皇家海軍將封存四艘42式飛彈驅逐艦

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/06/navy06.xml&sSheet;=/portal/2004/01/06/ixportaltop.html&secureRefresh;=true&_requestid=37405

The Royal Navy is to lose at least four destroyers in the next three months, taking the number of surface warships to below that of the French navy for the first time since the 17th century.

It will now have only 28 escort ships compared to the French navys 32 and will no longer be able to mount major operations unless it is fighting alongside either the Americans or the French.

(居然給法國佬過了頭，小心納爾遜從西敏寺跳出來找你們這班白廳的傢伙......)

Four Type-42 destroyers are to be mothballed as part of a series of cuts over the coming months as the MoD struggles to keep within Treasury-imposed limits on its budget.

They are only the first of a number of cuts foreshadowed by last months defence White Paper but will be a deeply demoralising blow for the Navy. At the height of its power in the mid-19th century it was the size of the seven next biggest navies combined and even as the US and German navies grew at the start of the 20th century it remained twice as large as its nearest rival.

The Opposition denounced the assumptions behind the cuts as lunacy. Nicholas Soames, the shadow defence secretary, said: It is a genuinely very bad decision and a slap in the face for the Navy.

These are vital air defence ships. Our whole military doctrine is based on expeditionary warfare. This will expose the fleet to considerable hazard.

(保守黨：這是丟臉丟到家的決定)

The Liberal Democrats said the cuts were the result of poor management and over-deployment of UK forces. Paul Keetch, the partys defence spokesman, said they would leave the Navy dependent on the US navy every time it puts to sea.

(終於認自己管理不善兼眼高手低了嗎？你們都是無脊椎動物嗎？可以不要每次也靠老美好嗎？)

The four warships to be axed are Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow and Liverpool. They are the oldest of the surviving Type-42 destroyers but Glasgow and Liverpool were not due to be decommissioned until 2010. Cardiff was due to go in 2008 and Newcastle in 2007 when the first of the Navys new destroyers, the Type-45, is expected to enter service. It cuts the number of destroyers to seven.

The loss of their air defence capability compounds the difficulties caused by the decision to scrap the Fleet Air Arms Sea Harriers, leaving the fleet with no air cover until the introduction of the Joint Strike Fighter in 2012.

(結論：皇家海軍在2012年前都會成了附生別人的無脊椎動物)

But it also means that the Government will be forced to drop its commitment, made in the 1996 Strategic Defence Review, to keep 26 destroyers and frigates available for operations at all times.

The maximum number of destroyers and frigates the Navy could now keep at sea, at a time when the war on terror is dramatically increasing its workload, would be 23.

The Type-42s Sea Dart missiles play a vital role in escorting and protecting the carriers and amphibious fleet.

But for the past six months they have also been assigned to support units from the Special Boat Service carrying out anti-terrorist duties around the British coast and the North Sea oil platforms.

Senior Navy sources said that more Type-42 destroyers, as well as at least two of the Navys minehunters and even some Type-23 frigates, which date only from the early 1990s, could also be axed.

(連掃雷艇也不放過，拉登以後只要在英國港口丟幾顆水雷便夠了)

Ministers appeared to see the loss of the four destroyers, each of which has a complement of 266 men, as an easy way of virtually eradicating the Navys manning shortfall of 1,200, the sources said.

(這是什麼哲學？削足適履嗎？這樣又怎會有人參加？)

But one senior Navy officer with 20 years service said he was sickened by the way in which the fleet was being cut ship by ship. The defence White Paper had sent the wrong message to young sailors and many were ready to quit.

He said: Hoon doesnt realise, and probably doesnt care, but many youngsters see no future in the Navy and are getting out. When I ask them: Why are you leaving?, they say: Why stay? The Navy is just getting smaller and smaller, and that means less opportunity.

We need to retain these destroyers until the new ones arrive, the replacements are not expected to arrive for another three years, getting rid of these ships will leave us with a handful of destroyers.

The MoD said that it could not go further than it had in the White Paper which said air defence and escort vessels were less likely to be at a premium and reductions in the number of older ships will be necessary.