Royal Navy is NOT ready for war, First Sea Lord admits - while US mocks British forces

Dan McDonald
Tue, 31 Mar 2026 23:47:03 +0000

The Royal Navy is unprepared for war, Britain's First Sea Lord has admitted.

General Sir Gwyn Jenkins has conceded the Navy has "work to do” before it could successfully engage in combat.

The First Sea Lord's intervention comes amid pressure from across the Atlantic for Britain to send ships to the Middle East to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump told Sir Keir Starmer to "go get your own oil" as he insisted the US "won’t be there to help you anymore" in a scathing attack on the UK's lack of involvement in the conflict with Iran.

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Mr Trump has also referred to the Royal Navy's two aircraft carriers as "toys".

Meanwhile, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also took aim at the UK, ridiculing the "big, bad Royal Navy" for not sending ships to the region.

Sir Gwyn has become the most high-ranking military figure in Britain to hit out at the current state of the Armed Forces.

Though in the face of his warnings, he insisted that “if we were told to go to war, of course we would” and the Navy would battle on with what it had.

"But are we as ready as we should be? I don’t think we are," he added.

"We have work to do and I am completely dedicated to the mission," he told Swedish outlet Svenska Dagbladet on Monday,

The Prime Minister has come under fire in recent days over his refusal to set out a timeline for boosting Britain's defence spending to three per cent.

When urged to “chart out a path” by the chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, Sir Keir refused to do so and insisted he would be setting out Labour's strategy "in due course".

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He said: “We’ve already committed to 2.5 per cent in 2027 and we’ll hit that.

“We have made that commitment to three per cent in the next Parliament and to 3.5 per cent in 2035.”

The lack of clarity prompted chairman of the Parliamentary Liaison Committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin, to say "it smacks of an enormous complacency".

Sir Keir spat back: “This smacks of the fact that for years there was underinvestment by the last government and the stripping out and hollowing out of our Armed Forces.”

The Prime Minister later admitted that Britain was not yet on a "war footing".

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “As the First Sea Lord has repeatedly said, the Navy is absolutely ready to fight, including on advanced operations above and below the sea.

“Our nuclear deterrent protects us every moment of every day and Royal Navy personnel are deployed across the world keeping Britain secure at home and strong abroad.

“The Government is providing a generational increase in defence spending, with an extra £270billion across this Parliament, ensuring no return to the hollowed-out Armed Forces of the past and the strategic defence review sets out our path to increasing warfighting readiness.”