Cyprus is home to two British sovereign bases, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, critical to the West’s security posture in the Near and Middle East. Currently, they are threatened with attack from Iran. A partial solution would be the deployment of one of the Royal Navy’s Type-45 destroyers. Equipped with the Sea Viper missile system, it could provide insurance against the mullahs’ ballistic missiles. There is one problem, however: there is no Type-45 in the Mediterranean, or the Gulf, or the Red Sea. Indeed, there is no British warship at all in those waters, even as this country’s seaborne commerce is being placed in jeopardy. This sorry situation comes from years of culpable neglect.
How times change. In May 1941, justifying his decision to continue evacuating the army from Crete despite heavy losses of vessels from air attack, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, c-in-c Mediterranean, explained: “It takes the navy three years to build a ship; it will take three hundred years to build a new tradition.” By that he meant the honour of the senior service demanded its presence in the thick of the action. Three cruisers and six destroyers were sunk. Losses on that scale today would erase Britain’s pathetic surface fleet. This disgraceful state of affairs is the fault of both Labour and the Conservatives.
Caught out by Iran’s running amok, the government is scrambling to get a Type-45 to Cyprus. But there are only six (cut from a planned 12 by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown) and only two are operational. HMS Dragon is being prepared to head to Cyprus to save Sir Keir Starmer’s blushes but it will not be ready to sail until next week. Meanwhile, French and Greek warships fill the gap. Britain is able to field maybe six escorts in total. Any deployment to the Gulf would place a huge strain on this tiny force.
Defence has always been a political bear trap. Few politicians display any strategic aptitude, and butter — in the form of ever-increasing health and welfare spending — is regarded as preferable to guns in the hunt for votes. As the Cold War receded, so recapitalising the armed forces fell steadily down the league table of priorities. Take anti-submarine warfare: orders for replacements for now-antique Type-23 frigates should have been placed from 2010. Instead, David Cameron milked the peace dividend dry and did nothing. Of 16 Type 23s built, six ancient examples must soldier on because their successors were ordered too late. HMS Lancaster, a Type-23, is being dismantled in Bahrain even as Iranian missiles rain down. As an illustration of Britain’s evaporating naval power it could not be more apt. The one thing the navy is not short of is top brass: dozens of admirals and commodores (one for diversity and inclusion, of course) mock Britain’s bath-time fleet.
Having kicked the can down the road, the Tories kept kicking. Now, Labour has possession and is doing the same. Britain must raise defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP in this parliament but — as he did again at PMQs on Wednesday — the prime minister dodges that commitment. The reason is next door. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is, like Sir Keir, a military ignoramus. She prefers lavishing money on welfare to placate Labour MPs to defending the nation. The Treasury will argue, rightly, that the Ministry of Defence has squandered billions over the years, producing armed forces more befitting a country like Belgium. The £60 billion-plus a year promised by Labour is wholly inadequate, but the question must be asked as to why the MoD consistently achieves so little bang for buck with the world’s fifth-biggest budget. Clearly, John Healey, the defence secretary, needs to get a grip on his civil servants — halving numbers would be a start. But Mr Healey is a former trade union public relations man and shrinks from such radicalism. As usual, Britain’s armed forces are being let down by the political masters who so often dine out on their courage.
