Originally Posted by
Asturias56
"These have required the deployment of frigates and destroyers"
Correct - but as you are aware some people are trailing CUTTING the number of both as the RN can't man the whole fleet now they have 2 carriers
You do have a been in your bonnet about that? The story goes that in 2015 both the RN and RAF expected a manpower uplift, but doing this would have involved cutting 'troop' ie Army personnel numbers, and Cameron was afraid of upsetting back benchers. This had caused problems, but has coincided with update projects that have meant ships have had to spend time being refitted and upgraded. A couple of years ago the Government decided that the priority was to put as many RN ships to sea as possible - I presume that has meant buying more spares, and hopefully more aircraft spares for Merlin. But the main requirement has been for people, hence the reforms to cut senior personnel from HQ type roles, and to recruit more junior personnel.
Recruiting has been stepped up, and
more recruits are being trained than before.
The base is meeting a surge in demand to join the Fleet due to Covid and plans to grow the Navy by 3,000 sailors over the next three years, starting with 1,000 extra personnel in 2021.