Royal Navy: Ships Needed

The "dangerously weak" Royal Navy will put trade routes at risk from pirates and terrorists unless the Government buys more frigates, a think tank has warned.:

It pointed out that 95 per cent of British trade by volume and 90 per cent by value was carried out by sea.

But the Navy's policing role risked being undermined if it did not receive extra funding, they argued. The article added that it would be a "grave failure" if the review "attended principally – or worse, exclusively" to the financial squeeze from the Government and political pressure over Afghanistan.

"No one associates the full supermarket shelves, the availability of a range of other goods and the supply of fuels to power our homes, cars and industry with the free flow of sea trade."

The report said future orders should be "seriously cost-constrained" so ships were more basic and more could be bought. The MoD has said one of its long-term aims will be to use less specialised, cheaper ships that are easier to sell abroad.

One former naval officer notes that most of the work is done by helicopters, anyway. No report how he suggests the helicopters get out to sea to do their work.

So much for Rule Britannia:

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.

It is an island, after all.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "King Richard II", Act 2 scene 1

Of course, maybe they could work a deal with the Danes. That's a Danish design up at the top.