– Daily Telegraph – The ”largest and most powerful warship” ever built for the Royal Navy has achieved another milestone as a massive section of HMS Queen Elizabeth left port.

– Daily Telegraph – The first female commander of a major Royal Navy warship takes up her post today.

– The Scotsman – An independent Scotland will lose all its Royal Navy contracts, UK ministers have confirmed, in a move which would put 16,000 jobs at risk along with the country’s entire shipbuilding industry. The coalition government warned that if Scotland becomes a “foreign country”, defence contractors could no longer use Scottish yards in their bids.

– Royal Navy – Royal Navy ‘Top Gun’ pilots train to fly US fighters – British Royal Navy pilot Lt Dan Latham is walking out to his aircraft with his American colleague for a training mission that will see them fly through the cloudless skies for hundreds of miles over the desert on a practice bombing raid. Dan, from Ormskirk in Lancashire, is one of the lucky few chosen to fly with his American naval counterparts in the US for four years. The Royal Navy want to ensure the maritime flying skills of their pilots are maintained, until the new British aircraft carriers and the stealth fighter jets due to fly from them are ready.

– Daily Telegraph – A major retreat over aircraft for the Royal Navy’s new carriers will be announced today, abandoning plans to buy the conventional take-off version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, will tell MPs that the Government will now purchase the jump-jet model of the plane instead.

– Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy no longer has enough warships to dedicate one to fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia all year round, it was reported.

– Defense Technology International – Bill Sweetman describes how if Scotland becomes independent, there may be no place to base the UK’s ballistic missile submarine force.

– Daily Telegraph – A series of errors contributed to the grounding of a nuclear-powered submarine off the west coast of Scotland more than two years ago, a report has found.

– The Economist – “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” asked John Maynard Keynes. David Cameron might feel like quoting the great economist when he tells Parliament, as now seems almost certain, that the government is reversing its decision to buy the aircraft-carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35C, rather than the F-35B variant originally ordered by Labour in the 1990s.

– Daily Telegraph – Britain’s Armed Forces will be less able to undertake future military operations with the fighter jets ministers are preparing to buy in a cost-saving exercise, secret defence plans have revealed.

– Daily Telegraph – The ”largest and most powerful warship” ever built for the Royal Navy is beginning to take shape as two massive sections of HMS Queen Elizabeth were joined together.

– Daily Telegraph – Admiral Sir John Forster Woodward – who in 1982 gave the order to sink the General Belgrano – regrets not making more of how the Falklands war was won.

– Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy’s newest destroyer HMS Dauntless set sail on its maiden mission for the Falklands today amid strained diplomatic relations between Argentina and Britain.

– Economist – On April 2nd 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. The war Britain fought to recover them still colours domestic politics

– Daily Telegraph – Britain has officially denied sending a nuclear-armed submarine to the South Atlantic amid rising diplomatic tensions with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.

– Daily Telegraph – A decision on the choice of the Royal Navy’s new combat jet has been delayed yet again following disagreements between senior officers and defence ministers.

– Royal Navy – Aircraft carrier costs will be half what you think, US tells ministers – The US Navy has intervened over the adaptation of a British aircraft carrier for a new generation of fighter jets, to assure ministers that the cost will be less than half the Ministry of Defence’s estimate.

– Daily Telegraph – A former First Sea Lord laments the Royal Navy’s lack of ships – but what it needs most is a maritime strategy.

– Guardian – Defence secretary wants to switch back to version of Joint Strike Fighter ministers dismissed as more costly and less effective.

– BBC – Peru has cancelled a visit by a Royal Navy frigate as an act of solidarity with Argentina in its dispute with the UK over the Falkland Islands.

– Economist – A climate of nationalist agitation.

– Daily Telegraph – Britain could be left without an aircraft carrier equipped with fighter jets for the next decade after soaring costs threw Ministry of Defence plans into doubt.

– Defense Technology International – The U.K. has given the go ahead for the short-range air defense system for its Type 26 Global Combat Ship and also the existing Type 23 frigates.

– Daily Telegraph – A new generation of British-built airships may be bought by the Royal Navy to resupply ships, follwoing their use by the US Army on the front line in Afghanistan.

– Flight – The Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm entered a period of forced transformation 16 months ago, when the UK government approved major cuts to their equipment and personnel structures as part of its Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). However, with a final tranche of about 300 staff cuts having been confirmed in mid-January, the head of the UK’s “senior service” is looking firmly to the future.