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Navy

Answer

The number of Royal Navy vessels available for active service are detailed in the following table:

	Number
Landing Platform Helicopter	¹2
Landing Platform Dock	2
Type 45 Destroyer	3
Type 42 Destroyer	3
Type 23 Frigate	13
Hunt Class Mine Counter Measures Vessel	8
Sandown Class Mine Counter Measures Vessel	7
River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels	3
River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels (Helicopter)	1
P2000 Patrol Boats	18
Ocean Survey Vessels	1
Coastal Survey Vessels	3
fee Patrol Ship	1
Ships Submersible Ballistic Nuclear	4
Ship Submersible Nuclear	7
¹ HMS Illustrious is now operating in the Landing Platform Helicopter role, as well as HMS Ocean.

As at 15 December 2011, 23 Royal Navy vessels are currently at sea. This figure changes on a daily basis.Each of these units will be progressing through different readiness states in response to our operational needs, together with maintenance and training programmes, and the harmony requirements of their ships' companies. The Royal Navy categorises the readiness of its ships in accordance with the following table which is taken from the National Audit Office report 'Assessing and Reporting Military Readiness', published on 15 June 2005, which is available in the Library of the House.

Readiness category	Abbreviation	Description
Immediate Readiness	RO	Force elements ready to deploy, appropriately manned, equipped and supported
Extremely High Readiness	R1	At 2 days notice
Very High Readiness	R2	At 5 days notice
	R3	At l0 days notice
High Readiness	R4	At 20 days notice
	R5	At 30 days notice
Medium Readiness	R6	At 40 days notice
	R7	At 60 days notice
	R8	At 90 days notice
Low Readiness	R9	At 180 days notice
Very Low Readiness	R10	At 365 days notice
	R11	More than 365 days notice

We do not reveal the readiness level of individual ships as to do so would enable deductions to be made about the condition and preparedness of units and of the Navy. This would therefore be prejudicial to the safety of individual units and to national security.As the term ““mothballed”” is not used by the Department for the condition of a ship, I have interpreted your question as referring to very low readiness. As of December 2011, the Royal Navy has no ships in this category.HMS Endurance remains a Royal Navy asset, although not operational.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

86825; 538 c25-6W

Session

2010-12

Subjects

Deployment Warships

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk