1/2 Ex-US Navy frigate Klakring, retired in 2013 and a veteran of the 1980s Tanker War, was the target in an Anglo-US sinking exercise (SINKEX) off NW Scotland. During Ex Atlantic Thunder. Destroyer USS Paul Ignatius fired Standard Missile 6 weapons at the specially prepared Klakring. Video: USN.

New British attack submarine HMS Agamemnon seen here departing the Walney Channel this morning, having yesterday exited the Barrow-in-Furness submarine construction yard. Pic by David Billinge for Warships IFR, demonstrating finely tuned anticipation. More in next mag. #submarines #royalnavy #SSN

Listen & smile.

Michael Warburton@michaelwarburton.bsky.social · last wk.

Henry Mancini, Tubby Hayes & Orchestra with a live version of THE PINK PANTHER theme in 1964. Fabulous.

Great news the 6th Astute Class #submarine HMS Agamemnon finally at sea, a year after commissioning. For comparison, here's HMS Trafalgar (at the 2005 Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review, a Jon Eastland image). Lead boat in her class, laid down 1979, launched July 1981, commissioned May 1983.

In Sept 1944 it was hoped the European war might very soon be over via the #operationmarketgarden effort. For all the heroism it was not to be. That is conveyed by this video, a taste of my book 'Arnhem: Ten Days in The Cauldron' www.canelo.co/books/arnhem... @canelobooks.bsky.social #ww2 #arnhem

An interesting contrast and compare between Europe's two leading navies in the new edition, from the French perspective and by @midshipnews.org - includes a warning for the Marine Nationale to learn by what has happened to the Royal Navy.

midshipnews.org@midshipnews.org · 2w ago

🚀📖 💙📚⚡️⏳ Very proud to have another article featured in Warships IFR. “Tale of Two Navies” Seeing the words “ex-French Navy sailor” makes me feel 200 metres tall! 😊 Enjoy! warshipsifr.com/subscriptions/ My published work is available here: Midshipnews.org @iainballantyne.bsky.social

1/2 Looking crisp is the preserved #WW2 corvette HMCS Sackville, of the Flower Class, at Halifax, Nova Scotia. A pic (lo rez version) of the Battle of the Atlantic veteran by our Warships IFR magazine regular contributor Yoshiharu Fukushima.

The RNLI is the closest you will ever get to actual Batman. When rescue is visibly, viscerally, obviously impossible; when the water is a smothering, thundering black wall and the wind is screaming straight from Hell; when you are absolutely going to die: someone’s hand pulls you out and you don’t.

USS Abraham Lincoln Pulls into Guam, Deployment Now at 302 Days - USNI News news.usni.org/2026/09/19/c...

USS Abraham Lincoln Pulls into Guam, Deployment Now at 302 Days - USNI News

Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), the embarked Carrier Air Wing 9 and the guided-missile destroyer USS Frank Petersen (DDG-121) pulled into Guam on Saturday, according to a statement from U.S. 7th...

news.usni.org

1/2 The future USS John F. Kennedy US Navy is cover star of the new edition Warships IFR mag. Out now! Second of the Gerald R. Ford Class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, it is a striking image, courtesy of HII Newport News Shipbuilding. Shows the ship completing acceptance sea trials.

A 1976 letter of appreciation from the Royal Air Force to the Finnish Defence Forces concerning the participation of four Finnish Air Force DC-3/C-47s and their crews into Exercise NEW MARKET in filming 'A Bridge Too Far'(1977).

Here's the British air-defence destroyer HMS Dauntless #RoyalNavy last week, in Plymouth Sound, heading for Devonport Naval Base. A video by Stephen Jagger for Warships IFR magazine. Loving #warship with contrasting yacht and dinghies busy on the water & fields above Jennycliff in the background.

A few days ago exchanged messages with a nephew of Harry Tucker, during #WW2 a corporal in the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. #OTD Sept 1944 in action yet again, this time at Arnhem. Harry suffered a minor injury during the march from the DZ towards the road bridge (see extract).

'Dostoyevsky took another draw on the cigarette, exhaled a cloud of self-satisfied smoke and added:"They all signed confessions, providing certain useful information before they were, unfortunately, killed while trying to escape".' A Russian on the fate of some Hungarian fascists. amzn.eu/d/00BJsw4R

Martin’s Eyes

Martin’s Eyes eBook : Ballantyne, Iain: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

amzn.eu

6/7 When it came to writing my recently published ‘Martin’s Eyes’ @chiselbury.bsky.social I slipped in a brief duel on the Eastern Front between a Tiger and T34. The Tiger tank is seen here using the #historicalfiction #novel ‘Martin’s Eyes’ for cover...

1/3 Such amity between wartime allies in this famous US Army Signal Corps photo. They are fine ambassadors for the Allies who had just defeated Germany. However...

1/5 Here's something about nuclear-powered Fleet (hunter-killer) #submarines (aka SSNs) off the Falklands after the 1982 conflict between Britain and Argentina. In the following extracts from my 'Hunter Killers' @orionbooks.bsky.social it is HMS Courageous.

1/7 Tank theme! There are various books lurking about the place here that have survived from childhood. There's my Ronald Welch, Michael Bond & Richmal Crompton collections for starters (including ‘Tank Commander’ by R.W.), but also a few objects, including vintage toy tanks as seen below.

Three Royal Navy naval units - destroyer HMS Duncan, frigate HMS St Albans & patrol vessel HMS Severn - recently monitored two Russian Navy warships, a tanker & sanctioned cargo ships in the Channel. Pic: RFS Admiral Levchenko monitored by HMS Duncan & HMS St Albans (b/g L to R). Photo: Royal Navy.

The forthcoming (4th edition) of the Warships IFR mag 'Guide to the #USNavy' has gone to bed. The mighty, and venerable, warship in the pic here is on the front cover - USS Nimitz, but with an active flight-deck. So, not this shot (from 2022) but it may yet get in the mag itself. Cover shared soon.

The new (Sept) edition of the magazine now deployed, with Royal Norwegian Navy sub HNoMS Utstein as cover star, an image by Michael Nitz. Goes with a profile of the RNoN's Ula Class boats inside. Avail in shops or direct from the publisher in both hard copy & digital warshipsifr.com/subscriptions/

Enjoyed talking to Neil Caddy on BBC Radio Devon today about my new @chiselbury.bsky.social book, the WW2 and Cold War thriller ‘Martin’s Eyes’ www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... If you want to check out our chat, it's on after Kool and Gang’s ‘Get Down on It' 😎 at 1:45:24 into the show.

Inspiration for woods and mountains passages in 'Martin's Eyes' @chiselbury.bsky.social span the decades: wanderings through the trees as a four-year-old roaming free, while at a Midlands nursery - it was the late 1960s after all; a stay in the Austrian mountains in the 1990s (inset, top left)...

"The U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command became a major source of munitions for the Iran war, with many of its Tomahawks and other long-range missiles in the region — critical to a fight with China — transferred from its stocks."

The U.S. Is Burning Through Weapons in Iran. Russia and China Are Taking Note.

The Iran war has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles, resulting in a significant erosion of firepower. A more drawn-out Iran conflict benefits Moscow and Beijing, some analysts say.

nytimes.com

HMS Lancaster, Duke Class (Type 23) frigate in Plymouth Sound. Early 2000s (possibly) or slightly earlier, with Fort Class fleet auxiliary in the background (left) and ferry departing (right). Maybe I was visiting Lancaster when I took this.

🚀📖 💙📚⚡️⏳#aviation #OSINT #History Honored to see my novel Maskirovka reviewed in the August issue of Warships International Fleet Review! @iainballantyne.bsky.social You can read the full review here: (also available in shops). pocketmags.com/warships-int... Join the crew: Midshipnews.org

Seabed protection ship RFA Proteus at Plymouth yesterday. Under its Defence Investment Plan (DIP) the UK Govt has promised £300 million in 'critical underwater infrastructure protection' including 'enhanced capabilities for RFA Proteus.' Video: Stephen Jagger for Warships IFR.

Warships Pod 51: 'Suez on Steroids And Britain’s Naval Identity Crisis'. David Murrin begins the #podcast discussion by considering US President Donald Trump’s gambits in the Middle East as he seeks to prevail over Iran. Among other topics touched on is the state of the Royal Navy. pod.fo/e/44b3d7

A history feature in the latest Warships IFR mag by Usman Ansari, with a contribution by myself, is headlined ‘The Trouble with Submarines and a Cold War Quarantine’. This pic shows action aboard US Navy boat USS Cero during a simulated torpedo attack. Photo: US Navy/US National Archives. #ww2