The New Royal Navy!

The Telegraph is reporting that the British Royal Navy has big, big plans for its future. Thanks to extreme cost cutting by the government, the RN is working on plans to downsize the fleet. Even more than before.

The Ministry of Defence has produced a plan to decommission five warships from next April, which would reduce the Navy's capability to the level where it could carry out only "one small-scale operation".

Separate documentation from inside the department suggests that the total number of ships in the Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary could fall from the present level of 103 to 76 in 2017 and only 50 in 2027 — a reduction of more than half.

The information has been supplied in an email from a whistleblowing official inside the MoD, who has given details of a row between senior officials in the department and Andy Burnham, the Treasury Chief Secretary, over the allocation of money to the MoD over the next three years.

The deal, sealed under the Comprehensive Spending Review and announced in July, gave the MoD an annual increase of 1.5 per cent above inflation for the years 2008-11.

Our operatives have managed to obtain a photo of the entire Royal Navy after all the cost cutting is finished.

(Photo by Silje L. Bakke)

Other Links to this Post

1. The Destruction of the British Navy « The Van Der Galiën Gazette — September 30, 2007 @ 11:31 am

2. Blue Crab Boulevard » Spurning Responsibility — September 30, 2007 @ 10:05 pm