CV costs could halve U.K. fleet, papers say

[unhappycamper]

CV costs could halve U.K. fleet, papers say
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 1, 2007 12:45:34 EDT

The expense of adding two new planned aircraft carriers may cost the Royal Navy almost half of the other ships in its fleet, British newspapers reported Sunday.

Citing an internal communique leaked from within the U.K. Ministry of Defence, The Times newspaper of London reported that spending on the two new 65,000-ton Queen Elizabeth-class flattops might force the admiralty to decommission five other warships by April 2008, and further cut British warships in the coming decades. London’s The Telegraph newspaper reported that drawdowns and budget cuts could put the Royal Navy on course to field about 50 warships by 2027 — from its current fleet of about 103.

According to the Telegraph’s “worst-case scenario,” the Royal Navy would have no minesweepers or patrol ships, cut two amphibious landing ships, and halve its complement of auxiliary and research ships. The only ship class left at present strength would be the navy’s eight destroyers.

If, as envisioned, the navy decommissions five ships by April, the U.K. will only have enough of a fleet to carry out “one small-scale operation,” said the MoD document, until around 2014, when the Queen Elizabeth is scheduled to commission.

The Royal Navy’s return to big-deck naval aviation — for about the last 30 years, it has sailed smaller Invincible-class carriers with ski-jump bows — is premised on Britain acquiring a fleet of new F-35 Lighting II fighters to replace its current short takeoff/vertical landing-capable Sea Harriers. The U.K. has so few Harriers now that about 80 percent of the time its carriers deploy, they carry no air wings or many fewer aircraft than they could.


Artilce at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_ukfleetcuts_071001w/



uhc comment: I wonder why this article appeared in the Navy Times. Will we see a call for more CV forces in the US because our British cousins came to their military senses? (Nice to see they are planning on F-35s on those new carriers & I'll bet Lockheed Martin is happy with that decision.)