Once Navy Always Navy

The President's Pulpit

       AN END OF YEAR MESSAGE FROM THE NATIONAL PRESIDENT

Last month I updated Shipmates on the largely unreported worldwide RN and RM operations showing what a high tempo the Naval Service has in many dangerous parts of the world.  I also wrote about some vital future naval elements of the Defence Equipment Programme.  We know that this has been under examination within the Ministry of Defence as it tries to balance its books and to shift expenditure toward current operations. As the jargon now has it toward “the war” and away from “a war”.  The budgetary difficulty has many causes but to my mind there are two key ones. The first is that inflation in Defence equipment runs quite a bit higher than in the rest of the economy.  Sometimes the MoD contributes to its own difficulties in this regard.  I shall give an example later.  The second is that the Treasury now only provides additional funds for a certain proportion of the extra costs of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Previously all would have been charged to contingency funds.  The consequences have largely been reductions in the Naval Support area and in Destroyer and Frigate numbers.  But with the Equipment Programme Review getting near its vinegar strokes there are indications that the projects I wrote about last month may take much of the weight.  On 5 December the Financial Times reported that plans are being finalized to delay the Carriers by up to two years.  I know Shipmates will need little convincing of the need for these ships for which we’ve already been waiting 10 years.  They are the only reliable way for the UK to project air power (bombers, fighters, surveillance or helicopters in numbers) at a time and place of our choosing worldwide.  They and the nuclear deterrent are the key to the UK remaining a significant power in an increasingly dangerous world.  While it is good to know that the Government has not jettisoned its commitment to these ships and that preparations for their construction are going well and continue this measure will only save money in the short term. Over the whole programme what amounts to borrowing money from the shipbuilder will, I reckon, cost hundreds of millions extra not least in the additional maintenance for ILLUSTRIOUS and ARK ROYAL.  Two days after the FT, the online edition of the TIMES carried an article saying that the First Sea Lord had threatened to resign if proposals to scrap the entire Harrier force are pushed through. I do not believe there is any truth in the claim that 1SL has made such a threat but I do fear that the Harriers are under examination.  It seems such a bizarre idea one hardly knows where to begin.  The UK’s best close support aircraft heavily engaged in Afghanistan.  You’ll remember I wrote last month of the Naval Strike Wing dropping 180 weapons in one three day period. Just read Commander Orchard’s recent and riveting book “Joint Force Harrier” to get a full appreciation.  Scrapping them would effectively end RN fixed wing aviation returning us to the 1918-37 arrangements which led to a poorly equipped Fleet Air Arm at the outset of WW2 and the deaths of thousands of Shipmates in Norway, Crete and the Far East.  We should hardly be able to surmount the steep learning curve the new Carriers involve and with the best will in the world people don’t join the RAF to spend months at sea which is what they will have to do if the new Carriers are to be operationally effective and if the country is to get full value from the investment in them.  Nor will maritime aviation find its proper voice in the Navy unless there are senior officers with direct fixed wing experience.  Perhaps the most encouraging thought I can offer you is that it is such a bad idea it can hardly happen.

Let me turn to our Association where I think there is good news.  While there is much still to do if we are to realize all we want from the MOU I believe we have never been closer to our serving Shipmates in the time that I have been NP.  Once again and a time when the Naval Service is contributing about half the UK servicemen in Afghanistan and Shipmates have contributed hundreds of Christmas parcels.  A recently retired RM SNCO talked to an 8 Area Branch meeting us about receiving one of these.   He said every one of the troops he spoke to was enormously appreciative - not so much for the contents, welcome though they were, but more for the fact that they weren't in some hell hole far away and forgotten by the public in general at home.  He said it was a tremendous boost to morale to receive a box from someone you didn't know and would probably never meet.  The lads all call them "Morale Boxes".  We are closer too geographically as well as spiritually.  Portsmouth Naval Base could hardly have been more welcoming.  Security restrictions are as light as they could be.  Shipmates can gain a six months pass into the Naval Base having once shown photo ID (Driving License or Passport) and having been identified by the Deputy General Secretary.  The new HQ has had more visitors in the last three months than in the last three years. It is clear that we sold Chelsea Manor Street at the top of the market.  We are now paying a favourable rent and we have a very healthy addition to our deposit accounts.  The National Chairman writes below of Council’s decision to offer Commander Paddy McClurg a further two year contract as General Secretary. While I did not vote on this proposal and while the Chairman largely presided over the Council’s debate it has my full support. It has been welcomed by our new staff who are themselves of excellent quality. If we remain unified as an Association I think we can really motor.

I wish you all and your families a very merry Christmas and the best of health and happiness in 2009.

by Vice Admiral John McAnally,
National President, The Royal Naval Association