Royal Navy is in deep waters -- the fleet is no longer equipped to fight a major war because of years of under-funding and cutbacks, according to a report.
LONDON: Britain's Royal Navy is in deep waters -- the fleet is no longer equipped to fight a major war because of years of under-funding and cutbacks, according to a report of the Ministry of Defence.
The Navy would have to struggle even to repeat its role in the Iraq war and "is far more vulnerable to unexpected shocks" because of its "under-resourced" fleet of "ageing and operationally defective ships", 'The Sunday Telegraph' quoted the "leaked" Defence document as saying.
According to the document, the Navy is too "thinly stretched", its fighting capability is being "eroded" and the fleet's ability to influence events at the strategic level is absolutely "under threat".
"A combination of age and reduced spending on maintenance has resulted in today's ships carrying a far higher number of operational defects, which directly erode operational capacity.
"The current material state of the fleet is not good; the Royal Navy would be challenged to mount a medium-scale operation in accordance with current policy against a technologically capable adversary," the report said.
The report came at a time of mounting pressure on the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who has been heavily criticised over claims that as Chancellor he had failed to fund the military "adequately".
"We have come all the way from Lord Nelson to a part-time Defence Secretary, with the consequence that the Royal Navy now finds itself in the most degenerated state in which it has ever been.
"Labour has done what none of this countries' enemies have been able to do: bring the Navy to its knees," Liam Fox, the Shadow Tory Defence Secretary, was quoted by the daily as saying.
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