{"id":220839,"date":"2016-02-02T16:39:15","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T16:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=220839"},"modified":"2016-02-02T16:39:15","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T16:39:15","slug":"powerless-royal-navys-1bn-destroyers-keep-breaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/powerless-royal-navys-1bn-destroyers-keep-breaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerless? Royal Navy\u2019s \u00a31bn destroyers keep breaking down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Britain\u2019s cutting-edge \u00a31 billion Type 45 destroyers are being called in for engine refits due to repeated breakdowns, including one incident in which a ship lost power in the middle of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Work on the Type 45\u2019s engines will begin in 2019 and be staggered over several years to keep some ships in operational service.<\/p>\n<p>Problems have been apparent for some years, with one anonymous Royal Navy officer telling the BBC: \u201c<em>Total electrical failures are common.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MXK8-4v-oeA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">In 2014, HMS Dauntless abandoned a training mission due to engine failure and in 2009 HMS Daring lost power in the Atlantic on her first trip to America. Daring also lost power in Kuwait in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Former Navy head Lord West told the BBC that what had initially been described as \u201c<em>teething problems<\/em>\u201d was obviously much more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Clearly there is a major fault here,<\/em>\u201d West said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>It is bad enough fighting your ship when people are dropping bombs on it and blowing bits of equipment out and you keep it going \u2013 that\u2019s what we\u2019re trained to do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou don\u2019t expect suddenly to lose all power when you are steaming along normally,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that the faults combined and the impact of repairs would stretch the Navy\u2019s ability to hit operational targets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We only have 19 destroyers and frigates. That is a national disgrace.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C-QRB2dnnAM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We can only just do some of the tasks that we should be doing around the world. Suddenly we will not have ships available and that is very, very worrying,<\/em>\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The British military has also struggled to get its latest \u00a370 million fighter jet working. The F-35B Lightning was due to be brought into service in 2012, but a catalogue of faults has kept it out of the skies.<\/p>\n<p>The Royal Navy\u2019s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will host the F-35 when it finally comes into operation in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/330596-royal-navy-warships-refit\/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain\u2019s cutting-edge \u00a31 billion Type 45 destroyers are being called in for engine refits due to repeated breakdowns, including one incident in which a ship lost power in the middle of the Atlantic. Work on the Type 45\u2019s engines will begin in 2019 and be staggered over several years to keep some ships in operational [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-220839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}