Generally an accurate and fair minded account I think. Two important considerations missing though.
1. The RN was originally forced to choose between the carriers and more destroyers and frigates. The Admirals gambled that once the carriers were building, the Government would be forced to provide sufficient escorts for them to protect the assets. This hasn't happened.
2. The carriers, and indeed other RN vessels are intended, to work with other NATO allies to make up task forces and they provide many of the escort ships.
A seperate issue is incompetent and ignorant politicians with little understanding of defence issues. When justifying the RN cuts and retirement of the Invincible class carriers early, David Cameron said that there was no threat from Russia in the forseeable future and that we only needed to plan for 'brushfire' and terrorist related conflict so only smaller less capable vessels would be needed.
The video stated that Albion and Bulwark have been retired to save money but that proposal was not proceeded with and I understand that both ships are scheduuled to remain in the fleet until the early 2030s. I also read that one would be operational at any one time with the other in maintenanance or available for reactivation.
One other thing not mentioned is that the RN doesn't have enough crew to man the ships they have!
Colin
