Nowhere on the internet have the problems of the Royal Navy been more consistently examined than on this website and there are many serious concerns about the state of the Navy today. Unfortunately lost in a wave of negative and half-accurate media stories is the truth that even now, the RN is still delivering for the UK. The RN is under-funded and under-sized, especially when judged by the standards of its illustrious past and today’s growing threats. Judged by the standards of most of European and many world navies, it is still a potent force and is consistently meeting the specific operational tasks it is given by government.
The excellent US defence writer David Axe has written about The slow death of the Royal Navy. Many of his points about the decline in the RN are valid (much of it sourced from this website) but it is hard to agree with his overall conclusion that the RN is “dying” when it will actually be far more potent than it is now by the mid-2020s.
Even today, although there are significant challenges to overcome and much is resting on future promises, the RN is very much alive and kicking.
In the week commencing 11th September 2016 the Royal Navy had over 7,800 sailors and marines directly preparing for operations or already on operations. 33 ships, submarines and units were deployed away from home base.
This includes Minor War Vessels and RFAs in the North and South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Gulf and home waters as well as the unbroken Continuous at Sea Deterrent.
HMS Ocean and HMS Bulwark will deploy this week, with the RN leading the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) which will include Army and RAF units and forces from Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway. The JEF is not considered just an exercise (like the previous COUGAR deployments) and will encompass the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Gulf, possibly participating in anti-ISIL operations or responding to events as required. You can rightly point to the lack of an aircraft carrier, not enough escorts, RFAs doing the jobs of frigates and a manpower crisis but the RN remains one of the few navies capable of leading a multi-national amphibious task group.
No one is pretending everything is rosy in the garden but let us look on the plus side for a moment. If, for example you are serving on a Type 45 destroyer, having the media and every armchair admiral explaining your ship doesn’t work is unhelpful and mostly inaccurate. On every arrival of a Type 45 in port, which would be routinely attended by tugs anyway, some wag asks “has she broken down again?” In reality the average availability of the Type 45s since 2013 has been 94.6% and has never dropped below 90.47% during that time. In simple terms, the propulsion problems have led to a loss of around 5% of time on operations for the class. Not ideal, but certainly not the disaster it is publicly perceived to be. HMS Defender completed a 9-month deployment to the heat of the Gulf in July without any propulsion failure, the kind of positive fact the media likes to ignore.
The Portsmouth News has triggered another ‘Type 45 media scrum’ by indulging in some “journalism by FOI request”, managing to paint an unfairly bleak and rather out-dated picture of Type 45 availability. Looking at bald statistics about Type 45’s time alongside in the UK does not tell the full story. As in many defence matters, complexity is the enemy of the juicy news story. Drawing conclusions by looking at sea-to-shore ratios across a flotilla of ships, over a period of just one year, and using ‘days in port’ as the metric is flawed. For example, Type 45s as Portsmouth-based ships going through Operational Sea Training in Plymouth are counted as merely in a UK port. In reality the ship’s company is away from home, undergoing an exceptional training regime and being worked hard. If you measured this figure across all the ships and across their five year inter-refit cycle, you’d get a far higher availability figure than quoted in this narrow FOI.
After completion of well-deserved summer leave periods the Type 45 are now busy. At the time of writing, HMS Daring is in Malta on route to a 9-month period in the Gulf which will involve escorting US aircraft carriers. HMS Diamond is at sea off the coast of Libya, HMS Duncan is preparing for a NATO deployment and HMS Dragon will shortly be at sea on operations within UK waters. HMS Defender is about to commence a major refit. Manpower problems have relegated HMS Dauntless to a harbour training ship but it has at least been announced that she will begin a major refit towards the end of 2017 before returning to operational status.
The Royal Navy is still in need of “saving” from a generation of politicians who have been generous on rhetoric but short on results. Pressure must be maintained for increased spending on the Navy and end to cuts, waste and absurd industrial policy. But consider the navy of today, often out of sight over the horizon yet still doing a highly professional job on a daily basis. Next time you hear the RN casually and inaccurately described as a “spent force”, spare a thought for the morale and contribution of those serving or considering serving. 2017 will see the arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth in Portsmouth, not a panacea for every deep-rooted problem but undoubtedly a statement of intent and a sign there is still much Royal Navy history to be written.
Main image: HMS Diamond and RFA Mounts Bay – seen from HMS Daring, arriving in Gibraltar for resupply before sailing east. ©Crown copyright, September 2016.
Related articles
- Putting the Type 45 propulsion issues in perspective (Save the Royal Navy)
- MoD denies hi-tech destroyers sitting idle in UK ports (Scotsman.com)
- UK warship to join US fleet in Persian Gulf (Rinif.com)
- HMS Bulwark leads Joint Expeditionary Force Deployment (Naval Today)
Having read your report , and have served , I consider that our navy is under strength , a shadow of its past , we live in very dangerous times , rather than down sizing , we really should be rearming , many governments have cut defence spending , thus weakening our navy ( the best in a he world ) but I feel we can not cope with the work load of deployments around the world ? Come on uk wake up more ships soldiers Air Force rearm now , before its to late .
I doubt very much UK politicians are listening about rearming. So much pressure is needed to at least make them pay attention. The Royal Navy is now smaller than the French and I think Italian navy. I think gone is the concept and policy when the UK had to have a navy as big or larger than the next two leading European powers. Well the world has changed and Britain’s geo political position and power in it. But much pressure is going to have to be brought to bare on those who make decisions about the Royal Navy to keep it from falling into insignificance and protect it’s proud history.
Nothing much wrong with the 45s when you consider the significant maintenance issues which plagued other classes in the distant past, for example, Tribal Frigates which routinely were stuck in port due to gearbox and Gas Turbine issues. I served 3 times on Tribals and it became normal to have sailing dates moved at short notice.
What proportion of the Royal Navyescort force were the tribals? If they were all out of action what would the impact have been?
The Type 45s are quality at the expense of numbers – 100% of the Air Defence force and 6/19 of the entire escort force.
Deployment-wise nothing changes, the navy is expected to be on call for hot spots anywhere
There were 7 Tribals out of a total Frigate/Destroyer force of about 50-60. I am not qualified to speculate on the effect of all of the Tribals being out of action at one time. I assume it would have been significant.
I think it’s right to celebrate the ongoing achievements of the RN, but it is crucial that the shortcomings and challenges facing the Service are highlighted and this website does a good job of that.
It is worthy of note that the vast majority of capability & financial decisions are now made by the RN themselves in Portsmouth as opposed to by the MOD in Whitehall (read Lord Levene’s Defence Reform Report of 2011 for more detail http://tinyurl.com/ha7sr2g plus the annual report of Nov 15 http://tinyurl.com/hwblou4).
Clearly the RN can only operate within the budget allocated to it by the MOD, but how this budget is spent is entirely within the RN’s control. I frequently see people blaming the MOD or Govt for decisions on ship numbers or capabilities, but these decisions are now made in Leach Building, not MOD Main Building.
My view is that the principle failing of the RN is in trying to continue to deliver its directed outputs with inadequate funding which inevitably leads to disappointment, frustration & failure; it’s time for a little less ‘can do’ and a little more ‘can’t do’.
I want to take this opportunity to thank those behind the SAVE THE ROYAL NAVY for the work they do ,,, rather than me spout uninformed fantasy ideas [which I can easily do i grant you] can i ask, what would be the 5 priorities you would advocate for the Royal Navy, given the budget, and acknowledging what Anonymous states, that ‘the vast majority of capability & financial decisions are now made by the RN themselves ‘ …
[ps… i wrote to my local MP immediately after the ‘The continuing neglect of our Royal Navy’ article and have had no reply…]
I just wanted to make a few points on the click bait “Slow death of the RN” article:
1) “It can barely patrol the UK’s own waters, much less project influence aboard” –
I guess he has not heard of the Cougar/RFTG deployments to the Med and Gulf, or the four
Type 45s that have operated with US CSGs since the start of the intervention against ISIL,
or the TLAM capable SSN on patrol east of Suez, the Type 23s deployed on patrol in the Baltic etc.
2) “The RN possesses just 89 ships…..by comparison the USN has roughly 400 vessels” –
Talk about not comparing like with like, try comparing the RN with the Marine Nationale.
3) “Britain could do little to help in the fight against ISIL” –
Well, aside from an EAW of 40 aircraft (including ISR platforms & Reapers) deployed to
Cyprus and the Gulf, over a thousand airstrikes conducted, 2,000 weapons released,
20,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops trained, SF deployed, Type 45s operating with US CVNs etc.
It’s worth adding that the UK has conducted far more airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq
and Syria than the French have, even though they have the advantage of carrier strike, but
then CdG is a lemon that can only launch an average of 11 sorties per day, and she
will be out of action until 2018.
4) “12 Type 42s replaced by 6 Type 45s” – And the Marine National only has
two horizon class ships to protect CdG and the Mistral-class LHDs.
Articles should be balanced, not hatchet jobs.
Some excellent comments above – and I am definitely in the Sisyphus category of “interested layperson” – but there is one thing that marks out the Royal Navy from “the rest”. If it’s set a task or given a job it will do it regardless of the state or lack of personnel or ships. In the Napoleonic Wars it was expected that a RN ship would beat any French or Spanish Warship regardless of comparative size. Captains were expected to best any opposition and woe betide them if they failed. That tradition remains and in conversation with any current RN Ship crew member of any rank you will find pride, professionalism and the same “we can do” attitude. I just wish politicians would stop relying on these men and women to produce miracles when they themselves can only offer rhetoric and talk about how much more ” powerful” ships of today are. Those ships have one common strength – the people who serve in them. Time to give them the tools to do the job. If Russia ever decides to sail over our horizon it will be those same people who will hoist the battle flag and sail towards them to save those politicians and the rest of us. Sobering thought that should be constantly in the minds of politicians.
As a parent of a new recruit into the Navy,it does not go down well,the fact that people are always having a go.Lets think of the morale of these new matelots and give some encouragement as we need as many as we can to enlist.
IF THE RN DIES,THE NATION WILL FOLLOW.EX RN,EX RMAS,EX RFA.
As an ex 22 year Pongo, I am worried about the the state of our RN. I have great respect for the senior service and know that like the other services you have your problems with funding and tech problems with new equipment, we all heard of the problems with Challenger engine leading up to the gulf war? Once the engines where used constantly they became more reliable than the Abrahams A1!!
I am very proud of our armed forces!!!
For me… the Service Personnel in the Navy are ones who are holding it all together. Any criticism I have has never been about them…infact I salute them for carrying the Service. Like with the other Armed Forces there will be a point where all the neglect will cost these men and women their lives..that is what annoys the hell out of me.
They should know that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defenses; they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war…And do not suppose that this is the end……This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bittter cup which will be preferred to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor we arise again and take our stand for freedom.
Does this sound familiar to any of