Thoroughly depressing, from Iron to Lame Duck, only seems yesterday I was posting about the rumour she was going to get Westminster's S2087 fitted (that was almost exactly two years ago). .Let's spoil the Fleet for a ha'porth of tar has been the mantra of successive governments all my life (I was born after Sandys but before the first Wilson government when Healey started the acceleration of rot stemming from Sandys' heavy refocussing on Nuclear Deterrence (although a reduction in conventional forces from mid-1950s levels and the end of conscription were IMO sensible and necessary).
I am remember feeling old over twenty years ago watching a batch 2 T22 being towed out for use as a target.(probably Boxer which commissioned sometime after I joined) - the T22s had a planned service life of 18 years.life, ironically nearly 24 years after the last batch 2 decommissioned from the RN, a batch 1 and three Batch 2s are
AFAIK stil serving with the Brazilian, Chilean, and Romanian Navies. They do not, however, face the conditions of the North Atlantic.