Dr Sophy Antrobus researches contemporary air power in the context of the institutional, cultural and organisational barriers to innovation and effectiveness in modern air forces, in particular the Royal Air Force. She joined the Freeman Air and Space Institute from Portsmouth Business School at the University of Portsmouth where she was a Teaching Fellow in Strategic Studies. She completed her PhD at the University of Exeter in 2019. Her thesis researched the early politics of air power and networks in Whitehall in the inter-war years.

Prior to her PhD, Sophy served in the Royal Air Force for twenty years including in Iraq and Afghanistan and a tour with the Royal Navy. She is a Fellow and elected member of the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Hudson Fellow with the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre and a member of the Royal Air Force Museum Research Advisory Board.

Research Interests

• Cultural and organisational barriers to change and innovation in the armed forces.
• Critical thinking and the military.
• The cultural development of the Royal Air Force.
• Remotely piloted systems and autonomy
• Integrated Deterrence

Publications

• ‘Freeman’s 1940: The Curious Story of Freeman’s Resignation Attempts’, Freeman Paper 15, May 2023.
• ‘Voices of Veteran Researchers’, Special Issue of Critical Military Studies, co-authored with Sarah Bulmer, Nick Caddick and Hannah West, 20 January 2023.
• ‘This is all very academic: Critical Thinking and Professional Military Education’, co-authored with Hannah West, RUSI Journal, Vol 167, Issue 3, 16 September 2022.
• ‘No-fly zones would escalate the Ukraine war – but they shouldn’t be off the table’, The Guardian, 5 March 2022.
• ‘Culture, Diversity, and the Integrated Review’, The Integrated Review in Context: Defence and Security in Focus, Centre for Defence Studies Series, King’s College London, 11 October 2021.
• ‘We need to talk about Air Mobility’, co-authored commentary with Andrew Netherwood, published by FASI and the Wavell Room, 23 August 2021.
• ‘“Deeply Odd”: women veterans as critical feminist scholars’, co-authored with Hannah West, Critical Military Studies, 12 April 2021.