It appears that while once-Great Britain has been solving problems like plastic drinking straws and imposing taxes on milkshakes (!), their navy has been allowed to deteriorate into a motley collection of rowing boats, dinghies and canoes:
The Royal Navy has only ordered one aircraft carrier, a handful of offshore patrol vessels, five submarines, and a single new frigate for the next decade as a report says its force will get even smaller.
It comes as serious questions have been raised over Britain’s ability to defend itself following Iran seizing the UK-flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz.
In essence, the once-proud Royal Navy has allowed a British-flagged ship to be hijacked by a bunch of ragheads in a speedboat.
Of course, Uncle Sam will probably come to Britain’s aid again in protecting the sea lanes (see: WWI and WWII), but let’s hope that this altruism will not get in the way of the British government’s clown show (see: Brexit).
Feckless idiots.
Amazing how much you can fart around when you know you’ve got a bigger (although younger) brother who’ll come bail your ass out when you get in trouble. Perhaps they need a reminder that they’d have been speaking German from about a hundred years ago until perhaps sixty, and Russian after that.
Hey Kim, if the Brits aren’t going to use their Navy, you think we could borrow it and clear out certain….trouble spots around the world (Somalia, Iran, North Korea would top the list)? Their Navy might not be what it once was, but I’d get it would be adequate to bring those places into line.
Mark D
Yeah. Borrow one of their Fast Attacks and I’m sure I can dust off my Tomahawk weaponeering skills. Hell, a lot the current targets in some of the listed places are probably ones I did work on during the 80’s.
I though you were talking about SF.
Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the Thames Estuary!
If that.
What’d they do, get rid of Rum and the Lash so they could triple down on sodomy?
Short answer: yes.
Maybe Lend Lease again. We could offer a few Littoral Combat Ships. We aren’t using them, are we?
Makes me wanna cry
We can’t always depend on the accuracy of some reports, especially if there’s an issue of losing face.
Are we sure it was a speedboat that captured the tanker or was it merely a Boston Whaler?
Problem is, the US Navy isn’t in much better state. The bulk of its ships are incapable of sailing for lack of maintenance, its officers and crews are suffering from a massive lack of training created by policies where “diversity” and pampering to “minorities”, “women’s sensitivities”, and homosexual demands are more important than combat readiness.
And the rest of NATO isn’t in much better state.
Kim,
do I misremember that it was you who posted images, or links to articles about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee showing the much reduced Royal Navy passing in review, then comparing it to earlier events and the coronation, where the Naval review ‘filled the seas’ with their ships?
Also found the following: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9305678/Diamond-Jubilee-The-Queen-no-longer-rules-the-waves.html
It’s time to arm merchantmen who trade in troublespots…….
a few M-2’s fore and aft, plus a recoil-less rifle or two should be sufficient.