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Royal Navy

I shall give way again in a moment; I am aware of your strictures about time, Mr. Deputy Speaker. On the decision to dispose of three Type 42 destroyers and three Type 23 frigates, the First Sea Lord said:"““My gut feeling is that we need a destroyer/frigate force of about 30 ships…I would still much rather not be losing those three Type 23s. It is a painful cut, and I believe we are taking a risk. We shouldn’t delude ourselves.””" Referring to the Type 45s, he added:"““To put Tactical Tomahawk in a Type 45 destroyer requires a relatively insignificant amount of money, and exploits the virtues of a platform you’ve already paid for. The problem is there is no money. I had hoped, I have to say, that we might have had a nod in that direction. But we haven’t, and it will have to fight its way through the equipment programme in the normal way.””" His conclusion was chilling:"““What people do need to be aware of is that there is a risk with these reductions…my concern overall is that we are taking risk on risk””—" a risk for which the Government are answerable.