"Brainless" claim of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth being "obsolete" slammed by ex-commander

Cdr Tom Sharpe OBE blasted a military source who stated both HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth were “obsolete”. The comments were made in an article in The Times, which also reported the Royal Navy flagship “could be attacked” by Houthi rebels en-route to her Indo-Pacific deployment.

In the report, one senior defence figure said both 65,000 tonne warships were vulnerable and outdated military capabilities. They added: “The carriers are becoming obsolete. There is no way we would build them now. But there is no market to sell them so we’re stuck with them.”

Cdr Sharpe, who served in the Royal Navy for 27 years and commanded four warships during his career, labelled the opinion as “another brainless attack” on the aircraft carriers from inside the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In his column in the Daily Telegraph, he said the source either doesn’t understand carrier operations, or is wilfully attacking them to damage the image of the Royal Navy.

The former commander detailed how discussions over a possible attack on the £3.2bn warship were part of a risk assessment, with “fear” of any military retaliation not a metric covered in defence planning. HMS Prince of Wales will be taking charge of the UK Carrier Strike Group (UKCSG), where she will be joined by Nato allies on diplomatic visits and military drills.

She will visit Japan, Australia and elsewhere. Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer previously called for more patrols in the Indo-Pacific to respond to the growing influence of China. The Times said the Indo-Pacific deployment would likely cause a response from Beijing. Cdr Sharpe said it was a contradiction to say the carriers were obsolete, but also state their deployment would cause a response.

He added: “Only someone really looking for reasons to delete the capability could portray a carrier’s near unique ability to project influence as a negative.” Cdr Sharpe said the carrier operations have notable problems, but the vessels shouldn’t be scrapped as it would not save a lot of money and would make the Royal Navy less attractive to potential recruits.