Sunk Costs: New Carriers Commit UK To Buy Escorts & F-35Bs, Says 1st Sea Lord 01 Aug 2014 Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
"...First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Adm. Sir George Zambellas, assured a Washington audience Wednesday that — to paraphrase his guarded Britishisms into American bluntness — it’s too late to cheap out. Building the carriers has already committed British politicians not only to funding their operations, escort vessels, and aircraft, but also to a carrier-centered naval strategy that puts warfighting first and peacetime presence second.
If you don’t buy adequate F-35s, “you build £6.2 billion worth of carriers, you then don’t put a tiny piece of butter on the bread,” Zambellas said to general laughter at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “You’ve got to do it properly. And I’m absolutely certain, with delivery of a credible carrier strike capability, we will see a growth of commitments to F-35s to meet the maximum value the government would want to derive from the strategic assets they have bought and are paying for [already].”...
...“Authority” and “credibility” were the admiral’s mantras throughout his remarks, which were tinged with the usual post-imperial anxiety about Britain’s place in the world. If only one carrier is operational, Zambellas said in one example, it may be in refit when a crisis erupts, “and then your authority sort kind of drains away down the plug hole.” Building the carriers is “a grown-up statement of intent,” he said, the UK’s forthcoming nuclear missile submarines will provide “deterrence [at] absolutely the top end of the game,” and the US and UK needed to operate as one in the Persian Gulf ” so if we have to fight side by side, we Brits don’t let you down.”..."
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