this programme was reduced to eight ships, then six, greatly increasing the unit cost because the development work is spread over half as many vessels. Building the whole original twelve ship order would bring down the unit price significantly while providing a strong core of powerful ships for protecting carrier and amphibious task forces, carrying out independent strategic operations, commerce protection and global police duties. Building the full programme would also bring the navy's beleaguered destroyer and frigate force up to a comparatively safer 34 ships - 25 active and 9 reserve.

At the same time a decision is long overdue for a design to replace the Type 22 and Type 23 ships and this will become the Type 26. Design work at long last has started. Any replacement vessel needs the range and general fighting power seen on the present Type 22 and Type 23 ships. The new government's defence team suggest that a cheap and cheerful escort will meet the navy's requirements. This idea although financially well intentioned, frankly would turn back the clock thirty years and take the navy straight back to the flawed Type 21 concept - discarding the lessons of the Falklands and the obvious strengths of the Type 23 Destroyers. The public are too young to know about the shocks of Dunkirk and Crete when the Luftwaffe sunk and damaged half our warships; but many vividly remember the same shock when a ship was lost in the South Atlantic. I don't believe they want to see our ships once again sent to war lacking the most basic defences and sunk with the inevitable loss of life. Give the public an honestly presented choice between £ 9 billions for the aid budget and £ 9 billions for the navy and I suspect they would chose the navy.

The voters made their choice of government two years back although it didn't turn out quite how they expected. Let's see if they're given clear alternatives - throw more borrowed money at corrupt regimes who sell their countries' raw materials to China or restore the navy and our safety. There is no cheap or easy option. The navy requires commitment, energy, investment, above all widespread public support to enforce loyalty and common sense on the part of the present and future governments.

Back to the Future - DDG 1000 named after the distinguished Admiral Elmo Zumwalt - showing classic alternative layouts for her gun turrets.

USS ZUMWALT

Across the Atlantic the US Navy may extend the Arleigh Burke class guided missile programme rather than order 32 of the new Zumwalt class destroyers - at 14,500 tons fully loaded more akin to heavy cruisers. Zumwalt resembles a Dreadnought with her ram bow. No doubt the admirals will fight their corner and more than three Zumwalt destroyers join the fleet. With land attack as the prime mission these new warships represent a leap forward as regards stealth technology and naval gun design. Ultimately the US Navy intend to fit the ships with rail-guns - technology invented 90 years ago but only now really practical. Rail-guns work through electric pulses propelling non-explosive rounds at several times the speed of sound over ranges beyond 200 miles. Rates of fire around ten rounds a minute are regarded as well within the possible. The US Navy has chosen Rolls-Royce gas turbines to power these new destroyers at 30 knots best speed. Questions remain about their sea worthiness in heavy weather but the US Navy and the contractors remain calm!

REACH AND NUMBERS

Although half the Zumwalt's weight, HMS Daring, when fully armed with her SAM missiles, new 6.1 gun, Phalanx, Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles, plus anti-submarine torpedo tubes will provide the Royal Navy with a smaller version of the Zumwalt concept at a quarter of the unit cost. As described above, the original plan for twelve Daring class destroyers provides the Royal Navy with a powerful core force able to switch from task force protection to independent strategic missions - right across the spectrum from diplomacy and disaster relief to cruise missile bombardment. Twelve ships met the common sense need for a one for one replacement of the fleet - at that time - of eight Type 42 destroyers and four Type 22 frigates. Thereby the Royal Navy maintained its core anti-aircraft surface force though with much improved general fighting power. With only six new Daring class ships the only way to maintain twelve is by keeping the older warships replaced to form the core of an active reserve fleet - although these ships have sailed a lot of miles.

What about those replacements for the Type 22 frigates and Type 23 destroyers? Another option is to copy the US Defence Secretary's plan and build a modernised version of the same design. Whether this will happen is another matter. Donald Rumsveld as Defence Secretary messed around with the US Army because during his previous office as Navy Secretary he lost a fierce battle with the admirals over the aircraft carrier programme. Robert Gates has proved more wily though still cautious. At the moment the aircraft industry is counter-attacking the Secretary. In the long run it makes more sense to design and build new ships with better general war fighting powers though less demanding of manpower. This latter factor significantly reduces the overall cost of the programme during the operational life of the warship class.

Various designs have been considered for the Type 22 and Type 23 replacement now known as the Type 26 and the final size of the vessel partly depends on whether it's intended to carry one large helicopter or two with the increased amount of hangar space required. Apart from this question a considerable amount of firepower is possible on a comparatively small warship - as the present Type 23s prove. Germany ( see photos below ) has built some useful destroyers and frigates which are well armed and carry the big Merlin helicopters. Another lesson from the Falklands is that pairing ships - one with long range SAMs and another with close defence weapons - does not work. The idea was born of desperation and employing a Type 22 as goalkeeper for anti-aircraft destroyers and aircraft carriers highly dangerous although Admiral Sandy Woodward had no other choice. Any new design must carry all round defence. Another factor is range - generally all Royal Navy ships have a cruising range of 7,000 miles. Smaller coastal defence ships are useful but the need is for an ocean-going warship. A one for one replacement programme of the original fleets results in thirty new destroyers and frigates bringing the modern surface force to 25 warships, indeed 47 ships during emergencies if all 22 older warships form a reserve fleet.

 

FGS Niedersachsen arriving in New York and the FGS Bayern.

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VOLUNTEER RESERVE FLEET

Forming the replaced Type 23s into the reserve would bring our pool of frigates and destroyers for emergencies a further 13 warships. That would give the Royal Navy at least 47 destroyers and frigates available for a major emergency but to do this requires the creation of an active reserve fleet - including the manpower. Present plans allow that some Type 23 destroyers will remain in service until 2036 and as there is no decision over the replacement design, this date will slip. In other words, should some Type 23s become replaced earlier, these warships as part of a reserve fleet would contribute to our defence into the middle of this century.

Despite government, schools and media, there is great enthusiasm for all things maritime in these islands. Look at our splendid Olympic Team sailors who regularly win gold. Every summer 22,000 yachts sail through Spithead on the Round the Island Race. Finding enough qualified and enthusiastic younger people to join such a reserve fleet would not take very long. Moreover, plenty of excellent younger officers who have left the navy through frustration, I feel confident, would happily volunteer for the reserve fleet, thereby safeguarding the taxpayers' original investment in their very expensive training. Because many of these young people, now lost to the navy, went to university at our expense to obtain qualifications in mechanical and nuclear engineering.            

Gas turbines made possible instant starts rather than 24 hour delays while building up steam pressure. Nuclear power provides unlimited range. However, naval forces still move at the same speed as the Grand Fleet in 1914. Designs for the Type 26 ought to reflect the ambition that naval operations should move into a new zone for cruising and best speeds. That would broaden the options for intervention.

Even the United States has limits on its military airlift. The US 82 Airborne Division keeps a company group at 2 hours readiness but to send off a battalion group requires 24 hours and a brigade group 48 hours - these are times for launching an opposed parachute assault with no integral helicopter assets. In other words, jumping into somebody's backyard, armed with whatever you can strap onto your body and shove in a kit bag.

A naval task force cruising at 30 knots covers 700 miles a day. A week would find them almost 5,000 miles from home base. Now the US Navy has a nuclear powered fleet for this very reason and their super carriers travel at 35 knots - over 950 miles a day and over 6,650 miles a week. Anyone who has planned a long range airborne operation will recognise that given calm weather the US Navy could leave San Diego early on Monday with whole Marine Corps divisions embarked and hit the viper wine bars of Pyongyang on Saturday night. Unlike an airborne force on the same mission, dependent on the US 8th Army smashing its way through the DMZ to link, the Marines would have no such worries - their supporting task force would cruise over the horizon and provide air strikes and logistic support around the 24 hours.

More about intervention operations and aircraft carriers at WORLD NEWS THREE.

Articles to be continued soon.......

CLICK THE PRESIDENT'S PHOTO FOR LATEST ON WORLD NEWS

 

                           

             FUTURE BRITISH STRATEGY                                                          NAVAL AIR POWER            

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Approaching Pegasus Bridge captured by glider attack on D Day. We fly along all the British, Canadian and American Assault beaches and over the Pointe du Hoc before landing in France. Our ground tour is by comfortable car and easy walking through Saint Mere Eglise and the American drop zones to Omaha Beach, Utah Beach and the Pointe du Hoc. We fly back the same evening unless you wish to enjoy our popular overnight in Normandy.

Click the photo above to.....

HAVE A LOOK AT OUR NORMANDY D DAY AIR & LAND TOURS

Anyone taking our Normandy sky tour finds it helpful to have an idea of the scale of Operation Overlord. Their Finest Hour, Map Table and The Special Relationship are worth a glance to understand some of the events before America's entry into the Second World War. Many visitors to our website probably know much of what is explained on these pages. Please grant us your forbearance. We try to ensure that those less familiar with the background to D Day, particularly the young, start their tour with a sound conception of what was at stake thereby making their time with us all the more worthwhile and enjoyable.

 

OUR VIRTUAL D DAY TOUR HAS LOTS OF PHOTOS OF THE LEGENDARY SITES TODAY

SEE ALSO

CHURCHILL COLLEGE  CAMBRIDGE

AIRBORNE FORCES              THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP                MAP TABLE            ONE MAN BEHIND THE PLAN 

             THEIR FINEST HOUR        TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH         OUR SKY GUIDES          STOP PRESS          OUR TOURS PAGE

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NEW - SPECIAL OFFER - PRIVATE TOURS FOR SWISS

The soaring Swiss franc makes tours of Britain an absolute bargain at the moment. Yet friends from Bern return disappointed with their hotels and tours where obvious places are left out by the tour organiser. Rather like visiting Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower but leaving out Notre Dame.

Adrian has been married to Swiss for 35 years and both his children are British and Swiss. Not only does he speak Schweizerdeutsch and French but understands what Swiss expect when on holiday. There is no need to pay high rates for the so-called best hotels when you can be much more comfortable and eat better food at those smaller family hotels that thrive because of reputations passed around by word of mouth. Why not benefit from our years of experience and knowledge from taking overseas visitors on private road tours all over the British Isles.

If you are Swiss and would like us to organise a tour of the UK by road, just email through the link on our home page.