US Naval War College Review – Great Britain Gambles With The Royal Navy

The news late last year that the Type 23 frigate HMS Northumberland was to be replaced on the Falklands patrol by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Largs Bay in order to join the international counterpiracy effort in the Gulf of Aden raised quite a few eyebrows. This was not because anyone seriously thought that Argentina would seek to profit from the absence of a British warship in these contested waters for the first time since 1982 but more as it seemed to show just how bad things were getting for the once-mighty Royal Navy that its first-line fleet could not apparently cover both commitments at once.