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Two retired military chiefs tore into the Government last night(TUES) over the “anorexic” state of the Royal Navy and its warships.

Former Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Lord Boyce, and ex-head of the Navy, Lord West, delivered scathing verdicts on the Senior Service during a House of Lords debate.

The UK has just six destroyers and 13 frigates - with more than a third stuck in dock at any one time.

The former naval top brass issued the latest warnings about the Type 45, Daring-class destroyers, which cost £1billion each and have been plagued by engine trouble.

(Image: Rowan Griffiths/Sunday Mirror)

They also voiced fears about the rate at which ageing Type 23, Duke-class frigates are being replaced by Type 26, City-class global combat ships.

Speaking at Westminster, Lord Boyce said: “Our number of frigates and destroyers are anorexic, and this has been exacerbated by the Type 45 problem.

“We embarked upon an eight-ship, Type 26 frigate building programme in 2017, but the first ship, Glasgow, won’t be commissioned until 2027.

“Thereafter, a ship appears after every two years.”

The timetable was “completely unacceptable and is a black mark against the Government and our shipbuilding industry”, he stormed.

Pressing the Government on the engine problems faced by the Type 45 vessels, Lord West hit out at “an appalling state of affairs”.

He told peers: “We have six anti-air warfare ships, we knew eight years ago that they had a problem - that sometimes there would be a total lack of power, which would suddenly happen unexpectedly.

(Image: PA)

“If that happened, she had no ability whatsoever to defend herself, to use her weapons or missile systems.

“We knew how to rectify that four years ago.”

Defence Minister Baroness Goldie rejected the “gloomy and very pessimistic picture”.