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The startling warning was made by Lord Alan West, a Labour peer who served in the Royal Navy during the Falklands War. He highlighted that we live in a “dangerous world” and cited the
growing number of threats coming from countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The comments came as HMS Prince of Wales arrived in Liverpool yesterday, greeted by thousands of visitors
having been officially commissioned in December along with another vessel. Lord West said: “The carriers are crucial as you maintain operations and attacks in a conflict, the army needs
that sort of support, and the Americans are so keen that we get our two carriers in operation. “They have 11 carrier battle groups but they are having great difficulty keeping them
maintained and operational, they take a lot of repair work – the Americans want us to be there to help them should the Allies need to fight anyone. “We live in a very dangerous world – just
look at what Russia and China are doing – we need to think about Iran. “We are in a dangerous world, but the carriers provide us with the means to deploy and provide power. “They will be
extremely valuable in the North Atlantic, where we need to make sure our submarines are safe, which means we need to be able to track the Russian submarines in the area. “There are more
Russian nuclear attack submarines in the Atlantic off our west coast and off the American east coast than there were at the time of the Cold War.” In October, the Russian Navy sent 10
submarines towards the US, passing through the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap and entering the North Atlantic close to UK territorial waters above Scotland. The US will be grateful for the added
support given by HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth, but Lord West also believes forces in Washington will be looking on with envy. READ MORE:WORLD WAR 3: TRUMP RISKS ‘ALL-OUT
NUCLEAR WAR’ WITH RUSSIA PLOY The Prince of Wale’s vessel weighs 65,000 tonnes and is armed with the latest generation close-in weapon systems. It holds anti-aircraft and anti-missile
defence and is radar-controlled, meaning it automatically detects, tracks and engages incoming threats. As well as this onboard is a cannon that can fire up to 4,500 shots per minute.