After decades of repeated cuts, the decline of Britain’smilitarypower has been exposed in the past week.Sir Keir Starmer’s response to the war in theMiddle Easthas faced widespread criticism and revealed the truth about the sorry state of our Armed Forces as tensions continue to rise across the world.
Allies in the region are said to be unimpressed, while the deployment of HMS Dragon to help protect British personnel stationed in Cyprusfollowing a drone strike has been widely regarded as far too sluggish.“Hollowed out”is a term we have repeatedly heard over the years to describe the state of the Armed Forces. And looking at the latest personnel figures, it’s easy to see why.
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Let’s start with theRoyal Navywhich has found itself in the eye of the media stormdue to HMS Dragon and her pending mission in the Eastern Mediterranean.
As of October 2025, the Navy, including the Royal Marines, had 27,820 full-time trained personnel — a decrease of 1.1% on the year before and around 5.7% on 2022.
In fact, the Navy today is less than half the size it was in 1991 at the end of the Cold War (62,000).
Of course, the nature of warfare has changed over these years, and autonomous systems are increasingly becoming important, but this is a clear example of how defence has fallen down the pecking order in Westminster in the past decades.
The Senior Service’s major warships include two state-of-the-art aircraft carriers, six destroyers and seven frigates.
The ageing Type 23 frigates are continuing to decline in number, while the aircraft carriers and Type 45 destroyers have also faced availability issues.
The Senior Service also has five attack submarines and four Trident subs; however, these have also faced problems, notably with maintenance.
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
