UK Navy fallen on hard times
UK recruiting posters 2019
Been some disparaging articles about the Brit Navy. From the 12th:
A UK Royal Navy aircraft carrier canceled its launch to join a NATO exercise on Sunday, the second similar failure in a week.
A UK carrier was meant to be a centerpiece of NATO’s Steadfast Defender exercises taking place off the coast of Norway.
Its twin, modern carriers cost some $3.7 billion each. They are among the newest in the world and a clear demonstration of the UK’s aspiration to be a first-rate military.
But neither of them could make it — the first candidate, HMS Queen Elizabeth, broke down on the eve of sailing.
Its replacement, HMS Prince of Wales, was meant to sail on Sunday, but the launch was abruptly pulled.
Sky News reported that crowds had gathered to watch the vessel depart, only to find out that it wouldn’t.
It set sail the next day instead from its home harbor in Portsmouth, England.
But critics say that that long-standing government underfunding has impacted the Royal Navy’s combat readiness. Business Insider
Nothing like two high-profile ships failing to sail…too, you have to have the sailors to man sailor person it.
Royal Navy warships are engaged in conflict for the first time in 20 years and HMS Diamond, in targeting several Houthi drones in the Red Sea, became the first to have shot down an aerial target in combat since 1991. But such is the shortage of sailors that two frigates, HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll, are to be mothballed before replacements are introduced from 2026; and this week Carlos Del Toro, the US navy secretary, called for the UK to reassess the size of its armed forces.
The latest figures show that on a net basis 5,790 people left the armed forces in the year to 30 September 2023. Army and navy recruitment targets have been missed every year since 2010, according to figures compiled by Labour. Royal Navy personnel numbers are 5% below the target set in 2015, and RAF numbers are 9% below target, while the army is only ahead because its target was cut to 73,000 in 2021, the smallest size it has been since about 1714, according to National Army Museum calculations.
Richard Mitchell, a former member of the Parachute regiment said he joined after the 9/11 attacks when “they couldn’t get people into the Para depot fast enough”. However, he said, the morality of recent conflicts had been ambiguous. “Iraq was exposed as the big lie, and Afghanistan as a complete failure. Young people look back on recent history and worry the same will happen again.”
Today’s news is just as encouraging:
The Ministry of Defence on Tuesday night confirmed an “anomaly” had occurred with the drill involving HMS Vanguard, but a spokesperson insisted that the nuclear deterrent – the cornerstone of the UK’s defences – “remains safe, secure and effective”.
The fault had something to do with it being a test-firing, with a source saying that the launch would have been successful had it been carried out for real with a nuclear warhead. Sky News
Pretty sure that on this side of the pond, saying “well, it would have worked if we really meant to” has the usual effective range of an excuse: 0 meters.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", NATO, Navy, UK
The UK, mush like the US of A, is under poor leadership that is destroying their country on purpose in the name of Globalism. They’re flooded with flotsam & jetsam of the third world shitholes so they “elites” can have cheap domestic help.
Fart, burp, giggle.
Lets get wet, my lad, and me a minging!
1715 was the year that the Jacobites tried to overthrow the monarchy. Maybe they will give it another shot.
Not with that pussified crew over there now.
They need a Margaret Thatcher.
Doubtful they would understand what an iron lady is these days.
More diversity enrichment and lowering standards more will help…
Not exactly The Brits “Finest Hour”. Horatio and Winston…weep.
Never was so little screwed up by so few for so many, Churchill would probably say.
But… I thought there was a literal ARMY of trannies, homos, and pansexual sparkle kitties, champing at the bit just WAITING for the opportunity to serve?
Or is that just with the US military?
Rum, sodomy and the lash just ain’t bringing ’em in like it used to, even so.
“Young people look back on recent history and worry the same will happen again”
As soon as I read that I started hearing Frank Zappa singing
“it can’t happen here”
https://youtu.be/svdrAHn_LGo
I never listened to much Zappa, though I appreciate his influence on later music genres. That song is apropos for today. It truly “can’t happen here” in the mind of so many. “Defund the police”, ban guns, and we’re still safe and sound. “Who’s that at the door at 0230? Hello, 911, what do you mean that all available officers are handling other calls? Mr. Burglar, where’d you get that gun, they’re illegal!”
On another note, Anarchy TV is a favorite of mine. Disregarding the nudity, it features his kids helping to run a hijacked public TV station.
Dear Hipsters,
You know, the UK has nuclear weapons.
I would call that a successful test, performed for reasons that
may not be apparent to adversaries and may well be the intent.
Still true
HMS QE2 is dead in the water.
HMS Chuckles 3 has a cancer that can’t be cured.
“…and this week Carlos Del Toro, the US navy secretary, called for the UK to reassess the size of its armed forces.”
DelToro ought to stay in his lane and concern himself with fixing the size of the Navy.
The last story has potential implications for the US since the Trident missiles used in launch tests off Cape Canaveral are drawn from a common US-UK storage pool.
To be honest, I thought the Brits gave up being a carrier capable navy years ago. I had no idea that they had one much less 2 of them.