It does not serve as a deterrent to would-be adversaries. Watch Argentina!
What a bizarre argument. If its purely about numbers then the surface fleet was far larger back in 1982 and that didn't seem to act as a deterrent either.
Of course speaking in the present rather than looking back with misty eyes at a world that was, just how much of an actual
military threat is Argentina these days to an apparently improverished (no thanks to all them im-er-grants and dole scroungers eh?) UK military?