A final thought on what makes a great tank, worthy of inclusion in my book: export success. Some vehicles get commissioned for reasons of national pride or industrial strategy. But does anyone else think they're any good?

we understand then that innovation & lethality are key components in what make a great tank. But as we see with the Tiger, just 1,400 were made versus enormous numbers in Allied armies where quantity had a quality of its own

so if innovation is key to the tanks chosen to tell the bigger story, what comes next? lethality - how effective were they in battle. And that's exemplified by this one 👇

The ten greatest tanks in military history? My book just came out in paperback, and here I explain what made the ones I picked outstanding. Pt 1 innovation www.amazon.co.uk/Tank-Machine...

Stand by! Ajax - £6bn turkey or the answer to the British Army’s needs? A deep dive from me based on a factory visit and interviews with believers and detractors. Reports in print in this week’s Sunday Times and on video …

At Light Brigade Memorial 😎

Thoroughly enjoying this at the moment 👇🏻

Oh what’s this? A secret Cabinet Office file about my book Big Boys’ Rules?! I’ll be revealing what’s inside it in tomorrow’s Sunday Times

I share his story, which is one stitch in a tableau of loss, because his idealism touched me, and his story is a corrective to preconceptions many may have about Ukraine, its war, & who fights. I offer my sincere condolences to his widow Anna

Davyd was killed last week on the southern front. He didn’t have to go, his health was fragile. He volunteered long after the early patriotic fervour that greeted the Russian invasion had subsided. He genuinely sacrificed his life for his beliefs

He was an ardent antifascist and was pleased to find an artillery unit near Zaporizhzhia where a good many fellow anarchists and others with radical political views were serving. Of course there are far right people in the army too, there are all sorts, it’s a nation in arms

Davyd suffered poor health so the army turned him away when he tried to volunteer soon after the Russian invasion. In his impoverished artists flat, he told me how he had got fit because he realised the military couldn’t get enough soldiers, & decided to volunteer again, 2 years later

Passers by in Kyiv may have noticed an unusual funeral for a fallen soldier yesterday. The mourners were a bohemian crowd, and anarchist flags were flown. Davyd Chychkan, a 39 year old artist was laid to rest. Why was he at war? He’d explained his reasons to me 18 months ago

Quite a moment yesterday - I was invested as an honorary doctor of letters at Warwick University by the chancellor Bience Gawanas, having been proposed by Prof Richard Aldrich. He cited my books in particular. What a privilege to share in the graduation ceremony& happiness of that day!

A heavy battering for Kyiv last night after Russia launched >500 Shahed/Geran drones: - they’re overwhelming with numbers, production of these now c170 a day - they’ve also built in new guidance features + fly higher to evade Ukrainian defences - many launches are decoys

The first customer reviews are in on my new book 'Tank'! check it out at any of these stores linktr.ee/MarkUrbanTank

Is the tank obsolete? It's a question almost as old as the weapon itself - my new book tracing the history of these war machines from Cambrai to Ukraine is now out linktr.ee/MarkUrbanTank

Copies of my new book Tank are now arriving in bookshops - from the trenches of 1917 Cambrai to today’s Ukraine, your essential Father’s Day gift!

A little gobsmacked by this - No1 on Apple pods on our launch weekend for @crisisroompod.bsky.social which I co-host with Amber Rudd & @mpolymer1.bsky.social decoding international security developments weekly - sign up wherever you get your podcasts

A hearty recommendation for my new book Tank - thank you so much Bob. Published early June but you can preorder in all the usual places!

Lord George Robertson says the Strategic Defence Review which he has spent the last 9 months working on “will intimidate our enemies and inspire our friends” when it is published in the coming weeks #LDC2025

Very pleased to say my new substack War and Peace blog passed 1000 subscribers at the weekend. It's still free and the place where I do longer stuff these days.

Sitting down today to start reading the audiobook of Tank today - it’s out in June, a history of the war machine told through ten examples

When launching a trade war, turns out allies are useful. Trump hits China with a further tariff rise but pauses hikes on 75 other countries for 90 days

Trump is starting the conversation about a third term, even though the Constitution rules it out

Here it is! The new book I’ve been working on - it will be out in June. An alternative history of the tank from its origins to the present day

Given the news about the Northern Ireland SAS inquest, a reminder that the audiobook of Big Boys' Rules is now out. Delighted that Amazon's algorithm considers it a #1 bestseller, even if it isn't a WW1 biography...

The audiobook of 'Task Force Black, the SAS and the secret war in Iraq' is out now - on all the usual platforms

Keep the champagne on ice - at least until after #UniversityChallenge on BBC2 at 20.30. It’s LSE versus St Andrew’s

For those of you who haven’t heard of GCAP, it’s a new fighter jet that’s central to the future of the aerospace business in the UK, and which took a significant step closer to becoming reality last week, as a joint UK, Japanese & Italian company was formed to build it 1/