LONDON (AP) 鈥� U.S. President and his Defense Secretary have been damning of the U.K.’s naval capabilities. Their jibes may have stung in a country with a long and proud maritime history, but they do carry some substance.
The U.K. has been at the forefront of Trump鈥檚 ire since the onset of the on Feb. 28, when British Prime Minister refused to grant the U.S. military access to British bases.
Though that decision has been with the decision to permit the U.S. to use the bases, including that of in the Indian Ocean, for so-called defensive purposes, Trump is adamant he was let down.
He has repeatedly lashed out at Starmer and branded the Royal Navy鈥檚 two new aircraft carriers as 鈥渢oys.鈥�
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 even have a navy,鈥� he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph in comments published Wednesday. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e too old and had aircraft carriers that didn鈥檛 work.鈥�
The HMS Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales are the largest and most powerful vessels ever constructed for the Royal Navy, though smaller and less capable than the U.S. Navy鈥檚 main fleet carriers. However, they are widely considered to be highly capable, especially for coalition warfare, despite some technical issues that have afflicted them in their first years of service.
Hegseth, meanwhile, said sarcastically that the 鈥渂ig, bad Royal Navy鈥� should get involved in making the safe for commercial shipping.
For numerous reasons, the Royal Navy is not as big and bad as it used it to be . But it’s not as feeble as Trump and Hegseth imply and is largely similar with the French navy, with which it is often compared.
鈥淥n the negative side, there is a grain of truth, with the Royal Navy being smaller than it has been in hundreds of years,鈥� said Professor Kevin Rowlands, editor of the Royal United Services Institute Journal. 鈥淥n the positive side, the Royal Navy would say that it鈥檚 entering its first period of growth since World War II, with more ships set to be built than in decades.鈥�
Capabilities and preparedness
It鈥檚 not that long ago that Britain could muster a task force of 127 ships, including two aircraft carriers, to sail to the south Atlantic after Argentina鈥檚 , a British overseas territory. That 1982 campaign, which then-U. S. President Ronald Reagan was lukewarm about, marked the final hurrah of Britain鈥檚 naval pedigree.
Nothing on that scale, or even remotely, could be accomplished now. Since World War II, Britain鈥檚 combat-ready fleet has declined substantially, much of it linked to changing military and technological advances and the end of empire. But not all.
The number of vessels in the Royal Navy fleet, including aircraft carriers, destroyers frigates and submarines has fallen from 166 in 1975 to 66 in 2025, according to The Associated Press’ analysis of figures from the Ministry of Defense and the House of Commons Library.
Though the Royal Navy has two aircraft carriers at its command, there was a seven-year period in the 2010s when it had none. And the number of destroyers has halved to six while the frigate fleet has been slashed from 60 to just 11.
Diminished state
The Royal Navy faced criticism for the time it took to send the destroyer to the Middle East after the war with Iran broke out. Though naval officials worked night and day to get it shipshape for a different mission than the one it was readying for, to many it symbolized the extent to which Britain鈥檚 military has been gutted since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
For much of the Cold War, Britain was spending between 4% and 8% of its annual national income on its military. After the Cold War, that proportion steadily dropped to a low of 1.9% of GDP in 2018, fuel to Trump’s fire.
Like other countries, Britain, largely under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, sought to use the so-called 鈥減eace dividend鈥� following the collapse of the Soviet Union to divert money earmarked for defense to other priorities, such as health and education.
And the austerity measures imposed by the Conservative-led government in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008-9 prevented any pickup in defense spending despite the clear signs of a resurgent Russia, especially after its annexation of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.
No quick fix
In the wake of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and with another Middle East war underway, there’s a growing understanding across the political divide that the cuts have gone too far.
Following the Ukraine invasion, the Conservatives started to turn the military spending tide around. Since the Labour Party returned to power in 2024, Starmer is seeking to ramp up British defense spending, partly at the cost of cutting the country’s long-vaunted aid spending.
Starmer has promised to to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027, and the updated goal is now for it to rise to , as part of a NATO agreement pushed by Trump. That, in plain terms, will mean tens of billions pounds more being spent 鈥� a lot more equipment for the armed forces.
The pressure is on for the government to speed that schedule up. But with the public finances further imperilled by the economic consequences of the Iran war, it’s not clear where any additional money will come.
The jibes will likely keep coming even though the critiques are unfair and far from the truth, said RUSI’s Rowlands, who was a captain in the Royal Navy.
鈥淲e are dealing with an administration that doesn鈥檛 do nuance,鈥� he said.
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