Old ships to rejoin fleet

Press, 1 September 1982, Page 8

Old ships to rejoin fleet

These British frigates, the Londonderry (left) and the Zulu (right) have been taken out of mothballs, dusted off, and are now undergoing trials before they rejoin the Fleet. They and four other frigates — the Gurkha, Tartar, Berwick, and Falmouth — have been reprieved and will fill gaps left by warships on duty in the South Atlantic. The ships, some more than 20 years old, had been moth-

balled since they fell victim to the Government’s Navy cuts. Their new lease of life will probably last between six months and two years. The Defence Secretary (Mr John Nott) last year proposed slashing the size of the Navy’s frigate and destroyer fleet to 50 by the mid-1980s, including eight ships in the Standby Squadron. After the Falklands victory the Navy is pressing to increase the number of operational escorts from 59

in commission to around 70. the bare minimum it says it needs to perform its antisubmarine role in the North Atlantic. Experts have told the Ministry that if the presence, or suspected presence, of two modern West German-built Argentine submarines had such a profound effect on the tactics of the British task force, how would the Royal Navy fare against the 364 submarines available in the Soviet fleet.

Mr Nott's review of the impact of the Falklands on his defence policy is expected to be published in early November, but already much of the policy has been overturned -— the carrier Invincible, the ice patrol ship Endurance, and the destroyers Fife, Glamorgan and Bristol have been retained. All had been scheduled for disposal. Dockyard work on the six reprieved frigates took between two and three months.