ORAC posted this on the Strategic Review thread this morning:-
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/n...pree-7p9knnpvm
Navy is big winner in Johnson’s £16bn defence spending spree
......The biggest winner will be the Royal Navy after the prime minister set out plans for the service to take on a bigger role. He confirmed that Britain will get eight Type-26 frigates, sophisticated anti-submarine ships, as well as five Type-31 frigates, which are cheaper all-purpose warships. New fleet support ships to carry food and ammunition in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary will also be built, along with multi-role research vessels. The various projects confirmed will be a boon to shipbuilders and are expected to support up to 10,000 jobs.
The blueprint will be a boost to the Union too as Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have a significant proportion of the UK’s shipyards and linked industries. The government said that the blueprint would secure “jobs, prosperity, security and the Union”.
Mr Johnson said that the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth would be launched on its first carrier strike force operation next year, and will sail to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and east Asia. HMS Prince of Wales is up to 18 months behind in its timetable. In a sign that Britain will seek to boost international co-operation, Australian and Canadian personnel and assets are expected to be invited to operate from one of the carriers. Proposals are being considered for one of the carriers to be permanently stationed either in the Middle East or further east in the southern hemisphere, it is understood. A military source said that the focus on the Royal Navy was “a paradigm shift”, adding: “Boris Johnson has refocused defence to its historic maritime axis.”.....