Themes

As the Royal Navy approached the end of the 20th Century it had recognised the need to provide a more versatile surface fleet by harnessing new technologies and learning from past conflicts.

The Navy will shortly commission the Type 45 air-defence destroyer to replace the aging Type 42s designed in the 1960s.

The Royal Navy has also sought to maintain its amphibious capabilities with the eventual scrapping of the Landing Platform Docks HMS Fearless and HMS Intrepid and have introduced to the fleet HMS Ocean in 1995, followed by two commando carriers, HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion, in the new millennium.

Further to its commitment to enhance the Royal Navy’s power projection capabilities, the Government’s 1998 Strategic Review announced plans to build two new aircraft carriers, for the Royal Navy by 2015. The CVFs (Carrier Vessels Future) will be the largest ships Britain has ever built and will cost the government nearly £4 billion.

Throughout the period the Royal Navy has also been instrumental in providing security of the seas enforcing embargos and providing humanitarian relief and anti-piracy force in places such as the Balkans, the Far East and North East Africa.

Recent operations have seen the Royal Navy providing aid in Sierra Leone and Lebanon.

Follow the links to find out more about -

• Lessons from the Falklands

• The Type 23 Frigate

• New technology between the Falklands and the Gulf War

• The Gulf War

• Into the new millennium