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The British Royal Navy is mired in a procurement nightmare. Neglect of major acquisition programs in the 1990s and the diversion of British military spending to fund current operational obligations in Iraq and Afghanistan have left a military simultaneously stretched thin by the highest operational tempo seen in a generation and trying to acquire several new naval platforms all at once.
Though the lasting impact on the Royal Navy’s operational effectiveness remains to be seen, in the short term it will remain difficult for London’s maritime forces to meet their multiple obligations.
Conservative British governments began cutting naval funding as far back as 1982, when the Falkland Islands War broke out. That conflict highlighted shortcomings in the Royal Navy’s strategic reach. The Falkland War’s successful outcome and the last phases of the Cold War temporarily halted the planned reductions, but after 1991, the Royal Navy began major reductions again, and has seen a more or less steady quantitative decline across all classes of vessels.
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