"Lack of ships is not the Royal Navy's big issue, lack of people is."
I agree that lack of man power seems to be a very pressing issue and one that no-one seems to be able to fix. However that could, if necessary, be done quite quickly with more money . The medium/long term issue is a lack of ships - 6 SSN's, 6 T45 13 T23's . If 30% are in refit (which is the standard rule of thumb) that's a very thin line you have - it would be a brave man who went into action without allied support IMHO