Re: 1SL defends Navy and insists Britain must keep 'hard pow
I believe one of the most valuable attributes of the RN is its ability to exercise and project hard and soft power. It also provides useful options for the politicians. Establishing a miltary force and/or combat aircraft in a foreign country is a political commitment that severely restricts freedom of action. Their presence can only be construed as a deliberately provocative act and, once there, you are committed to using them or withdrawing them in publicly humiliating fashion.
Poising a task group comprising assault ships with helo support, a floating airfield and surface ships and submarines armed with TLAMS indefinitely off a foreign shore leaves all options open. Its presence and purpose can be deliberately overt to act as a deterrent or they can be masked or disguised in myriad ways. Whether flexing its muscle or merely gathering intelligence, its an invaluable ace to have up your sleeve.
It would be the height of arrogance to predict that our country, so prone to events on the other side of the world affecting our trade and survival, will have no need for a strong navy over the next 40-50 years (the lifespan of ships like the new aircraft carriers, the Type 45 destroyers and the replacements for the Type 22/23 frigates). History tells us different. In 1929, few people imagined that the world would be plunged into global conflict within the next ten years. After all, it was only ten years since 'the war to end all wars'. More recently, as Admiral Stanhope has stated, the Falklands invasion 'came out of left field'.
If people believe that the only future threats to our security will come from insurgents and that national leaders are far too 'nice' to engage in any state-sponsored military unpleasantness these days, think of people in recent memory like Sukarno, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Galtieri, Gadaffi, Saddam, Kim Il Jong and Ahmadinejad. Who knows where the next one will appear? As I've said before on this forum, you don't cancel your fire insurance simply because you've suffered a spate of burglaries.