"I present you the Soviet Ballistic Missile Submarine Red October" - A line from a superb movie. In reality the CIA knew far more about the Soviet TYPHOON class from the mid 1970s than Clancy could have guessed. Thread on the CIA, Typhoons and spying on the Soviets...

It is June 1983, you have just been elected to Parliament and appointed a Minister in the MOD. Your staff provide you with an induction briefing pack, including a section on Counter Terrorism. This is the actual brief Ministers had on the role of the SAS & SBS in CT operations.

This may look like a child's drawing of warships, but in fact it is a SECRET 1955 CIA HUMINT report on Soviet naval vessels in the Baltic. PSL thread analysing a forgotten report to show value of Cold War HUMINT sources for analysis and intelligence.

I tend to not post very often on Bluesky as I find a lot of people here are rather prickly. I'm going to give it another go and try cross posting some of my X threads, and host them here too, and see what the response is like though.

In 1990 Soviet Admiral of the Fleet Konstantin Makarov made an unprecedented visit to the UK to visit the Royal Navy. From drunken parties with RN Admirals to requiring 1SL to offer 'reasons in writing' to Ministers, this was a Cold War visit like no other...

Latest PSL post - why the Diego Garcia deal makes sense and should be supported. thinpinstripedline.blogspot.com/2025/05/why-...

Why the Diego Garcia Deal Makes Sense

Defence blog focusing on 21st century analysis of Cold War defence, security and continuity of government problems.

thinpinstripedline.blogspot.com

I'm afraid I won't be posting here again. I shared a thread earlier of work I did that I was very proud of on X. As a result, I've been inundated by attacks suggesting I support Nazi's, called a troll account and so on. I have no time for the abuse here, I won't be coming back.

Over on 'the other place' I've created a long thread on a secret mission by HMS GRAMPUS to operate in the arctic - its well worth a read if you like stories of Cold War era covert submarine operations! x.com/pinstripedli...

I'm still here, although not hugely active at the moment! It may take time to get used to using this platform though!

Do 'sea days' matter more than readiness days? A long Pinstripedline read on metrics for operational availability, and the recent trend by MOD to avoid disclosure of public information in Parliamentary Questions on the grounds of 'national security'. tinyurl.com/299uuj8m

The Telegraph has advocated a policy of 'buy American' to save money. Pinstripedline blog on why this would be a strategic disaster and leave the UK without sovereignty as a 'rules taker, not a rules maker'. tinyurl.com/2e85wu3u

218 years to the day since the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy remains every bit the equal of Nelsons Navy. Pinstripedline blog on why the modern RN has so much in common with its Napoleonic past. tinyurl.com/bdcdumdc