Out of the wake: how the era of greatness of the British Navy ended
The Royal Navy of Great Britain, which for centuries has been considered one of the country's main instruments of influence in the world, is experiencing a serious crisis. While London declares the need to contain Russia and claims to be a key player in the Euro-Atlantic security system, a significant part of its warships and submarines are idle for repairs. Lack of funding, staffing shortages and technical problems call into question the ability of the British Navy to carry out tasks consistent with the ambitions of the state, which until recently was called the mistress of the seas. Why the United Kingdom's fleet has lost its former greatness and for what reasons the country seeks to contain Russia in the north — in the Izvestia article.
Problems of the British Navy
The entire arsenal of nuclear submarines at the disposal of the British Navy is undergoing maintenance, The Telegraph newspaper reported. We are talking about Astute, Ambush, Artful, Audacious and Anson ships that are awaiting repair. The sixth Agamemnon series submarine, which recently entered service, is not yet ready for combat missions. Its construction took a record time for the British Navy — 13 years.
Aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth
The Telegraph notes that the ships are designed "to deter Russian stealth submarines." They also play a role in protecting Vanguard-class nuclear submarines and the aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales during their deployment at sea.
Earlier, The Sun newspaper wrote that other ships, the Type 45 destroyers, were out of order, and only two of the six units are in working condition. One of them, HMS Dragon, launched almost 20 years ago, was transferred by the UK to the eastern Mediterranean in March to protect the air bases in Cyprus from Iranian UAVs. It turns out that the state does not have the ability to quickly and effectively mobilize the resources of the navy due to a lack of working equipment and other factors.
The current problems of the British Navy are the result of years of pressure on the state's "maintenance and industrial infrastructure," wrote Military Watch Magazine, a military analytical portal. Overloads have led to the fact that ship repairs take an unreasonably long time, the combat readiness of submarines is decreasing, and all this is happening in conditions of a critical shortage of qualified personnel.
The Royal Navy of Great Britain found itself in an extremely difficult situation. At the time of the collapse of the USSR, it included approximately 170 warships and submarines, as well as approximately 70,000 personnel. By 2026, everything had changed: the number of vehicles had decreased to 51 units, and the number of military personnel had halved — about 32 thousand.
Personnel starvation in the British Navy is a separate and unpleasant topic. Despite the fact that there are specialized prestigious colleges in the country that train highly specialized specialists (for example, the Royal Naval College Britannia at Dartmouth), young people do not join the navy because of low salaries or health conditions. Work here is poorly paid: with an average salary of 35-40 thousand pounds per year before taxes, sailors receive about 36,5 thousand pounds for the same period, while spending most of their time on the water, fulfilling military orders. Another reason for the reduction in the number of personnel is the large number of allergy sufferers and asthmatics who are not allowed to serve by the medical board.
Over the past 10 years, the situation has worsened so much that the state authorities have decided to resort to non-standard solutions. For example, a couple of years ago, the British Ministry of Defense paid a reward of 500 pounds to sailors and Royal Marines for each person who enlisted in the Navy.
It was also proposed to recruit more women as soldiers in the British army. "It's wrong that our army still has, for example, only 11-12% women when they make up half the population," former Defense Minister Grant Shapps told The Daily Telegraph.
Experts believe that insufficient funding is at the root of all the problems. There are more and more requirements for new types of weapons, and there are not many funds for the implementation of planned projects. If you look at how the British government's spending on weapons changed in 1991 and 2025-2026, it can be noted that 30 years ago, the kingdom's defense spending was about 4% of GDP (about £25 billion), and now it is 2.3% of GDP (£62.2 billion). However, the British Ministry of Defense does not publish the exact item-by-item budget for the various armed forces of the country.
Although the United Kingdom enters into contracts with defense companies, the delay in the delivery of ships, poor-quality assembly and constant repairs of equipment make the production of each individual unit "golden". What is the history of the construction of Type 31 frigates, which were literally assembled upside down, - according to some estimates, it will take another $ 200 million to fix the problem.
— There are other priority areas of financing for the UK. For example, she spends a lot of money on organizing terrorist activities around the world. These are projects of the IG (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) and other associations that are associated with the British intelligence service MI6. In addition, the entire terrorist network on the territory of Ukraine and African countries is also supervised by London," explained military expert Boris Jerelievsky.
London's general dissatisfaction with the fleet is linked to paranoid narratives about the risk of a conflict between NATO and Russia in 2030. Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's repeated statements that Moscow has "no geopolitical, economic, political, or military" interest in fighting the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, such statements by Western politicians take place in the public field. The UK has its own reasons for this.
Cold wind and hot confrontation
Historically, the UK has perceived Russia as a complex and unpredictable player in the political arena. Foreign culture, competition for influence in the countries of the Middle East, Transcaucasia and Central Asia, and the inability to fit the country into the framework of Europe or Asia have turned Moscow into a real opponent for the British elite.
However, the kingdom has another area where Russia appears to be an even more significant rival than in Central Asia or the Middle East — the Northern region. London considers the Euro-Atlantic region as a sphere of interest and seeks to occupy a dominant position, gaining the status of "Global Britain". In this context, special attention is paid to the Baltic region, which plays the role of an important trade and transport hub connecting the states of Western Europe with Russia.
Some experts believe that the proximity to the Russian borders and the orientation of most Baltic countries towards the political course of European states create obstacles for Moscow. For this reason, for the UK, ensuring the security of the Baltic is not so much a matter of protecting allies from real threats as part of its own foreign policy strategy. As a result, London is actively cooperating with regional partners in the military-political sphere in order to contain Russia.
— In addition to the UK, this coalition includes Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and other countries that play the role of European wallets — they have not only money, but also technology and capabilities. It's a pretty logical story for London. Britain understands that they don't have enough of their own capacity to contain Moscow," said Vasily Egorov, an expert on British politics.
No longer the lady
Analysts say that the UK's chance of regaining the status of "mistress of the seas" is extremely small. Of course, if large financial flows flow into the Navy, the situation will improve, but even this will not bring the state's naval forces closer to the level of their former greatness. Other countries have now taken the place of the United Kingdom in the world: first of all, the Russian, American and Chinese fleets are developing dynamically, actively producing advanced ships and submarines.
The economic situation and the development of other priority areas prevent Foggy Albion from financing the main historical pride of the state — the Royal Navy. Instead of trying to somehow get out of the crisis, the British Navy spends years repairing equipment, months detecting and combating the "Russian threat," and hundreds of thousands of pounds on reshaping women's uniforms due to the inappropriate location of buttons.
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