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  Just to be pedantic Vic, technically it's a destroyer, not a battleship - big gun battleships are now consigned to history and naval museums.
  
  As stunning a piece of technology the 'stealth' Type 45 HMS Daring is, at a cost of a billion and with five more planned, one wonders if the money could have spent on more practical vessels. Imagine how many fast patrol craft could have been built for the money to combat Somali pirates, escorting tankers or patrolling the Gulf, i.e. threats that are actually current and relevant. I don't think a Sea Skua missile is much use against a pirate or terrorist-filled rubber dinghy twenty miles away. The Navy were pushing for twelve cheaper destroyers but the powers that be settled on fewer of these more expensive vessels, it's obvious that the original plan would have allowed the Navy to have been deployed further and wider. On the other hand at least many jobs have been created by the construction of these vessels, and it is a stunning symbol of prestige.

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