Britain Has To Decide Upon The Royal Navy's Role -- The TelegraphA former First Sea Lord laments the Royal Navy’s lack of ships – but what it needs most is a maritime strategy.
Vigorous debate about the role, size and shape of the Royal Navy is all the rage at the moment. Numerous broadsides are being exchanged over whether the Navy is equipped to defend the Falklands; the affordability and configuration of future aircraft carriers; the appropriate numbers of destroyers and frigates; and the introduction of new uniforms that wouldn’t look out of place in a fast food outlet.
Lord West, the former First Sea Lord and a Falklands veteran, suggests it is “bonkers” that the Royal Navy has only 19 frigates and destroyers. But such is the culture of intellectual and strategic relativism in which these arguments take place that neither politicians nor the public have any idea whether 19 or 25 or 30 frigates and destroyers is the right number. All of these issues tinker around the edges of the real problem – the fact that no one is prepared to define what Britain wants the Royal Navy to do as part of a coherent maritime strategy.
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My Comment: The naval strategy that the British government has employed for the past decade or two has been driven more by financial considerations .... not by some agreed upon overall naval strategy. I do not expect this change in the future .... and if anything .... I expect that was is left of the British Navy will be downgraded even more in the next few years.
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