It’s been a long running true-ism that how goes Britain, America follows. If this particular adage comes to pass, it’s easy to see how and why the Roman Empire fell. After all, we’re living through it.
As it turns out, America’s military overall is facing the future with pathetically low recruitment numbers, and our British friends are experiencing the same… only worse.
The once vaunted RN (Royal Navy) and the literally world-famous RMs (Royal Marines) are facing dire days.
On a personal note, I consider the RMs to be one of the premier fighting forces in the history of mankind… and as a retired US Marine, I don’t voice that opinion lightly.
Anyhow, the RN is actually considering retiring two warships, not because of obsolesce, but literally due to not enough sailors to physically man the ships. A separate news report that the RN is already making noise of actually scrapping four warships.
As far as the RMs are concerned, they may not even exist sometime in the near future.
As reported by the everything-military TheWarZone.com via Yahoo News;
Royal Navy Forced To Retire Frigates Due To Personnel Shortages: Report
The U.K. Royal Navy is so short on sailors that it is reportedly having to decommission two Type 23 class frigates in order to staff its new class of frigates. If this comes to pass, it would reduce the service’s current fleet of 11 Type 23s to nine. That the frigates may be decommissioned comes at a time when the Royal Navy’s major surface combatants are in high demand, including in the Red Sea.
Details on the Royal Navy’s possible decision to decommission the Type 23, or Duke class, frigates HMS Argyll and Westminster, commissioned in 1991 and 1994 respectively, were originally reported by The Telegraph newspaper, citing unnamed defense and government sources. The Royal Navy and the U.K. Ministry of Defense have neither confirmed nor denied the claims thus far…
“We will have to take manpower from one area of the Navy in order to put into a new area of the force,” the newspaper reports, citing an unnamed defense official. Once in service, the crews from the two Type 23 frigates will be sent to work across the future Type 26 fleet, the publication notes. Following their decommissioning, Argyll and Westminster will either be scrapped or sold, according to the newspaper.
Then we come to an even worse article from GB News via MSN.com;
‘End of Royal Marines’: Shapps tipped to retire assault ships as warning issued over navy crisis
Grant Shapps has been tipped to retire two assault ships as the UK’s sailor shortage threatens to plunge the armed forces into crisis.
The proposal put forward by the defence secretary aims to retire both HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark from active service.
Retiring the warships would free up more than 200 sailors to crew new ships in Britain’s fleet.
However, critics have blasted the move as “the beginning of the end for the Royal Marines”.
A source familiar with the plans told The Times that it would weaken one of the force’s central purposes, namely, storming beaches from the sea.
According to The Times, the Royal Navy has been pushing for the vessels to be scrapped and Royal Marine numbers to be slashed.