Professor Peter Roberts

Despite this, recent builds have come in at a low price, as seen in the spending on two new aircraft carriers. The HMS Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth were built and designed for a total of £6bn, which contractors have maintained is a very good price for the hardware. However, the decision has still attracted criticism, with RUSI Senior Associate Fellow Dr Peter Roberts describing the two ships in 2017 as having “weakened the defence posture of the UK as a whole”, as the money could have been better spent elsewhere.

Dr Peter Roberts, director of military sciences at RUSI, a defence and security think tank, says that instead of what he calls "a predictable, long and slow deployment", the Royal Navy could have dispatched two of its hunter-killer submarines. If they set off north, under the Arctic ice, and then popped up in the Pacific, he suggests, that would have had a greater impact on challenging both Russian and Chinese behaviour.

Professor Peter Roberts, director of military science at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), has cautioned that these modernisation efforts shouldn’t be overstated. “Allies and competitors made such big bets 5 years ago,” says Roberts. “This review would have therefore been excellent if delivered in 2016. Today? Worryingly behind the times.”