The Royal Navy has mothballed almost half of its remaining fleet of destroyers as it desperately attempts to save money in the face of a plunging budget. The Fleet now has just five air defence warships left to protect vessels missile or aircraft attack at a time when other nations such as China, India and Iran are investing heavily in anti-ship warfare.
Three Type 42 destroyers -- Exeter, Nottingham and Southampton -- have been "parked up" in Portsmouth at "reduced readiness" up to two years before they were due to be decommissioned.
Falklands War veterans are particularly angry after Exeter, the last serving operational ship from the campaign in which it shot down several Argentine fighters, was refused permission to fly a paying-off pennant when it entered harbour after its last mission.
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Pressures on the Navy's budget are immense with cuts of 20 per cent predicted in the next decade reducing the ship building budget to by £4 billion to £14 billion.
Senior Navy commanders have told The Daily Telegraph that the nation is taking "serious risks" in protecting carrier groups or amphibious flotillas and have accused the Government of neglecting the Fleet that protects the 90 per cent of Britain's imported trade.
It has already ditched the excellent air protection offered by Sea Harriers which were disbanded two years ago and at least two Type 42s have gone on operations with their advanced Sea Dart air defence missiles disabled to save cash.
Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said the Government was attempting to "castrate the Navy" by tying up ships in dock. "This is an unacceptable price to pay for the Government's failure to plan properly at a time when we facing increasing demands to intercept drugs, arms, people smuggling, pirates as well as conduct operations in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Richard Scott, Editor of Jane's Navy International, said the Navy was taking "risk on risk" with its neglect of anti-air and anti-submarine warfare. "Type 42 destroyers have crept over horizon without anyone noticing. We have lost a third of the fleet in the last 10 years. The question remains is where's it all going to end up?"
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Exeter and Southampton are due to retire in 2009, with Nottingham, which was severely damaged after hitting a rock off Australia in 2002, scheduled to decommission in 2010. But they are unlikely to leave harbour again.
Despite the cuts Navy officers have indicated that the Navy continues to carry out secret surveillance operations against certain countries that cannot be reported.
"We are completely stuffed in terms of air defence and we are taking a hell of a risk with the sufficient resources to do the job properly," a Navy commander said. "But the Navy has done some incredible things against certain countries in last few weeks that we all should be proud of. But these types of skills are so precious that we cannot afford to diminish them any further."
Despite vehement Ministry of Defence denials The Daily Telegraph reported last year that the Navy faced losing half its fleet.
A Navy spokesman said the ships would remain "available for operations with the appropriate notice, if required".
"We ensure we have sufficient forces ready to meet the perceived threats,"