FROM helicopters that can’t fly to rifles that don’t fire, the Ministry of Defence has a long and ignoble history of mistakes when it comes to buying the right equipment for Britain’s Armed Forces.

Our soldiers were left dangerously exposed in Iraq and Afghanistan and our airforce has been forced to manage with fewer planes than it needs.

But of all three services it is the Senior Service – with its need for expensive ships and submarines – that has suffered the most. The Royal Navy is facing its deadliest threat: trapped by a remorseless pincer movement of budget reductions and cost overruns.

A review by Sir John Parker has found what some many of us already knew: that procurement of new vessels moves at a snail’s pace and the surface fleet has been whittled down to the barest minimum.

As a result, when the Navy’s new aircraft carrier enters service in 2020 she will do so without any fighter aircraft and barely enough escort vessels to accompany her around the world. And an embarrassing design fault means the Navy’s key Type 45 destroyers are prone to breaking down. Only yesterday, HMS Duncan had to be towed back to port just two days into an important Nato exercise.

Critics say the Royal Navy is a costly anachronism Britain could well do without but they reckon without the fleet’s capacity to project power. Our warships also play a vital role providing humanitarian assistance and are committed to operations in the Mediterranean.

The world is becoming a very dangerous place and Britain, as an island trading nation, needs a strong Navy capable of defending UK interests anywhere in the world.

To do that, the Navy Board needs certainty in the size of the fleet. If that means a renaissance in regional shipbuilding, including on the Tyne, then so much the better.