As a former serviceman in No. 40 Commando, I've got more that a foot in the door of this particular discussion - for some who do not know we are subject to the RN disciplinary code.
The sheer cost of these military toys has always seemed to me to be on the far side of excessive. I write as someone who still thinks that £20 is a significant sum. Yesterday, tweaking my sense of incredulity and passing the point of ultimate stretch, I watched a program about the building and commissioning of the world's largest, most ostentatious and most expensive cruise liner displacing some 55,000 tons and delivered at a cost of approximately £250,000,000 which sum is, I believe, around a quarter of a billion.
The magnificence of this vessel, if you like Middle Eastern Arabic boudoir style, was almost beyond belief. I cannot help but try to draw some kind of equivalence between what can be bought and paid for in cruise liner terms and the cost of just one of our 'global reach' mobile airports costing what was it ? £3.5 billion ! Or, such sum thereabouts. Ten cruise liners of the type illustrated could be built for that amount.
I am aware that there are some modest differences between an advanced man of war and a cruise liner but, if my figures quoted are even nearly correct the disparity is to my understanding barely credible. Can it really be explained by the number and quality of the systems required for what looks like an admittedly impressive flat top ?
Perhaps one answer could be to build luxurious cruise liners on the 'cheap' and equipped with a flight deck. In other words dual purpose. We'd have a huge fleet of impressive touristy warships which, on account of their numbers would not be too much missed when one or two of Mr. Putin's guided torps began circling like tummy rumbling sharks !