An article by Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, and a former Armed Forces Minister and Defence Secretary, appeared in The Sunday Times on 21 January 2024. The honorary Captain in the Royal Naval Reserve claimed that “Britain’s interests cannot be secured” in the face of the declining size and capabilities of the Royal Navy, particularly at a time of growing Russian and Chinese naval power.
Britain’s former maritime dominance, as recalled in the catchy and patriotic jingle of ‘Britannia rules the waves’, no longer uplifts the national psyche. The Royal Navy is the oldest of Britain’s three armed forces and was once the largest and most powerful naval force in the world, engaging in naval warfare or resorting to gunboat diplomacy in support of the British Empire. The ‘Senior Service’ has since been reduced to the UK’s smallest service, to the consternation of many military chiefs and defence-orientated politicians, having been decimated by budget cuts, not to mention difficulties with recruitment and retention of personnel to what is increasingly considered a less attractive profession by many. The significant shortage of personnel has most recently forced the decommissioning of two Type 23 frigates-HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster.
Looking at the bigger picture, UK defence spending was £52.8 billion in 2022/2023, up from £52.8 billion in 2021/2022, representing an inflation-adjusted increase of 7.8 per cent, mainly accounted for by capital spending. Defence was the sixth highest spending area of the UK government in 2022/2023, down from fifth position in 2021/2022. Discretionary spending on defence is subject to fiscal limits, Defence Expenditure Limits (DELs), which are set in Spending Reviews. DELs consist of Resource DELs, which cover money spent on personnel, equipment support, infrastructure, and depreciation of property, plant, and equipment, and Capital DELs, which comprise expenditure on military and dual-purpose (civilian and military equipment. Capital DEL expenditure for defence is the highest for all top UK governments.
Funding for all three of the UK’s armed services has failed to match needs. The “Peace Dividend” following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequent end of the Cold War justified cuts to defence spending in austerity budgets. The 1991 Gulf War, and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s then caused real-term defence expenditure to increase once again, only to be followed by another decline from 2009/2010 onwards.
The title of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee report “We’re going to need a bigger Navy”, published on 14 December 2021, speaks for itself. The report blamed budget cuts for procurement delays, cutbacks in operations and maintenance, and the decommissioning of older vessels without suitable alternatives, and likened warships to “porcupines-well defended herbivores with limited offensive capabilities.” The Royal Navy’s fleet was considered too small and too specialised to meet future demands, and increasingly reliant on allies to complement its capabilities to fulfil a wide range of functions.
The Royal Navy’s surface combatant fleet is down to two aircraft carriers, two amphibious assault ships, an escort fleet of six destroyers and twelve frigates, and eight offshore patrol vessels, while the submarine fleet includes four nuclear-armed submarines and seven hunter-killers. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s fleet of 13 support ships, crewed by civilians to provide logistic and operational support, has also been depleted by the retirement or sale of ships without suitable replacement. While advanced technologies are compatible with a reduced fleet size and falling numbers of personnel, cuts may have gone too far. All of this means that Britain’s naval forces are stretched too thinly over the seas and oceans to adequately fulfil all their responsibilities.
The Royal Navy is required to provide a Continuous At-Sea (nuclear) Deterrent-ever since April 1969, to protect the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and to safeguard Britain’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. In addition, the Royal Navy helps protect global maritime trade, combats organised crime and terrorism, participates in counterinsurgency operations, undertakes search and rescue operations, supports peacekeeping operations, and delivers humanitarian aid and rebuilds vital infrastructure during natural disasters.
The Royal Navy is seeking to maximise efficiency and effectiveness of its depleted remaining fleet through “strategic advantage”- coordinating naval deployments with allies, establishing new bases in Bahrain and Oman, and joining the AUKUS partnership with the US and Australia.
The world is once again a dangerous place, in which territorial ambitions and ethnic conflict drive the political agendas of many national leaders. Diplomacy, negotiation, and the United Nations have taken a back seat in the face of escalating confrontation and armed conflict across the world. Despite many conflicting domestic priorities and a prevailing antipathy to military solutions for the world’s problems, there seems a strong case for increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, provided one can trust the informed opinions of those responsible for Britain’s national security.
Ashis Banerjee
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