The Royal Navy is on course to have the smallest fleet in its 474-year history, its former chief has warned.
Falklands War veteran Lord West says our maritime forces face “disaster” with just eight frigates operational by the middle of the decade.
The Royal Navy currently has 13 frigates and six destroyers, but the new Type 31 frigates will not be ready until 2024, when the old ones are on their way out.
Lord West, a former First Sea Lord, said: “That is a national disgrace for a maritime nation.
“We are going to end up with something like eight frigates. It is a disaster.”
He also blasted No10 adviser Dominic Cummings, who said the UK’s £6.2billion aircraft carriers could be sunk by a teen piloting a drone from a laptop.
“The man’s talking complete and utter crap,” he said.
The Royal Navy has 77 ships, 23 of them warships. In Lord Nelson’s era, in 1792, the British fleet numbered 661.
Lord West said a fully-equipped Navy is vital for facing threats such as Russia under the “extremely dangerous” Vladimir Putin.
He said: “The fact he used nerve agents on British soil was extraordinary. When we were more powerful, we would have gone to war because of that.”
The Royal Navy said it “will always have the ships required to fulfil defence commitments”.
