51: Suez on Steroids And Britain’s Naval Identity Crisis

Returning guest David Murrin begins by considering US President Donald Trump’s gambits in the Middle East as he seeks to prevail over Iran. In a discussion with host Iain Ballantyne - recorded before Iran and the USA reverted to a state of war (in July) - David reflected on the Trump pattern of seeking peace deals followed by more bombing.

These are the US President’s ‘peace bombs,’ as David describes them, with the Iran War and struggle for the Strait of Hormuz turning out like ‘Suez on steroids.’

The consequences of President Trump’s approach to allies, his treatment of foes and overall strategy are also covered, before turning to Europe’s laziness in defence and the military spending laggard that is the United Kingdom.

David also explains what he learned about modern warfare during a recent visit to Ukraine and how Kyiv’s forces have chosen a lateral response to the Russian aggressors rather than linear.

According to David a future threat for Europeans to be concerned about will be China’s navy in the High North and he cautions that - whatever the threat is in the great waters of the Atlantic and Arctic - drones are not the entire solution.

In the meantime, so David contends, Britain and other NATO nations are already at war with Russia but only now are they waking up to that fact.

Turning to Royal Navy, David weighs up the push for the ‘hybrid navy’ and ‘evolution’ versus ‘revolution’ at a difficult time in which the UK appears to have lost touch with its naval identity. He considers the British fleet has been destroyed by politicians since the late 1990s, and that they have let down both the nation and NATO.

During this lively episode David also gives his perspective on what China has learned from the Iran War and more.

• The August 2026 edition of Warships IFR is published on 17.7.26 in the UK and also deployed globally. Visit the magazine web site
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• David Murrin is a Global Forecaster, investor, polymath and author of ‘Breaking the Code of History’ (2011). He has a talent for spotting and analysing deep-seated patterns in history and using them to try and understand the present and also where we might be going in today’s turbulent geopolitical scene. His other books are ‘Lions Led by Lions’ (2018), ‘Now or Never’ (2021) and ‘Red Lightning’ (2021). The latter is a work of faction that depicts China winning a world war. David Murrin’s web site is https://www.davidmurrin.co.uk/about Find him on X @GlobalForecastr

•Iain Ballantyne is the founding and current Editor of ‘Warships IFR’ magazine (first published in 1998) along with its ‘Guide to the Royal Navy’ (since 2003) and ‘Guide to the US Navy’ (since 2018). Iain is also author of the books ‘Hunter Killers’ (Orion) and ‘The Deadly Trade’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), both about submarine warfare, plus ‘Arnhem: Ten Days in The Cauldron’ and ‘Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom’ (published by Canelo). In 2017 Iain was awarded a Fellowship by the British Maritime Foundatio