The British Navy Is Being Mouthballed

HMS Southampton: Pressures on the Navy's budget are immense with cuts of 20 per cent predicted in the next decade (Photo: PA)

Exclusive: Cash Strapped Navy Cuts Destroyer Fleet
-- The Telegraph

The Royal Navy has mothballed almost half of its remaining fleet of destroyers as it desperately attempts to save money in the face of a plunging budget.

The Fleet now has just five air defence warships left to protect vessels missile or aircraft attack at a time when other nations such as China, India and Iran are investing heavily in anti-ship warfare.

Three Type 42 destroyers – Exeter, Nottingham and Southampton – have been "parked up" in Portsmouth at "reduced readiness" up to two years before they were due to be decommissioned.

Falklands War veterans are particularly angry after Exeter, the last serving operational ship from the campaign in which it shot down several Argentine fighters, was refused permission to fly a paying-off pennant when it entered harbour after its last mission.

Britain's force of destroyers and frigates has now been reduced from 35 to 22 in the last decade despite government promises it would not slip below 25.

Read more ....

My Comment: The U.K. Government has failed the Navy and the British people because of poor planning and a lack of leadership. When I read stories like this I can then understand why the Labour Party is so low in the polls.