Proof that our Navy is on the scrapheap

Four Type 42 destroyers and a minehunter, their names removed, are destined to be turned into razor blades.

But critics claim that instead of being scrapped they could plug gaps in our smallest Royal Navy in centuries.

Yesterday, as the ships languished at Portsmouth Naval Base, former First Sea Lord and Security and Counter-Terrorism minister, Admiral The Lord West of Spithead, said: “We have cut the military to too great a degree. We have 19 frigates and destroyers and that is too few. We had over 60 destroyers and frigates at the time of the Falklands War. We run global shipping from London. How capable are we of protecting it?”

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