Cuts to the Royal Navy – short term savings, long term costs

May 30, 2011 // by NavyLookout // Articles, blog // 1 Comment

HMS Ark Royal - Image via Wikipedia

The value of the Royal Navy continues to be highlighted by the crisis in Libya. Tomahawk missiles launched from submarine HMS Triumph have proved very accurate and effective and destroyed military targets with little fuss. (The case for equipping the Type 45 destroyers with Tomahawks gets stronger). Meanwhile the RAF labours to get its aircraft to the target at vast expense in fuel to deliver relatively small amounts of ordnance.Even the RAF (which has spent the last 80 years trying to undermine or abolish the Fleet Air Arm) are rumoured to have requested that the Harrier Force be re-activated along with HMS Ark Royal and sent to the Mediterranean. The Harriers would have been far better suited to operations in Libya. Not only more flexible and effective, but far cheaper than multiple air-air refueled Tornado flights from the UK or the ‘eye-watering’ charges Italy is making for use of its airbases.HMS Invincible went to the knackers yard in Turkey last week (having spent the last 5 years stripped of spares and rotting in Portsmouth dockyard while the MoD deceptively listed her as part of ‘the active fleet’) She sailed past Ark Royal which has also been stripped of useful equipment (with suspicious haste) as soon as she decommissioned and is being flogged online. Meanwhile Nelson is spinning in his grave as the French navy is able to deploy the large fixed-wing aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle while Britain might have something similar in around 10 years.

HMS Cumberland has been part of the naval blockade of Libya but will shortly be relived by HMS Liverpool (incidentally HMS Liverpool is 7 years older than Cumberland) so she can sail home to her delayed decommissioning. The Government continues to defy all reasonable logic and ploughs on in the face of events, refusing to abandon plans to scrap the 4 very capable Type 22 frigates. Amidst the news that the MoD has wasted at least £6 Billion on scrapped defence assets, HMS Campbeltown decommissioned this week, despite completing a major refit this year and being readied to deploy to the Indian Ocean.

A carrier-less Royal Navy (dalyhistory.wordpress.com)
MoD redundancies: quarter of Navy fighter pilots face sack (telegraph.co.uk)
£1.1bn Royal Navy warship finally armed, sort of (go.theregister.com)
The Royal Navy Wants Its Carriers Back (defensetech.org)

The sorry state of the current Royal Navy – Who’s to blame?

May 30, 2011 // by NavyLookout // Articles, blog // 3 Comments

This is a complex and controversial subject but here is a very quick overview of some of the possible culprits for the decline of the RN:

1. Every Government since WWII

Just about the only thing successive governments seem to agree on is that the Royal Navy should be smaller and weaker than it was under the last administration. Most politicians regard savings made from the defence budget as an easy way to balance the books and are failing in their fundamental first duty to protect the security of the nation. Recent involvement in wars with no exit strategy and a confused foreign policy disconnected from defence policy is another major undermining factor.

2. The Ministry of Defence

Bureaucracy, mis-management, petty empire-building, over staffing and gross incompetence have been rife within the MoD and as a result the RN has often received vessels and equipment that is either defective, over-priced, late or all 3. Civil Servants do not seem to be held accountable for the things that have gone wrong and there seems to be little incentive for the system to change. This chronic waste of taxpayers money is is a national scandal and must be stopped.

3. Inter-service rivalry, in particular the RAF

By underfunding defence, the government (intentionally or not) pits the services against each other for scarce resources. This creates bitterness and internal wars where each service fights to keep their equipment whether it is in the national interest of not. The RAF which is increasingly finding it hard to justify its existence, fights dirty and usually wins in these inter-service conflicts, It has successfully clung to colossal expensive white elephants such as the Typhoon at the expense of equipment that is actually useful to the nation such as the RN’s Harriers.

4. Vested local interests and the UK defence industry

Most MP’s regard defence assets or industries merely as a job-creation scheme for their constituents so what is best for the RN usually comes second to political concerns. Often expensive second-rate British equipment is bought in spite of better & cheaper foreign alternatives. Highly profitable corporate giant BAe Systems now has a monopoly on all ship and submarine building for the RN. Not always entirely their fault, but some major programmes involving BAe including the RN’s Astute submarines and Type 45 destroyers are massively over-budget, years late and have significant technical problems.

5. A “Sea blind” nation and a public disconnected from its armed forces

In an age of easy air travel and instant communication, it’s not surprising that the public has slightly lost its understanding of how dependent we are on the sea. Our economy which so relies on imported goods and fuel is utterly dependent on the sea and the large vulnerable ships that deliver global trade. In times past, most people served or had family in the forces. This is no longer true and the general public are increasingly disconnected from the forces and have little idea about what the RN is for and what is does. This is not helped by the RN’s rather lacklustre public relations and that it’s best work happens out of sight over the horizon. This has allowed governments to quietly destroy the RN by cutting off funding to spend on more ‘voter-friendly’ services.

£1.1bn Royal Navy warship finally armed, sort of (go.theregister.com)
RAF chief urges increased budget (bbc.co.uk)
The Royal Navy Wants Its Carriers Back (defensetech.org)

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