LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Feb. 28 refused to grant the U.S. military access to British military bases following the onset of the Iran war, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to publicly criticize the Royal Navy's capabilities. The U.K. government has permitted the U.S. to use British military bases, including Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, for defensive purposes.

Trump has repeatedly criticized Starmer and described the Royal Navy's two aircraft carriers as "toys." In one public statement, Trump said, "You don't even have a navy. You're too old and had aircraft carriers that didn't work." Hegseth said, "The big, bad Royal Navy should get involved in making the Strait of Hormuz safe for commercial shipping."

The Royal Navy was also criticized for the time it took to send the HMS Dragon destroyer to the Middle East after the war with Iran began. Naval officials worked continuously to prepare the HMS Dragon for a different mission than it was originally preparing for.

The number of vessels in the Royal Navy, including aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and submarines, has fallen from 166 in 1975 to 66 in 2025, according to an analysis of figures from the Ministry of Defense and the House of Commons Library. The number of destroyers has decreased to six, and the number of frigates has fallen from 60 to 11. The Royal Navy currently has two aircraft carriers but had none for a seven-year period in the 2010s.

Kevin Rowlands, editor of the Royal United Services Institute Journal, said, "On the negative side, there is a grain of truth, with the Royal Navy being smaller than it has been in hundreds of years. On the positive side, the Royal Navy would say that it's entering its first period of growth since World War II, with more ships set to be built than in decades."

In 1982, Britain deployed a task force of 127 ships, including two aircraft carriers, to the South Atlantic following Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands. Since World War II, Britain's combat-ready fleet has declined, partly due to changing military and technological advances and the end of empire.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Conservative Party began increasing military spending. Since the Labour Party returned to power in 2024, Starmer has sought to increase British defense spending and reduce foreign aid spending. He has promised to raise U.K. defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 as part of a NATO agreement.