By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Published: 24 Sep 2010
DEFENCE bosses have drawn up shock plans to shrink the Royal Navy's battleship fleet by HALF, The Sun can reveal.
In a cuts blueprint seen by us, the fleet will be slashed to just 12 frigates and destroyers.
It will make our surface armada, once feared the world over, smaller than that of every other major European nation except Portugal.
And 7,500 sailors will be laid off, more than a fifth of the Senior Service's manpower of 35,760.
The plan would leave the service which won Trafalgar, Jutland and the Falklands unrecognisable.
Last night the closest living relative of the Navy's greatest hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, said the plan would have left him "horrified".
And a naval source said: "It won't just be a disaster - we are heading for a national humiliation."
The drastic cuts are being considered because the Treasury has ordered the MoD budget to be slashed by 19 per cent.
Losing 12 frigates and destroyers is the price the Navy will have to pay to keep two new 60,000-ton aircraft carriers. The troop landing ships Albion and Bulwark, which came into service only seven years ago, will also be sold off.
The Navy currently has 24 battleships - four Type 22 and 13 Type 23 frigates, five Type 42 and two Type 45 destroyers.
At the time of the Falklands War in 1982 we boasted 53 frigates and 13 destroyers.
Cutting the fleet in half again would make ours smaller than those of historical foes France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Even skint Greece boasts more ships and only Portugal - with a population a sixth of Britain's - has the same number.
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Admirals have been put under massive new pressure by Army boss General Sir David Richards winning the PM round to not sacking 20,000 troops.
In a move that left Defence Secretary Liam Fox fuming, David Cameron was persuaded that the Army cuts would risk victory in Afghanistan. There are also growing concerns that the difficult defence review is being badly rushed to meet artificial Treasury deadlines.
A source said: "The money men have forgotten we're an island nation with 90 per cent of our trade going by sea. And we have the additional tasks now of chasing pirates and counter-terrorism. The Navy has never been busier."
And 80-year-old Anna Tribe, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Admiral Horatio Nelson, said: "I think he would be horrified.
"As a country we are terribly in debt and savings have to be made, but not all the money was spent on sensible things. It is very sad."
The RAF also faces bitter cuts with Tornado and Harrier jets, Chinook and Puma choppers and the jobs of 6,500 airmen under threat.
Our revelation comes as the row with Argentina over a hunt for oil in the Falklands is expected to be raised by the Argies in the UN in New York today.
Deputy PM Nick Clegg will also signal to the UN that the age of big Cold War-style fleets and armies is over as we face "more fluid, less visible" threats.
Last night a Downing Street spokesman said no final decisions had been taken on defence cuts.
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