Britain’s Royal Navy has big ambitions—but a small budget
Can the force remain “truly global” even as it shrinks?
TO UNDERSTAND how seafaring Britons, in romantic moments, see their island’s maritime story, it helps to join the tourists taking a cruise around the harbour that was once home to the world’s mightiest navy. In the same skyline, visitors are urged to admire the finest of the old and the shiniest of the new. Gazes switch from the oaken planks of HMS Victory, from which Admiral Horatio Nelson smashed the French and Spanish but lost his own life in 1805, to HMS Queen Elizabeth, a new aircraft-carrier which is by far the biggest vessel ever built for the Royal Navy.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Rum, strategy and the cash”
Britain June 2nd 2018
- Britain’s switch to a “universal credit” is not going well
- Ireland’s abortion vote sparks calls for change in Northern Ireland
- Tommy Robinson’s sentence shows how hate has gone global
- As rich children slim down, poor ones are getting fatter
- Europe’s oldest Chinatown fights for survival
- Britain’s Royal Navy has big ambitions—but a small budget
- Last orders for political drinking
From the June 2nd 2018 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
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Has the Royal Navy become too timid?
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David Lammy’s plan to shake up Britain’s Foreign Office
Diplomats will be tasked with growing the economy and cutting migration
Britain’s government has spooked markets and riled businesses
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Who can believe Rachel Reeves?