Posted on 06/15/2011 7:37:48 AM PDT by george76
As senior Naval officers back First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope's criticisms of the ability of the Navy to fight in Libya, Commander John Muxworthy, who sailed to the Falklands with the Royal Navy Task Force, looks at the ignominious end of a symbol of the once-mighty British fleet.
The image is a poignant symbol of Britain’s rapid decline as a maritime power. With her metallic carcass exposed, the once mighty aircraft carrier HMS Invincible languishes in a Turkish port, being broken up for scrap. The ship was once the pride of the Royal Navy, a hero of the Falklands War and a veteran of other conflicts from Iraq to Yugoslavia.
But now, as Britain’s naval heritage is obliterated by an irresponsible Coalition Government, she faces an utterly degrading end.
What makes the image all the more shaming is how it reflects the profound concerns of First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, who said this week that Britain’s defences will be at risk if the war in Libya drags on, because our naval fleet can operate there for only another 90 days before it has to make serious cuts in firepower elsewhere.
HMS Invincible, launched in 1977, may have been coming to the end of her life, though with a refit she could have stayed in service for years to come. But her demise is part of a wider pattern of brutal defence cuts that have left Britain dangerously vulnerable. When I joined the Navy in 1960, we had 12 aircraft carriers, along with 30 cruisers and 150 frigates and destroyers.
Today, we have just 19 frigates, no major warships, and a single aircraft carrier, Illustrious, which can carry only helicopters and has no deck for fixed wing-aircraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
No wonder we can't even topple a tin-pot gangster like Gaddafi: Invincible, pride of the Falklands, is broken up in knacker's yard
All the EU (in fact the entire free world including Latin America and Africa) need not spend a dime in having their own military.
They know that if the slightest thing happens against them militarily, the US Military will jump in, on the US taxpayers’ dime.
Apart from all the US dimes and dollars that went into the collecting tins in the States for Irish terrorists to kill British soldiers.
Sad.
FYI
Anyone know how much she was sold for scrap? We sink our carriers for artifical reefs..a far more fitting end..
In today’s British Navy, Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey would be on permanent half pay...
They retired all their Harriers.
If they ever do get some F-35’s, what are they going to do with them?
The posters to the article are very creepy. They sound like they welcome the coming of Sharia law.
If you think Britain relies or has relied on your military, your ignorance is off the chart. I am sure 99% of your fellow Americans will think you are talking rot.
The first new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth that is now under construction will be fitted with EMALS catapults and will be the first to handle F-35Cs. Current estimates are a 2019 entry into service
If it survives the budget cuts, her sister ship the HMS Prince of Wales will also be EMALS equipped.
There is also speculation that the second ship may be sold to France, and the UK and France will effectively merge their carrier operations, with F-35Cs and Rafales operating from both carriers.
If such an agreement is reached, the RN F-35Cs may first operate from the Charles de Gualle.
I believe that is Britannia rule the waves.
Thanks Yo.
Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
I always thought the first line was "rue" as well.
Neat pic, thanks...Cabot was scrapped, along with hundreds of WW II ships, after the war. Oriskany, CV-34, was scuttled as an artificial reef in 2006.
not anymore.
My post was not a mistake. Rue, as in regret bitterly, feel sorrow over. Consider the context. No aircraft carriers, the British navy a shadow of its former self. Nope, time to refresh the lyrics. Britannia rues the waves.
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