Gelded missile destroyer
June 23rd, 2009 | Foreign navies Royal Navy Science and technology Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The Royal Navy's advanced new destroyer, Daring, won't get its advanced air-warfare capabilities until at least 2011, the British press reports // U.K. Ministry of Defence
Y’hate to hear about it, but y’can’t look away: More frustrations for our English-speaking cousins in the Royal Navy and their high-speed, low-drag new DDG, the Daring. A U.S. naval officer gushed to us once about Daring’s advanced air-warfare capabilities — “only ship in the world that can defeat the Sizzler,” he declared — and yet the ship is going to sea without its Principal Anti-Air Missile System missiles, and it won’t get them until 2011.
A Parliamentary committee lambasted the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence for their management of the Type 45 destroyer program, according to reports in the British press:
Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said today’s report “highlights the extraordinary risk that this government is taking with our nation’s defences in an increasingly volatile world. “This government’s appalling incompetence has left the Royal Navy having to ‘juggle and hope’ with only half the new ships it was supposed to have.”
The effect of this for U.S. Navy readers seems to be that, if the Royal Navy wants to undertake any major operations at sea before its full run of Type 45s become operational, the British either will have to bite their tongues or enlist the help of American, Aegis-equipped allies.