Marcus Faulkner
@marcusfaulkner.bsky.social
Naval and intelligence historian. Familiar with the Second World War, knows about War Studies and has an amateur understanding of Space. PhD, MA etc. Senior Lecturer, Department of War Studies @ King's College London
I think we can be sure that was by design.
December 29, 2025 at 11:38 AM
I think we can be sure that was by design.
Like Alex says a full airgroup makes for a tight fit on CdG so this is giving more space, flexibility for more ease of operations, endurance, and UAVs in due course. Two half-sized ships for the same budget would be very compromised. The medium carrier has always been something of a chimera.
December 29, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Like Alex says a full airgroup makes for a tight fit on CdG so this is giving more space, flexibility for more ease of operations, endurance, and UAVs in due course. Two half-sized ships for the same budget would be very compromised. The medium carrier has always been something of a chimera.
Fascinating read, both in terms of the actual case but also as an example of history/historians with research of different fields and time can provide resistance or critique. Thanks for sharing, this is well beyond my subjects, but really interesting to me, I should have read this earlier.
December 24, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Fascinating read, both in terms of the actual case but also as an example of history/historians with research of different fields and time can provide resistance or critique. Thanks for sharing, this is well beyond my subjects, but really interesting to me, I should have read this earlier.
What exactly the role is beyond looking good and having all the latest gear - both being legitimate objectives - is something that needs establishing. It is a bit of everything at the moment when each thing could be delivered by a different platform perhaps more effectively.
December 24, 2025 at 9:29 AM
What exactly the role is beyond looking good and having all the latest gear - both being legitimate objectives - is something that needs establishing. It is a bit of everything at the moment when each thing could be delivered by a different platform perhaps more effectively.
It's a political statement as much as a strategic tool. After the early days 🇫🇷 did make the CdG work for its needs and in the last decade got a lot out of it. The cost and timeframes here though would be a concern even if the state has a tendency to be able to see core longterm projects through.
December 24, 2025 at 9:27 AM
It's a political statement as much as a strategic tool. After the early days 🇫🇷 did make the CdG work for its needs and in the last decade got a lot out of it. The cost and timeframes here though would be a concern even if the state has a tendency to be able to see core longterm projects through.
PANG will be expensive, eye-wateringly so, and might well require some give elsewhere. Larger displacement for same nominal AG understandable given that CdG is a bit cramped and in any case 🇫🇷 can't afford a larger crewed naval air wing. Plenty of space for UAV complements though.
French President Macron today announced that Fance’s PA-Ng next generation aircraft carrier programme will proceed to the realization phase. This major milestone confirms that the French Navy’s current CVN Charles de Gaulle will be replaced from 2038 🇫🇷
www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...
www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...
France formally green lights PA-Ng aircraft carrier production - Naval News
French President Emmanuel Macron today announced that Fance's PA-Ng next generation aircraft carrier programme will proceed to the realization phase. This major milestone confirms that the French Navy...
www.navalnews.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:16 AM
PANG will be expensive, eye-wateringly so, and might well require some give elsewhere. Larger displacement for same nominal AG understandable given that CdG is a bit cramped and in any case 🇫🇷 can't afford a larger crewed naval air wing. Plenty of space for UAV complements though.
To quote the President 'They'll be the fastest' - you want to make it fast, over 35+ kts then then you'll need some powerful machinery. I suspect if you built a Ticonderoga with 50%+ VLS capacity, powerful sensor fit, a big powerplant for speed and DE weapons you get to 30k easily.
December 23, 2025 at 11:11 AM
To quote the President 'They'll be the fastest' - you want to make it fast, over 35+ kts then then you'll need some powerful machinery. I suspect if you built a Ticonderoga with 50%+ VLS capacity, powerful sensor fit, a big powerplant for speed and DE weapons you get to 30k easily.
The warship outlined is never going to be built incorporating all those systems and capabilities proposed. The side on view is nice, though that landing deck is low in the water. That the USN needs a new larger hull design is unquestionable, that might be the output here
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Donald Trump unveils new class of battleships named after himself
The US president has vowed to revive American shipbuilding after lagging behind China in naval capacity.
www.bbc.com
December 23, 2025 at 10:58 AM
The warship outlined is never going to be built incorporating all those systems and capabilities proposed. The side on view is nice, though that landing deck is low in the water. That the USN needs a new larger hull design is unquestionable, that might be the output here
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
There was that episode. The term Kanonenbootdiplomatie deserves its own discussion and how it is nuanced slightly differently to gunboat diplomacy. Very much wrapped up in early Cold War decolonisation discourse and the era of scholarship into the (imperial) navy as a vector of global imperialism.
December 19, 2025 at 5:01 PM
There was that episode. The term Kanonenbootdiplomatie deserves its own discussion and how it is nuanced slightly differently to gunboat diplomacy. Very much wrapped up in early Cold War decolonisation discourse and the era of scholarship into the (imperial) navy as a vector of global imperialism.
Behind the scenes there is a lot of discussion of terminology and capabilities early in the Cold War between the foreign, defence ministries and Chancellery. Which mirrors in a sense the same discussions during the Weimar Republic down to 1932.
December 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Behind the scenes there is a lot of discussion of terminology and capabilities early in the Cold War between the foreign, defence ministries and Chancellery. Which mirrors in a sense the same discussions during the Weimar Republic down to 1932.
This would be a significant development of 🇺🇦 maritime strike. Early days on this though, it could be a one-off special circumstance. The ability of a littoral power to strike well beyond its sea space has consequences for the future flow of global trade.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Ukraine attacks Russian ‘shadow’ tanker off Libyan coast
Reportedly critical drone strike is first in Mediterranean since full-scale invasion began as maritime conflict grows
www.theguardian.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:44 PM
This would be a significant development of 🇺🇦 maritime strike. Early days on this though, it could be a one-off special circumstance. The ability of a littoral power to strike well beyond its sea space has consequences for the future flow of global trade.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Nothing wrong with Bavaria!
December 19, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Nothing wrong with Bavaria!
A Carry On film already went there.
December 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
A Carry On film already went there.
It's the same in English in that sense. Though in every epoche, Imperial, Interwar, Cold War cruisers, and the term specifically, has weight in German political and public discourse around seapower, the navy as an instrument of power and a reflection of Germany's place in the world.
December 19, 2025 at 4:31 PM
It's the same in English in that sense. Though in every epoche, Imperial, Interwar, Cold War cruisers, and the term specifically, has weight in German political and public discourse around seapower, the navy as an instrument of power and a reflection of Germany's place in the world.
Reposted by Marcus Faulkner
„Speaking to multiple intelligence sources, CNN has established that several of these men are employed by a secretive 🇷🇺 company called Moran Security. Some of them are mercenaries, they said, who have previously worked for Russia’s private military contractors, such as the notorious Wagner group.“
The Kremlin’s brazen tactics: Russia’s shadow fleet is doubling as a spy asset, intelligence sources say
CNN
www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/e...
@cnn.com
CNN
www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/e...
@cnn.com
The Kremlin’s brazen tactics: Russia’s shadow fleet is doubling as a spy asset, intelligence sources say | CNN
Russian personnel with links to the country’s military and security services have engaged in spying in European waters while working covertly on ships carrying Russian oil, Western and Ukrainian intel...
www.cnn.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:50 PM
„Speaking to multiple intelligence sources, CNN has established that several of these men are employed by a secretive 🇷🇺 company called Moran Security. Some of them are mercenaries, they said, who have previously worked for Russia’s private military contractors, such as the notorious Wagner group.“
'Kreuzer' in the naval sense has both imperial undertones in the German context and because it was one of the regulated types of the interwar years as a measure of 'great navy' status in German perspective - that is me being overly academic though because I doubt anyone makes those links today.
December 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
'Kreuzer' in the naval sense has both imperial undertones in the German context and because it was one of the regulated types of the interwar years as a measure of 'great navy' status in German perspective - that is me being overly academic though because I doubt anyone makes those links today.
Reposted by Marcus Faulkner
i can't believe we are selling technological regression as progress. We truly live in the Warhammer 40k timeline
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
Launch of LUCAS one-way attack drone from Navy ship at sea called ‘significant milestone’
U.S. Central Command assigned the LUCAS drone to Task Force Scorpion Strike, a unit created to develop and deploy one-way attack drones at scale.
www.stripes.com
December 18, 2025 at 10:50 PM
i can't believe we are selling technological regression as progress. We truly live in the Warhammer 40k timeline
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
Reposted by Marcus Faulkner
F127 future German AAW-frigates are now intended to receive total missile capacity of 96 VLS cells. MEKO A400 AMD design filling requirement previously featured 64 Mk 41 cells in two banks of 32.
www.hartpunkt.de/mehr-feuerkr...
www.hartpunkt.de/mehr-feuerkr...
Mehr Feuerkraft – F127 soll 96 Vertical-Launch-Zellen erhalten
Die zukünftigen Luftverteidigungsfregatten der Klasse 127 werden noch deutlich kampfkräftiger als bislang geplant. Wie hartpunkt aus Industriekreisen erfahren hat, sollen die Schiffe mit insgesamt 96 ...
www.hartpunkt.de
December 19, 2025 at 5:51 AM
F127 future German AAW-frigates are now intended to receive total missile capacity of 96 VLS cells. MEKO A400 AMD design filling requirement previously featured 64 Mk 41 cells in two banks of 32.
www.hartpunkt.de/mehr-feuerkr...
www.hartpunkt.de/mehr-feuerkr...
The adoption of 'Battle of the Atlantic' (it was a campaign) and 'Bastion' (something applied to a different type of maritime context/power) as framing tools, while striking, are not overly useful to the point of mischaracterising the situation or creating misleading expectations. Just a thought.
⚓ ‘Although some European countries are rebuilding their naval forces, this is not going far enough or fast enough,’ writes William Freer, our Research Fellow, in part 1 of a 2-part analysis of ‘Atlantic Bastion’
#Memorandum #BritainsWorld
www.britainsworld.or...
#Memorandum #BritainsWorld
www.britainsworld.or...
Exit ‘fourth battle of the Atlantic’, enter ‘Battle of the Bastions’: Part 1
The Memorandum | No. 47.2025
www.britainsworld.org.uk
December 17, 2025 at 9:39 AM
The adoption of 'Battle of the Atlantic' (it was a campaign) and 'Bastion' (something applied to a different type of maritime context/power) as framing tools, while striking, are not overly useful to the point of mischaracterising the situation or creating misleading expectations. Just a thought.
Indeed. It is an aspect central to any discussions of maritime strategy and its principles, yet taken as a given and not really explored. On balance though fleets in being have comparatively little impact and yield diminishing returns over time.
December 15, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Indeed. It is an aspect central to any discussions of maritime strategy and its principles, yet taken as a given and not really explored. On balance though fleets in being have comparatively little impact and yield diminishing returns over time.
The war gets more serious, intelligence particularly op intel gets more important as a means of using resources more efficiently and effectively against a growing Axis military potential and in 1942 it becomes evident through Ultra how badly British communications security has been compromised.
December 11, 2025 at 9:58 AM
The war gets more serious, intelligence particularly op intel gets more important as a means of using resources more efficiently and effectively against a growing Axis military potential and in 1942 it becomes evident through Ultra how badly British communications security has been compromised.
So detailed work on linking sigint products, Ultra specifically, to operational decisions is virtually non-existent. E.g. when flag officers are indoctrinated. There are examples, but nothing systematically drawn together. 41- into 42 is though the moment where an overall policy crystallises out.
December 9, 2025 at 3:06 PM
So detailed work on linking sigint products, Ultra specifically, to operational decisions is virtually non-existent. E.g. when flag officers are indoctrinated. There are examples, but nothing systematically drawn together. 41- into 42 is though the moment where an overall policy crystallises out.
At this point it is still very much a learning process.
December 9, 2025 at 1:57 PM
At this point it is still very much a learning process.