The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: SVPete on March 10, 2026, 01:12:37 PM
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The Dragon's Sad Tale
https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/the-dragons-sad-tale (https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/the-dragons-sad-tale)
For over a century, there was one jewel in the special relationship between the United States of America and her mother country, Great Britain. That jewel was the Royal Navy.
From the convoys and battleship divisions of the Great War, to Five Inch Friday off the Al Faw almost 90 years later, we always knew that there was another highly capable navy out there we could rely on—the Royal Navy and her Commonwealth.
During the interbellum, when the U.S. Navy was on par with the Royal Navy, we knew our friend was strong. Even when we passed her strength as WWII bled her white, we still knew the power she brought to sea.
She knew her existence was only secured by a strong navy. She’d never abandon that, would she?
...
We need to stop pretending we have a Royal Navy we knew in our youth or even that of two decades ago. No, we have something altogether different. Something shrunken. Something weaker. Something that is, in the end, really sad. A symptom of a nation who has lost an enthusiasm for herself or even an understanding of her national interest and led by a ruling class that seems uninterested in stewardship.
The state of the Royal Navy—a condition that took decades of neglect to manifest into its form today and will take decades to repair if there is ever the will to do so—has become, as navies can often do, a symbol of the state of the nation it serves.
Looking at the charts in the article, it looks like the RN - the whole RN - has the equivalent of the 2 USN CBGs currently in the ME, maybe with a few DDGs from the 3rd CBG about to head there. Sadder still, the RN has two operational destroyers and two operational frigates. The carrier HMS Prince of Wales might be operational soon ... might.