NAVY NUMBERS CRISIS LEAVES SHIPS IN PERIL
A senior officer says the service has lost its sense of fun and trust, and its flagships are left docked or undermanned
Royal Navy warships are being left tied up with their “lights turned off” because of a “profound” shortage of sailors, a navy warfare officer has warned.
Lieutenant Commander Andrew Livsey says the personnel crisis is so serious there are “barely” enough sailors to run four of the six £1bn Type 45 destroyers and ships are going to sea without people to maintain or operate equipment “that would be vital in wartime”.
The navy’s shortfall of 1,350 people is being aggravated by the need to operate two new aircraft carriers. In 1991 the force had 61,800 sailors, marines and airmen, but numbers have dropped from 35,150 in 2010 to 29,160 last month.
Livsey believes the reason for all the missing sailors is “probably that we made life in the Royal Navy less fun, less certain and harder work”.
Top brass is out of touch with other sailors because “unlike in previous generations” few officers above his rank, the equivalent of an army major, regularly serve at sea, he believes. Writing in the Naval Review journal, Livsey says senior officers are “rarely hard-hearted” but adds: “Unfortunately, their view is different from that of many in the service.”
The lieutenant commander, who has served on frontline frigates, highlights 26 “pinch-point” trades where skill shortages “affect the fleet’s output”.
A dearth of signallers on four offshore patrol vessels has led to talks about tying one of them up in port, he claims, and there is little prospect of resolving 25 of the “pinch points” before 2027.
Figures released last month showed that four frigates — HMS Iron Duke, HMS Portland, HMS Lancaster and HMS Richmond — have not spent a day at sea so far this year.
HMS Daring, a destroyer, is berthed in Portsmouth with no crew because of the personnel shortage, sources claim.
“Despite desperate attempts to increase the headcount, the naval service has declined in size for the past five years in a row,” says Livsey.
Elaborating on what went wrong, he writes: “We made the relationship between the individual and the service more contractual and trust in our leaders reduced because of the increasing gap between what they said and what was experienced.” Most of these issues were now being tackled, he added.
Livsey also writes that the navy cut its recruitment budget by £3m in 2016-17 despite a 10% shortfall in recruiting.
The Royal Navy disputed that it would take until 2027 to solve its personnel problems or that it was considering tying up one of its offshore patrol vessels.
“More than 96% of the navy’s posts are filled and we maintain a global presence, with nearly 9,000 personnel either deployed, getting ready to deploy, or standing at high readiness,” a naval spokesman said.
Above is from today's Sunday Times.
For details of Navy Review journal go to -
https://www.naval-review.com/about-the-naval-review/