MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands Warning in Stronger Navy Plea
The Commander in Chief of the Royal Navy has said the United Kingdom cannot fight a war such as the 1982 Falklands conflict without substantially increasing its fleet of surface warships. It is only half what it was then though much more modern and more powerfully equipped, as are its submarines.
The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West, speaks with unrivalled authority from long years of service in the Royal Navy during which he commanded a warship in the Falklands War. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry when his frigate, HMS Ardent, was bombed by Argentine aircraft killing 22 of his crew and wounding 17. The blazing warship was abandoned before it exploded and sank.
Sir Alan, who retires as First Sea Lord next month, warned that the Royal Navy's fleet of 25 destroyers and frigates is too small to carry out the tasks now demanded by the Government, with six warships being sold or scrapped to save money.
Falklands-type war needs more ships
The Navy, he said, would be unable today to fight a war such as the Falklands "without some sort of solid enhancement to the surface fleet". The Admiral declared: "Maybe I'm just a silly old bastard but I've got 41 years experience of these things and I can tell you we need 30 destroyers and frigates for what the Government wants us to do".
His warning has ominous echoes of what happened prior to the Argentine invasion. Then the Royal Navy was also being seriously weakened by the Defence Secretary, John Nott, to save money. His defence review cut the frigate force from 64 to 50, with plans to dispose of two aircraft carriers and the Antarctic ice-breaker HMS Endurance. Fortunately, the timing of the invasion allowed them to be retained and play a vital role in defeat of the Argentine invasion force and recapture of the Falkland Islands, especially the carrier HMS Hermes.
Strong 1982 Task Force In fact, the British Task Force had more than 100 vessels, made up of 39 warships and submarines and more than 60 support vessels of various kinds, including liners such as the QE2 and Canberra borrowed from normal peacetime activities, and many supply ships.
Britain is building two super carriers to replace its present three aircraft carriers -- HMS Invincible which fought in the Falklands War and her sister ships, HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal. The new carriers will be much longer and three times heavier than the Invincible-type trio, which operate short take-off and vertical landing Harriers, which proved so effective in 1982, and helicopters.
But the new carriers will not come into service at the earliest until 2012 and 2015, several years after the Harriers will have been phased out. Defence experts have criticised this gap, without dedicated air defence Sea Harriers, as leaving Royal Navy ships unprotected against missiles such as air-launched Exocets which proved so deadly in sinking British ships in the Falklands War.
Military face human rights threat In his speech, Sir Alan West also expressed fears that the armed forces are increasingly under threat from human rights laws and what he called "legal encirclement". He was worried that European human rights legislation is being applied to the military without taking into account its unique role. In what is believed to be the first time a senior serving commander has expressed these anxieties, Admiral West declared: "We are different from the rest of society. People must recognise that those joining the armed forces join an organisation where they can be ordered into situations where they might be killed. Things such as the European Court of Human Rights are designed for civil society. We have to be very careful how we apply them of the military".
Other senior officers have privately expressed their anger over a number of court cases brought against British soldiers who have served in Iraq, alleging implication in the deaths of Iraqis.
British soldiers were cleared of an alleged incident of mistreatment of Argentine prisoners in 1982 after exhaustive investigation ordered by the British Government.
Harold Briley OBE, London
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