Viewpoint: No summer holidays here
The Royal Navy has rather looked down on ‘light forces’, preferring to splurge what it can wring out of the government on very expensive ‘state of the art’ warships and ignoring some of the spectacular designs other navies were buying. This has left it short of light armoured craft suited to protecting vessels in the Middle East Gulf
The spotlight on the Strait of Hormuz has exposed the severe limitations on the Royal Navy’s ability to protect merchant shipping and the vulnerability of ships on passage in this important waterway