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Royal Navy warns 4,000 more sailors needed to man the fleet
DB News: 14/10/2015 - 10:56
The HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of the new class of aircraft carriers, is due to begin sea trials in 2016, with its sister ship, the HMS Prince of Wales, coming into operation a few years later.
The Navy lost around 6,000 sailors after cuts in 2010. Naval chiefs have asked the Ministry of Defence for another 2,500 sailors, which is estimated to cost around £125 million a year. However, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said he wants to limit the increase to 600.
Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham, a vice president of the lobby group of former officers, said: “From a naval point of view there is a serious problem, said to be when I last spoke to Fleet Commander, in the order of 3,500 to 4,000 people in order to man the fleet correctly.”
The Navy is also having to look to soldiers from foreign navies to fill specialist engineering jobs, with up to 1,000 foreign engineers expected the decade.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon said: “There’s no doubt they are really having to rally round and get people from all over the place to fill some those holes.”
“You may have to go to some of the guys that we have lost in the past and bring them back.”
