Loss of ships would weaken our forces

I WONDER if the Secretary of State for Defence is aware that Britain’s amphibious forces are trained and equipped for very much more than storming beaches, D Day-style?

Most future campaigns and likely areas of disaster relief will still require landings across beaches or through damaged ports to establish that first vital foothold. Only the Royal Navy’s dwindling amphibious forces can do just that, while airtransported troops need friendly airspace and an undamaged or undefended runway before they can begin to play their part.

The current Royal Fleet Auxiliaries, with other surface warships, can provide much invaluable practical help and sustenance, but none can transport ashore equipment such as heavy-lift vehicles for the onward movement of aid and the rebuilding of basic facilities – including rudimentary air strips.

As has been shown, time and time again, only HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark (and their forebears, Fearless and Intrepid), with their shallow-draft landing craft and hovercraft – the latter ideal for river work or in an area strewn with debris – plus their helicopters and embarked military force, can be of any practical and lasting value in the initial stages of war or natural disaster.

These ships’ integrated Amphibious Beach Units, with their ability to repair damaged ports, are unique among the British armed forces. Now, if the signs from Whitehall are to be believed, these two remarkable ‘amphibious assault ships’, the key to so many successful operations in peace and war since 1965, are to be left in permanent reserve and we know what that means – they will never see blue water again.

It is not just the ships that will be lost under the Ministry of Defence’s cost-saving plans but, with them, the possibility of conducting any form of entry or exit across hostile or damaged shores in time of conflict or, perhaps of more importance, disaster relief.

Ewen Southby-Tailyour

Devon