Military


United Kingdom - Royal Navy

From the late fifteenth century until the mid-twentieth century the role of the Navy became paramount as first England, then the United Kingdom, acted as an island off Europe with global designs away from the European continent. The wealth, prosperity and safety of the nation depended on the Royal Navy's ability to protect first colonies then empire.

Henry VII ordered the first Naval dockyard to be built at Portsmouth. His son, Henry VIII founded a fleet of sail-driven battleships, with heavy guns along their sides below deck. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century completely changed the fighting ship. The changes to sea warfare became a revolution with the construction of HMS Dreadnought in 1905. Every other battleship in the world was made obsolete. The Royal Navy was at the forefront of submarine development even though many had initially considered them to be 'a damned un-English invention'.

The great discoveries of the later isth century shifted the seat of naval power to the ocean for two reasons. In the first place they imposed on all who wished to sail the wider seas opened to European enterprise by Vasco de Gama and Columbus the obligation to use a vessel which could carry water and provisions sufficient for a large crew during a long voyage. The Mediterranean states and their seamen were not prepared by resources or habit to meet the call. But there was a second and equally effective reason. The powers which had an Atlantic coast were incomparably better placed than the Italian states, or the cities of the Baltic, to tale advantage of the maritime discoveries of the great epoch which stretches from 1402 to 1526. In the natural course the leadership fell to Portugal and Spain. Both owed much to Italian science and capital, but the profit fell inevitably to them.

The reasons why Spain failed to found a permanent naval power apply equally to Portugal. Neither achieved the formation of a solid navy. The claim of both to retain a monopoly of the right to settle in, or trade with, the New World and Asia was in due course contested by neighboring nations. France was torn by internal dissensions (the Wars of Religion and the Fronde) and could not compete except through a few private adventurers. England and Holland were able to prove the essential weakness of the Spaniards at sea before the end of the i6tb century. In the nth century the late allies against Spain now fought against one another. Her insular position, her security against having to bear the immense burden of a war on a land frontier, and the superiority of her naval organization over the divided administration of Holland, gave the victory to Great Britain. She was materially helped by the fact that the French monarch attacked Holland on land, and exhausted its resources. Great Britain and France now became the competitors for superiority at sea, and so remained from 1689 till the fall of Napoleon in 1815.

During this period of a century and a quarter Great Britain had again the most material advantage: that her enemy was not only contending with her at sea, but was engaged in endeavoring to establish and maintain a military preponderance over her Kighbours on the continent of Europe. Hence the necessity for her to support great and costly armies, which led to the sacrifice of her Beet, and drove Holland into alliance with Great Britain (Wars of the League of Augsburg, of the Spanish Succession, of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War). During the War of American Independence France was in alliance with Spain and Holland, and at peace on land. She and her allies were able to impose terms of peace by which Great Britain surrendered positions gained in former wars. But the strength if the British navy was not broken, and in quality it was shown to be essentially superior.

The French Revolution undid all that the government of France had gained between 1778 and 1783 by attention to its navy and abstinence from wars on hind. The result of the upheaval in France was to launch her into schemes of universal conquest. Other nations were driven to fight for existence with the help of Great Britain. In that long struggle all the navies of Europe disappeared except the French, which was broken by defeat and rendered inept by inaction, and the victorious British navy. When Napoleon fell, the navy of Great Britain was not merely the first in the world; it was the only powerful navy in existence.

During World War II, the US Navy replaced the Royal Navy as the world's strongest. The Royal Navy, despite its reduced size, has remained at the forefront of new developments. Nuclear propulsion today provides greatly enhanced speed and endurance for submarines, which are no longer handicapped by the need to surface to recharge electric batteries. Guided missiles have replaced guns as the warship's primary weapon.

At the apex of the Royal Navy's role is the United Kingdom's strategic deterrent, consisting of the latest Vanguard class nuclear-powered submarines carrying Trident ballistic missiles that can be fired from beneath the sea.

1994-95 figures average annual running costs

Class of Vessel                     £ million                   
--------------------------------------------------------------------
  
Resolution Class Submarine          £ 21                             
Vanguard Class                      £  - <2>                          
Swiftsure Class Submarine           £ 25                             
Trafalgar Class Submarine           £ 19.5                           
Invincible Class Carrier            £ 35                             
Landing Platform Docks              £ 17                             
Type 22 Frigate (Batch 1)           £ 17                             
Type 22 Frigate (Batch 2)           £ 19.5                           
Type 22 Frigate (Batch 3)           £ 15                             
Type 23 Frigate                     £ 15.5                           
Type 42 Destroyer (Batch 1)         £ 17                             
Type 42 Destroyer (Batch 2)         £ 17.5                           
Type 42 Destroyer (Batch 3)         £ 17                             
Hunt Class MCMV                     £  3.5                            
Sandown Class MCMV                  £  2.5                            
Castle Class Offshore Patrol Vessel £  3                              
Island Class Offshore Patrol Vessel £  3                              
Hong Kong Patrol Craft              £  1                              
River Class Patrol Craft            £  1                              
Coastal Training Craft              £  0.5                            
Royal Yacht                         £ 10                             
Ice Patrol Ship                     £  6.5                            
Ocean Survey Vessels                £  6                              
Coastal Survey Vessels              £  3                              
 
Notes:                                                              
<1> Figures rounded to nearest half million.                        
<2> Figures not available for VANGUARD Class.

Available
Deployable
31 January:
1997200619972006
Surface92767062
Submarine121165
Auxiliary23182116




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