Fake News Or Fiasco – Britain's Entire Attack Submarine Forced Out Of Action

It’s a good question. Is this ‘fake news’ in the British media, or is the news factual.
 
The Daily Mail: “PM ‘unaware’ that Britain currently has NO working hunter-killer attack submarines (let’s hope nobody’s told Mr Putin either).”
The Independent: “Royal Navy’s entire fleet of attack submarines out of action”
The same story with similar sensationalised headlines appear in The Telegraph, The Express, BBC News and many other mainstream media outlets.
Every single story cites one piece of ‘evidence’ – an article that was published in The Sun!
The Sun: “SUBS ZERO – The Royal Navy’s ENTIRE fleet of attack submarines is out of action — and Theresa May doesn’t know because ‘chiefs fear reaction”.
The Telegraph news desk was contacted and they confirmed that there was no other corroborating evidence other than The Sun newspaper article as far as they were concerned. What is concerning is that one newspaper prints a story and the entire media of Britain takes that as fact – the perfect conditions for ‘post-truth’ politics.
The Sun also makes the claim that Britain’s PM was kept in the dark that Britain’s nuclear submarines lay undefended at the bottom of the sea, wherever they may be.
The MOD were clearly annoyed with the story and were unequivocal in their response by saying that it was “categorically not true- they are operational, capable and ready attack submarines. Where they might be is clearly sensitive operational information that the MOD will not comment on.”
The MOD elaborated and went on to say “Britain has a world-class fleet, the Royal Navy continues to meet all of its operational tasking, deploying globally on operations and protecting our national interests as Britain steps up around the world.”
According to The Sun report, 5 of the 6 subs are in dock being refitted or have maintenance issues and a sixth is out for testing after a refit. One would have thought this fact was verifiable even though it is supposed to be categorised as information of national importance.
Last week, Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary said “There are some things that people have to trust the Government on and the nuclear deterrent (Trident) is one of them. But, let me just reassure you, that we would not have asked Parliament to renew the submarine fleet if we had had any doubts about the safety, capability or effectiveness of the deterrent.” He made this statement after the mis-firing of a dummy nuclear missile which headed off in the wrong direction – ironically, back to the US, whence it came. That scandal was covered-up because Barack Obama’s administration pressed the UK not to reveal details, The Times said. Ironically, it was American technology that caused the mis-fire.
So, either The Sun and the entire mainstream media of Britain is peddling fake news or the Ministry of Defence is lying and quite possibly believe that Theresa May is not important enough to inform, clearly meaning that the government is not in control of the nations defences. Whichever way you look at this story, one of the two sides is peddling fake news and it is a total fiasco.

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