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To: maceng2 who wrote (1663)	11/1/2002 6:17:21 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6901

Looks like things are tough for the Navy in Britain. UPI Analysis: Britain's Navy shrinks too far By Peter Almond From the International Desk Published 11/1/2002 5:37 PM LONDON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- For the first time in more than a century, the band of the Royal Marines will not be marching in the nearly-800-year-old annual City of London Lord Mayor's Show next week. The 200 bandsmen and women will be standing by to fill in for firefighters who may be on strike. At the same time, seven front-line destroyers and frigates, almost a quarter of the total, are tied up in dock at the Portsmouth naval base because their crews are similarly needed to put out fires. With additional ships suffering accidents, undergoing routine repairs and subject to financial cutbacks, the 40,000 personnel of the navy are under more stress and strain than in many years. And this situation comes as Britain is trying to back the U.S. government in preparing military forces for a confrontation with Iraq. "The government has made no allowance for the unexpected," complained Conservative Member of Parliament Gerald Howarth in the House of Commons on Thursday. "If there was a sudden requirement for a British naval presence how could we possibly respond? Would it be a choice between saving lives at home or fighting a war on terror?" At a time when four U.S. carrier battle groups are preparing for action against Iraq, and considering the staunch support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the United States over Iraq, a visitor to the Portsmouth naval yard might indeed be surprised at the number of major British naval vessels there. Two of the three aircraft carriers are not available. The helicopter carrier Ocean is being repaired. The frigate HMS Sheffield is being sold off a year early to save money. Soon to arrive for really major surgery will be the destroyer HMS Nottingham, so badly damaged by hitting a rock off the coast of Australia that it may have to be scrapped. And even the newest frigate, HMS St Albans, has to be moved from its front-line dock to a nearby repair yard because a cross-Channel ferry smashed into it during a bad storm last week. The ship was in the final stage of sea trials before joining the fleet. The overall result is that the navy is unable to meet its 1998 Strategic Defense Review requirement of keeping 26 destroyers and frigates available for operations at all times, although a navy spokesman insisted that in the event of an emergency, sailors now doing fire picket duty would be rushed back to their ships. The government does not have a National Guard to call on for major safety concerns, and calling out its reserves in large numbers would require a measure of Parliamentary approval that it has rarely used. Maybe, one senior naval official quipped, it is time for the government to revive impressment -- the barely legal 18th century practice of whopping young men over the head as they leave pubs and dragging them off to years of service. "Recruitment is actually going well, for a change, but we just don't have the personnel. It is a constant battle over the budget," said the senior officer. The same is true for all the services, despite the fact that Britain remains the world's second most powerful and capable global military force. The Ministry of Defense buzzwords are "cost effectiveness," with the aim of using automation and private contractors to cut the number of people in uniform to the absolute minimum. Thus the Navy plans to build two new aircraft carriers, each almost the same size as the USS Nimitz, with a basic crew of just 600, compared with 5,000 on the Nimitz. The same effort is being put into reducing the crew size of next-generation frigates and destroyers, over strong objections from Navy traditionalists who argue that a tiny crew does not allow for surge requirements such as battle and fire damage, boarding parties and humanitarian disasters, where people matter more than the money spent on missile systems. But Navy personnel are being cut back anyway in line with major capital projects that are, unfortunately, suffering considerable delays and cost overruns. Two new amphibious landing ships -- HMS Bulwark and Albion -- are a year late in being delivered. The new class of Astute submarines is six months late and another year's delay is expected as electronic systems are sorted out. All the new Type 45 air defense frigates are running four years late. But equipment problems run across all three services. The Royal Air Force's Eurofighters are several years behind schedule and the new Nimrod MR4 maritime patrol planes are two years late. The Army's new Apache Longbow attack helicopters, which should be in service this year, are now not expected for another four years, partly because the government decided to award pilot training to a private company that was two years late organizing the training. Thus far, the military's problems haven't caused Blair any serious political concerns. But it is expected that if they result in deaths and injuries, that is likely to change. Observers and analysts note there is an increasing stream of bad news that is beginning to build up against the Labor government. Headlines such as '"Half of Britain's Warships in Dock" and "Pilots not ready to fly Army's £45 million helicopters" are beginning to appear next to headlines about college lecturers threatening to strike over pay, hospital surgeons refusing to accept a pay-conditions agreement with the National Health Service, and firefighters continuing to threaten strikes starting next week. Critics have argued that the issues are there for the opposition Conservative Party to make real inroads against Blair. But with party leader Iain Duncan Smith still under internal attack for his leadership of the party, there appears to be some way to go before Blair's commanding position in the public opinion polls is seriously eroded.