1: Alien visitors and the mystery of the fly-away logbook

Welcome to the first voyage of the WARSHIPS International Fleet Review podcast hosted by its Editor Iain Ballantyne and with the magazine’s Associate Editor Peter Hore as a special guest. They enjoy a lively discussion that ranges from UFOs buzzing warships to whether or not Britain should build a new Royal Yacht and the naval women behind the scenes who helped win WW2.  Subjects touched on across Iain and Peter’s wide-ranging conversation include naval interactions with UFOs; the wisdom or otherwise of building a New Royal Yacht for the UK; whether or not getting rid of the Trident nuclear deterrent would see funds poured into expanding the British fleet; the important role of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in the British navy (and the danger of confusing those vessels fully-fledged warships); Danish warship designs for the Royal Navy; UK patrol vessels being sent into high threat areas; naval risks and being one step away from a maritime conflict; the Russian-UK-US (RUKUS) confidence-building efforts of the Cold War; the valiant unsung work of the British naval women who intercepted, translated and analyzed naval signals traffic in WW2 and assisted Allied victory; today’s Russian threat in the Baltic and other topics covered in the latest edition of WARSHIPS IFR.Alongside touching on content in the August and September 2021 editions of the monthly magazine, Iain and Peter reference elements of the recently published WARSHIPS IFR ‘Guide to the Royal Navy 2021’.