The £3.1 billion ($3.91 billion) aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are the weak link in the UK navy due to their vulnerability to missiles, the Times newspaper reported, citing sources.
An unnamed Times source familiar with war games run by the British military said that ‘in most war games, aircraft carriers sink’ and are particularly vulnerable to missiles.
According to Matthew Saville, head of military science at the Royal United Institute for Defence Studies, missile technology is advancing at such a pace that detecting and tracking aircraft carriers is becoming an increasingly possible task. Thus HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are the ‘weak link’ of the Royal Navy, the newspaper pointed out.
The article specifies that the UK is examining the feasibility of aircraft carriers in modern warfare as part of a review of defence spending. In particular, it is noted that at a recent meeting officials raised the issue of decommissioning one of the two ships. At the same time, the source of the Times indicated that such an outcome is unlikely, because it would negatively affect London’s obligations to NATO, and the government of the country is unlikely to take such a step after the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election.
Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry said that the decommissioning of facilities, technical re-equipment and modernisation of production lines allowed it to increase production of three-tonne FAB-3000 high-explosive aerial bombs.
