‘Efficiency’ cuts to fleet threaten Navy’s capability, Admiral warns

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, said the cuts already announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) meant Britain would be left with a “small” fleet.

Addressing the Royal United Services Institute in London, he said there was now a limit to the further efficiencies that could be achieved as a result of the latest planned reforms set out last week by Defence Secretary Liam Fox.

“Such reform represents a welcome opportunity to remove unnecessary overheads and duplication driving ever greater efficiency into our defence and naval business,” he said.

“But I am also acutely aware that we are already highly efficient at force-generating and operating maritime forces at and from the sea.

“I would counsel that the laudable pursuit of efficiency at the heart of defence reform must not compromise effective delivery of maritime outputs – the very capability that we seek to preserve.”

Announcing his reforms, Dr Fox attacked the “bloated” decision-making procedures in the MoD, and said that he was removing the individual service chiefs from a key decision-making body.

Admiral Stanhope said the emphasis on operations in Afghanistan meant that the navy had suffered in the SDSR. “We have necessarily had to make some difficult – some very difficult – decisions in terms of platforms and in terms of people,” he said.

“From a maritime perspective ,the Royal Navy that is emerging from the review is small, with an obvious gap in our current carrier strike capability.”

Admiral Stanhope has warned ministers they face “challenging decisions” if the current mission in Libya continues beyond the summer. Defence Equipment Minister Peter Luff has acknowledged that an aircraft carrier with Harrier fighters would probably have been deployed off Libya if they had not been axed in the SDSR.