Jutland is warning against Navy cuts, says First Sea Lord

THE centenary of the First World War’s largest naval battle should act as a warning against further cuts to the Navy, the new First Sea Lord says today.

Adml Sir Philip Jones says commemorations marking the Battle of Jutland are a “necessary reminder” that sea power remains key to Britain’s defence and prosperity a century later. His intervention, in an article for today’s Tel

egraph, comes as the Navy is fighting to secure an order for new Type 26 frig- ates, amid fears the long-delayed programme will be further postponed or scaled back.

Commemorations of the battle are being held today in Orkney. Buckingham Palace released a statement yesterday saying the Duke of Edinburgh, who was due to attend, was “reluctantly” pulling out because of illness. The Duke, 94, has not attended hospital.

Sir Philip says that the sea is Britain’s “front line” and the country must be

able to deliver both “the soft touch of preventative engagement and the hard punch of military power”.

The Princess Royal and David Cameron will lead Britain’s commemorations on Orkney for the battle which saw 250 warships clash with the loss of more than 8,500 British and German sailors. Sailors from the two navies will also throw thousands of poppies and forget-me-nots into the North Sea at the site of the clash at Jutland Bank off the Danish coast.

Descendants of those who fought at Jutland will be among those taking part in the commemorations, which include a service at St Magnus Cathedral on Kirkwall.

Sir Philip, who was appointed head of the Navy last month, says the clash on May 31, 1916, is “a necessary reminder of the enduring significance of sea power to the defence and to the prosperity of our island nation”.

A century later, navies remain a way in which “nations compete for regional dominance and demonstrate strategic ambition to a global audience”, he writes.

Naval leaders have warned that delays to the Type 26 frigates, which are supposed to form the backbone of the future fleet, risk endangering British ship-building and leaving the Navy with an ageing fleet. Lord West, a former First Sea Lord, last week warned the delays would “come back to haunt us and cost us dear”.

He said the hold up to the frigates, which were supposed to have entered service from 2020, but will now be at least three years delayed, was “in danger of destroying our complex surface warship-building industry”.