The defence secretary, John Healey, has denied claims that a cost-cutting scrapping of a series of British navy vessels has been a “black day” for Britain’s defence.
Two former Royal Navy flagships, a frigate and two support tankers will be decommissioned as part of cost-saving measures, the Ministry of defence has announced.
The move was blamed on a “dire inheritance” left by the last administration, and the decision to scrap defence capability also includes a 14-year-old army drone.
Sir Julian Lewis, a Conservative former defence committee chairperson, told MPs the announcement marked “a black day for the Royal Marines”.
He said: “Does [Healey] accept that the purpose of HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, which were due to remain in service for nine and 10 more years, respectively, is to be able to have the capability of making a landing across a foreshore when it is opposed by enemy forces.”
He added: “Does he agree with me that we have no way of knowing whether the absence of that capability for the next decade won’t be an incentive to somebody to try something like the Falklands in the future?”
Healey told the Commons: “Far from being a black day, as he says, this signals a bright future which will be reinforced by the SDR [strategic defence review] for the marines and their elite force.
“On HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, he is right. Both ships were not due to go out of service for nine and 10 years respectively, but neither, given the state they’re in, the decisions taken previously by the last government, were set to sail again.
“In other words, they’d, in practice, been taken out of service, but ministers had not been willing to admit this.”
The defence secretary said that amphibious capability would be provided by other remaining ships and the £9m a year that would be saved would be focused on the development of support ships that promise ‘greater capability” and “a broader range of ability for the future’”.