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The Royal Navy has found itself in a unique situation, borrowing a German frigate due to a shortage of available ships, while former U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Britain’s aircraft carriers as “toys.”
Originally, the destroyer HMS Dragon was set to spearhead a NATO mission in the North Atlantic. However, it was reassigned to Cyprus earlier this month in response to escalating tensions with Iran.
To maintain its leadership role in the NATO deployment, the Royal Navy is now utilizing the German frigate FGS Sachsen.
This development follows remarks from Donald Trump, who recently derided British military capabilities, stating that UK aircraft carriers are not “the best” and calling them “toys” compared to the U.S. fleet.
In response, former military leaders expressed outrage, labeling the Government as a “bloody disgrace.” A World War Two Royal Marine veteran even suggested that Winston Churchill would have dismissed the current leadership over such issues.
The criticism comes on the heels of an incident where the UK had to rely on assistance from France, Greece, and Italy after an Iranian drone attack on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, revealing a lack of immediate British naval defense.
It took nearly a month for HMS Dragon to reach the Mediterranean island, igniting calls from Cypriots to remove British bases from their country.
Now the farce has deepened with the deployment exposing how short the UK’s defensive capabilities are.
The Royal Navy has been forced to borrow a German frigate after ‘running out of ships’ – as Donald Trump (pictured on February 28) mocked Britain’s aircraft carriers as ‘toys’
The destroyer HMS Dragon (pictured in March) was due to lead a Nato mission in the North Atlantic before it was redeployed to Cyprus earlier this month in the wake of the Iran conflict
As experts called on Labour to get a grip, Defence Secretary John Healey said he was ‘not happy with the situation’ as it ‘takes six years to build a warship’.
Yet despite repeated promises to boost defence spending, it also emerged yesterday that Nato has revised down UK defence spending in its annual report.
General Secretary Mark Rutte published figures that show the UK spent 2.31 per cent of GDP on defence last year, down from a predicted 2.4 per cent.
The report also revised down Britain’s spend for 2024 from an estimated 2.33 per cent of GDP to a final figure of 2.28 per cent.
UK military sources insist there has been no reduction and the drop is caused by changes to GDP, with other nations experiencing similar revisions.
But with anger mounting, former Nato commander General Sir Richard Shirreff told the Daily Mail the latest fiasco with FGS Sachsen ‘sends a bloody awful message’.
He said: ‘It’s deeply embarrassing and it undermines the sense of what we should be doing as a nation. The Government needs to make sacrifices. We can’t go on ploughing money willy-nilly into welfare.
‘Labour backbenchers have got to put up and shut up – and Keir Starmer needs to get a grip of his party.’
Royal Marine veteran Doug Cheshire, 102, who served on two battleships and an aircraft carrier in the Second World War, told the Daily Mail: ‘I think it’s a damn disgrace. They ought to be hauled over the coals for it. If Churchill was alive he would sack every one of them. He would be up in the air about the state of the Navy.
‘I’m angry. I’m very upset. After what we went through, for them to get us into this parlous state, to borrow from the Germans to do a job which we should be able to do – they need pinning against the wall for this.’
The German Embassy revealed this week that its frigate will ‘take over from HMS Dragon’ dressing it up as ‘an expression of the close Germany-British relationship’.
British sailors will use the ship to ‘fulfil its leadership role’, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.
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It insisted that it is not uncommon for a Nato group to be commanded from an allied warship and led by Royal Navy battle staff.
But Tory MP and former Army officer Ben Obese-Jecty said it demonstrates the UK has ‘seemingly run out of ships’ and ‘Britannia no longer rules the waves’.
Former First Sea Lord, Admiral Lord West, told the Daily Mail our Nato allies ‘are noticing that we are not the power we once were’.
He said: ‘The Royal Navy was the second most powerful navy in Nato and the most powerful European navy.
‘You can’t really say that any more. Our American allies already are looking at us and saying, ‘Oh dear, this isn’t the British we’re used to’.’
The Defence Secretary was wheeled onto the airwaves yesterday to defend the latest fiasco.
Mr Healey told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: ‘The Germans have stepped in to supply their warship… that’s a sign of the strength of the Nato alliance.
‘But I’m not happy with the situation we have with British warships and that’s because it takes six years to build a warship.’
But Mr Healey stumbled over his figures when asked how many frigates are at his disposal, wrongly stating: ‘We have 17 frigates and destroyers. It’s down from 23 at the end of the last Labour government.’
In fact, that figure is 13.
An MoD spokesman said: ‘The UK is one of the top defence spenders of all Nato nations and, as these figures show, our spending has increased by almost £9billion since 2023 – a significant real terms increase.
‘We are a leader in the alliance, committing our nuclear deterrent in full to Nato and offering almost all our Armed Forces to Nato on land, in the air and at sea.
‘We are delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War and investing £270billion in defence across this Parliament alone.’
