Ex-Commander Claims Royal Navy Could Still 'Cripple' Spain

Rear-admiral Chris Parry claims Britain could "cripple" Spain in a war over Gibraltar, despite the Royal Navy being substantially weaker than it was during the Falklands conflict.  

The former director of operational capability at the Ministry of Defence, told The Telegraph:

"We are a lot less powerful than we were during the Falklands and we are less sustainable over time. Our capacity for actually enforcing our national will in military terms is significantly less.

However, Parry insisted Britain's military capability "significantly" over-matches Spain, if it came to a war: 

 "We could cripple Spain in the medium term and I think the Americans would probably support us too. Spain should learn from history that it is never worth taking us on and that we could still singe the King of Spain’s beard.”

His comments come as former Tory leader Lord Howard's suggested that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war over Gibraltar and drew comparison between the situation on the Rock to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. 

When the Government fought to retake the Falkland Islands following the Argentine invasion in 1982, the Royal Navy had 127 ships - including 60 destroyers and frigates, a dozen nuclear attack submarines and three aircraft carriers.

This compares to recent figures showing the Navy now has no aircraft carriers, only seven nuclear attack submarines, six destroyers and 13 frigates. 

Current military spending is two percent of GDP but was four percent in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.