Thin Pinstriped Line

  Is the Royal Navy thinking of scrapping its vulnerable aircraft carriers as part of the ongoing defence review? In a word, ‘no’ but this hasn’t stopped parts of social media getting quite worked up on the subject over the last few days! The genesis of this is a series of media articles which talk about the analysis of the carriers against modern threats, the suggestion that in some scenarios they are vulnerable to sinking, and in turn, separate reports that the Treasury has asked the RN to look at the costs of mothballing one. There are really a couple of issues here which need briefly unpacking to help add some context as to why this is important to do, and why the RN is not likely to see the end of the carrier force any time soon. On the first issue – vulnerability. Every piece of military equipment out there is vulnerable to a threat and in the right circumstances can be overpowered or destroyed. Look at Ukraine where a wide range of Western land vehicles, many of which have...