"NAVY unfit to fight" was the screaming headline in a national newspaper, purporting to quote a "leaked" document claiming that Treasury cuts had left the Royal Navy incapable of meeting its commitments.
At the same time, several claims were made to You Say in the Evening News, which I was able to disprove, despite limitations of information available to me.
Your fair-minded readers will no doubt be interested in the official response as published in Navy News for July. I quote:
"In the past year alone, the RN has played a crucial role in no less than 12 operations worldwide - all at short notice - and was also able to carry out many defence diplomacy missions including a round the world deployment.
"... the Joint Rapid Reaction concept is soon to be further demonstrated when the Navy will deploy over 25 ships to participate in Exercise Saif Sareea 11 in Oman this autumn...
"The pace and range of RN activity continues unabated, and to support it, the defence budget is set to increase by £2bn by 2003 to 2004. Three new ships were delivered in the past financial year and more are on the way.
"This is routine management business that does not indicate a particular crisis, but is in place to ensure that the Navy remains 'fit to fight at all times".
JOHN G HINTON,
Worcester
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