They have 6 destroyers, 13 frigates, a helicopter carrier, and two landing ships. That and seven fleet subs IS the royal navy. There are 4 SSBNs but aside from nuclear war, they are out of the game.
Its an insult to shadows to call it a shadow of itself. The RN is nowhere close to the combat power of the Indian Navy, or the Japanese Maritime Self defense force. It’s time to see it as the extremely weak force it is.
You're looking at the glass as being half-empty, DR. Let's look on the bright side. The Royal Navy has 41 active-duty admirals.
So, if necessary, the RN could put an admiral on every ship, and still have admirals to spare! Pretty impressive, if you ask me.
I see at the daily star they think that the British Army operates
nuclear subs.
In May 1916 at Jutland the Royal Navy could deploy about 28 dreadnoughts and 6 battlecruisers. That does not include the
pre-dreadnoughts, armored cruisers and all the huge array of
other vessels they had. In 2016 they seem to have forgotten that
they are an island nation extremely dependent on imports.