The Times – A Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarine struck the bottom of the sea at more than 14 knots because of basic navigational errors made during a training exercise for three students on board.
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The Times – Doubts over the Government’s plan to order two 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers were lifted yesterday when the Ministry of Defence announced that it was ready to sign the £3.9 billion contract. A full audit of the carrier programme, including an assessment of whether there will be enough crew and pilots to man the huge vessels, has been ordered by one of the MoD’s senior military commanders.
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The Times – Two hundred years after the battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy could end up sharing the pride of its fleet with the French. Driven by spiralling budgets, the two navies began talks last week aimed at sharing their aircraft carriers.
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The Times – They were meant to be the pride and joy of Britainís 21st-century fleet, an emblem of its pre-eminence as a military and diplomatic power. But last night it emerged that the imminent announcement of the commissioning of two aircraft carriers at a total cost of £4 billion has left some of the countryís senior military leaders deeply unhappy.
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The Times – The Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.
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The Guardian – The MoD is increasingly outsourcing to the private sector. It’s leasing aircraft and ships today; will it be tanks and armies tomorrow?
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The Times – The Ministry of Defence will reluctantly hand control of a project to build two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy to BAE Systems in an attempt to avoid a £700 million tax bill.
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Defense Technology International – BAE Systems is working on the design of new-generation ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) for the Royal Navy, under a two-year study program that started after a March 2007 parliamentary vote. The SSBNs are expected to extend the life of the UK’s independent deterrent to at least 2040, together with participation in the US Navy’s Trident D5 Life Extension program and development of a new warhead, either built in the UK or collaboratively developed with the US.
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The Times – They can wipe out entire nations, and the British government plans to build even more. Are the Trident nuclear submarines essential for peacekeeping, or are they just expensive relics of the cold war? We meet the men with their fingers on the trigger.
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Financial Times – The Ministry of Defence is examining possible delays to its £4bn contract for two new aircraft carriers as it struggles to meet Treasury demands for swingeing cuts to its budget.
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Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under funding and cutbacks, a leaked Whitehall report has revealed.
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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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