Sir Keir Starmer has been keen in office to run down our navy. He has decommissioned our 2 assault ships, our last minesweeper and three frigates.He humiliated our country with so many vessels undergoing long winded maintenance at the same time so we did not have a single ship ready to protect Cyprus when the Iran war started.
Now we read he might cancel the plans to order some new frigates and destroyers. He might order some drones and smaller automated boats instead. He needs to do that as well.
Has he no understanding of our dependence on seaborne trade? No knowledge of our history where we have needed to repel sea crossing invasions from France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Norway,Italy etc? No memory of threats from foreign navies?
The Royal Navy helped free Europe from French and German tyranny, led the abolition of the slave trade, defended the low countries and England from Spanish conquest, helped liberate Asia from Japanese domination.Its reward is the demolition of its surface fleet by a vandal government that wants to run down our defences.
June 29, 2026
Sir Keir Starmer has been keen in office to run down our navy.
Not just the Navy but the whole of the U.K.
He wouldn’t be more happy than to hand the running of GB by the EU along with rest of the European loving Liebour/Tories/ Libdums Westminster politicians , well that’s not going to happen
June 29, 2026
Well we shall see if it happens under Burnham!
June 29, 2026
Burnham is asking for ten years! ( to turn the country around). Dream on.
Also a new annual tax on the value of property. Allegedly replacing council tax and stamp duty.
June 29, 2026
Hi. Who cares about Burnham?!
The Tories should be focused on MISSION: ‘How to get back into power and as quickly as possible so as to reduce tax and immigration and all the other things needed for our great nation!’ Seriously. Burnham is a distraction. Let Labour stew in their own mistakes. And then when election time comes around, the Tories can really focus on pointing out what these mistakes are. Not now (just a bit). Until then, got to focus on building up the Tory Party for government like a military operation or an operation in business to introduce an exciting, updated brand.
Best.
June 29, 2026
Burnham just now he says he wants to give the money & power to the people who know how to use it best. Well I agree with that but alas Burnham does not mean tax payers and business owner he mean local politicians use use it appallingly in general.
Clearly the man is totally deluded if he thinks this is the way to go. Just look at what has happened after the Scottish and Welsh devolutions and power to the various Mayors – especially in Khan’s ruination of London. More money and power to the people who bankrupted Birmingham Birmingham City Council
Nottingham City Council – Reported bankrupt in 2023
Woking Borough Council – Declared financial insolvency
Slough, Thurrock, Croydon – Each has issued multiple Section 114 notices
June 29, 2026
So now Bridget Phillipson (with spiteful or not attempt to kill private schools) now says school teachers are not “diverse” enough. This is certainly true in one way as 76% of them are women. This as the profession rather appeals to them (often for work life balance issue with their children). Also they seem to have rather a lack of competent maths, physics and science teachers in my experience as they refuse to pay the going rate . The main losers seem to be working class boys. University (undergraduates) are nearly 60%/40% female to male now too.
June 29, 2026
Hi. That’s a SUBJECTIVE political, not an OBJECTIVE military, approach to whether we need the Royal Navy or not.
What we do need more of right now for sure are:
1. DOME to protect us from hypersonic missiles and hybrid drones
2. DRONES – increase in this tech to defend us
3. MORE HIGHLY TRAINED MILITARY PERSONNEL – using more high tech etc
IF it turns out we need the Royal Navy more than ever to defend our great nation – GREAT!
Best
June 29, 2026
Just another step towards integrating with the EU. Foreign navies to supply carrier protection while we provide nuclear protection. No doubt to be commanded by Brussels.
This party is a danger to the very fabric of Britain and a successive government should invoke the treason act retrospectively.
As a former nuclear submariner I’m disgusted at the behavior of these bastards.
June 29, 2026
The French and the Germans have cottoned on to what the USA have been doing. Getting other nations to by their stuff and subsidise their industries.
Pity we lost the appetite to do the same.
June 29, 2026
Our great nation voted to leave the EU. It’s bonkers to try and rejoin whether you’re pro or anti EU.
We need to focus on making Brexit work like a Rolls Royce instead of something inferior. And so we achieve that by trying to persuade Remainers, more and more, why being sovereign is a great thing (including communicating a positive and exciting and colourful vision to them – instead of coming across, to them, like the governess trying to give them the medicine with vinegar instead of sugar). And that includes having the best relations possible with the EU without being part of the Single Market or anything like that. So that we can work closely with them over security (and trade and culture) which in effect would actually be helping Brexit work much better!
If we’re too stand-offish and anti EU (and Remain) then that actually UNDERMINES sovereignty in the long-term.
So if you want Brexit to be a Rolls Royce of a success then this is the only way forward. x (a non-gay hug!)
June 29, 2026
Exactly, but defence procurement has also been run appallingly inefficiently and been hugely misdirected too,
even when they had some money to spend it was spent on the wrong things in the wrong way. The same as the rest of activity by recent governments.
Starmer has an even more duff compass than Heath, Wilson, Callaghan, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Boris and Sunak – quite some achievement. 180 degrees out on every single issue it seems, how many more years of essentially deluded, big state, tax borrow and waste socialism do we have to suffer?
June 29, 2026
I see John Major has given an interview to the Independent on the 10th anniversary of the Brexit Vote. He is still as totally deluded as he was when he buried the Tory party and we had to suffer Blair and Brown for 10+ years and even then the dire, green crap, pro EU (but pretending not to be) tax to death lefty abandon ship Cameron.
June 29, 2026
I don’t think John Major was “deluded” at all. I think he knew exactly what he was doing and the consequences. He was not unhappy that the Tory Party was buried for 10+ years as long as his policies were continued. Cameron was quite happy to call himself the heir to Blair and May did her best to scotch Brexit and then legislated for Net Zero by 2050. Then we had the Boris wave of mass immigration. It is clear that the Tory Party was infiltrated by the woke.
June 30, 2026
Perhaps but surely his decision as Chancellor to joint the ERM was deluded though perhaps it was this fiasco that led to us not joining the EURO and then to Brexit.
June 29, 2026
Signs are that Burnham will make things even worse still, albeit rather less robotically.
June 29, 2026
How long will Burnhams honeymoon last?
Or is it already over?
June 30, 2026
It is almost over already.
June 29, 2026
Straight from the WEF playbook “Destroy the Nation State”? He’s succeeding is he not?
June 29, 2026
Seems so.
June 29, 2026
@Ray Warman – always the ‘Plan’ and with the help of the numpties that have found their way into the UK Parliament it is on its way to success. It falls down as the rest of the World doesn’t ‘buy-it’ and are bathed in the wealth we are discarding
June 29, 2026
It does leave you feeling that it’s all part of the plan, or a plan, and we’re not in on it !
June 29, 2026
Over the weekend a great deal of pro-Russian propaganda has appeared in Western media, especially Reuters. Apparently, the war criminal Putin has undertaken a staged TV interview, in which he denied that the current Ukraine counter-offensive is causing problems for Russian forces
Putin’s state television interview with Pavel Zarubin was an exercise in geopolitical gaslighting, weaponising revisionism and outright deception (dezinformatsiya) to mask Russia’s compounding operational military failures along the line of contact an particularly Crimea
First, Putin claimed that intensive Ukrainian drone strikes on domestic refineries – which have forced emergency fuel rationing inside Russia – have “absolutely no effect” on the front lines. This is pure nonsense; degrading logistics chains directly cripples mechanized manoeuvres, a logistical reality his own emergency cabinet meetings implicitly contradict.
Furthermore, Putin’s framing of Ukraine’s alleged proposal to limit combat as a desperate sign of “catastrophic personnel shortages” flips reality upside down. This narrative hides his own relentless, high-casualty frontal assaults designed to capture the four “annexed” regions that Putin covets, but Russia still fails to fully control. Putin made no mention of the recent Ukrainian military isolation of Crimea at all, which speaks volumes.
Finally, his assertions of sovereign stability and looming diplomatic triumphs with yet another visit to Moscow by Trump’s US “negotiators” Witkopf and Kushner are deliberately misleading. The claims are carefully timed to shape the information ecosystem ahead of September’s stage-managed State Duma elections. Ultimately, Putin’s interview relies entirely on a distorted, fabricated reality constructed to disguise severe domestic infrastructure vulnerabilities and an increasingly unsustainable war of attrition
June 29, 2026
@Sakara Gold – the first thing that disappears, is surrendered in war is the truth. We have seen that here at home once the UK Parliament declared it long war against the UK Citizen
June 29, 2026
You seem to have stumbled in from a different discussion, this one is about the UK Royal Navy which you don’t mention once. In future please headline your contributions OFF TOPIC so those of us who wish to avoid them can efficiently do so.
June 29, 2026
Good morning.
As the immediate threats to this nation have reduced over the years, the former Soviet Union being the last of them, so to has our armed forces and our Navy in particular. There are no votes in having a large armed force, but there are votes in evermore benefits. And so the money for the latter must be taken form the former.
It is as simple as that.
June 29, 2026
An aircraft carrier with no aircraft is no use. Armies and navies are expensive. Britain currently has not got the money for them.
June 29, 2026
Whilst I absolutely agree John, we are in a different World now.
The UK has been punching above its real weight for decades, living on our past record of strength which we no longer have, successive governments over the last 3 decades have decimated our armed forces in numbers, have made shockingly expensive mistakes in procurement of equipment, some of which have simply been unfit for purpose.
Battle hardened men and women (threatened with court action for possible so called war crimes) are now getting to be too few now to properly train new recruits in any significant numbers.
We have de industrialised our Country to such a degree that we could no longer put any sort of mass production of anything on a War footing if needed.
Yes it is absolutely shocking, but when politicians (of all colours) put the so called welfare of the feckless before defence or our armed forces, that is what you get.
The Falklands was the last real lesson that we did not learn from, we just about scraped enough together to win that conflict, but we would certainly not be able to fo it now, and our enemies know it. !
Yes I am fully aware that any conflict now would be entirely different from the past, and would require different solutions, but from my limited knowledge we have little to fight that war with, Yes GCHQ may warn us about it, but do we have the capability to really fight it should the need arise, I very much doubt it !.
June 29, 2026
@Berkshire Alan – and our life-lines our trade routes have never needed more protection, as an import only nation, they have never more been needed, they have been neglected, destroyed. The UK Parliament in it first duty as the ones that ensure our safety and security have taken the ‘lottery’ approach cross their fingers and hope. Maybe that’s the suggest that to all parent with children, encourage your kids to walk between motorway junctions at the busiest time of day on the main carriage-way cross your fingers and hope.
June 29, 2026
The constant reduction of defence by successive governments Is now obvious to see. The U.K. is being defanged. The question is who is driving this destruction of Nation?
When you have the answer to that, then we will know where to focus our resistance.
June 29, 2026
Starmer is useless, why doesn’t he just go…………….
June 29, 2026
Being an island nation we need to have command of our seas and you’d think the Royal navy should have the best ships with which to do this.
I’m afraid Starmer now favouring drones is down to his overall aberrations about the Ukraine war and how Zelensky is profiting from the use of drones.
Starmer is blind to a great deal else except to find ways to hurt Russia, and while we should be building up our forces and resources he’s looking for a quick win to show how much he despises Russia.
I’m certain Starmer wants his legacy to be all about defeating Putin in some way – if he can set the stage for a massive attack against Russia, and with enough drones from the UK and EU, that might just be possible, it would seem he has ambitions in this area.
In supporting Ukraine in this manner he could very easily bring on WW3, but without our Royal Navy fully resourced we would be easy pickings for Russia’s navy.
June 29, 2026
@Steve Bullion – as each day passes new and better ways are arriving to defeat drones. They will stop being the cheap, quick alternative as they need to get more sophisticated. So then the defeat mechanisms become more expensive. The time lines extend and we start again for the alternative.
June 29, 2026
At the risk of sounding like Colonel Blimp ( “Gad Sir!” ) – This is an absolute disgrace!
I could rant on more but what’s the point with these idiots in charge?
June 29, 2026
Starmer has been a disgrace as well as a failure as prime minister. His humbug over corruption, his use of lawfare to hound military veterans, his promotion of two-tier justice, his siding with anti-Israel, pro-terrorist bureaucrats at the UN, his attempt to hand the chagos islands to China (in effect), and his shameful running down of defence have shamed and weakened our Country. Add to that anaemic economic growth, record high taxes despite record high borrowing and he moves head of Theresa May and Gordon brown as our most inadequate and useless PM. Good riddance to him. Will burnham be even worse and set a new low? There’s never been a Labour pm who hasn’t done incalculable lasting damage to the Country, could burnham be the first?
June 29, 2026
:@Richard1
+99
June 29, 2026
What is the point of having ships if you haven’t got the manpower to crew them? When the kind of person who might join up will be branded by the same party as far right racists, who will enlist?
“Join the armed forces and in 20 years time we’ll come back to you and prosecute for alleged breaches of the human rights act.”
You don’t need destroyers to defend against the Channel invasion, so get that bit sorted out first.
June 29, 2026
Who would want to sign up to fight and defend a country which has open borders – why would there be much point in doing that. Would many even of those have signed up actually want to do so?
June 29, 2026
Several of Starmer’s actions confirm his hatred of the UK. The run down of the navy, the penny pinching attitude to armed forces financing, his ridiculous posture on the Chagos Islands, his unwillingness to support the USA. Starmer is a traitor.
June 29, 2026
Starmer surely either despises the UK or he is totally deluded and potty. He and Reeves even claim they have left the UK in a better state than when they arrived, true Sunak et all left an appalling mess, but I can think of nothing positive Labour have done at all.
June 29, 2026
Political control of the armed forces is part of the Communist playbook ?
Small steps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_control_of_the_military_in_communist_states
June 29, 2026
“Sir Keir Starmer has been keen in office to run down our navy”
And all our armed services? As a Fabian, whose logo is a wolf in sheep’s clothing I am not surprised. Nor that he wishes to give away the Chagos Islands with a large dowry to a country aligned to China. Nor to allowing a huge Chinese embassy to be built close to our telecommunications cables. Nor to electrifying the country whilst depending upon Chinese built renewables infrastructure for all our energy and devices. I read that he wants to be the Secretary General of NATO. I was surprised that Mark Rutte was appointed to this position but since this is now the way forward for the organisation I suppose Sir Keir Starmer has shown himself to be his most likely successor.
June 29, 2026
Removing Starmer was one of the first steps to remedying so much of what has been going wrong.
Much much more needs to be done.
Burnham may be no better or may be even worse.
June 29, 2026
The real question is what do we need to defend our country (and how much money do we need to achieve that)?
So we now have to look at things such as:
1) DOME. Some kind of Dome around out country to defend it from hypersonic missiles and hybrid drones (how that Dome works – is it laser or something – is down to scientists).
2) DRONE TECHNOLOGY. Really focusing on Drone Tech for all the different ways drones are being used in modern warfare as seen in Ukraine
3) SPECIAL FORCES. Because of the increase in modern military technology, large, military armed personnel are becoming more obsolete. We now need more highly, trained military personnel, working closely with technologists and those in the secret services, to defend out country. Not just in open-warfare situations but also in more covert, terrorist-like threats to our infrastructure (and civilians).
So we must only ask questions about how much we need the Royal Navy or not in the context of military defence – not politics!
(If we still need our Royal Navy – and more than ever, great!)
June 29, 2026
The biggest threat to our culture, ecomony and community is the ‘boat people’ ….but there’s not defence against them, we might as well scrap our armed forces
June 30, 2026
That’s a fair argument. I just want to see all the arguments laid out. And then we prioritise from there.
June 30, 2026
Also, I’m not an expert on this topic, but surely, this is not a navy issue using navy boats?
Surely, this is an issue for border control using specific types of boats (large speed boats designed for this – as opposed to frigates – something like that) for this?
June 29, 2026
@Ed M – while surgestions would be something any responsible Parliament and there Government would and should impliment, we are talking of a Socilist Parliament hell bent on destruction. They will knock out soundbites to be on message and never detract from spending ‘our’ money on thier ego thats as far as it goes
June 30, 2026
I agree with you. But just going on about how cr-p Labour are (I agree with you – Labour are cr-p) is not going to get the Tories back into power so they can tackle high taxation and immigration etc. It’s a bit like if Steve Jobs said, ‘OK we’re going to produce an amazing smart phone that we will call iPhone but before we do let’s just bash the competition because they’re so awful.’ A bit like that. Not completely (unfortunately we don’t have a leader close to Steve Jobs and with a strong vision). We need an exciting vision to capture the loyally of voters (like brand loyalty) and then the ooomf to make it happen (a strong brand can’t be all marketing, it has to deliver – but we’re not even at the point of having strong leaders and a strong vision to capture the attention of voters!). If the summit of Everest is the Tories getting back into power then we’ve barely left Everest Base Camp …
June 30, 2026
Right now, 95% of people don’t care about what Labour is saying or not saying. The soundbites only hit those in the Westminster bubble. Right now, 95% of people are focused on the World Cup, Wimbledon, their forthcoming holidays, wanting to change job, how to get more s-x or emotional connection in their marriage, single and desperate to get married – and so on. Sure, politics does play a role in people’s lives. But how much do people trust the Tories after the Tories were in power for 14 years and failed to make ordinary middle class people significantly richer. So many don’t trust Reform enough to vote them into actual power. And so we’re left with Labour. Basically, most voters aren’t really passionate about the politicians at the moment and only really think about politics near the elections. So we need to do something dramatic to change that. So that the Tories are ready to win the next election!
June 29, 2026
All the wording, the narrative talks of defending the ‘High North’, with our Partners?
As an Island Nation, our lifeline is the ‘Worlds’ sea lanes, the worlds shipping. It is now even more important that we can protect our supply chains. The UK Parliament/Government won’t use energy produced in the UK it is banned. The UK Parliament/Government has deindustrialised, manufacture is banned they place imports as our future. The UK Parliament/Government has killed of farming in the UK so we need to import more and more food.
We saw that in the ‘Gulf’ UK shipping UK citizens were held hostage and we had a Government refusing to help
Defence is not about being 100% reliant on partners, some else to come to our aid. That presupposes that our partners are not experiencing similar attacks. Also why would other country drop everything to come to our aid if we refuse to protect ourselves?
June 29, 2026
It has been all over the media on how Dan Jarvis the defence minister wants reshape the UK’s defence capability, reducing everything to rely on automation, drones, AI etc. To concentrate the UK in protecting the ‘high north’.
Lots of contradictions in the ‘spin’ and ‘lies’ being pumped out to justify doing and spending nothing on defence. The train of media attention picked up by a lame Parliament with its Government, has been Iran, Russia, Ukraine are using just drones and only those facilities to fight with. Try telling that to the troops bereaved families now they are dead.
Just as with suggesting the mythical ‘high north’ is about defending our trade routes, it is what started out as a slight of hand to become a basic lie. Drones have/had a place but they are now being defeated, as systems and structures adapt, technology expensive technology is defeating them. It is a lengthy and as such costly time line for defence, you are in or out.
The real point, can our Parliament, its Government the Defence Minister guarantee 100% to us that are empowering and paying them, that the only future war is the one they are defending spending our very little money on and is the only type of war that will ever happen? Or are the programming the immediate surrender should the threat be something different?
Is Dan Jarvis a clairvoyant?
June 29, 2026
Ex-RN myself, me ol’ mates and I scream at what has happened to our once world-famous, “Senior Service”!
For reasons unknown to us, over the past decades, Downing Street has listened more to the RAF than the RN. What a succession of PMs failed to take in was that the RN provided a full fighting force, i.e., Warships, Fleet Air Arm and Royal Marines. The RAF always require a land base to operate from, whereas the RN have the own floating airfields and soldiers across the seven seas.
That is the way the powerful USN operates, as do the Chinese. We, on the other hand, have had inferior leaders for the past 30 years who have been hoodwinked by flashy Air Marshals. My god! Do we need to change and fast! If we are to protect our overseas investments. BTW, our Carriers need catapults as well as good engines!
July 1, 2026
The Conservatives paused construction of the carriers while they considered fitting catapults but STILL decided not to fit them ! A huge mistake.
We don’t need a bigger Army, we can leave mainland European defense on the ground to Poland, Germany, France, and the Baltic countries but we desperately need a Navy that can put Destroyers, Frigates, and Submarines to sea. Our Air Force is less than optimal with F35Bs that are deeply compromised on range and weapons load, so a few quid could be saved by not fitting catapults on the carriers. We are also very light on maritime reconnaissance, nine Perseidons are not really enough to defend the North Atlantic, let alone the Western Approaches.
We need drones, but they are no substitute for Destroyers and Frigates fitted with beam weapons, otherwise our carriers will have to stay in Port. Starmer and Jarvis have no idea what they are doing, and are putting us at huge risk.
June 29, 2026
You will not change what is going on with the Navy until British history is taught properly again in schools. I bet you a lot of children do not know they live on an island and how important a naval force is to protecting them from invasion (one currently going on which seems to have naval support on government instructions). It is the same as astronomy being important. How many children look at the sky and realise we are all part of a bigger element of life? The children around me are thick as two planks when you try to get them to look at stars and the moon. So we need better education on the basics of our being on this earth and how we look after our surrounding areas such as the sea. Giving it away to others is not a good start but then again Starmer seems to have some sort of love affair with Macron on a number of issues and he always comes out the loser.
June 30, 2026
Well said, Linda. I fear that instead of looking up, they are too hooked on looking down at their latest iPhone, believing all they are told on their favourite social media platform. Gullability is an element in their everyday life in 2026.
June 29, 2026
As far back as the 1980’s young RN navigation officers were queuing up to get sufficient bridge watchkeeping time to qualify for the next round of promotions and all because there were not enough naval ships afloat also if we look at the number of admirals on the retirement list we have to acknowledge that some change is needed. We simply cannot do military stand alone anymore we need european partners to build for european defence – it’s become a regional thing.
June 30, 2026
What happened to NATO then? Check out those members who do not pay their way. And we should rely upon them?
June 29, 2026
What do you want to defend the UK from? We have already been invaded, and it is now irreversible. The indigenous white British people have been replaced, and it’s too late to change course. A recent government report shows that ethnic minorities now account for 40% of school children, and Labour is planning a new refugee scheme to bring in even more from war-torn countries. We are heading for two tier everything. What I don’t understand is why our politicians hate us so much. Why are they intent on destroying our country? Surely they have family here.
June 29, 2026
Agree Christine
June 29, 2026
USA, Russia, China and France are not running down their navies. How likely is it that Starmer has judged the geopolitical situation better than them ?
June 29, 2026
“No knowledge of our history where we have needed to repel sea crossing invasions from France…”
We still need to repel sea crossing invasions from France but our “leaders” don’t seem to want to do it.
June 29, 2026
Some of my pals think the comments that fail to print are the more interesting.
June 29, 2026
I think the days of large surface ships are over. Look at the US: it’s had to keep its fleet 1000km (estimates vary) away from Iran, for fear of missile attack. Again, Iran also shows that coastal waters can be defended by small craft, missiles and drones.
June 29, 2026
Traitors every single Labour MP.
June 29, 2026
Actually the rot started with Cameron and his peace dividend. What peace?
Starmer’s motivation is quite different. He hates Britain, he doesn’t believe in sovereign nation states. He is destroying Britain from within, making it wide open to Islamic domination. This being the agenda and no navy being able to defend against it, it is logical the country doesn’t need an expensive navy. A navy can deal only with external threats.
June 29, 2026
Pomp and Circumstance and loads of ceremonial celebrations and welcoming involving our “ROYALS” and visiting “dignitaries”.Everyone on parade in “DRESS” order and well rehearsed as to not fall out of line.
Buck House how much taxpayer money contribution to the pile and “lo and behold” our head of state and
family has no intention of inhabiting the ugly monstrosity.£750m?.What cost of soldiers guarding the place
plus all the other “Royal” residences in London and Windsor and elsewhere.
Rome is not burning but ,despite the warm weather, ordinary and proud-to-be,English citizens are burning
with righteous anger at what is being done.
June 29, 2026
@Sidney – technicaly Buck House is closer to being more of a council house than being the Royal Families residence – they own directly houses elswhere but not that one. If it wasn’t for the visiting tourists fees recieved, it might serve a better purpose of homing the illeagal asylum invaders
June 29, 2026
78 ‘illegal immigrants’ invaded the UK yesterday 28th June 2026 …
June 29, 2026
The Royal Navy Astute Submarines are built by BAE Systems, of the five new so-called “operational” boats none could be heard at sea by any adversary, no matter how hard they listened—because the Royal Navy has acknowledged its most capable hunter-killer boats are all in port.
That is a deliberate malicious act of self-harm by the UK Parliament and its Government.
In the USA the Navy have updated their front-line Destroyer to cope and negate the change in warfare, the alternative threats, of drones, and the unmanned so-called autonomous boats, the very thing that the UK Parliament and Government is now envisioning replacing our surface ships with. So, were does this new ‘cheap’ option stand? How effective to the changes already having taken place, will this ‘late’ arrival be, will heading off in a direction that the World is already countering and is able to move on from? Is cheap the answer to our safety and security?
So, the irony?
The company doing the updates for the US Navy is BAE Systems and it is noted by the US Government they finished all the work ahead of time and at contract price.
Also, in the USA they have started updating the ageing venerable B52 bombers to adjust to the changes in warfare, because even in this changing World it works and can take on the new threats – $2.6 billion heading Rolls Royce’s way.
Without the US Defence Department demands so much more of the UK’s Industrial base would be destroyed. The USA Government is helping UK survive the attacks on it from the UK Parliament and Government. Who is the Enemy?
June 29, 2026
If commercial merchant shipping companies were to tie up their ships for maintenance reasons and for the same length of time as the RN they’d be very quickly out of business.
June 29, 2026
@fairweather – and we would starve in more ways than one, food and energy. May be then the UK Parliament would understand the meaning of keeping the country and the people safe and secure
June 29, 2026
How can we protect the Falkland Islands with only a flotilla of unmanned drone ships ….maybe we could outsource their protect to the argentine
June 30, 2026
We struggle to keep our ships running even with plenty of engineers on board.
June 29, 2026
I have advocated the virtual end of the surface navy as ships were large floating targets for missiles, even before drones. No use living in the past when warships were significant. Nice that at last Ministers are catching up with my thinking!
July 1, 2026
People have been saying this since the invention of the torpedo.
The fact is a functioning navy needs to operate submarines, ships and aircraft. It needs the mass t accept losses in wartime. These are inevitable. The fact that a warship might be sunk does not mean warships are obsolete. In the Falklands we lost two destroyers and two frigates. If we lost four ships now the Royal Navy would be done for. It is just too small.