Defense Technology International – A British Defense Ministry decision to halt air-to-air refueling of its Nimrod MR2 maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft will almost certainly curtail the aircraftís operational availability in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Daily Telegraph – HMS Illustrious will be deployed in the Gulf next spring.
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MercoPress – Battling her way through 800 miles of ferocious seas between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, the Royal Navy Atlantic South patrol and an auxiliary vessel carried out this month a disaster relief exercise based around a typical South Atlantic cruise vessel visiting South Georgia and which supposedly had ran aground in deteriorating weather.
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Aviation Week – Top leaders of Britain’s Royal Navy are “tearing their hair out” in frustration that they can’t “get the message across” that the maritime service is playing a crucial role in ongoing, seemingly land-locked operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Aviation Week – A look at the Royal Navy’s Future Surface Combatant program.
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Daily Telegraph – The Ministry of Defense is to cut another five warships, leaving the Royal Navy only capable of “one small-scale operation”.
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Daily Telegraph – A new warship that can defend the entire city of London from missile and aircraft attack has completed its first Royal Navy sea trial.
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Daily Telegraph – The long awaited main gate approval for the UK’s new aircraft carriers was announced this afternoon in London.

Aviation Week – UK Carriers – Now The Work Starts
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Scotland on Sunday – Prime Minister Gordon Brown is preparing to deliver a multi-billion-pound boost to his home nation, with confirmation that Scotland’s shipbuilders will help to produce the biggest vessels ever ordered by the Royal Navy. The Prime Minister is set to put an end to years of delay by announcing the decision on the construction of the two “super carriers” within the next few days.
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Daily Telegraph – Families expelled from the Chagos Islands by Britain to make way for an American airbase won their legal battle to return home yesterday. The only island that they will not be able to resettle under original High Court orders allowing their return will be Diego Garcia, where the airbase is situated.
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The Scotsman – The RAF’s Nimrods are worn out???
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Daily Telegraph – A new £1.2 billion Royal Navy submarine which from the Channel is able to detect the QE2 cruise liner leaving New York harbour was unveiled yesterday. The Astute, the first attack submarine to be built in almost two decades, is the “most stealthy in the world” and will put the Navy at the “top of the premiership”, commanders said.
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The Scotsman – Military chiefs are drawing up plans to move the UK’s nuclear missiles south of the Border as concern mounts that Scotland is heading towards independence. The Ministry of Defence is so worried about the march of the Nationalists it has closely examined four sites for Trident’s replacement outside of Scotland.
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Daily Telegraph – Niall Ferguson comments on the current state of the Royal Navy, in light of its recent crisis with Iran.
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Defense and the National Interest – William Lind compares todays Royal Navy to Hornblower’s.
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Daily Telegraph – The first graphic accounts of the tears, humiliation and mental torture of the 15 freed Royal Navy hostages emerged yesterday.
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Washington Post – British sailors and marines who were held captive by Iran for nearly two weeks said Friday they were seized in Iraqi waters, held in solitary confinement and subjected to intense psychological pressure, including fear at one point that they were about to be executed.

BBC – Released sailors tell of ordeal.
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BBC – The 15 Royal Navy crew held captive by Iran are preparing to fly home after being freed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a “gift” to the UK.

Daily Telegraph – Questions the Navy chiefs must now answer.
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Daily Telegraph – Royal Navy intelligence gathering has been criticised as being “poor” for allowing 15 personnel to fall into the hands of the Iranians.
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The Times – The fate of the 15 British marines and sailors held in Tehran may depend on the outcome of a power struggle between two of Iranís top generals.

Meanwhile Niall Ferguson puts the crisis in perspective for the UK:

Daily Telegraph – Iran targeted the Security Council’s weakest link: us.
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BBC – US officials have ruled out a deal to exchange 15 Royal Navy personnel captured in the Gulf for five Iranians seized by American forces in Iraq.

Meanwhile, let David Ignatius put this crisis in context for you???

Washington Post – 15 Britons In a Sea Of Intrigue.
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BBC – Iranian state television has broadcast an interview with captured British sailor Faye Turney and footage of the 14 servicemen seized with her.
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BBC – The UK government is attempting to “discreetly” talk to the Iranians to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel.
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BBC – The 15 Royal Navy personnel who were seized on Friday are being held at an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps base in Tehran.
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Daily Telegraph – Britain’s most senior naval officer in the Gulf has likened the West’s tense stand-off with Iran as being akin to “the height of the Cold War”.
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