A Royal Navy ship which has been out of service for reportedly more than 3,000 days is a sign of underinvestment in defence, two former officers have said. HMS Daring is believed to have been out of service for more than eight years due to maintenance and equipment issues – the same amount of time it spent on active service and longer than the six years it took to build.
The £1 billion vessel is just one of Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers which have faced a number of availability issues over the years. In 2021, it was revealed all but one of the Daring-class were out of action – described by the-then chair of the defence select committee as “operationally unacceptable”. The vessels are crucial to the UK, with their Sea Viper weapon system the only capability in Britain’s arsenal that can shoot down ballistic missile attacks, like those seen by Russia on Ukraine.
HMS Daring, which suffered issues with its turbines, was withdrawn in 2017 to undergo a ‘Power Improvement Project’ refit.
Retired rear admiral Chris Parry suggested there had been cost-cutting with the Type 45s as the Government focused on terrorism threats in Iraq and Afghanistan, placing less emphasis on naval projects designed for more traditional warfighting.
He told The Telegraph: “It is a complete disaster because it was all done on the cheap – to get the Type 45’s air defence system working properly, they scrimped and saved on everything else.]
“It is a common problem with big defence procurement – you have to balance time, price and operational requirement, and the longer a project takes, the more the price inflates, and the more there is a temptation to cut costs.”
This view was backed up by retired captain Gerry Northwood.
He said: “The time it takes to build a ship these days is ridiculous.
“It is all about money, and if you don’t get the money, it is done in slow motion. Type 45 has been a victim of poor investment and a slightly over-adventurous approach to the engineering system, without having the money and the expertise to sort the problems out.”
HMS Daring was the first ship of her class and was launched in February 2006.
It is suggested the vessels have proved particularly tricky to repair and some people — including Mr Northwood — believe more should have been built.
“I think a dozen would be a better figure now,” he told The Telegraph — the number originally earmarked by defence chiefs before being reduced as part of cost-cutting measures.
A Royal Navy spokesman said: “We do not comment on the material state of our ships, but the Royal Navy continues to fulfil all of its operational commitments.”