Sir Keir Starmer is to replace the Royal Navy’s destroyers with smaller, cheaper warships under new military spending plans that critics have said are a cost-cutting exercise that will turn the navy to “shit”. The Telegraph has more.
The Navy aims to replace the current fleet of six Type 45 missile-defence ships with the new Common Combat Vessel (CCV) from the early 2030s.
The plans are expected to be announced by the Prime Minister on Tuesday as part of the long-delayed defence investment plan (DIP).
The new vessels, which have not yet been designed, would be crewed by sailors and act as a “control hub” for a series of drone warships, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
They will be joined by a series of newly announced drone ships, including the Type 91 missile barge, the Type 92, built to hunt submarines, Type 93, a small autonomous submersible, and Type 94, a drone warship packed with sensors and radars.
The ships will be built instead of the previously planned Type 83 destroyer, after the Telegraph revealed earlier this month that it had been abandoned.
Some observers fear it is a cost-cutting exercise by the MoD to save cash, as the military faces a reported £28 billion shortfall in its budget over the next four years.
Cdr Tom Sharpe, a retired frigate captain, said: “Destroyers have been the backbone of the Navy for so long it is almost incomprehensible to get rid of them.
I’m deeply uncomfortable about this. It’s been done because someone has made the case it will be cheaper. And it will be, because it will be shit.”
The MoD insists the six new vessels will improve the “reach, resilience and firepower” of the fleet as part of Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins’s hybrid navy approach, combining traditional warships with unmanned drones.
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Once upon a time a weapon was developed which was so terrifying that it would end all wars because the loss of life would be unsustainable. MAD. MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION. That was the bow and arrow. The development of ways of rendering the latest wonder weapon useless continue apace.
Shipborne laser weapons systems (already deployed) at 1-15$ a shot may well transform the logistical argument of ‘running out of ammo.’ It’s clear that hundreds of cheap sacrificial weapons will overwhelm the defences of the best and most expensively armed foe. Time for a rethink.
But a ship focused on drone technology would get blown out the water by advanced missile technology. You attack with a swarm of drones you don’t defend with them. You defend with jamming, with lasers, with close in gattling guns, and with iron dome type missiles. In other words you need both. The best of a type 45, plus a response to the drone scenario.liar starmer is just dismantling our defences.
They can build all the ships they want, what country are you fighting for. No young person should enlist
Just imagine if there was an area that is costing around £50bn of taxpayers money that if the government acted to stop this waste then there could be more money for defence. Whether the MOD can be trusted to spend it properly is an entirely different matter but that is the bill for the immigrants every year.
The RN drained the UK of money in pursuit of two white Elephant Aircraft Carriers. BAE Systems assembled them badly and also the RN diesel electric destroyers did not work in warm water. Ergo the RN is a total sheet show.
The new vessels, which have not yet been designed,
So how do they know they’re going to work?
Labours are naturally hopeful, optimistic types.
Canoes. Rafts. Dinghies…oh wait, plenty of those have washed up. These guys are geniuses.
An acknowledgement that military technology has moved on, as demonstrated in the Ukraine war, perhaps. Drone manufacture may take over from shipyards to some extent, but jobs come and jobs go, as they always have done.
Brilliant, so instead of real warships, we’re going to build computer controlled ships. Anyone think we are rapidly heading towards Skynet and Terminator? My car already tells me what I can and can’t do while driving (including turning off the headlights if I don’t think I need them!), so how long before these computerised weapons decide what we are doing is wrong and disobey the order or worse shoot at us because we are not complying with the WEF orders.
War ships are outdated in modern warfare.
Even the US ships have been easy targets for Yemeni and Iranian drones and missiles which can overload the magazine shell capacity of onboard weapon systems.
Yemen and Iran have shown that 50 to 100 armed, cheap drones then soon followed by missiles and then soon followed by higher capacity ballistic missiles can deplete the ordinance of on land or on ship air defences as was shown with Israel’s Iron Dome system and with US ships off the Straits of Hormuz.
The early drones and missiles are of the sacrificial kamikaze type specifically used to exhaust the air defence systems which fire at least 2 rounds at each threat. The ballistic missiles that follow arrive at their targets unimpeded.
With seaborne drones also being used, warships are much more vulnerable than they have ever been before, and it is well known with Military Analysts that warships are not the force they once were.
Absolut nonsense
But it may well explain why the world’s bestest navy is going round in circles in the middle of the Indian Ocean well away from the contact zone. They can’t risk any more galley fires or blocked toilets which seem to occur whenever they venture near it.
You remind me of the Tories in the 1960s who had badly screwed up the economy so they decided fixed wing aircraft were passé and future wars would be faught only by missiles.
Also by Labour in a similar financial pickle who claimed East of Suez had no impact on us do we have up fantastic bases which had endured some stability. Including Mombasa and Aden.
And the Tories again who claimed to believe “The End of History” theory from Fukuyama. Maybe they were daft enough. Cameron -Clegg destroyed our maritime patrol IP and aircraft, junked or gave away refurbished Harriets and ran down all the forced. I have forgotten how many years we went without a single capital ship order.
Now Labour again. They seek to use the remarkable advances made by Ukraine in drone warfare to destroy the Royal Navy. Drones cannot project power, defend trade and comms at long distance or rough weather. Proper ships can.
The consequences of the Tory carelessness and Labour malevolence will result in a very big bill soon. Either that will be a huge increase in building and spending or it will be a dramatic military if security… Read more »
Ukrainian drones have effectively nullified the Black Sea Fleet, they are currently tearing the Russian land logistics to pieces (as well as infantry and armoured vehicles) and are now engaged in strategic strike missions. This is on a fraction of a budget compared to conventional forces. Drones are only going to get better, and quickly.
There will be a place for ships, helicopters etc, but a smaller one. It’s an automated future as Russia is discovering to its cost.
Of course the tactics have changed – that is what happens in war. I mean, it is not as if the Russian forces have not learned from this and adapted their weaponry as they close in on completing the liberation of Donetsk by the end of the Summer.
Keep drinking the KoolAid.
Ever since it was realised that a single torpedo could sink a Dreadnaught in the 1930’s, the demise of the capital ship has been confidently predicted. It hasn’t happened. But warfare has become more technological, thats true.
For £10bn, we can buy 12 up to date destroyers (well they will still be when they are commissioned in three to five years time) from South Korea. Proven design. We don’t have the capability to build them ourselves, as the Scottish Ferries show. Basing our future plan on a concept of a ship that we haven’t even sketched out, is just jaw droppingly stupid. Drones and air defences will play a bigger and bigger role as time passes. We shouldn’t wait for 12-15 years before this ‘plan’ comes into force. How much further will warfare develop in that time.? in 2010, did we see the rise of the drone, its role, its numbers, its sophistication.? All that’s missing, is the stipulation that they will have to be solar powered, built by unionised, diverse work teams and have disabled toilets fitted.
Please do us a favour. Summon the South Korean Ambassador and have him make the calls.