A scanty number of sailors in the UK’s Royal Navy has prompted it to decommission two warships in order to staff its new class of frigates, according to The Telegraph.
"We will have to take manpower from one area of the Navy in order to put into a new area of the force," the British newspaper has cited an unnamed defense source as saying.
The two frigates due to be decommissioned are the HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll. Both were recently refurbished "at huge expense to the taxpayers."
The crews of the warships are expected to be sent to work across the new fleet of Type 26 frigates as they come into service. The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) earlier ordered eight Type 26 frigates, which are touted as the navy’s most advanced submarine-hunting warships to date. The construction of the state-of-the-art ships is expected to be completed by the mid-2030s.
A Whitehall official has, meanwhile, insisted that the move to decommission the ships allowed the UK military to focus on "updating the Navy into a modern, hi-tech fighting force."
"It is always emotive when ships that have a long history of service come to the end of their working life. They and the sailors who crewed them have done the country proud. But decommissioning them is the right decision. The new Type 26 frigates will be in service before those ships can be refitted," the official argued.
However, many have questioned the decision, with some slamming Whitehall for the move.
Alan West, the UK’s former first sea lord, questioned why the navy decided to decommission the warships without having a new fleet ready to take over, warning that Britain’s ships were "dropping like flies."
"We are losing operational ships – which is all very well as long as there’s no war in the next few years," West warned.
The same tone was struck by Shadow Defense Secretary John Healey, who accused the government of failing to tackle problems within the British MoD.
"That the Royal Navy is forced by a lack of sailors to mothball ships shortly after refits that cost millions of taxpayers’ money is further evidence of ministers failing to get to grips with deep problems in defense," Healey said.
He was echoed by Tobias Ellwood, a former chairman of the Defense Select Committee, who said that it was "baffling" to decommission two frigates at a time when the UK’s surface fleet was "massively overstretched."
"During the [1990-1991] Gulf War the Royal Navy boasted 51 frigates and destroyers. That number will soon fall to just 16. Yet our world is more dangerous than any time since 1945. The strength of today’s Royal Navy is simply inadequate to handle the ever-complex threat picture that is harming our economy," Ellwood concluded.