Primer - Why Britain needs a larger navy - By William Freer and James Rogers

The Royal N avy held command of the ocean for m ost of t he 19th century, and a longside the U S Navy, for much of t he 1990s and 2000s. [...] It should also be noted that the Russian figures for 2000 should be taken w ith a s erious p inch of salt, a s much of the fleet was de facto retired or i n a state of d isrepair due to lack of investment – a lthough it is d icult t o know accurately the t rue extent of t his – but Jane’s figures do not represent this in the data. [...] Preparing the Royal Navy for the future In recent years, the Royal Navy has induced forms o f ‘strategic advantage’ to compensate f or the declining number of vessels and maximise the eciency and eectiveness of the remaining fleet. [...] The need for a larger fleet In 2 021, the Defence Select Committee published a report titled ‘We’re going to n eed a bigger navy’, which concluded the B ritish fleet was not large enough to f ulfil the o bjectives laid out in the Integrated R eview.3 4 While total d isplacement has g rown, the number o f hulls – which provide the Royal Navy with the means to foster presence (the prerequisite f or. [...] T he v iews expressed in this publication a re t hose of the author and do not necessarily r eflect the views o f the Council on Geostrategy or the views o f its Advisory Council.