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The UK’s Royal Navy has 6 Type 45 destroyers in its fleet.
Currently, out of them 5 are unavailable for deployment. The only one left is the HMS Defender, which recently was the subject of warning shots in the Black Sea.
Four of the Type 45s currently unavailable are in various stages of maintenance or upgrade. The remaining warship out of action, HMS Diamond, ran into technical problems earlier in July, while escorting the HMS Queen Elizabeth’s carrier strike group on a deployment to the Indo-Pacific region.
The one operational destroyer in the fleet, HMS Defender, is helping provide air defense cover to the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and other warships in a group which includes U.S. and Dutch vessels.
Several reports in recent years have detailed propulsion breakdowns leaving Type 45s without power when the ship is deployed to areas with high temperatures.
Defense Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin acknowledged that working Type 45s had become a scarce resource came to light in a Parliamentary answer July 19.
Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood said the availability of the Type 45 illustrated that Britain needed a bigger navy.
“It’s an operational concern. HMS Defender is now our only currently operating Type 45. If that ship experiences propulsion problems, which we have seen across the Type 45 family, then the carrier strike group will be forced to lean on a NATO ally to ensure we have destroyer protection,” Ellwood said. “That really indicates the bottom line is we need a bigger navy.”
The defense committee chairman said that given Britain’s national and international obligations it was “not acceptable that the RN availability [of the Type 45] is now reduced to a single ship.”
The only available ship, the HMS Defender, was at the center of the above-mentioned altrecation between Britain and Russia over whether the warship legally entered Russian territorial waters in the Black Sea. The Russian’s claimed they had dropped bombs and fired warning shots to persuade the British to alter course. There are videos to prove it, but the UK denies reality.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also said that the Russian Navy could have easily sunk the HMS Defender, without that leading to a wider conflict. Then, the UK would have 0 destroyers available.
Quin said the power improvement program is essential to upgrading the capabilities of the Type 45.
“Dauntless [a Type 45 destroyer] will be out of the [performance improvement program] by the end of the year and depending on operational commitments another Type 45 going in. I hope to see Dragon back on operations in the early Autumn … Diamond has got current issues which I hope we will be able to rectify shortly,” he told the committee.
In 2018 the MoD awarded an £160 million ($219 million USD) deal to BAE Systems, BMT Defence and Cammell Laird to improve the resilience of the destroyers by replacing the two diesel generators, fitting an additional diesel generator and modifying the high voltage system on each ship.
The warships also use a WR-21 gas turbine as part of the power and propulsion set-up.
Work is already underway to replace the destroyers by the late 2030s with a new warship known as the Type 83.
Whether that will change anything remains in question.
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Britannia is deadbroke tiny rainy island in the middle of nowhere but still harbors delusions of grandeur. A single Russian, Chinese or Iranian hypersonic SSM would take care of that. Should have sunk the bastards in the Black Sea.
The Slimey LimeyCUNTS…..😁
Would have been zero available if it (HMS Defender) had been disabled by an EMP strike a few weeks back violating Russian territorial waters in it’s high speed dash away.
Must admit, I would like to see a video compilation of NATO Military ships, making figure of 8 turns, in the Black Sea, to get away from the smiling Bastion, or Russian military jets.
Donald Cook, cracked me up, back in 2014, when so many of the sailors on board tried to resign, owing to being traumatised by a whicker basket. I wonder how the crew of HMS Defender reacted, when they realised that they would soon become a convertible submarine, and the sailors on board fish fodder, just to keep a non-NATO member (Ukraine) and the morons in Westminster happy?
No doubt NATO Strength Pampers are in high demand, during these Breeze Exercises.
Be interesting to see if the PLAN stations a couple of their frigates in the South Atlantic, leasing Argentine naval ports.
What I find interesting is the fact that the UK spends around $48 billion (and increasing)of the Defence Budget and compare it with the $47 billion that Russia spends (which is decreasing).
The small Island of Great Britain, together with Northern Ireland, cannot defend it’s borders against dinghy tourists. Since Ukraine kicked off, with the full support of the UK, back in 2014, the UK’s position in the World’s Leading Militaries has decreased. Back in 2014, I believe we were the 3rd largest military (please do not confuse with Army). The UK is now 8th, behind `India, South Korea, Japan and France, and not forgetting US is the largest and most expensive military, but, not most powerful. Russia comes in at Number 2, for size, but, it is the most powerful, followed by China.
So out of the Top 10 largest militaries, members of the SCO and BRICS, Russia, China and India come in the top 5. Then you have just 3 NATO Members, consisting of US, France and the UKin the top 10. Pakistan, which is also a member of BRICS, comes in at Number 9 and BRICS member Brazil, comes in at number 10. So just 3 NATO members are in the Top 10 largest militaries, in 2021.
Going back to the UK and Russia, who spend a similar amount of money on Defence, what does Russia, a nuclear triad nation, get for her money? Besides being able to defend her 11 time zone nation, she has the largest stock of nuclear warheads, hypersonics, in active service (unlike any NATO Member) and has many new toys in her toy box, in full working order. She has made NATO obsolete, and how much does NATO take from it’s members and for what? To keep the Atlantic Nanzi Council up and running and what exactly do they provide, apart from trying to demonise Russia with spin?
What does the UK tax payer get for their money, where the Defence budget is concerned? A graveyard of scrapped military vessels, if we do not include all that we have sold to 3rd world nations. Remember, Turkey received 3 aircraft carriers, that had all undergone £multi-million refits, back in the beginning of the millennium. They were sent to the Turkish Scrapyards and ended up on the Conveyor belt at the nearest John Kerry Heinz Factory. Can you believe it, Heinz Baked Bean tins, made from the best intelligence technology available. Gives a new meaning to Heinz 55.
Why can Russia manage her defence budget so well, and the UK is unable to, unless paying for 77th Squadron and Integrity Initiative Trolls, who sole purpose is to provide anti-Russian propaganda to the masses?
You confuse war spending with social security for rich bastards.
You tell them AM. Good to hear from you.
Budget wise it has to do with better oversight and less lobbyism. The Russian military industrial complex is different then the one e.g. in US, where the politicians do what they are told. So they will buy any crap for extreem prices, total opposit in Russia.
Yeah, but does anyone else have a Dalek mounted midship?
Our Navy cannot even challenge the dinghy tourists, aka White Helmet Trash, when they turn up in the English Channel. We just collect them from the French Navy and provide safe passage to Kent.
The Limey Rubber Ducky Navy is a bathtub navy suitable for latrines and open sewers.
The UK cannot afford this extravagant spending and needs to lose these delusions of grandeur.
Bye bye UK…
The british leadership are pathetic degenerates. Buy your disgusting “queen” a few more diamonds for her idiotic crown, paid for with taxes from the poor.