Jamie Grierson
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he singled out the “big, bad Royal Navy” in a recent press update on the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Hegseth’s sarcastic comment was the latest in a long line of jibes against the capabilities and readiness of the British Royal Navy.
However, less political figures have also warned of the perilous state of the UK’s naval warfare force, including the First Sea Lord, the highest-ranking naval officer on active duty.
Donald Trump has dismissed the UK’s aircraft carriers as “toys”, compared with their US equivalents. He reportedly told Keir Starmer to not “bother” sending them to the Gulf.
In perhaps more scathing comments, the US president told the Daily Telegraph: “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”
Hegseth and Trump’s comments should be viewed through the political lens: both are under pressure at home and abroad for launching an offensive against Iran that many say has no clear objective. The British prime minister, like many European counterparts, has refused to be drawn into the conflict, which has clearly angered Trump.
But the uncomfortable truth for Starmer is that many British politicians, military officials and experts suggest that there is some substance to the US barbs.
On 10 March, the House of Commons defence committee expressed grave concerns over whether the navy had the “capacity and resilience” to respond to the crisis in the Middle East. Last month, the former general Richard Barrons, one of three members of Labour’s strategic defence review team, said the lack of military readiness was because of the “armed forces we have ended up with at the end of the post-cold war era – a military right-sized for an era free of threat”.
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