Britannia Rules the Waves?

 

historic-uk.com

Per usual, I was listening to NPR on my way into North Park University.  There was a report of the missile and drone attack on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.  The Houthi rebels in Yemen are responsible and doing it to show support for the Palestinians in the ongoing onslaught by Israel.  The attacks began on January 12.  There have been 57 attacks on ships since then.  The damage has been limited.  A recent attack on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer caused a large oil spill that in 18 miles long is by far the worst.  The ship is taking water and there are environmental concerns from the oil and even more if the fertilizer spills into the sea.

The part of the report that really caught my attention was when they talked about who in the West was defending the shipping against the attacks.  As expected, they noted that the US is taking the lead.  They talked about other countries and their inability to provide much assistance because their fleets are downsized to a minimum and lacking sailors.  One country they called out was the UK saying that their fleet size was smaller than during the Revolution of the American Colonies. 

What?

This is the UK.  Britain.  England.  The Royal Navy was the backbone of the military that built and sustained an empire that the sun never set on.  A famous song popped into my head.  This song was featured in every swashbuckling, seafaring, war movie ever made where the Royal Navy saved the day:  Rule Britannia!  This patriotic song with a grand melody extolling that “Britannia rules the waves.”  (For some reason, I thought it was always “Hail Britannia, Britannia rules the waves.”)  I was a bit disappointed that Britannia no longer ruled the waves.

Per the graphic above and worldpopulationreview.com, the UK does indeed have less ships than they did during American Revolution.  In 1800, there were 285 warships in the Royal Navy.  Today they have 117.  It is totally unfair to compare the sailing warships of 1800 that used muzzle loading cannons to the higher tech ships of today that includes aircraft carriers, submarine, and surface warships that are armed with missiles, torpedoes, and conventional guns. But it is a fact that the Royal Navy has less ships today than they had in 1800.

Where does the Royal Navy stand today relative to other counties.  If number of warships is  the only measure, the Royal Navy is not in the top ten.  They Royal Navy is tied with Bangladesh for 30^th place.  Countries like landlocked Bolivia have more warships than the Royal Navy.  Using the same measure, number of warships here is the top ten Navies in the world:

 

worldpopulationreview. com

The US is ranked 4^th behind Russia, China, and North Korea.  Sri Lanka is ranked 10^th.  Maybe number of warships is not the best measure of naval power.  Clearly, the 117 Royal Navy warships of today would wipe the 285 warships of Royal Navy of 1800.  As for Sri Lanka, they have zero aircraft carriers, destroyers, or submarines and 5 frigates among their 270 warships.  The Royal Navy has 2 aircraft carriers, 6 destroyers, 11 frigates, and 10 submarines.  I would imagine 1 UK carrier group would make quick work of the entire Sri Lankan Navy.

The worldpopulationreview.com, which is the source for all current day numbers, prefers another measure to rank navies:  total tonnage.   By this measure, the US is #1 followed Russia, China, Japan, and the UK.  The measure of total tonnage gives more emphasis to the larger ships and often more sophisticated ships.  The bulk of the Sri Lankan navy are smaller coastal gunboats.  Here is their forecast of the top five navies in 2030.

1. United States - The U.S. is expected to remain the dominant global naval power in 2030, thanks to an unmatched combination of sheer tonnage and technological advancement. The U.S. Navy doesn't just have many ships, it has many massive, cutting-edge ships.
2. United Kingdom - While the U.K.'s total number of ships is expected to decline, the addition of two new aircraft carriers and the progressive updating of its submarine fleet should establish the U.K. as the #2 maritime power.
3. China - The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet is older, but larger in number (if not tonnage) fleet than the U.S. Navy fleet, and the PLAN has ambitious plans to keep adding more and more vessels.
4. India - Another Asian country expanding its naval presence, India should have three operating aircraft carriers by 2030, collectively capable of deploying 110-120 aircraft.
5. Russia - This superpower's aging fleet is likely to suffer some budget constraints as older equipment is decommissioned, but Russia is still expected to have eight ballistic missile submarines (with 20 missiles each) patrolling the seas in 2030.

So, while Britannia no longer rules the waves, their small number of ships can still pack a wallop.