Britain's failure to prevent Iran's Revolutionary Guards from seizing ...
LONDON - Britain’s failure to prevent Iran’s Revolutionary Guards from seizing a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz shows the decline of the once mighty British navy.
Britain once had the most powerful navy in the world. But the size of the fleet has declined rapidly over recent decades - largely due to decades of spending cuts.** Britain spends more on defense than France, Germany, Italy, Spain or any other European Union country. The problem is that much of this is on the renewal of its nuclear program and on two new expensive aircraft carriers, leaving conventional forces such as the navy short of surface ships.
** Britain’s navy currently has 77 commissioned vessels, including six destroyers, 13 frigates and 10 submarines. The rest are primarily minesweepers, survey ships and other support vessels. Several others are committed to small standing patrols, which leaves just a handful of vessels to respond to emergencies.
This has coincided with cuts to the defense budget, which has declined from over 4% of economic output in 1990 down to around 2% percent now.
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