The Royal Navy’s “pathetic” number of warships poses a risk to Britain, a former First Sea Lord warned today.
Admiral Lord West urged the Government to increase the “drumbeat” of orders for new vessels, as he outlined the threat to the UK posed by having too few boats.
The Senior Service has just 17 surface warships - frigates and destroyers.
“Seventeen is really not very many,” the Labour peer, who commanded the frigate HMS Ardent in the Falklands War, told the Lords.
“In May 1916 we lost more than 17 in that month; in May 1941 we lost more than 17 in that month; in May in the Falklands in 1982 we lost 12, lost and damaged.”
He demanded to know when the “number of escorts will start to rise above the pathetic figure of 17”.
With Russia accused of planning attacks on vital underwater cables connecting the UK to other countries, Britain as an island nation relying heavily on maritime trade and war raging in Ukraine, former Security Minister Lord West called on the Government to boost the size of the Navy.
He said: “We import 95% of our goods by sea, our seabed is at greater risk than ever before in the past and there is a war in Europe.”
Retired military chiefs have repeatedly raised concerns about the size of the Fleet - and rubbished Tory claims the Navy is growing.
The Navy has six Type 45, Daring-class destroyers and had 13 Type 23, Duke-class frigates - but two have been sold to Chile.
Meanwhile, work to build six, Type 26, City-class frigates - known as the Global Combat Ship - continues, along with work on five Type 31 light frigates.
Lord West said: “Shipbuilders and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) need a guaranteed drumbeat of orders - that certainty allows the cost of the ships to be driven down, it allows growth in skilled manpower, and at the moment there is a lacuna of orders.”
Defence Minister Baroness Goldie dismissed Lord West’s warnings about ships lost in previous wars, claiming: “We are operating in a different age with a different character of threat.”
She insisted the “current shipbuilding programme has a very loud and resonant drumbeat”, adding: “This is a very exciting period of development for the Royal Navy.”
The Tory frontbencher said Britain had “a very robust maritime capability” with a total of 53 surface vessels - including minesweepers, offshore patrol boats and other craft.
However, just 37 are available.
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